Enabling Commander to interoperate with PowerSDR, N1MM, and CW Skimmer using DDUtil
de Gary AB9M
Via a virtual serial port Commander can interact with DDutil which acts as a message director for PowerSDR and simultaneously with up to four Radio Control Programs (RCP) such as N1MM Logger and CW Skimmer. In my topology, the primary transceiver is a TenTec Omni VII, and I'm running PowerSDR on a FlexRadio 1500:
To configure Commander to accept frequency and mode CAT commands received from DDUtil
establish a connected pair (6-16) of virtual serial ports using VSP Manager, com0com, or equivalent; these instructions assume that connected virtual ports N and N+10 are created (e.g. 6 and 16)
in the Secondary CAT Serial Port panel on the Configuration window's Ports tab,
set the CAT protocol selector to FlexRadio
click the Follow and Lead Primary button
set the Port# to COM6, the Baud selector to 4800, the Word selector to 8, the Parity selector to None, and the Stop selector to 1
check the Enable box
turn on your FlexRadio, start PowerSDR, and open the PowerSDR Setup window; on the CAT Control tab's CAT Control panel, set the Port to COM16, the Baud selector to 4800, the Word selector to 8, the Parity selector to None, the Stop selector to 1, and check the Enable CAT box
- verify that PowerSDR will follow frequency changes made in Commander, and that Commander will follow frequency changes made in PowerSDR
establish three connected pairs of virtual serial ports using VSP Manager, com0com, or equivalent; these instructions assume that the following connected virtual ports M and M+10 are created, and do not conflict with ports N and N+10. created in step 1:
- COM7 and COM17 for CW Skimmer
- COM8 and COM18 for N1MM Logger
- COM5 and COM15 for PowerSDR
download, install, and configure DDUtil
on DDUtil's Ports tab, set its Radio CAT selector to COM5
on PowerSDR's PowerSDR Setup window, in the CAT Control tab's CAT Control panel,
uncheck the Enable CAT box
change the port from COM16 to COM15
check the Enable CAT box
on DDUtil's RCP tab, enter COM16 in RCP2 and check the box to the right in the B Cast column.
- verify that PowerSDR will follow frequency changes made in Commander, and that Commander will follow frequency changes made in PowerSDR
on DDUtil's RCP tab, enter COM17 in RCP3
on N1MM's Configurer window's Hardware tab, set COM8 to FLEX
verify that the FlexRadio's VFO frequency appears on the N1MM entry panel
on DDUtil's RCP tab, enter COM17 for RCP3
on the Radio tab of CW Skimmer's Settings window, select Soft Rock - IF
on the CAT tab of CW Skimmer's Settings window,
select Use Radio 1
click the Configure... button, and configure the Omni-Rig Settings window for Rig type PowerSDR, Port COM7, Baud rate 4800, Parity None, Stop bits 1, RTS Low, DTR Low, Poll int 200, Timeout 1000
on PowerSDR's PowerSDR Setup window's VAC tab, check the Enable VAC box
verify that the FlexRadio's frequency appears in the frequency box on CW Skimmer's tool bar
verify that clicking on a CW signal in CW Skimmer's Main window QSYs both the primary transceiver and the FlexRadio
To configure CW Skimmer's Omni-Rig Settings,
click the View menu's Settings item to display the Settings window
in the Settings window, select the CAT tab, and click the CAT Interface panel's Configure... button
configure the Omni-Rig Settings window as shown here:
Note: to ensure that CW Skimmer displays decoded CW, click the Command menu and verify that there is no check mark to the left of the Blind Mode entry.
Observed interactions
- Commander’s Main VFO panel avoids unexpected frequency changes in all RCP applications and devices. The primary transceiver may be used while in simplex for band, mode, and frequency changes, but with the primary transceiver's Split enabled, use Commander to change the transmit frequency.
When the primary transceiver's Split is enabled, changing the FlexRadio's frequency by any means other than by the Commander Main VFO panel, expect the primary transceiver's receive frequency to change.
If the PowerSDR VFO SYNC button is engaged, expect the primary transceiver’s A and B VFOs to be synchronized by N1MM Logger or CW Skimmer when clicking on their band map or Display respectively.
Clicking in the N1MM bandmap or CW Skimmer Display will correctly QSY both transceivers only when the primary transceiver is operating simplex. N1MM bandmap spots with splits, split only the FlexRadio 1500 (secondary CAT and receive only) require the use of Commander to correctly configure the OMNI-VII.
- If Soft Rock IF is to be used, go to the PSDR, Setup, General, Hardware (check EXPERT) and add the CW Pitch Frequency (CW Tone) to the AUDIO IF.
- With Soft Rock IF and by setting a VARiable audio bandpass of +9999 and -4999 the total CW Skimmer bandpass is approximately 15KHz when VAC (Virtual Audio Cable) is used.
- When loading the programs for use, VSPM should be running with four port pairs, turn the radios on, load PSDR, load DDUtil, load DXL Suite, load VAC, load CW Skimmer, load N1MM
- Shut down in reverse order, failure to do so may leave programs in a HUNG condition usually because a serial port DTR is NOT satisfied. Radios are turned off last.