PortsLang 4 Hardware Updates

 Having used the PortsLang 4 for a while I decided it needed 3 main improvements:-

1. The mouse for tuning works ok but is a bit clumsy and occasionally misses pulses

Fitting am Arduino Pro micro board emulating a USB mouse s described  at   https://wiki.microwavers.org.uk/Langstone_Project  with an Optically coupled encoder fixed this issue in my Langstone so the technique would be used again, There is not enough room for a turning knob on the Front panel. An external solution would have to be used.. The mouse simulator was built with 3 switches an an optical encoder in a small diecast box, allowing it to be plugged into the back panel of the PortsLang

2. The Adalm Pluto Oscillator drifts and has a frequency offset

This is not an issue in my Langstone as it has enough room to put a good oscillator and multiplier in the box.  There isnt enough room in the PortsLang to do that. Measuring the output frequency of the PortsLang showed the oscillator settled down 33kHz high at 437 MHz which was unacceptable. I had previously bought a couple of  the recommended replacement 40 MHz oscillators from Mouser, so decided to swap it out. The existing oscillator was carefully removed from the PCB with two soldering irons and the new oscillator soldered in place . Unfortunately when removing the original oscillator solder flicked onto the oscillator output capacitor and whilst removing this solder the capacitor vanished. A new 18pF 0402 capacitor , While I had the board out I also added the PTT output relay described at https://wiki.batc.org.uk/Custom_DATV_Firmware_for_the_Pluto#PTT_output

Measurements now showed the oscillator was now within 200 Hz at 437MHz without tweaking the Pluto calibration.

3. It has no speaker so a headset HAS to be used to listen

I had built a speaker into my Langstone so I could hear the signals when peaking a dish without tripping up on the headset lead. There was not enough room for a speaker in the PortsLang so an external box  was needed. Looking in my Junkbox I found a 12V 18W audio amp module, volume control,  a 2" speaker and a suitable plastic box, I built the amplified speaker with a DC connector to allow it to be powered from a 12V output from the PortsLang 

Upgrading my Portsdown 4 to become a PortsLang 4

Inspired by a post by G8GKQ about new features available in the latest Portdown software release I decided it was time to upgrade my Portsdown 4 to enable it to be used as a Langstone on Narrowband modes, saving an extra box when man portable. The main change is the SDR is changed from the LimeSDR to an Adalm Pluto SDR. Looking at the benefits of the change revealed the only feature I would lose would be the Lime spectrum view which is not available on the pluto

I did have a spare Adalm Pluto obtained secondhand from HRD. but it was still in its plastic case. First task was to house it in a metal box which was much easier the second time around. Fitting it inside the Portsdown necessitated moving the antennuator board 1cm towards the front panel, which took much longer. 

The Langstone mode requires a "USB mouse" tuning knob and a USB sound card which would require additional USB ports (the RPI4 only has 4). I dug out the old USB3 powered hub and refitted it. I also found a dual port USB extension cable that allowed two of the ports on the hub to be accessed on the Portsdown rear panel.

The USB soundcard required fitting two 3.5mm stereo sockets for mic and phones to the rear panel to allow external access for a boom headset/microphone. A phono soocket was also added for a footswitch input to put the Langstone on transmit. The audio connector for the RPI audio output was kept.  All these additions made the portsdown rear panel crowded!

One great feature is that the band data pins on the RPI GPIO can be accessed from both the Portsdown and Langstone software so the band decoder can drive the 8 port RF switch and external transverter interface from both

Internal View

Rear panel is now very crowded

The powered USB and the Langstone USB soundcard

Locking the Adalm Pluto to an external reference (Part 3; Software challenges)

 Having got the hardware finished it was time to convince the Pluto that it had a 50MHz NOT 40 MHz reference. This was easier said than done! 

It took 6 hours of internet research and trials before a working solution was finally found at https://tbspace.de/plutosdrclockinput.html  AND which would survive a pluto power down. 

The final solution was to execute the following on the pluto. No idea why it works or what it does, but it solved my problem

fw_setenvadi_loadvals fdt addr fit_load_address } && fdt get value fdt_choosen

/ fit_config }/ fdt && fdt get addr fdtaddr / fdt_choosen } data && fdt addr

fdtaddr }; if test ! n ${ad936x_skip_ext_refclk}; then if test n ${ad936x_custom_refclk}; then

fdt set /clocks/clock@0 clock frequency ${ad936x_custom_refclk}; elif test n

${ad936x_ext_refclk}; then fdt set /clocks/clock@0 clock frequency ${ad936x_ext_refclk}; fi; fi; if

test n ${model}; then fdt set / model ${model}; fi; if test n ${ attr_name } && test n ${ attr_val };

then fdt set /amba/spi@e0006000/ad9361 phy@0 ${ attr_name } attr_val };

fw_setenvad936x_custom_refclk "<50000000>"

To check if the changes were successful, we can read the device-tree:

cat /proc/device-tree/clocks/clock@0/clock-frequency | xxd

the response was

# 00000000: 02FA F080 .}x@

02faf080 is 50000000 in hex, Success

Having got the Pluto to work with the external reference I spent some time adjusting levels. It was suggested  on the internet that the pluto needed 0 to 10dbm to achieve lock but I found it needed much less than that, it would lock down to -22dbm input. I adjusted the output attenuator in the DFS50 to produce -10dBm output on mine

Locking the Adalm Pluto to an external reference (Part 2)

 Having worked out how to inject the external reference the next question was what frequency to inject. Should I use 40MHz like the original?  Looking in my junk box I found a G4HUP DFC30 unit which takes a 10MHz reference and provides a 30MHz output. I tried retuning the output filter to 40MHz but the multiplier was very ineficent at times 4. So i tried retuning the output filter to 50MHz which worked fine. The reference was to be 50MHz

In my parts collection I found a 10MHz oscillator which could be used to drive the multiplier when no external reference was available. It also had a relay to switch between internal and external reference.

The 10MHz oscillator and DFS30 as deployed in the Langstone:-

That is the hardware done, next to get the 50MHz reference in the software!

The Langstone Narrowband Transceiver with Pluto and RPI 4

At the RAL TV meeting last year G4EML demonstrated a narrowband transceiver ("Hayling") using a raspberry Pi 4 a 7" LCD screen USB soundcard and an Adalm Pluto. Talking to G8GTZ at the recent Didcot Rally I found that the code has been uploaded to github ("Langstone")so on my return from the rally I decided to try it out.

The first attempt at building the code resulted in a no frequency display on the screen. The log seemed to be objecting to my USB sound card, so I changed it for another one I had and I was getting  the frequency readout but no audio

I then noticed that the display seemed to think I was on transmit. I consulted with G4EML and found that there should have been a pullup resistor on the GPIO PTT input pin. With this modification the display indicated RX and i got receive audio and could hear signals

I took a listen to my transmit signal. The dots sounded fine but i discovered the centre button on a 3 button mouse was needed to send CW, which I didnt have. I got no audio on transmit until I discovered the USB sound card mic input needed a computer headset (electret) microphone rather than my (dynamic) heil headset 

To try it out on the air I hooked up a 3W 1296MHz module and had a nice 2 way qso with a local on the band

I mentioned my findings to G4EML who updated the code to have a key input and a PTT output to drive an amplifier. He also added band output pins to auto switch external amplifiers and preamplifiers

I was then interested  to see how the system would work as a microwave IF. I connected it the radio on 144MHz to my 5760 to 144MHz Transverter and could hear the GB3OHM beacon on 5760.9MHz on a horn antenna. I then realised the pluto works directly on 6cm so I connected it directly to the horn antenna and could hear nothing. I then used the KX3 and the transverter to calibrate the Pluto and found there was a 65kHz offset, on which frequency I could just detect GB3OHM. I dug out a DEMI ATF36077 preamp and put that infront of the Pluto and the beacon became quite readable

All that is needed now to make the rig suitable for portable operation is a panoramic display!