Yaesu FT-991 grief - possible Initialize problem in DigiPi 1.9-4?

[Rick Donnelly]

I've installed DigiPi 1.9-4 on a Raspberry Pi 5, which is connected to a Yaesu FT-991A via a shielded USB A to USB B cable. This same cable is used with a PC that runs WSJT-X on the same radio fine, so I'm guessing I can eliminate RFI on the serial cable as my problem. Before starting with DigiPi installation I watched the "Yaesu FT-991 digital modes" video on YouTube twice, made all the changes directed in the video, turned the radio off, and verified that *all* the settings stuck when powered back up. Finally, the radio is connected to a Chameleon tactical delta loop (HF), which NanoVNA is showing SWR of about 1.4 across 30m band, and a Comet 2x4-SR dual-band antenna (VHF/UHF).

Then I installed DigiPi. The first thing I notice is that when I click Initialize the menu comes up with "Fe-Pi Audio Hat, GPIO" selected as the Radio Interface, although it appears to detect the FT-991A just fine. At the bottom of the DigiPi Initialization screen I see:

Detected Radio/GPS devices
ttyUSB1: usb-Silicon_Labs_CP2105_Dual_USB_to_UART_Bridge_Controller_00DE37CE-if01-port0
ttyUSB0: usb-Silicon_Labs_CP2105_Dual_USB_to_UART_Bridge_Controller_00DE37CE-if00-port0

Detected audio interface:
0 [CODEC ]: USB-Audio - USB Audio CODEC Burr-Brown from TI USB Audio CODEC at usb-xhci-hcd.0-1.2, full speed

When I fill in my callsign, grid, latitude, longitude, screen type, and set radio interface to "USB-Connected Radio" it defaults to the ICOM 705. So I enter the FT-991A parameters instead: rig number=1035, device file=ttyUSB0, and baud rate=38400, and then click Initialize. When it does so it erases everything I've put in and reverts back to what it looked like before I started. The same detected radio/GPS and auto interfaces are listed, but the radio interface has reverted back to "Fe-Pi Audio Hat, GPIO", KX6XXX is the callsign, etc. At the bottom the Initialize button has changed to Restart, which I click. (It would be awesome if you put up a screen with the changes you've accepted rather than the initial screen, but another topic for another time...)

When DigiPi reboots I get the expected DigiPi main menu and my callsign is to the right of the header at the top. So far, so good. Before I get started I open the shell and type the commands you suggested to Matthew Gregg back on 21-Jan-2022 in a Google Groups thread: 

pi@digipi:~ $ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [CODEC          ]: USB-Audio - USB Audio CODEC
                      Burr-Brown from TI USB Audio CODEC at usb-xhci-hcd.0-1.2, full speed
pi@digipi:~ $ ls /dev/ttyUSB*
/dev/ttyUSB0  /dev/ttyUSB1

Next I click on WSJTX FT8 on the main screen and when it lights up, WSJTX from the menu below it. I immediately get a Rig Control Error message, and when I click on "OK" it shows the rig as Icom IC-705 on /dev/ttyACM0 and baud rate of 115200. I change it to "Yaesu FT-991" and change the serial port to /dev/ttyUSB0 and baud rate of 38400. In Craig's reply to Matthew he suggested 8 data bits, two stop bits, hardware handshake, CAT for PTT Method, None for Mode, and Fake It for split correction. On the Audio tab it shows "default" for both input and output. If I click Ok the same error message comes up every few seconds, rendering the program unusable.

If I click on Configurations... the menu goes away long enough that I can select 30m from the WSJT-X's band dropdown, and I manually tune the radio to 10.136 and set mode to DATA-USB. I immediately start decoding FT8 traffic, but of course I cannot transmit. If I click on the Test CAT button on the Settings/Radio popup I get this long error message:

Rig failure

Hamlib error: rig token lookup called for no_xchg
rig_confparam_lookup called for no_xchg
1:rig.c(817):rig_open entered
rig_settings_get_path: path=/home/pi/.config/hamlib_settings
rig_settings_load_all: settings_file (/home/pi/.config/hamlib_settings): No such file or directory
rig_open: cwd=/home/pi
rig_open: /home/pi/hamlib_settings does not exist
rig_open: async_data_enable=0, async_data_supported=0
serial_open: /dev/ttyUSB0
serial_open(229): open failed#1
serial_open(229): open failed#2
serial_open(229): open failed#3
serial_open(229): open failed#4
serial_open: Unable to open /dev/ttyUSB0 - Device or resource busy
port_open: serial_open(dev/ttyUSB0) status=-6, err=Device or resource busy
rig_open: rs->comm_state==0?=0
 1:rig.c(1023):rig_open returning(-6) IO error

IO error
IO error
 while opening connection to rig

So, I'm totally defeated. It turns out that nothing else in DigiPi works, either. JS8Call insists I have an IC-705, as does FLDigi. I cannot connect to anyone on APRS on either VHF or HF (30m) despite tuning to the proper frequencies. I'm wondering why everything in DigiPi seems to think I'm an IC-705 despite telling it otherwise during Initialize? Maybe the files are not being written properly, or DigiPi is ignoring my radio selection and writing settings appropriate for the IC-705? 

This is super frustrating. Any help will be greatly appreciated!  RD

[MI7DJT]

Hi Rick,

It seems you hit Initialize way too early in the process.  This makes the original settings stick.  I'd advise to burn the sdcard again but don't hit Initialize until you have all your settings in place.

Otherwise, everything looks good.

Good luck,

Eamon - MI7DJT

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[Craig]

great report!

You're really close.

After a successful Initialize it snaps back to the default values on the
screen but it worked.  that's kinda on me.

the Initialize parameters are for the packet/aprs configurations.

you'll need to setup ft8, js8, fldigi in their respective menus, once you do (test ptt works)
press [save configuration] on the digipi home page.

The final error tells me you enabled "[x] flrig" on the Initialize screen, and
it's managing your 991.

I'd completely start over, do the same stuff, only don't checbox FLRig during Initialization.


and let us know!
-craig
KM6LYW

(thanks Eamon)

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/digipi/CABi%3DfsqfV-0M%2BSqP3m4NGNuxZ7T0L7eAw1eZSFhO0fK9vW3u6g%40mail.gmail.com.

[Gwen Patton]

Rick, just a quick question.

DO you have a Fe-Pi Audio Hat? Because if not, that field is a pull-down menu. I didn't notice that you said that was a good selection for your setup. It's late, and maybe I'm just reading it wrong, but it seems to say "I have interface X, but the menu has 'Fe-Pi Audio Hat'." Just me spitballing here.

I think you need to hit the "save configuration" button before you hit "Initialize", or you don't actually have the new configuration set properly for Initialization. If I have that wrong, someone (Craig, perhaps?) please correct me, because I had problems if I didn't hit that first.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

73,

Gwen, NG3P

[Rick Donnelly]

Thanks for the quick response. Wow! I'm not sure what you mean about "too early in the process." I made all the radio changes before I started on DigiPi. The radio was connected to antennas, power set to 20W, etc. I double-checked that all the MENU and F settings Craig talked about in his video were set. Then I plugged in the DigiPi. What other steps do I need to do between that and trying to initialize DigiPi? 

[Jack KC3NOH]

Ditto what Rick said - except I'm trying to make it work with an IC 7300. I get the same error message in FT8 when I test the CAT.  The thing is that I had it working for a while and even completed several FT-8 QSOs. I saw a steady stream of APRS HF stations rolling in. My transmitter keyed up when I tried some WXBOT messages with APRS HF but I never got a thumbs up or response. At some point I realized that my location was incorrect when I beaconed my location from the APRS.fi website and it showed me in the North Pacific between Hawaii and the Aleutians.  So I reflashed the sd card and now I have nothing, no APRS HF reception, the WSJT-X configuration error, in spite of doing the same initialization as previously. I actually flashed a new sd card but no luck. The digipi is talking with my wifi and it changes programs, etc but it and my 7300 seem to be ignoring each other. I changed the USB cable to one with ferrites at each end (it was working previously). I didn't check the FLDigi box in the initialization screen. I followed very closely the guidance in the KM6LYW YouTube videos. It should work but it doesn't. 

I'm at a loss and dead in the water, not knowing what to try next. Help!

Jack

KC3NOH

[Rick Donnelly]

Thanks Eamon, Craig, Gwen! I appreciate your help. I took Eamon's advice and restarted from scratch. Did factory reset on FT-911A, set all the MENU and F quick action function settings exactly as Craig suggests in his FT-991A radio spotlight video. Then re-flashed DigiPi 1.9-4 from image file, and instead of initialize as soon as I was in I instead clicked Save Configuration, restarted, and then did the Initialize step. I definitely did not check [x] FLRig box as Craig suggested -- but hadn't done that the first time, either.

To Gwen's question: no, I don't have a Fe-Pi Audio hat. My hardware setup is pretty simple: Adafruit 320x240 screen on a Raspberry Pi, connected to radio with shielded USB A to USB C cable. I have no idea why Fe-Pi Audio Hat comes up as default radio interface. I expected the dropdown box to have something like "Select..." showing when starting initialization. Why it thinks it detects that is a mystery to me. Ditto for why I thinks I'm using IC-705 when WSJT-X starts first time unless that is the DigiPi default? 

I tried Gwen's suggestion of hitting the Save Configuration button (and then restarting) before starting initialization. That didn't help. I've come to the exact error messages I was getting before. Starting WSJTX first time still comes up with Rig Error despite after saving the proper FT-991A settings (rig=Yaesu FT-991A, serial port=ttyUSB0, baud rate=38400, ...). I get the same error as before (see attached screenshot). If I click "More info" I get the output seen in the second attached screenshot. 

The odd thing is that despite thinking that the rig control error (since that keeps popping up) I'm able to decode FT8 signals just fine, as you can see above. But if I Enable Tx WSJT-X will switch to Transmitting (lower right corner) but the FT-991A is not actually transmitting anything. It's as if DigiPi can hear the FT-991A just fine but cannot talk to it no matter what combination of radio settings I supply.

I hope there is some clue in all of this that makes sense, for I've tried everything you three have suggested but nothing helps. Any other ideas?

[Craig]

You shouldn't need to press [save configuration] prior to initialization.

something else is using /dev/ttyUSB0, i'm guessing it's the GPS service,
did you enter
a GPS device file when Initializing?  (default is ttyACM1, it should NOT
be ttyUSB0)

do me a favor and click Shell,

login: pi
password:  raspberry
sudo systemctl disable gpsd
sudo shutdown -r 0

[Rick Donnelly]

OMGosh that fixed the problem! I was doing exactly as you suspected, choosing ttyUSB0 as the GPS device. Because it defaults to ttyACM0, and I know that is what is expected for IC-705, I made lame assumption that needed to be changed, too. Thanks Craig!  Immense thanks!