ICOM IC-M802

[Rick, W4XA]

Howdy all, 

I have been trying to get FreeDV to control my IC-M802 via a USB--> Serial cable without success.

There is an IC-M802 selection in the (FreeDV) list of rigs for CAT  control (Hamlib) 

I tried using an old control program called M710 which was written several years ago to control nearly all the Icom marine radios M700, M710 and is considered compatible with the IC-M802.  

To test the FTDI RS-232C Serial--->USB-C cable I have,  I obtained the M710 software from the Winlink website and installed it on my Windows 11 laptop. 

After selecting the proper com port, it immediately placed the IC-M802 into "Remote" mode and was able to do basic control functions (frequency, mode, audio and RF gain etc)   

So the IC-M802 can be remote controlled via it's RS-232 serial port.

I also have a SignaLink USB audio device and connected it to the radio with the IC-M802 cable from Tigertronics and FreeDV immediately found the USB Audio codec for TX & RX

Since the IC-M802 cannot be "PTT keyed"  via the serial port, FreeDV PTT keying is not used.  The SignaLink USB device keys the radio via the ACCY port with no problems and I was able to get FreeDV to work quite well with the radio.

I just cannot change frequency/Mode with FreeDV.  I must change the frequency using the radio's control head and then if I want the FreeDV reporter to indicate the correct frequency, I have to enter it manually in the "Radio Freq" field of FreeDV.

So bottom line, I actually WANT FreeDV to control Frequency and Mode and it should because there's a Hamlib entry for it.  Actually there are entries for the IC-M700Pro, M710, M802 and M803 (Icom's newest marine radio) 

So I am at sort of a sticking point here.  

Has anyone out there in Radio Land EVER gotten an IC-M802 or any other ICOM marine radio to work with FreeDV?

Thanks, 

Rick

W4XA

[Mooneer Salem]

Hi Rick,

If you enable verbose debugging (Tools->Options->Debugging, check "Show Console" (Windows only) and "Verbose"), can you copy/paste the console output after you push Start? That should help verify that the Hamlib options are set correctly at least.

Thanks,

-Mooneer K6AQ

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[Rick, W4XA]

ok

It was hard to copy a continuous scrolling text!

Rather than try to paste it here,  I copied it to a notepad file and attached it!

I think I have the settings correct with the serial port.  the FTDI cable ID'd as COM 8 and the radio address is supposed to be "20" 

It looks like the radio is not responding though

[Mooneer Salem]

I found this page that might be of help: https://mvvikingstar.blogspot.com/2012/10/connecting-and-debugging-your-icom-m802.html?m=1. They're using a radio/CI-V ID of 08 though (and I think REMOTE IF needs to be RS-232C if I'm understanding the manual correctly).

Regardless, I'd make sure the CI-V address in FreeDV matches whatever the radio is configured as (either 20 or 08).

-Mooneer K6AQ 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/digitalvoice/02a0587d-88bc-48c1-9d8b-cc8395c2d9ben%40googlegroups.com.

[Rick, W4XA]

I did find that page but didn't try setting the radio to NMEA since you can choose RS232 or NMEA. 

It seems strange that Hamlib would include all the ICOM marine models if the control set is NMEA only!  

 And, I guess I was  assuming that Hamlib didn't or wouldn't use NMEA commands.  

Is there a way to open the hamlib file and look at the instruction sets for every radio and manufacturer listed?

I have seen C-IV commands for other icom radios and I am pretty sure I would recognize that NMEA commands are quite different!

It would really nice to get this rig and help facilitate getting all the other marine radios to work with FreeDV.  There's quite a lot of those radios still out there that hams are starting to use.

Since I have gotten FreeDV to work with Win10, 11, Linux, and the Mac, I have been able to help a fair amount of people around the PNW getting it going! 

Thanks again Mooneer!

73/Rick

[Mooneer Salem]

Hi Rick,

I skimmed https://github.com/Hamlib/Hamlib/blob/master/rigs/icmarine/icmarine.c (which seems to implement Hamlib support for the Icom marine radios) and I saw some references to NMEA, so perhaps Hamlib does use NMEA instead of RS-232C after all. Worth a try, anyway.

Thanks,

-Mooneer K6AQ

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/digitalvoice/036b1393-400e-4708-8ce2-1299e53603cdn%40googlegroups.com.

[Rick, W4XA]

Thanks Mooneer!

I had a close look at all the files for Icom Marine and specifically the M802, and I think you may be correct in assuming that they used NMEA commands for control.  

I also noticed that they only allowed a serial baud rate of only 4800 bits/sec.  And of course that's the only choice when configuring FreeDV.  

I'm surprised that the file has reference to serial "PTT" because I don't think that's supposed to work,  but if it doesn't, the SignaLink USB has no problem doing that job!

Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction!

Happy New Year!

Rick

W4XA

[Rick, W4XA]

Mooneer and ALL!

Success!

I had to ensure that the serial port parameters in Winblows for the FTDI USB-C ---> RS232C cable were set to 4800, 1,NONE and set the RIG ID to 08 in the radio SET MODE.

Then I used RADIO ADDRESS: 08 in the FreeDV cat control with PTT set to NONE. (SignaLink actually keys the radio) 

It now enters the REMOTE mode and will control frequency and USB/LSB etc.

In Tools>OPTIONS>Rig Control:  I selected "Use LSB/USB instead of DIGU/DIGL" but I suspect that makes no difference since there is no SSB DATA mode in the IC-M802

Once in the REMOTE mode, it does not exit back to local control but it also did not exit using the M710 software either.   Simply turning the radio OFF then ON restarts in local control mode.  

Thanks again Mooneer!

73/Rick

W4XA

[Rick, W4XA]

Incidently, the ICM802 also has a speech compression setting that only be turned off and on with the CS-M802 software and I need to determine if that function is actually being used when using the remote AFSK audio (DATA) input.  I would think it doesn't but if it does that will of course, need to be off if FreeDV.

Operating on 40m today, it worked flawlessly