[Hamlib-developer] Re: IC-821H patch

[Francois R. <fgr...@su...>]

Hello Stephane,

Stephane Fillod  wrote:
> 
> ahem, just a sec...     alright, pass --serial-speed <bps>  argument.
> 
Thanks.

> What the Easycom protocol is like? Is it serial? Do you have already
> an library and an API ? Some code, online manual or even the header
> files would be a good starter to design the abstraction layer.
> I may have time to kick start a rotator frontend framework in the
> following days.

The Easycom spec can be found at:
ftp://ftp.amsat.org/amsat/software/win32/wisp/easycomm.txt

For a start the basic functions we need to control a rotator is:

rot_set_position  -  Set the azimuth & elevation position.
rot_get_position  -  Get the current azimuth & elevation position.
rot_stop	  -  Stop rotator movement. (either in both axis 
                     or only one)
rot_move          -  Move rotator in a spesified direction 
                     (optional: speed of movement)
rot_reset	  -  (optional) Reset the rotator before use. 
                     [warm-up motors, self-calibration, etc.]
rot_park          -  (optional) Park rotator in safe position after use.

The basic capabilities of a rotator will be:

Movement range and mode:  Minimum and maximum values of the two axis,
	and also where the turn-around point is. 
        (0-180, 0-360, 180-0-180 or 360-0-360, etc.)

> Hmm, couple of questions:
> * Is it possible to have VFO A on VHF and VFO B on VHF at the same time?
> * Is it possible to listen on VFO A while you transmit on VFO A (full
>   duplex)
> * Do you need both VFO when you want to operate in split mode?

I'll scan the section about the VFOs and send it to you.  
 
> ouch! Indeed, it's rather prehistoric CI-V. Anyway, could you send me
> by e-mail a scanned copy of the "COMMAND TABLE" of the IC-812H manual ?
> That'd help a lot since I don't have any documentation on this rig.

I'll scan the CI-V page. 
 
> > Hmm. The manual is very confusing. No banks. UHF has 80 channels
> > and so has VHF.  Thus UHF can be on channel 2 and VHF on channel 4.
> > But when the radio is in satellite mode, a channel consists of a
> > UHF/VHF frequency pair (UHF and VHF is always on the same channel)
> > I will test this later. :-)
> 
> Do you mean that in satellite mode, if UHF is be on channel 2, VHF
> would be on channel 2 also?

Yes.

I have looked at the RPC stuff.  At the moment the server that it 
is connecting to, is hard coded.  How would one make the server 
address and port configurable?  

Would the 'rig_set_conf' function be a possible solution? 

 
Cheers
  Francois Retief

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