Please post your results!
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Hello all! I am out of town, as I said, and I forgot to bring the RJ45 coupler. So I’m going the RJ45 to TRRS route. Denis, Can you tell me where the TRRS wires need to connect for the Digirig?
Here is the little pigtail I got:
And here are the connections I need to make, as I understand it:
So, trying to be clear, I’m going from RJ45 cable to TRRS instead of MiniDIN8. Am I making sense? My tentative plan is to cut a CAT6 patch cable in half, and splice the necessary wires to the TRRS pigtail. Then use the RJ45 splitter as Mrisakson suggested above.
EDIT - one additional question: The TRRS pigtail has 4 wires, but I only need 3, apparently… I can use a tester and find which wires are T, R, R, and S - but which ones do I actually need, and what do I do with the “spare” wire? Just cut it off and make sure it’s insulated from anything else?
Thanks!
Tip should be TX
Ring 1 should be RX
Sleeve should be GROUND
Verify with Denis
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Here are the connection’s on Digirig’s side. The signal names are from the perspective of the transceiver, e.g. RIG_RXD is transceiver’s serial input. Unless the documentation clearly states the perspective for the signal names, you might need to try both ways. I’d go with RIG_RXD to RXD first.
Second ring is not connected on Digirig’s side unless the interface is configured for TX-500. You can leave R2 unconnected on cable’s end as well.
Denis,
Thank you very much! I put the cable together this morning. Unfortunately, when I plug it in (with the radio off), the radio turns on briefly as if I had pushed the power button - and then turns itself off. It will not turn back on until I unplug the cable. Not sure what I got wrong lol. Pics of the cable construction:
I just realized the CAT6 cable wires I had folded back MIGHT be shorting with each other.
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The pinout of the connected wires checks out.
And yeah, if wires randomly short you’ll get random results. Looking forward to update following the fix.
Well… I have verified no shorts, but same result. Only when it’s plugged into the digirig, not when it’s only plugged in on the RJ45 side. I’ll have to come back to this later, but any further ideas or advice are welcome
If we just listen to the serial without sending anything, there should be nothing happening:
Try connecting GND and RIG_TXD only, leaving RIG_RXD unconnected. If the effect is the same try connecting the other signal to the same RIG_TXD pin on the Digirig. It is possible that the RX/TX is given from the different perspective.
Also assuming you plug TRRS side into Digirig’s “serial” socket.
Roger! Thanks for the suggestion, I will do that. And yes, I’m plugging the TRRS into the serial side. The audio side is already plugged in with the other cable you provided.
Well, it’s not exactly success, but it’s not doing weird things with the radio power anymore.
I followed your suggestion and disconnected RIG_RXD. It did not do the power thing.
I RE-connected RIG_RXD where it was before, and it still did not do the power thing. But I was unable to connect the radio to the programming software, nor Ham Radio Deluxe.
I swapped RXD and TXD. Same situation. No weird power issues, but also no CAT connection to PC.
I also noticed that of all the buttons on the mic, only two worked - the PTT and the “FAST” button that switches the VFO to fast mode. None of the other buttons did anything.
Not sure what I’m missing here…
AHHHH I believe I have the pinout on the RJ45 side backwards! The diagram for the radio is showing the SOCKET (“female”) side, and I’m connecting wires based on the plug/male!
SUCCESS! Mostly!
I had the pinout backwards on the RJ45 end, as I suspected, but ALSO, as you suspected, Denis, the TX and RX are swapped.
I got Rig Control working in HRD, and while it was on, I used the mic to make a POTA contact on 20 meters (SSB Voice), and run the Tuner. Almost exactly what I was hoping to do. EXCEPT:
- NONE of the buttons on the mic work except for the FAST button and PTT. I can live with that.
- When I transmitted at 100 watts, my computer locked up, and I had to unplug it and reboot. I’m assuming some kind of stray RF is getting back to the laptop. Maybe time to invest in a bunch of clamp on ferrite beads after the cable is finalized?
- For some reason, I could not read from the radio in RT Systems software using the custom cable. I can live with that too, but not sure I understand why…
Arthur,
Congrats on the successful build! 
Please share the final pinout that worked.
Regarding the issues:
-
This may be the outputs conflict. Earlier in the thread I mentioned “we can’t have two things trying to talk into the same line”
-
Sounds like RFI. See “sticky PTT” section in the troubleshooting guide. And yes, ferrites is one of the options
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Did that work with any other interface? Could be a settings issue.
I will work on a pinout for you and everyone else, that makes sense. My chicken scratch in my notebook is too confusing lol.
- Roger. I’m not gonna worry about that part.
- Will look at sticky PTT. And I need to get some ferrites anyways.
- Yes I can program fine with the normal cable OR through the digirig (with the tuner unplugged of course)
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SO are you stating that on the male rj45 with the key down TXD is on the orange/white wire, RXD is on the orange wire and the GND is on the brown/white wire using the T568B wiring convention?
Yes, exactly right.
I’m sorry I haven’t had time to make a better diagram of the pinout, but that’s it! 
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Did you make setting changes on the radio? If so which settings? Can you easily change from digital to ssb? What are you plugging the rj45 into? Directly into the mic port? Do you have a picture of your build connected and ready to operate? BTW , well done!
Yes, I made changes to the radio… CAT input… not sure what menu number. Yes, you can use SSB no problem - you just lose most of the functionality of the mic buttons, other than PTT and “Fast”. If you don’t use the mic to control the radio, but only to talk on it, that’s no problem. Have family business tonight, but I’ll elaborate more later.
RJ45 is plugged directly into the mic port, then goes to an RJ45 splitter - one side to the digirig via the custom cable, and one side to the mic itself.