Michael, I had done as Ralph suggested and interfaced the Unified Microsystems BCD-10 card with isolation relays to my DX engineering Remote Antenna switch. Using DDUtil BCD out via LPT port I was able to control the selection of the appropriate antenna when ever I changed bands on my Flex5000A. This same setup would work to change bands on an amp as well....
Dennis KØEOO ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ralph W5JGV" <w5...@w5jgv.com> To: flexradio@flex-radio.biz Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2011 11:58:54 PM Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Automatic bandswitching options for a homebrew amp > I'm staring to build the ARRL " homebrew challenge" amp kit that I > bought recently. It is to go behind my 1500. One thing I've been > thinking about is that it would be nice to have automatic band > switching. I've seen the threads before concerning commercial amps but > I'm wondering if one is starting from scratch with a homebrew amp like > this, what is the simplest route to go? Obviously I think I would use > DDutil but how? Is a parallel port the only option? If so would one of > the cheapie PCI plug in parallel port cars work or would I need full > parallel port functions? I don't see why I would but want to be sure. > What type of circuitry is used to accomplish the translation from the > info DDUtil sends from the PP to the relays of my amplifier? Some type > of logic board I would guess. I'm totally in the dark as to how this > done so if someone could point me in the right direction where I can > start researching, I'd appreciate it. Also would be nice if this was a > fairly inexpensive project!...lol > Thanks, > Michael, W4HIJ I didn't see a reply to this so... The easiest way is probably to use a parallel port card to interface to DDUTIL. DDUTIL only talks to parallel port cards. Then connect the parallel port output signals to a Unified Microsystems BCD-10 decoder/interface card. http://www.unifiedmicro.com/decoder.html That will convert the signals from DDUTIL to a series of optically isolated relay closures to select the correct band relays in the amplifier. You can probably use my setup guide for interfacing a F5K with PSDR to the ALS-1300 amplifier. That shows the settings for PSDR and DDUTIL to select the various bands. http://w5jgv.com/ALS-1300_to_F5K/index.htm 73, Ralph W5JGV - WD2XSH/7 _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/ _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
