[UK-CONTEST] TS930 PIEXX uP board

[G3SJJ]

Bob, I have one of the original Beta trial boards, although it has been back
to Piexx for upgrade. Not sure if yours does this but mine reads the
frequency and decides that it is either in the CW or SSB portion of the band
and changes the logging program accordingly. That is a reasonable
enhancement on the original firmware and I think would be acceptable for
99.9% of my QSOs.

By coincidence I have been using the 930 recently whilst my FT1kMP is away
for repair. As regards the emulations, I think that it will work with either
TS570 or TS850 settings on your logging program. I have set Turbolog to
TS850 but see that NA lists 930-Piexx which is neat. Either way the serial
interface works well. I am hoping to hook the band data socket up but
haven't so far. It would be good to be able to use the Topten /Dunestar
combo as per my FT1kMP.

With some grateful assistance from Robert MM0ANT I have been experimenting
with sending commands to the 930 using Procomm. I don't have Hyperterm on
this machine. It will retain the frequencies written into the new 1 - 99
memory locations but doesn't seem to like writing into the old switched 1 -
8 memories, band default or VFO A and B start-up frequencies. Also I tried
the IF: command but didn't get anything back. The comms protocol appears to
be 4800 N82 but I wonder if I am still missing something.

I have a couple of odd faults on the 930 which I suspect are more to do with
re-assembly than the new board. RX sensitivity is well done, at least 10dB,
coupled with occasionally what sounds like oscillation of the received
spectrum. The other fault is that whilst receiving, if I switch the tx
speech processor on, the received frequency moves 2.1KHz. This is not so
daft as it sounds since the speech processor is in the rf (IF freq) path. It
also could have some connection with the rx sensitivity in that oscillator
injection levels may then be incorrect. I need to get it on a test bench and
have sight of the various rf levels!

On rx CW I now find the carrier oscillator feed through level obtrusive, but
again, if the sensitivity was at its normal level I suspect this would not
be so much of a problem.

I haven't heard of the mods you have done, certainly would cut the fan noise
out.

Given all that, this 930 is coming up to 19 years old, I still have the
original receipt!  73 Chris G3SJJ
-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-admin at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-admin at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Bob Henderson
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2002 5:33 AM
To: uk-contest at contesting.com
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] TS930 PIEXX uP board


There are probably several of you dedicated contest types back in the UK who
have long since revitalised your old faithful TS930S with the PIEXX uP
board.  Whereas, I am just a "Jonny-come-lately" in this regard and no doubt
missing a trick or two!

What I have done so far is to (per W6NL suggestion) remove most of that heat
generating trash from the psu fan housing and then restore the 15V and 8V
supply lines using 7815 and 7808 regulators mounted on the heatsink.  In the
space this created in the fan housing I have installed a DB9(M) connector to
which I have wired the computer interface cable from the PIEXX, and a DB9(F)
connector to which I have taken the 4-bit parallel band data (Yaesu format)
from the PIEXX, to use in driving a band decoder and hence antenna and
filter switching.

So far, I have only used the computer interface with DX4WIN but it seems to
work well configured as a standard Kenwood radio.  I have seen references to
programming the PIEXX to provide different emulations but I cannot
immediately comprehend the benefit of this.  Am I missing something?

It's a real pity the old TS930S uses a rotary switch to select mode as that
precludes computer selection of mode without significant re-engineering of
the radio.  It's a greater pity though that PIEXX didn't incorporate the
means to sense the mode switch.  I would have thought the sensed information
could have easily been encoded as two bit binary and used to report current
mode to the computer.  One way mode communication wouldn't have been as good
as full two way comms but it would have been a lot better than the current
none, I think.  Anyway, that aside I am highly delighted with the PIEXX
board which seems to have banished in one swoop all my reliability problems
and given the old radio a host of new functionality too.  Phew, I must be
brave to say all that.....I've only had it installed for two days!

Any tips or tricks you early adopters can pass on to help Jonny get more out
of the PIEXX would be greatly appreciated!

Best 73 from sunny Cyprus

Bob 5B4AGN, P3F, ZC4ZM (G3ZEM)


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