TS480 CAT PROBLEM

[EA1NK]

Hi Tom,

Since the migration to RumLog NG, I have been facing some problems with the CAT Control of my TS480. I have the speed at 4800, 2 stop bit and parity set to none.

In Rumlog 5.3.13, although the 480 was not supported, I was using the TS570 definition, wich is very similar to the 480. When sniffing the serial port where the TS480 is attached, I found that when Rumlog starts send the AI1; command to the transceiver, wich according to the Kenwood documentation, sets the Auto Information to 1. After this the rig responds with an IF command such as this IF00021042840

Code: Select all

<-------------  Kenwood documentation ------------->
AI
Parameters:
P1
0: AI OFF
1: Only old AI format is ON
2: Only extended AI format is ON
3: Both formats are ON
When the extended AI format is selected, the transceiver
automatically sends the parameters.
When the old AI is ON and the IF parameters change, the
transceiver sends the IF command every 1.5 seconds.
When the transceiver is turned OFF, the AI parameter
becomes 0

<-------------  Kenwood documentation ------------->

When closing Rumlog, the command AI0; is sent.

With RumlogNG v3.6.2(176), usually no AI command is sent when I launch the software and the 480 is not showing the PC indication on the display. Sometimes (maybe 1 out of 10 times) when launching RumlogNG the command AI2; is sent and then the CAT works fine.

Here is the sequence when the cat is activated when RumlogNG is launched (RX is command send by RL, TX is the 480 Answer):

Code: Select all

COM2-RX: AI2;[4] //Set AI to 2
COM2-RX: IF;[3] //Ask for the transceiver status
COM2-TX: IS 0000;[8] //The rig answers IFShift is 0
COM2-TX: ME000;[6] //No documentation on this command on the Kenwood pdf. Not always sent.
COM2-TX: PC100;[6] //The rig answers PWR is set to 100W. Not always sent.
COM2-TX: IF00021027220      002500000030000080;[38] //The rig answers with it status

If I try to reset the CAT port, same thing happens. I must click the menu item twice, the first time an AI0; command is sent, the second time nothing is sent. Sometimes (1 out of 10) on this second click the AI2; command is sent and the CAT works fine again.

Can you please take a look at this issue with the CAT control?. I'm on OSX10.10.5.

Thanks!

Juan J. Lamas - EA1NK.

[DL2RUM]

AI2; is always send during the initialisation. Maybe a timing issue? You should set the baud rate as high as possible.

[EA1NK]

Should it be a timing issue, the AI2; command must appear at the serial port sniffer and It doesn't. At higher speeds the same thing happens... Quite strange.

Will make some more tests and see if I can make it work.

Thanks!

Juan J. Lamas - EA1NK

[DL2RUM]

How do you monitor the CAT traffic? Maybe I can test it this way as well.

[EA1NK]

Hi Tom, sorry for the delay.

I am using a "tap" into the RX and TX lines like this:



Then you just have to cat from a Terminal to the tap serial port or use a software like Serial Tools (OSX) to sniff the communication between the devices. If you want to sniff the traffic with a Windows machine, Docklight is a much better software, unfortunately there is no OSX version.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/serialt ... 1963?mt=12
https://docklight.de

I´ve been doing some tests and it seems it only happens at slow speeds, now I have the CAT at 57600 and 9 out of 10 times it works flawlessly. It seems like a timing issue at low speeds, also at 4800 bauds Kenwood says it must be configured with 2 stop bits while at highest speeds must be configured to 1 stop bits.

Anyway, setting the CAT at 59600 seems to have fixed the problem somehow.

Thank you!

Juan J. Lamas - EA1NK

[DL2RUM]

Ah, tnx. My guess was, you are using a software only.