making lead for ft8 for yaesu 450

Hi all, with thanks to our Victor and a few others on CTDX praising the virtues (or not ) of FT8 I have been drawn in. 
Being the tight fisted old *(^%"£$ that I am it's out with the soldering iron and wires/plugs etc., But I need to ask should it be wired for 1200 or 9600 Baud rate?

Cheers,
Tony

Not sure but i set the baud rate in my radios the same as in the software.
With my 991a it's at 3800 and the ftdx10 i think it is at 4400.
But with both of my radios they usb connected.
Victor will have the answer an sure of that Tony.
Very addictive is ft4/8.

Thanks Alan, I now realise that my post was not clear. I was already confused by different Baud rates suggested on Youtube videos and on the Cat software PCC for FT-450 gives a choice between 4800 & 38400 Baud, which is another failure of mine , and another post in the future.

My question relates to a cable I purchased which has the 6pin mini din plug on one end (not sure my unsteady hands could manage that), as you can see 2 pins are Data Out and that's my problem. My first guess would be 9600 but the note indicates that's usually FM.


EDIT: 4am can't sleep so taking another look I now see that the green wire goes to the data out pin on the 450, but is 1200 baud correct?

Who's this "Victor" bloke and why is he getting the blame?


Tony,

I can see the confusion especially as the pinouts show as "FSK IN" on the FT-450 but equate to the "Data Out 9600" on the pinouts you've shown for different models. I believe your assumption to use the "Data Out 1200" connection is correct going by the pinout comparisons. (Which would be the standard "Data Out" on the 450.)

Are you trying to build the 'no-interface' way of hooking up the radio?


The only word of caution I would give you is to be very careful when playing around with that port.
The connections go directly to the main microprocessor and I can tell you a sad tale from a friend of mine that 'popped' his FT-897 whilst playing around trying to hook it up to something or another. A later "authorised" dealer <ahem> 'repair' saw the main board looking like it had been ploughed through with a hot bulldozer.....leaving it totally unserviceable from there on!!

(PCB was damaged to heck from poor reworking technique.)


I remember well the struggles I had trying to hook up my ancient FT-757gx initially and even now I use 'workarounds' to operate digi-modes with the VOX control, frequencies manually tuned due to no CAT support and a homemade interface. (Arguments abound with the use of 1:1 transformers and such but worked for me getting around 'ground-loops' or 'Pin1' problems.)

The whole thing was connected to a USB sound card on my just as ancient Linux PC which I still had to use on my new laptop as it's audio interface is pretty useless. I also have to be careful with my levels as I'm using the audio in/out on the radio with it's typical audio filtering bandpass meaning I have to tune slightly up or down the FT8 frequency centre to grab contacts.

Along with my ATU tuning, twiddling levels and dialling the frequency I'm proud of the FT8 contacts I get!


I believe you've got a good grasp on things though and should get sorted especially with the information that abounds the old internet. Stick with it because the results are well worth it.

(There's no way I would've grabbed the international contacts I've made with my low power and less than perfect setup even discounting inevitable language barriers.)


I wish you well and look forward to your eventual triumphant success.

All the best,
Victor

Thee is a cable/adapter thing you can buy.
Can't cost a lot as my m8 bought one and he is tighter than a submarine hatch.
Will get hold of him this afternoon and get a link to it.
Hospital this morning and could be some time (Linda hip)..

Always remember Victor at the end of the day its a poor man who blames himself especially if there is someone else handy   

Ah, I don't "blame" anyone for anything Lionel (including myself ) and grateful for places like this here Charlie Tango where we can share ideas and even do our best to help each other with our radio interests.

absolutely

BTW Lionel, I love your sharp humour and the "blame someone else" had me fair old laughing!

(Humour can often be lost in the written word but some manage rather well. )

Thanks Victor im still working on it 

Victor wrote:

Who's this "Victor" bloke and why is he getting the blame?  

Your good self but Only partial blame Victor as I did say "and a few others".
I will respond to your reply I just need to get my brain to absorb it first, probably tomorrow if this bug that I have picked up has gone.

Alan Pilot wrote:

There is a cable/adapter thing you can buy

Alan, if you mean the USB External stereo Sound Adaptor I have one of those. If it's not that then I probably haven't so am interested. 
p.s. Hope it went well at the Hospital for the Station Commander.

Tony

It was the usb thing but he can't find a link.
Station commander on the list for new hip.

Tony,

At least there's a few of us to blame then.  

Like I said, worth getting your head around it as the rewards are worth it with digimode operation.

Lot of bugs doing the rounds at the moment (only just got over a bad bout myself) so you take care of yourself making sure you're better before tackling such a project.  


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Alan,

Only just noticed your mention of Linda's hospital trip so send her my regards and best wishes. 
I keep telling my Teresa to "take care of those hips!" every time she does something silly like climbing chairs to clean the windows. 

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I know that's all slightly "off topic" (I'm a terrible admin!) but I care more for others wellbeing despite my passion for radio.

LOL Victor.
Teresa has to look after hers so she can get in that loft.
Linda has no chance of that sort of thing struggling with the door step.
You may shout at me Mr admin for the off topic but that's it for now lol.

After finally getting rid (mostly) of the pesky bug the soldering iron came out yesterday, with shaky hands and grotty eyesight it was assembled and tested with the multimeter. All was good but didn't push my luck and held off until today actually plugging it in and going through the settings. 
To my utter disbelief and surprise the pc screen came alive, I was actually receiving/decoding signals.
Less than £14 compared to £129 for Signalink, maybe not as safe, but to me it's worth the risk

The next stage is to work on the CAT control which I gave up on a couple of weeks ago but that is the project for tomorrow.

Just for info: Audio breakout cable 6pin mini din for datamodes £4.99
3.5mm jack plugs £2.99 for 5
Sabrent USB audio sound adaptor £5.49

Victor wrote:

I believe your assumption to use the "Data Out 1200" connection is correct going by the pinout comparisons

Thanks for that, that convinced me to go for it.

Off Topic - 

Alan Pilot wrote:

Station commander on the list for new hip

Lets hope the wait isn't too long, my MIL had a replacement and within a few weeks she was without pain and dashing about like a 60 year old. (She was 83 at the time of the Op).

well done Tony you are better than you thought you were , and any way dont be answering any knocking at the front door there might be a big bug waiting to come in and you dont want that again , and im saving up for a fresh regulated power supply i have been told i need   more expense 

skyrider wrote:

well done Tony you are better than you thought you were , and any way dont be answering any knocking at the front door there might be a big bug waiting to come in and you dont want that again , and im saving up for a fresh regulated power supply i have been told i need   more expense 

Not sure about that Lionel, as for the door it's usually the Station Manager/Commander that does that.

A good power supply certainly helped me, good luck!

Nice one Tony.
Big smile on your face i bet when it worked.

Very well done Tony!  

I'll bet you were thrilled to bits when those decodes came through.

Stick with it as I'm sure you'll get the CAT control eventually sorted but at least for now you can manually dial up the frequencies or stick a few in the memories. Got to admit your pleasure in not forking out for a signal-link doo-dah made me smile as it was the same thinking for me too!

Well done again and hope to see your call sign flashing up on my decode screen where I shall happily click it and get you in the log.

Alan Pilot wrote:

Nice one Tony.
Big smile on your face i bet when it worked.

Thanks Alan, once I picked myself up from the floor it really was a big smile.

Victor wrote:

Very well done Tony!  

I'll bet you were thrilled to bits when those decodes came through.

Stick with it as I'm sure you'll get the CAT control eventually sorted but at least for now you can manually dial up the frequencies or stick a few in the memories. Got to admit your pleasure in not forking out for a signal-link doo-dah made me smile as it was the same thinking for me too!

Well done again and hope to see your call sign flashing up on my decode screen where I shall happily click it and get you in the log.

Many thanks Victor, I tuned the radio to 28.074MHz USB as the only antenna I have for HF is the 10/11M Imax 2000. Fired up WSJT-X and nothing for about 30 seconds, but then it burst into life.

As I have the ft-450AT I will check out other bands but I really want to get the PCC for FT-450 CAT control working first.

If you'd tuned to 10m FT8 today Tony it's wall-to-wall signals......can't squeeze in anywhere!

(Tried my best but with stations jumping around like sand fleas it's hard going.)

You'll get there and be filling your log with countries in no time.


Still thrills me no end that you got it all working yourself. Well done again.

You will get there Tony.
The next goal is to make contact with Victor and me lol.

Victor wrote:

If you'd tuned to 10m FT8 today Tony it's wall-to-wall signals......can't squeeze in anywhere!

(Tried my best but with stations jumping around like sand fleas it's hard going.)

You'll get there and be filling your log with countries in no time.


Still thrills me no end that you got it all working yourself. Well done again.

I did tune in again today and my 'gast was flabbered' at the number.

I am always excited if I build something and it works even a simple cable!
As for filling the log that is someway off yet as I need to learn the protocols etc., 

Alan Pilot wrote:

You will get there Tony.
The next goal is to make contact with Victor and me lol.

I suspect I will need extra time for that, But to contact people on CTDX would be brilliant.
CAT first, learn how it all works then contact! Not too distant future, I hope.

Many thanks both for the encouragement.

well done Tony good going