For those of us with the V/U upgrade in our 5000A we have 3 antenna
connectors plus 2M, 70cm and a transverter port. To use amplifiers (or
a transverter) with all of these means we need to control 6 different
relays. My current needs are HF, 6M, 2M, 125cm, and 70 cm - two more
than the three TX outputs provided on the 5000A - and I'll need more in
the future as I add more transverters. To solve the problem I built a
FlexWire interface to allow me to control more than 3 amplifiers and/or
transverters with my 5000A. The interface is working and I now have TX
relay control for all the bands mentioned above plus a couple extra.
Here are some of the issues that I've seen:
1. When I added the 125cm transverter to the transverter menu and UCB
form, I was getting all "0's" output on the I2C slave even though I had
one of the relays selected. I had to close PowerSDR and re-open it for
everything to take effect (closing and re-opening the forms didn't do
anything). It appears that the transverter isn't recognized by the UCB
form unless it was setup when PowerSDR initially started. After
re-starting PowerSDR everything works well. This is a minor
inconvenience that caused some head scratching until I figured it out.
2. Every time I restart PowerSDR, the default FlexWire (I2C) output is
all zeros, even after changing bands between 2M, 70cm and 125 cm (the
transverter on VHF2). It doesn't start working until I type Ctrl-Alt-U
to open the UCB form. This is another minor inconvenience that I can
live with.
3. THE BIG ONE! I tried to add a 2nd transverter on VHF Band Button 3.
The problem is that none of the TX1-3 outputs are working during
transmit. I selected all three (TX1 to TX3) in the Antenna form and
tested each one by connecting it to a relay. None of them are
switching. I also tested this on VHF Band Button 4 with the same
discouraging results. All three TX outputs work fine on HF through VHF
Band Button 2, but appear to be non-functional on VHF Bands 3 and up.
I've tried restarting PowerSDR multiple times, but this doesn't seem to
have any effect on the problem. This means that I'm currently limited
to one transverter. I haven't had time to check the source code to see
why the TX outputs don't work on VHF3 and up, but will try to do so this
week. I really hoped to have at least two transverters working for the
January VHF contest but I guess I'll have to be happy with one for now.
BTW, I am using PowerSDR 2.0.16 with all of the latest beta firmware and
drivers. I also tried it on v2.0.8 and the behavior is the same, except
VHF Band 2 also misbehaves during TX. For this version, if VHF Band 2
is selected (my transverter), the TX outputs turn on for a fraction of a
second and then turn right back off. As with v2.0.16, the TX outputs
are not functioning for VHF Bands 3 and up.
Once these problems are sorted out, the FlexWire interface and my
homebrew TX relay box will make it possible to have more than three amps
and/or transverters without the need for manual switches. I'm laying
out the PCB for a combined TX relay and XVTR IF switch that will support
up to four transverters, but I may delay that project until problem #3
above is sorted out and I can use more than one transverter.
Has anyone else who is playing with the FlexWire interface noticed these
problems?
73,
Clay W7CE
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