Hermes Lite And Xiegu XPA125B

[paul chancellor]

I need to interface the Hermes Lite with Xiegu’s linear amplifier XPA125B.

 

Does anyone have information on this ?

 

Paul

 

 

 

Paul D. Chancellor

Eclectic, AL   36024

Tel:  805.368.4586

Fax: 805.299.4919

Email:  p...@oceanlawgroup.com

 

[Reid Campbell]

Hi Paul,

https://github.com/softerhardware/Hermes-Lite2/wiki/Band-Volts

The link will give you information on how to generate the voltage to auto select the bands. You can select manual but it's easy to transmit with the wrong settings.

The PTT for the 125B is in the 6 pin mini DIN plug (Pin 2) and can be connected to the EXTRT on the back of the HL2. I was luck enough to find an old mouse with a cable with all the 6 wire. I haven't been that luck since and Pin2 is not normally used with a mouse. The HL2 will pull it EXTRT low for transmit which is what the 125B expects.

Cheers

Reid
Gi8TME/Mi0BOT

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[Ronald Meier]

Will this cable used for IC705 work?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/143898469909

73 Ronald PH7R

Op zaterdag 26 juni 2021 om 10:09:49 UTC+2 schreef scumballc...@gmail.com:

[Reid Campbell]

Hi Ronald,

Not without cutting the 3.5mm plug off and putting a phono plug on. That will not give you the auto band change either. Price seems a bit high for a cable that you are going to have to butcher.

Cheers

Reid
Gi8TME/Mi0BOT  

[Steve Haynal]

Hi Group,

Just reposting this thread as there is some misinformation about no support for the XPA125B, The linear band volts output required by this amp is supported by repurposing the fan out PWM as implemented by Reid. There may be better XPA125B support now with the new IO board.

73,

Steve

kf7o

[KP4RX - Ramon]

Re-posted as pictures didn't uploaded before.

Hi all!

The attached firmware is a modification of Jim's Basic firmware for the HL2IO Board which allows control of either the XPA125B or the HR50. If you add a Female TRRS Jack to your HL2 you can use the Xiegu's L4001 cable or homebrew trrs to din cable for the XPA125b (X6100 to XPA125b Interface), that way the DB9 can be dedicated to the HR50 and you can just switch amps as needed without having to re-flash a different firmware for a specific Amp. Firmware is configured with two pins low on PTT so you can use the pico for PTT or use EXTTR Directly, whichever you prefer. I tested the XPA125b, for the HR50 I just tested with a USB to serial adapter as I don't have an HR50,  the serial output generates FAxxxxxxxxxxx; every time the frequency changes exactly as the HL2's serial output. I will later publish the code as I had to make some minor changes to the SDK config so it compiled on my Mac (Maybe because of my poor C Coding skills)

Pinout:

Serial Speed on the HR50 is 9600 Baud

Here's an example of how I've setup mine (Ignore the pin positions as this was a previous version and found out later that some pins don't work on my board)

The TRRS pinout numbers next to each entry are for a specific female TRRS Jacks from Amazon that are not currently available, please Always double Check your wiring to your specific use case.

Xiegu original L4001 Cable:

73 de KP4RX - Ramon

[chri...@dragicevic.eu]

Hello ,

 

Thanks for news firmware. I use XPA125b and ICOM-IC2KL. It’s possible to add band voltage and PTT for ICOM ?

 

 

Thanks

 

Christian F8NDN

 

De : herme...@googlegroups.com <herme...@googlegroups.com> De la part de KP4RX - Ramon
Envoyé : mardi 14 novembre 2023 22:55
À : Hermes-Lite <herme...@googlegroups.com>
Objet : Re: Hermes Lite And Xiegu XPA125B

 

Hi all!

 

The attached firmware is a modification of Jim's Basic firmware for the HL2IO Board which allows control of either the XPA125B or the HR50. If you add a Female TRRS Jack to your HL2 you can use the Xiegu's L4001 cable for the XPA125b (X6100 to XPA125b Interface), that way the DB9 can be dedicated to the HR50 and you can just switch amps as needed without having to re-flash a different firmware for a specific Amp. Firmware is configured with two pins low on PTT so you can use the pico for PTT or use EXTTR Directly, whichever you prefer. I tested the XPA125b, for the HR50 I just tested with a USB to serial adapter as I don't have an HR50,  the serial output generates FAxxxxxxxxxxx; every time the frequency changes exactly as the HL2's serial output. I will later publish the code as I had to make some minor changes to the SDK config so it compiled on my Mac (Maybe because of my poor C Coding skills)

 

Pinout:

 

Serial Speed on the HR50 is 9600 Baud

 

Here's an example of how I've setup mine (Ignore the pin positions as this was a previous version and found out later that some pins don't work on my board)

 

 

 

 

The TRRS pinout numbers next to each entry are for a specific female TRRS Jacks from Amazon that are not currently available, please Always double Check your wiring to your specific use case.

 

73 de KP4RX - Ramon

 

 

 

On Monday, November 13, 2023 at 10:23:20 PM UTC-6 softerh...@gmail.com wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hermes-lite/1cf204e7-35b3-431a-9329-7111ce079b88n%40googlegroups.com.

[KP4RX - Ramon]

While theoretically the Pi Pico can drive up to 16 PWM Outputs, The IO Board configuration only has one PWM output with filtering so it is not possible to drive two different voltage based band switching amplifiers with the same firmware without modifying the hardware. This firmware uses the PWM Output for the Xiegu, and UART Serial data for the HR50. It is important to note that newer versions of HR50 after a specific serial number are compatible with Voltage switching with Xiegu's voltages. Taking a quick look at the IC2KL specs, band change voltage requirements goes up to 8V, the IO Board's output is capped at 5V so you'll still need some circuit in between to step up the voltage (or have a firmware that changes bands from 10-40M and sacrifice 80M and 160M which are the ones that require more than 5V).

73 de KP4RX - Ramon

[KP4RX - Ramon]

Christian, for reference, this is the band voltage chart for the IC2KL that I'm referring to:

[Mike Lewis]

I have deleted my last 2 posts since there was a factual error about the Band and Fan volt outputs and do not want to confuse future readers of this thread.

 

Adding a IC2KL band volts solution looks easy.  You can use the FAN volts circuit output to get the voltages you need for the IC2KL in software only. You will need to add code to get the right voltages of course for each band, and maybe consider clamping the output at 8V if 12V could possibly damage the IC2KL.  Use the J4 pin 8 for your Xiegu amp.

 

 Add your 2^nd PTT output linked to Tune state for the rest of your dual amp vision.

 

-                      Mike K7MDL

 

[KP4RX - Ramon]

Thanks for the clarification Mike, I've totally forgot about the fan output

73 de KP4RX

[chri...@dragicevic.eu]

Yes.

 

Thanks

 

73

 

 

 

De : herme...@googlegroups.com <herme...@googlegroups.com> De la part de KP4RX - Ramon

Envoyé : mercredi 15 novembre 2023 15:17

À : Hermes-Lite <herme...@googlegroups.com>
Objet : Re: Hermes Lite And Xiegu XPA125B

 

Christian, for reference, this is the band voltage chart for the IC2KL that I'm referring to:

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hermes-lite/bd6083a6-6360-4e7b-8afd-ab6bffb41e40n%40googlegroups.com.

[chri...@dragicevic.eu]

Hello,

The band change for XIEGU works perfectly. When will the ICOM IC2KL be added? Thank you so much

 

73

 

F8NDN

 

 

De : herme...@googlegroups.com <herme...@googlegroups.com> De la part de KP4RX - Ramon

Envoyé : mardi 14 novembre 2023 23:10

À : Hermes-Lite <herme...@googlegroups.com>
Objet : Re: Hermes Lite And Xiegu XPA125B

 

Re-posted as pictures didn't uploaded before.

Hi all!

 

The attached firmware is a modification of Jim's Basic firmware for the HL2IO Board which allows control of either the XPA125B or the HR50. If you add a Female TRRS Jack to your HL2 you can use the Xiegu's L4001 cable or homebrew trrs to din cable for the XPA125b (X6100 to XPA125b Interface), that way the DB9 can be dedicated to the HR50 and you can just switch amps as needed without having to re-flash a different firmware for a specific Amp. Firmware is configured with two pins low on PTT so you can use the pico for PTT or use EXTTR Directly, whichever you prefer. I tested the XPA125b, for the HR50 I just tested with a USB to serial adapter as I don't have an HR50,  the serial output generates FAxxxxxxxxxxx; every time the frequency changes exactly as the HL2's serial output. I will later publish the code as I had to make some minor changes to the SDK config so it compiled on my Mac (Maybe because of my poor C Coding skills)

 

Pinout:

 

Serial Speed on the HR50 is 9600 Baud

 

Here's an example of how I've setup mine (Ignore the pin positions as this was a previous version and found out later that some pins don't work on my board)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The TRRS pinout numbers next to each entry are for a specific female TRRS Jacks from Amazon that are not currently available, please Always double Check your wiring to your specific use case.

 

Xiegu original L4001 Cable:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hermes-lite/c66f97d4-4f1b-4ed5-8c73-41ef94238702n%40googlegroups.com.

[Barry Bahrami]

Confirmed working really great with a HL2 and Xeigu XPA125B

With the Amazon plugs https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Q5LNR7K?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

just follow the wiring for it to work with the cable

tab2 - HL2 J6P6

tab3 - HL2 J4P8

tab1 - ground

the tab numbers above are the same on the amazon plugs I listed above if that helps anyone.  easy to do.  126B is following the HL2 perfectly.

Thank you KP4RX - Ramon!!!!

73

[Ronald Meier]

Was planning to sell my XPA125B but instead ordered the IO Board. With above mod this will be a supercombo, 100W + ATU.

HNY and 73, Ronald PH7R

Op zaterdag 30 december 2023 om 07:18:23 UTC+1 schreef barryb...@gmail.com:

[Ioan Me]

Thanks Ramon, my XIEGU XPA125B works fine. The voltage error is -2.7 ... -1.5%, depending on the band. Before that I had Band_Volt, the error was +4.2 to -3.7% but it worked fine. I changed the case to 55mm with IO Board. The front panel remained unmarked :) I connected the PTT through a diode from J1 pin 29-30. Big linear PTT connected to EXTTR. I connected the XPA125B via a homemade cable, Mini-DIN-6 to DB9. Until complete happiness, you need to transfer information about the TX frequency from HL2 to OM3501A, for example, using the YAESU CAT protocol. I suspect that this is impossible. Another option would be to control the antenna switcher from HL2.

73, Jonas LY1O

[Ramon L. Ramos]

Jonas, that firmware also outputs the freq in Yaesu format FAxxxxxxxx simultaneously that is how it would send freq to HR50, refer to the wiring table for the pins.

73 de KP4RX

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[Ioan Me]

Ramon, thanks for the hope, in theory it should work, but in practice it doesn't. YAESU CAT format is: FA[command]0[Parameter]1425000[frequency];[Terminator]. The format is: FA0XXXXXXXXX; . In amplifier OM3501A RS232 speed was 38400 bps, I tried all - 4800, 9600, 19200 and 38400. The connection was from J4 Pin 1 to DB9 Pin 2 and GND to Pin 5. No result. From the transceiver (FTdx101D) it works at all speeds if they are set the same. If the settings are not the same, the amplifier reports an error. "Driver" XPA125B works correctly. Apparently, the program code is not suitable, or maybe two-way communication is required?

73 de LY1O

[KP4RX - Ramon]

Well. I don't have any amp capable of using that data so I just tested with a USB to serial cable, I'm guessing maybe I need to output that in binary rather that ASCII, Are you able to collect a serial output sample from the FTdx101D?

[Ioan Me]

I have no idea how to do it. The FTdx101D communicates with the amplifier via RS232 directly, the computer is not involved. 

[KP4RX - Ramon]

An RS232 to usb adapter may help, but now that you say RS232... Usually RS232 is 8V or higher, the IO Board serial output is 5V. Please check the Amp specifications for the RS232 Voltage requirements, you may need some kind of level shifter between amp and HL2.

[Ioan Me]

So much has been written about RS232C.

[John Cooper]

Huge thanks to KP4RX - Ramon for posting his firmware and wonderful instructions along with it.   I just finished setting up my HL2.

Great to have auto band switching with the XPA-125b.   Big thanks also to all that have contributed to the HL2 project.    I am awestruck by how well it works.

72 John - KC8ZKI

[Christian Dragicevic]

Hello,

 

To return to this request, it is possible to control the IC-2KL by the PWM fan, right?

 

THANKS

 

F8NDN

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hermes-lite/02f201da1807%247c0b1630%2474214290%24%40dragicevic.eu.

[Mike Swatko]

Hi all,

Similar to F8NDN, I too am interested in a bit more detailed explanation of how to use the HL2 fan PWM to achieve the band voltage control to control the IC-2KL.  If anyone can please advise with schematic and parts details, that would be greatly appreciated.  And PTT/SEND signal to trigger the amp, unless I should just simply connect to HL2 EXTTR....

In my case I have the N2ADR IO board.  With the guidance in this thread and using Ramon's firmware, I'm very pleased to have band switching fully working with my XPA125B.  It's really quite nice!

Now my dream is to feed the output of the XPA125B into the IC-2KL to take things to the next level.  I plan to put a RF sampler after the IC-2KL for Pure Signal functionality.

73,
-Mike W1TKO

[Steve Haynal]

See the wiki:

https://github.com/softerhardware/Hermes-Lite2/wiki/Band-Volts

https://github.com/softerhardware/Hermes-Lite2/tree/master/hardware/enclosure/endcaps/kf7o/hl2_40b#fan-active-components

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