Langstone Discussion Forum

[radiogareth]

Might be handy as ports are going to be in short supply once Portsdown fully joins in. I've ordered a switched USB3 hub (power to each port can be switched off - portable energy saving in mind) as a 1-to-4 expansion slot.
What are your 8 relays doing?
Gareth

[g0mjw]

Might be handy as ports are going to be in short supply once Portsdown fully joins in. I've ordered a switched USB3 hub (power to each port can be switched off - portable energy saving in mind) as a 1-to-4 expansion slot.
What are your 8 relays doing?
Gareth

The relays control external stuff. General purpose, filters, coax relays, power, whatever.

[g4eml]

The center mouse button is currently unused. My original idea was to use it to select volume control but that changed. I think most people are actually fitting analogue volume controls anyway.

It should be possible to use an encoder directly on the GPIO ports but they are actually not that easy to interface reliably. To be certain of catching all clicks correctly they either need to be polled at a fairly high rate or set up to use interrupts. I am not sure how reliable this would be in Linux. The solution using the mouse works so well I haven’t looked into replacing it.

A separate controller using an Arduino or PIC is certainly possible. There are libraries available to emulate a mouse. Alternatively it could handle the encoder and communicate the results using the GPIO, the simplest solution would probably be to use the serial port which I think is currently unused.

Colin.

[G8GKQ]

Mike

I have never observed any bounces - either using a real mouse, or the deconstructed one with the scroll wheel replaced with an encoder. I think that the USB mouse/encoder is the ideal solution here. Simple in software and hardware.

Dave

[radiogareth]

Colin, If it ain't broke, don't fix it I was only wondering out loud.....
I'm still wondering if I can switch the 2 USB data lines from a mouse PCB inside (re-purposed) to an external Mouse USB socket.....which then go to on to one of the RPi USB sockets.
Hope that makes sense....as you say, it works so well.....
Gareth

[g4eml]

Hi Gareth,

I am not sure why you would need an external mouse but if there is a good reason then it might be possible to make it switchable. One of the mini USB hubs would probably be a simpler solution though.

Colin.

[radiogareth]

Yes, thinking about it it does fit in the 'why bother' box but at home I'd not always have the radio directly in front of me, so mouse operation for 'tuning around' suits me. However, I just tried booting with two mice and although both 'lit up' only one worked. So a dedicated socket for 'external mouse only' and a DPCO switch would be needed. Best I try it and see if it even works.....
Any chance of a 'VOX' option being added? Headsets with mics seem to lend themselves to 'hands-free' operation.....just wondering...
Gareth

[g0mjw]

I suppose one enhancement that we could use for QO-100 or other satellite work is cross-band duplex.

Mike

[g4eml]

It’s already included a Mike!

If you set the transverter Tx offset and Rx offset to different values the SAT flag appears along with an extra ‘MONI’ button. Selecting Monitor allows full duplex.

It has reminded me that the offsets are not actually displayed correctly, I think a positive offset actually shifts the frequency down. I will fix that in the next release.

Colin.

[G8XZD-TV]

Hi - and thanks to all the good people that have made the Langstone happen - it really has been painless to get it going
It's certainly rekindled my interest in the low microwave bands - and a change from DATV
So far had it receiving on 2/70 and 23 - have to say the sensitivity on those bands is pretty good barefoot.
Obviously it would need some more metalwork/preamps in front of it before using on a hill top etc - not to mention power amps/switching.
A couple of quick questions while waiting for the TCXO - is there away of trimming the master frequency reference in software?@ - I have an error of
about -6kHz on 23.
In terms of short term stability it's not good - but fairly consistent once it's "warmed up"
And second question: Is the mic input on the (official) dongle optimised for an electret (if so does it have an energising voltage) or a moving coil?
Just trying to work out if it needs a preamp stage to use a standard handheld mic
Pictures to follow once I've worked out what else to put in the box

73.

Ian.