[wsjt-devel] Icom IC-746 Pro CAT control logic failure? (WSJT-X v2.0.1)

[Phil E. <phi...@gm...>]

Hi all,

  Our club (N1NC; Nashoba Valley Amateur Radio Club) had a VHF station for
FT8 this past weekend for Field Day and ran into an insurmountable WSJT-X
control problem.  I tried searching the list but did not come up with a hit
so seeking collective wisdom.

Rig:  Icom IC-746 Pro
Interface:  CI-V cable with known working USB interface
Computer:  Raspberry Pi running latest Raspbian Stretch OS, updated
WSJT-X version: 2.0.1
CAT software used:  rigctld-wsjtx (Hamlib) talking to the 746 Pro; "Hamlib"
option selected in the "Radio" tab.
Rigctld command line (verbose mode turned on so I could decode):

rigctld-wsjtx -m 346 -c 0x66 -s 9600 -vvvvv
[NB: Model 346 is 746-Pro, 0.7 "stable"]

Rig's VFO A was set to 50.313020 MHz when starting, and the VFO B was set
to 50.318000 MHz from some previous activity.

  The server trace shows that the serial line was fine - all responses in
both directions (rig to computer, computer to rig) were fine at the hex
code level.

  WSJT-X started up, the program got useful information and then went into
its polling loop:

rigctl(d): F 'currVFO' '50313020.000000' '' ''
rigctl(d): s 'currVFO' '' '' ''
rigctl(d): f 'currVFO' '' '' ''
rigctl(d): m 'currVFO' '' '' ''
rigctl(d): t 'currVFO' '' '' ''
  <<repeat last 3 lines in polling loop once/second>>

  The first line is "set frequency to the current dial frequency" which the
rig did correctly.  The second one is "get split VFO mode", in case things
were set to split (they were not).  Then the triplet loop is "get
frequency", "get mode", and "get PTT status".   No problems.

  But then, when I clicked "TUNE" in the program, the following command was
sent by WSJT-X:

rigctl(d): F 'currVFO' '100631020.000000' '' ''

  This tried to set the rig to a frequency of 100+ MHz out of the blue.
The rig responded properly with "Illegal command" (the first time it threw
this error) as it's not allowed to go there in frequency.

WSJT-X responded with

rigctl(d): T 'currVFO' '0' '' ''

  which translates into "Wow, we're in error - make sure we turn PTT back
to off" and then it went back to its polling loop.  (Ironically, it never
got to turn it ON due to the error so I guess it was being paranoid.)

  So where did this mysterious frequency come from?  Notice that

100631020 - 50313020 = 50318000

  So somehow, the logic screwed up, added the two VFO frequencies together,
and tried to tune to that.

  This problem was repeatable across multiple rig power cycles, WSJT-X
abort and restarts, computer power reboots, etc.

  Any wisdom here?  I don't have the rig with me now but could re-obtain
it.  I ended up making a few contacts by setting "Radio" to NONE and
manually pushing the PTT button during transmit, but I'd rather not do that
again.

73
Phil W1PJE