Cables for Kenwood TM-D710

Mark,

In order to use CAT control, the DIGIRIG-SERIAL cable must be connected to the PC port on the radio body (next to the DATA port).

Yup, I’m aware. I use the RS232 cable / Serial to the head for Packet. The challenge is essentially having the need for two serial connections, one to the head for packet and the other to the body for CAT control (PC Port). Then the third connection to the DATA port on the radio for the audio part of the transmission.

My challenge is that the PC Port / CAT doesn’t seem to work with the DigiRig on my Mac with hamlib. The rigctl/rigctld times out trying to control the radio. I’ve always assumed the problem was hamlib lacking the proper driver for the TM-D710.

I’m about to test the KP5 cable from RT Systems connected to the PC port and Hamlib to see if that works.

So, played with the setup again today. Here is my setup.

Back of Radio : PC port → RT Systems Cable (/dev/cu.usbserial-RTXXXXX) (This works with CAT commands through Hamlib (updated to the latest) and rigctl (igctl -m 2034 -r /dev/cu.usbserial-RTXXXX)
DATA Port → DigiRig + Kenwood cable from K0TX)
Back of Head : K0TX cable (modified for TM-D710 to do serial) to the Serial port on DigiRig) Works with the TNC.

My experience has been that when I use the DigiRig (Serial) to the back of the TM-D710 hamlib times out. When I use the RT systems cable, the connection is nearly instantaneous on all serial speeds tested. When I use the Serial port on the DigiRig to the Head unit for the TNC, it works as expected.

@Mark Interesting. I’m guessing your K0TX serial cable does not loop back RTS to CTS on the mini-DIN8 and so it does not work for CAT on the PC port (back of radio).

Yup, that’s my theory as well. Interesting that it works for the RS232 → TNC but not the back of the radio though.

Sorry to be a pain - so I just received my cables and digirig today and I am not sure what I am doing wrong, if anything. I have my cables connected to the back of the radio (PC and Data ports), and have D710 selected in FLDIGI for hamlib control. What settings in FLDIGI do I need to select for this to work? If I select RTS/CTS it goes into transmit mode immediately. Do I need a new cable (people are mentioning a loop back cable)? Any help / feedback would be great!

Just an update that I’ve gotten VARA FM working with Winlink but still no success with FLDIGI.

@K0TX sorry for jumping around threads - I’ll post here since this appears to be the issue that I’m having as well. I could not get FLDIGI to work using the provided serial cable. I remembered that I had a RT Systems cable and tried that with FLDIGI to confirm my settings were correct and it worked. I wouldn’t be as sad if it weren’t just CAT control that didn’t work - I can’t get the PTT to function in FLDIGI. It just doesn’t work at all, which is surprising since VARA PTT works. I would expect that the PTT would at least work using the com port / RTS just like VARA but it does not.

Packet radio using Soundmodem works, but can only get JS8 or WSJTX working in non cat mode (which is fine).

Let’s start with PTT. Please share the screenshots of your FlDigi configuration pertaining to CAT control and PTT. We’ll go over that.

Also you can confirm that the PTT hardware is working by doing this test:

I was about to prepare the specs for the updated CAT cable and found that the latest revision of my sketch already had the hardware flow control loopback:

While travelling I don’t have the access to the inventory. Can anybody with the store bought cable ring the continuity between pins 1 & 2 on MiniDin8 to confirm the connection is there?

I just checked with my Fluke, and I don’t have any continuity between pins 1 and 2. I also checked my RT systems cable and there is also no continuity between those pins as well.

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Thank you for the info. I’ll deal with the manufacturing to have this corrected.
Additional reports are welcome.

Good evening.

I am getting ready to setup my Digirig with my 710GA. I found this post looking for the config change to set it up for rs232. I noticed that there are now two sets of cables when I search for the 710. When I ordered mine back in October, I’m pretty sure there was only the one for FT-8xx listed that said it also worked with the 710. I had the Digirig setup for my yaesu ht as I bought that cable at the same time. I’m moving the Digirig to the 710 and configuring it for rs232, but looks like I need a different cable set (at least the CAT cable) than the FT-8xx that I originally bought.

Just to verify, the current 710/v71a cable set in the store needs to have the loopback corrected on the cat cable. So I should wait to get the 710/v71a cable set?

Yes, you can setup your 710 with audio+PTT using MiniDin6 cable you already have. Later I’ll have a corrected serial cable for CAT control (optional) and we can arrange the exchange.

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Denis,

Sounds good. just let me know when the updated serial cables are ready.

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I’m interested as well - and I want to order an additional set of cables / digirig for my V71…so please keep us posted!

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Any update to the cables?

I should have the kits in stock in 1-2 weeks. Please keep an eye on this listing and subscribe to email notifications at the homepage.

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Good Evening,

Are there any estimates on when the updated serial cable will be available?

Thanks,
Warren

The store inventory now has the corrected CAT cable that includes hardware flow control loopback as discussed above (CTS/RTS connected).

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