Acquiring a piHPSDR controller

[rzaepfel]

I'm a little late on this, but I am searching for a piHPSDR Apache Labs kit, built or unbuilt, or other controller to use with my Hermes Lite 2.

73
Bob, K4HJF

[w-u-2-o]

Hi Bob,

Any particular reason(s) you are looking specifically for a piHPSDR controller, as opposed to a laptop or regular Linux PC?

73!

Scott

[rzaepfel]

Hello SCott,

I have the Hermes Lite 2 running on Thetis with a micro windows computer, keyboard and display. My intention is to create a stand alone transceiver in a box using the Hermes with knobs and switches on the front panel. The box will likely contain the Hermes Lite 2, a 100 watt amp, a tuner and the micro. Looking over the landscape, it seemed to me that a controller would be an excellent asset for the "front". That's my reasoning.

73,

Bob K4HJF

[w-u-2-o]

I have the Hermes Lite 2 running on Thetis with a micro windows computer, keyboard and display. My intention is to create a stand alone transceiver in a box using the Hermes with knobs and switches on the front panel. The box will likely contain the Hermes Lite 2, a 100 watt amp, a tuner and the micro. Looking over the landscape, it seemed to me that a controller would be an excellent asset for the "front". That's my reasoning.

Bob,

If you aren't already aware of this, a piHPSDR controller is not a stand-alone control surface. It is designed to only run piHPSDR, which is another choice of SDR software for openHPSDR compatible hardware like the HL2.

Have you used piHPSDR? If not, I suspect you will not be as happy with it as you might be with Thetis. Thetis is quite a bit more capable. And Thetis usually goes hand-in-hand with more powerful processors. piHPSDR can struggle or require dialing down sample rates if run on a low-spec Pi.

Why not take a page out of the Andromeda book, instead? Instead of a Pi, use an Intel NUC board, or one of the hundreds of other choices like that, and run Windows with Thetis. Provision an appropriate touch screen of whatever size and resolution you can afford. Run Thetis in Andromeda UI mode.

You can run with just a keyboard and mouse, or add some or all of the Andromeda front panel to the design. Everything is in the open source realm. You can find all of Laurence's work at this link: https://github.com/laurencebarker/Andromeda_front_panel

[Trucker]

Scott, the link you posted comes up not found. ( for me)
James
WD5GWY

[w-u-2-o]

Link fixed!

It appears that this new version of phpBB does not like formatting tags inside of url tags

[rzaepfel]

Thanks for the information Scott. I'm thinking the whole situation over.

73,

Bob, K4HJF

[WA4SIX]

Just for an idea, I have gutted an IC-765, except for the front panel, PA & LPF bank.
Inside will be:
HL-2
Mini PC
Teensy 4.1 (For gathering knob & switch settings & converting to MIDI.
Arduino Mega ( For gathering frequency & controlling LPFs & displaying frequency on VFD display).
Stil trying to decide:
1.2KW water cooled SSPA
Or
transverters for 6M/2M/70cm

Gut an old HF rig & use it.

Ed

[w-u-2-o]

Just for an idea, I have gutted an IC-765, except for the front panel, PA & LPF bank.
Inside will be:
HL-2
Mini PC
Teensy 4.1 (For gathering knob & switch settings & converting to MIDI.
Arduino Mega ( For gathering frequency & controlling LPFs & displaying frequency on VFD display).
...
Gut an old HF rig & use it.

That's a super-interesting idea!

Why two separate processors for knob input and display output? Why not just use one?

Also, you really don't want to go knob-to-MIDI, knob-to-CAT will work a lot better. Connect to the PC via USB serial.

[WA4SIX]

I am using the Mega for CAT/frequency/LPF switching. The VFD on the IC-765 is all controlled by 5VDC signals, hence the Mega (That I already have)

The Teensy 4.1 can take in the whole switch matrix system for all of the buttons on the faceplate with the pots/encoders added & has native USB MIDI.

I am not a programmer at all & rely on CHAT-GPT for my code. Of course, there are always small gremlins that way. I have succeeded in fixing most of them.

I do have everything now working on the bench & need to assemble it all. Problem is the heatindex here in SWFL. Soldering while dripping in sweat is not fun.

As to why I am using MIDI, it's simple. Once all connected, I just twist a knob & find it in Thetis, then assign it. Much simpler than writing it all in code to send/receive CAT signals of all different values. I intend to use all of the buttons & knobs of the IC-765 that are on the faceplate. Some knobs or switches may get repurposed for "Non CW" uses, as I do not use CW.

Of course, there will be 3 HDMI jacks on the back, along with WIFI/BT antennas. I will also add an ethernet port, as my miniPC has dual ethernets.

As for the VHF/UHF, I am contemplating transverters, or possibly my LimeSDR-USB, along with SDR-Console. I have run Thetis along side of it & no slowdowns.

Growing up with ADD (Way before it was defined) I do things different than most others. The confusing methods I am using are just like how my brain works & I have learned to go with what works for me.

I do hope that others may pull out that junk rig & follow suit with their own designs, probably better than mine.

Ed

[Trucker]

Very neat idea! I thought in the past that it would be an interesting project to take an older Analog HF transceiver and gut it. Then replace the internals with a Anan or even a Hermes Lite 2 transceiver. And interfacing the front panel controls to a Raspberry Pi or even a NUC running Windows and controlling Thetis from the front panel. Depending on the age of the original transceiver used, an external monitor and even a keyboard and mouse could be added out of the rear of the case.
Glad to see someone actually doing it. Please post photos of your project and the final results.
James
WD5GWY

[WA4SIX]

Seeing as my workshoop is in the garage, it will be a while for completion. Just too hot for the next couple months.
Anyone interested, the Teensy has native USB MIDI. It can also be programmed through the Arduino IDE for ease of use.
Most older transceivers have a switch matrix for the front panel, that makes life easier.

Ed