Band data desired of FlexWire

[pwest]

Hello:
I built an interface w/an 'ItsyBitsy' Arduino that reads the band data that comes over the FlexWire. My intention was to send that band ID on to an amp via a RS-232 serial CAT command. Unfortunately, I had not realized that the current FlexWire 'band word' globs some bands together (e.g. 15/17/20). Is there any way to get the actual band (e.g. just an integer w/the band (6, 10, 12, ... 160)) over FlexWire I2C?

(I realize that I can connect the external amp directly to my PC/PowerSDR via another USB cable, but that's not the solution I'm currently seeking.)

Thanks,
Phil
wb3bms

[ke9ns]

It all depends on the address of I2C your reading.
There are a bunch of addresses that have different functions

This is from my revision history list:

v2.8.0.149 Fix: I2C MCP23017 8bit address is 0x46 (A2=0, A1=A0=5v)
8bit address list for FlexWire output:
0x40 HERO's preselector
0x42 Band selector output for PCA9534 8bit I2c chip (2200m - 20m)
0x44 Band selector output for PCA9534 8bit I2C chip (17m-6m)
0x46 Band selector output for MCP23017 16bit I2c chip (2200m-6m)
0x48 Not used
0x4A LDMOS Amp Filter board selector (w6pql current design)
0x4E LDMOS Amp Filter board selector (w6qpl old design)
0x4C UCB (Universal Control board) PCA9555D Relay selector (part of the Xvtr panel)


setup->general->Options->Use IIC FlexWire for External AMP
This is was for my LDMOS amp with w6pql filter board using 0x4A

You want to enable:
setup->General->User Interface->I2C Band Output (hold your mouse over it)


Darrin
ke9ns

[pwest]

Excellent: I tried the 0x46 address and it worked--I see unique arguments come through for all bands.

Unfortunately, on this address, I don't seem to get other amplifier control info of interest (e.g. on/off). I'm currently looking into programming the Arduino to respond to multiple I2C addresses, and writing my own interrupt handler to process the I2C messages, but that's quite a bit more complex than the standard single address I2C slave that pretty much works w/no fancy programming.

To expand and clarify my original post, I want to be able to control a Hardrock 50 amp via CAT commands through its AUX connector directly from the FlexWire port on my Flex-1500. Most important is band selection, but I'd like to include anything else that might be useful. At first look, that might only be switching the amp in and out of bypass mode.

Thanks,
Phil
wb3bms

[ke9ns]

I added my own ON/OFF.
See Setup->General->Options->Use IIC FlexWire for External Amp Control and IIC FlexWire Amp ON/OFF
If you hold your mouse over it, the tooltip explains

0x4e or 0x4a group bands since the LDMOS Filter board I use has 1 set of LPF's 160, 80/60, 40/30, 20/17/15, 12,10, 6
bit6 (64) is the ON/OFF

If you activate the checkboxes, you will get 2 new boxes on the main PowerSDR console to turn your AMP ON/OFF and also to allow you to Enable/Disable the AMP PTT line

You can probably just read both 0x46, and 0x4e (to get the ON/OFF)



Darrin
ke9ns

[pwest]

Thanks Darrin:
With the Arduino, I can only really monitor/process a single I2C address, so I'm just going to go w/the band ID on 0x46 for now--that's the main capability that I wanted.

-Phil