mnux
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Welcome to Mnux's website. This is my personal blog about stuff.
Making WSJT-X talk with arduino
I am making this post because I couldn't find any documentation about what commands does WSJT-X use to communicate with radios so I will try to provide some info about it here. I chose to document the communication between Kenwood TS-480, mainly because I found the "pc control command reference"[1] for it online. This datasheet made my work infinitely more easier as I dont own the TS-480.
The process:
In WSJT-X I selected the TS-480, as the serial port I selected the port my arduino (at this point with no code on it) was connected to and hooked up my logic analyzer to the TX and RX pins (I had to use external USB to UART converter because WSJTX is sometimes pulling the DTR up and down causing the arduino to reset). I configured PulseView (the logic analyzer software) to decode UART communication and hit "Test CAT" in WSJT-X. And now in PulseView I could finally see what is WSJT-X requesting. Now that I knew what WSJT-X wants I just checked the "pc control command reference"[1] where it is exactly written how the anwser should look like. Then i wrote a program for the arduino to respond to the WSJT-X commands.
So how does the communication between WSJT-X look like:
I wont go into details about what each command means and does as you can find that in the "pc command reference". To see the full sequence of communication download the full capture file
here
.
And then open it in for example PulseView.
PulseView showing portion of the communication between WSJT-X and a "TS-480"
(TX is WSJT-X sending data, RX is WSJT-X receiving data)
The arduino part:
I made this code for the arduino to interface with WSJT-X (THX to
@theverygaming
) for help with the code. The arduino uses an I2C LCD display (meant to use 8x2 but for testing I used 16x2) to display the frequency and TX/RX status, lights up a LED depending on the TX/RX status and thats about all. Feel free to modify the code for use in your own project. You can download my code
here.
Waiting for CAT
RXing on 7,074MHz
TXing on 7,074MHz
References:
[1]
PC CONTROL COMMAND REFERENCE FOR THE TS-480HX/ SAT TRANSCEIVER
Sources:
1.
Homebrew FT8QRP AFP/FSK TRX
by F5NPV
You can contact me: mnuxmail(at)gmail.com
published 11/03/2023
Tags:
WSJT-X
CAT
Radio
Arduino
UART
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