Alinco DR-150 with cable for DX-70

[Constrainted]

New topic from this post:

Alinco DX-70 Cable

Question about using this with an Alinco DR-150. The 150 has a 2.5mm 9600 baud packet jack. (pg. 63 of the user’s manual: http://www.146970.com/PDFs/Alinco%20-%20DR-150T%20Instruction%20Manual.pdf). Do you know if connecting through the 9600 baud jack would allow me to use VARA FM wide? Would I need to rewire the cable to route the receive audio from the ring on the 2.5mm jack to ring 2 on the 3.5mm jack to the Digirig (instead of receive audio coming from pin 6 from the GX16 mic connector)? Tha…

73 Constrainted

[K0TX]

Yes, based on the documentation 2.5mm jack should work for VaraFM Wide

Connections to Digirig’s audio port should be like this:

2.5mm TRS tip (TXD) → 3.5mm TRRS ring1 (RIG_AFIN)
2.5mm TRS tip (RXD) → 3.5mm TRRS tip (RIG_AFOUT)
2.5mm TRS sleeve (DE) → 3.5mm TRRS sleeve (GND)
GX16 pin 2 (PTT) → 3.5mm TRRS ring2 (RIG_PTT)

[Christian_Helfrich]

Thanks very much for the quick reply and the information!

[jomicabo]

Hi there. I’m thinking of buying this cable for both the Alinco DX-70 and DR-150. According to this post, do I have to change the cables or can the pinouts be configured via digirig itself?
Thanks for your time and great products.
73

[K0TX]

There are no pinout configuration in Digirig Mobile. The solder pads are used to configure electric levels of the serial port. More on this subject here:

Selecting Digirig Mobile Serial Configuration – digirig

If you are using the same cable between the two radios then there is no need for any additional configuration or cables change.

[jomicabo]

In fact, I’ve bought the digirig lite, so no serial. The question was really if the cables had to be changed somehow to work between DR-150 and DX-70. The website indicates it as being compatible with both, so I was just trying to understand how this would work.

On the same topic, and as you pointed out in the above figure from the user manual for the 9600 operation I’ll need a 3,5 to 2,5 mm jack converter correct?

Thanks for your quick replies and patitence.

Regards and season greetings.

[K0TX]

Yes, the store cable comes with 3.5mm headphones jack while the transceiver documentation refers to 2.5mm socket in the back of the radio.

Note that the store cable connects PTT and transmitted audio through the mic jack and only takes received audio from the headphones plug. The homebrew cable pinout discussed above connects both audio directions from 2.5mm jack and only PTT from the mic jack. Both methods should work but it is possible that the latter offers a wider audio bandwidth.

[jomicabo]

OK, got it. So it is in fact a homebrew cable.

Could you point me to a post regarding homebrew cables building in general and maybe specific to digirig lite. By the way I bought the digirig lite via France (Passion Radio), so much more expensive than in US, even considering taxes!

Thanks again.

[K0TX]

My first reply in the thread has the connections information for the homebrew cable.
The pinout is the same regardless of the Digirig model. The rest is regular soldering of wires and connectors. Let me know if you have a specific question about the build.

[Christian_Helfrich]

Just a quick follow-up to confirm that your guidance on the wiring worked. Thanks again so much!