Will RUMlog work with Yaesu FT-450?

[M0JEK]

Hi,

I have been using RUMlog for some time now, mostly only ever connected a FT-817. I have now a FT-450 which I would like to use. Will RUMlog work with this TRX?

Tom, I know you can only support the rigs you have access to, I was just wondering if anyone else might have tried with an FT-450?

I did try using the FT-2000 setting, but no go.

73 de André, M0JEK

[DL2RUM]

Hi André,

I've checked the FT-450 CAT manual, and it seems this trx uses the same syntax as the FT-2000. But even I have no feed back from the 2000.
If you are using RUMlog version 4.0, you should download the latest version 4.0.1, due to a bug in the preferences, when selecting the FT-2000.
http://www.dl2rum.de/rumsoft/RUMlogApp.zip

I haven't found any instructions about the com port setting. Make sure, they are correct.

To test the interface do the following:

• In the Preferences select the FT-2000 as TRX#1 and make the correct com port settings, save the changes
• Select Menu-->Transceiver-->Reinit TRX#1 - RUMlog should show correct frequency and mode
• Enter "14005" followed by an Enter into the callsign input field. - TRX should switch to 20m CW
• Enter "21295" followed by an Enter into the callsign input field. - TRX should switch to 15m SSB

Please report your observations!

[M0JEK]

Hi Tom,

Thank you for the chat earlier today. I have tried again tonight, with various settings. The FT450 does not give much settings of the RS232 CAT port. You can set baud, enable or disable RTS, and CAT time out time. I tried 1 and 2 stop bits, with or with out RTS and combinations there of. No luck. I need to plug in a protocol analyzer I think to see what is going on.

MacLoggerDX works just fine with the FT450 though. No problems at all, full control. These are the settings I use the MLDX;
baud: 4800, stop bits: 1, RTS on. So they must be doing something different. If I can get another serial port for the mac, I might try and see what the serial protocol analyzer from Chen, W7AY might show. Failing that, I do have a RS232 break out box, somewhere.
If I can see what MLDX is doing which is different, that might shed some light on the issue.

BTW, Aether Log also has problems, FYI.

[DL2RUM]

I've just seen in the manual, RTS is set to On as default. So you have to switch it to Off in your TRX settings, since RUMlog does not support flow control any longer. (This was possible in earlier versions).
New instruction:

• Set Baudrate accordingly
• Deselect RTS on your TRX
• In the RUMlog preferences let all boxes unchecked, Bits: 8 Stopbits: 1 Parity: none

Please try again.

[M0JEK]

Hi Tom,

Still does not work with RUMLog. I followed your suggestions as per posting.
I even made a up a new cable only wiring up the required wires. It is a straight through RS232 cable required. My previous was fully wired. No difference. I double checked every setting, in RUMLog and the TRX, ensuring RTS was disabled (off).

I can add that Fldig 3.12.4 works just fine with the FT450 when using RigCAT and the FT450.xml file that comes from the Fldigi site, http://www.w1hkj.com/xmlarchives.html

I used the same settings that I used for RUMLog. I am not sure if it might be worth a look at the RigCAT setip and configurations files?

http://www.w1hkj.com/Fldigi.html

[DL2RUM]

Crazy, no further idea yet.
Here are the sent data during initialization:

Code: Select all

AI1;

These data are sent after entering 14007 into the callsign field and pressing enter. The trx should switch to 14007kHz and CW

Code: Select all

MD03;
FA14007000;

Is there something wrong?

I've added some time delays, maybe there is a timing issue.

Try this (Intel only):
http://dl2rum.de/rumsoft/RUMlogToTest.zip

[M0JEK]

Hi Tom,

Thank you for trying to work out what is going on. I am most grateful.

I won't be able to try your new code, sorry, as I don't have an intel mac.

I will see if I can see how the Fldigi sends the same commands, and see if they look the same. I will let you know if I find anything.

[DL2RUM]

Oh, no problem André.
Here the Universal Binary:
http://dl2rum.de/rumsoft/RUMlogToTest.zip
I compiled for Intel only, just to save up- and download time.

[M0JEK]

Thank you, Tom

Will let you know how it goes. I will try later tonight, or at least over the weekend.

[M0JEK]

Hi Tom,

I am afraid it still does not work. I have looked at your commands, and I don't see anything wrong, however, I notice that Fldigi RigCAT does not initialize with AT1; from what I can see. I noticed that RUMLog does send command initially, the TX light on the USB RS232 divice does blink, however there is no RX shown, i.e nothing from the radio. After that, there are no more TX from RUMLog either.
I don't have enough serial ports handy to use the RS232 analyzer software to see what is really going on. I did feed the RUMLog output into a terminal to see what it is sending, and can't see problems as such.
When using Fldigi and also MLDX, I notice that the TX and RX lights flash all the time and data is transfered, and everything works. It does look as if they "poll" the radio to read the frequency and mode settings.
I took a good look at the Fldigi RigCAT XML file that it uses for settings, and they are using the same commands you are for getting frequency. I also tested with their FT2000 XML file and it works just fine too.
There are some defaults they set for comms, eg;
Time out: 50
Retries: 2
Write delay: 5
RTS/CTS: true

I can provide you with the XML files if you wish to have a look, they are quite easy too read and there is not much in there anyway!

I am going to carry on with a bit more debugging. And see what I find, as I am not satisfied why it doesn't work with your software.