Building IQ64

[Rsoennichsen]

I am going to put together an IQ64, starting with my IQ32. It looks like I will have to remove the RS-HFIQ and undo any mods made for the IQ32. 

I am having trouble finding a compatible sound card for the Raspi, I am wondering if one of the "DAC hat" sound interfaces would work:

https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/hifiberry-dac2-pro/

Rich

PS Is this the right forum for IQ32/RS-HFIQ stuff? I am seeing a warning the embedding of Google groups will soon be turned off....

[jcve...@gmail.com]

Hi Rich,

Yes this is the right forum for IQ64 questions. I have noticed that the Behringer sound cards are becoming scarce, I think that TI discontinued the sound chip on which are based.

The IQ64 PI image uses Pulse Audio to route sound various places and set levels. So any sound device that works with Pulse Audio should be useable in the system. I will point out that the IQ input and output are 2 channels so any sound device needs to be stereo input and output. Many inexpensive cards only have a single input channel.

73,

Jim WA2EUJ

[Rsoennichsen]

Thanks Jim,

I ordered a Behringer UCA222 which looks like similar product to the UFO202. 

Rich

[Rsoennichsen]

I have the IQ wired up on my bench and it is working like a champ on Quisk! 

Any recommendations on a USB microphone? Looks like PTT will have to be software controlled?

Not sure how to produce a carrier to use my HR 50 autotuner...

very cool!

Rich

[Rsoennichsen]

I am also trying to get FLDIGI working. I don't understand how to set it up to see the Behringer audio interface or how to setup the rig interface.

Thanks

Rich

[Rsoennichsen]

I need the password used on the IQ64 Raspberry pi image, anyone know what it is?

Rich

[Rsoennichsen]

Does anyone know if WB5KUO is available for assistance? I cannot find any contact info for him.  

Rich

[rsoenn...@gmail.com]

OK I have answered one of my questions. You need to run Quisk at the same time as FLDIGI. Quisk will send the rig to FLDIGI. It seems that Quisk is emulating FLRIG, FLRIG needs to be enabled in FLDIGI.

FYI, I am running a Raspi model 2 B. Works but is slow. I will be upgrading to a Raspi 4.

I will have to reset the password, I see there are methods. No good not having the password to the OS.

Another question. The RX IQ connections to the soundcard, does the polarity matter, right or left?

Rich

[Rsoennichsen]

Good progress.  Made my first PSK31 QSO.

Ring - right

Tip - Left 

(Thanks Tom)

I need to get a USB mic for SSB. Anyone have recommendations? How is PTT handled?

Thanks

Rich

[Cory Klumper]

The IQ64 image didn’t boot my pi4.
It appears there are a few layers of re-learning I’ll have to do to configure this from scratch.
Unless someone else has an image that will work with a pi4. Anyone?

[rsoenn...@gmail.com]

I have it running on an RPI4. I ended up just installing everything from scratch. Most of the work is just trying to figure out the pulseaudio stuff. QUISK is also fussy with the detected audio. If I were you I would :

install new os on the RPI4

install quisk, wspr and fldigi from the software center in the preference area

install pulseaudio controls from software center

I learned, at least for me, the pulse audio controls have to always be started first and left open. Then a cmd window to start quisk. I have different configs of quisk stored for different setups, they are:

Speakers: uses and external usb audio card to drive speakers and a mic (I could not get the RPI on board audio out to work right)

digital: no external speakers

Phone: Uses a USB headset

There is various timing on what USB devices are plugged in when for which config.  :-P  It is kludgy but I know the routine. I would give you my image but I have been using the radio also as a computer and it has personal stuff on it...

Rich

PS the RPI4 is MUCH fast than the 3b I started with

[Cory Klumper]

I'm cross-posting this here and in the n2adr-sdr groups.io so I can hopefully get a response:

Ok, I've been fighting with this radio and Quisk for a couple weekends now and It's very frustrating. I haven't used linux extensively in a long time so I must have forgotten a lot. I've gone down so many incorrect paths. Hopefully someone in the group is willing to help out.
Hardware: Raspberry Pi4 4GB, RS-HFIQ transceiver, StarTech icusbaudio2d for I/Q, and another USB sound card for headphones/speaker/mic. 
I've installed Quisk and the RS-HFIQ configuration file. The software appears to tune the radio, but I haven't confirmed that with an external receiver yet.
Here's where the problems start. I hear only white noise, and it's only 44.1 khz wide. The audio settings in Quisk seem correct as I can unplug the RX audio connection from the radio and hear changes in the static by touching the ring or sleeve. Quisk is set to 48khz and I've tried 96khz but that just made the waterfall wider and the hump in the middle was the same. I've decided not to align I and Q until after I can hear some signals.
Radio is tested and working under windows and HDSDR.
I've tried using the alsa hooks instead of portaudio, I can't get the alsa hooks to work at all.
Headphone audio doesn't work unless the pavucontrol is open when quisk is launched. Quisk spectrum still looks like white noise when launched without pavucontrol.
I can change volume in pavucontrol with quisk running and hear all the expected changes.
I've looked for a way to force the sound card to change its sample rate, but haven't had any luck.
These two problems may or may not be related but I'm sure there's someone out there who's run into at least one of them. My afternoon of googling didn't find anything else to try.

I did some more troubleshooting and I found one thing that might help. I hooked up an audio source to the plug that would normally be the output of the radio and I was able to hear the audio through quisk. It's still not putting the card in 48khz mode, but at least I should be hearing/seeing signals from the radio if any were coming out.
The radio reports its firmware version correctly and appears to tune. The radio will also switch into TX (tx light comes on and current draw increases) when PTT is activated. I'm not seeing any power out on TX.

I noticed in the github notes for the 'hardware_usbserial.py' file that the outputs need to be turned on. Do I need to turn on the BFO to get output from the radio? 
Again, the radio works as expected when attached to a Windows machine running HDSDR.

[Cory Klumper]

I forgot to include one other test that I ran. I had a feeling the IQ output of the radio would be loud enough to hear on headphones. I hooked the radio up to my laptop and ran HDSDR, there were definitely signals and I could tune around with the expected sound in my headphones.

When I plugged the pi back in to the USB port and fired up Quisk there were no audio signals present.

I'm going to stop fighting with the sound cards until I can figure out why the radio isn't putting out any audio.

[Cory Klumper]

I had a feeling that the BFO wasn't being turned on in the init section of hardware_usbserial.py so I added a section setting that to the same drive level as the frequency. There was no change so I reverted back.

I have one of the first run of RS-HFIQ boards and it's currently running the 2.3 sketch. Could this be the reason why it's not working with the pi but still puts out signals for the windows machine? Version 3.2 says it adds support for the PI SDR IQ+, is there something in there that I might need? Since the file name says "REV D" I don't want to brick my radio by just throwing code at it.

[Chuck Ritola]

I recently came across an issue in Quisk that sounds like the issue you're having. There's a race-condition bug, either in PySerial or Linux itself which causes the *FO2 command issued by hardware_usbserial.py. I couldn't get any signal into or out of the RS-HFIQ except in rare occasions. I forked the rshfiq driver github project and implemented my own fixes and things are much better, though not 100% perfect. Maybe they'll help for you too. If you try it please let me know how it goes.

https://github.com/cjritola/rshfiq