ICOM 2730 FULL CI-V control and Audio out of Speaker 2

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I’m in the same boat. Digirig with the ICOM RJ45 cable. Cannot get it to talk to the 2730. running out of radio SP2 and into the Serial line for the DL. Tried with FLRIG and FLDIGI. 9600,N81. for me COM3. In FLRig, COM doesn’t show, but in FLDIGI it does.

Pretty frustrated.
Ed

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RJ-45 cable is an audio+PTT only cable. Please connect TRRS side to Digirig’s socket labeled “audio”.
In CAT/rig settings select “NONE” unless the radio is CAT capable and you have a separate CI-V cable connected.

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Wanted to reply that I finally figured out the issue with the PTT. It turns out it was the Digirig Icom cable I purchased, specifically it was the RJ-45 that wasn’t making contact despite all sorts of pushing and pulling tries. I confirmed with a multimeter it was indeed wired correctly, just wasn’t making contact with the radio’s contacts. Cut it off, put on a new RJ-45 and it works fine. The digirig RJ-45 seemed to be slightly nonstandard dimensions perhaps?

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So I was able to get PTT, Audio Out, Audio In from SP2 and SP1, and CI-V working at the same time. I believe I broke a Digirig while figuring this out though by connecting the cables the wrong way so if you want to set this up yourself be careful. Here’s the equipment I used:

Here is a diagram of how this is all connected together:

Icom2730A-Remote-Control
Icom2730A-Remote-Control800×280 3.48 KB

I used the following references:

  • This page - idea to use TRS splitter cable for tip/sleeve connections.
  • ICOM Manual, page 5 - SP1 and SP2 behavior.
  • ICOM ExMenu Reference, page 24 - SP2 Audio/CI-V pinout.

I plan to document the software side on my personal website as well and I will link to that article here when I do but in the meantime some tips:

  • Direwolf or whatever is using the Digirig should be configured to use the Digirig’s serial port’s RTS signal for PTT.
  • Hamlib rigctl needs to be told to not use the RTS or DTS signals when talking over the serial port (see the exact command I use below).
  • The CI-V address and baud rate in the radio’s EXMENU menu must match what you use with rigctl to try and talk to it over the serial port. By default the baud rate is on AUTO so I changed it to 19200 and I also confirmed my CI-V address.

Here’s the rigctl command I use to talk to the radio:

rigctl --model=3072 --rig-file=/dev/ttyDigiRig --serial-speed=19200 --civaddr=0x90 --set-conf=rts_state=OFF <commands go here>

I’m not positive but I believe what damaged my first Digirig I tried this with was swapping the SP1 and SP2 connections. I believe (but have not checked) that SP1 is a TS connector which would short the TR connections on a TRS cable together and if that happens to be the TRS splitter as shown above then you’re connecting pins on the Digirig Serial/Audio ports that are probably not meant to be connected. Anyways, I’m planning to send the broken one to K0TX, and maybe he can figure out what broke inside which may give further clues as to what happend to it.

One thing I haven’t figured out yet: it seems that every so often when issuing a CI-V command the PTT is still triggered. I’m not sure if this is a software issue (with multiple programs trying to use the /dev/ttyDigiRig serial port) or a hardware issue (interferance, radio setting, etc). If anyone knows or figures it out please let me know.

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25

Thanks for sharing your project.
And yes, please shoot troubled unit for diagnostics/repair.

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Thanks for the information, you helped me out with the tip about setting the RTS/DTS signal configuration. I also am having some issues with rigctl causing my radio to switch the PTT on (specifically when I enter the command line “program” rather than single commands). Will let you know if I find a fix.

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I got my cable today and I had the same issue, but I was in SP2 and the digirig dropped and the system won’t see it any longer. It went into transmit with just the “rigctl f” command to read the frequency. For a moment my monitors went dead too, but they came back.

28

Hi All, appreciate this thread. Has anyone here gotten the IC-2730a to work with RCForb server from remotehams.com via the digirig. I’ve tried the settings on the radio and software that I can think of.

Also, when I use the above cable layout, my IC-2730a is stuck on transmit when I power it on.

Thanks!

EDIT: Digirig Rev. 1.5, should I jumper the RTS option?

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The currently available cables are intended for Digirig 1.6 or later - using 4 contact connectors.

It is possible to enable PTT by RTS in Digirig 1.5 at expense of serial CAT control. Utilizing this feature requires custom cables because RTS signal has to be picked up from the serial socket. Some of this subject is covered here:

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30

Thanks for the info. I had purchased the older Rev from a friend.

I got CAT control working with an ICOM OPC-478UC programming cable. Now I’ll just need to make up my own RJ45 cable to get audio and PTT into the rig.