Stepping back into digital modes after a 20 year hiatus - used to be big into vhf ax.25, and later tcp/ip over ax.25. I’ll be operating for the duration of a multi-week blue water sailing trip off the US pacific coast.
Radio in the boat is the venerable IC-718. After some research, I believe it does /not/ support PTT via CI-V (cat).
If the radio doesn’t support PTT-via-CAT, is there any major reason not to get a digirig lite instead of a digirig mobile? I guess changing frequencies could conceivably be useful, but doesn’t seem critical. On a boat the simpler setup seems like it might have merit. But I don’t know what I don’t know, so looking for thoughts from those more knowledgable than me.
ICOM calls their version of CAT, CI-V. Checking the specs of the IC-718 it appears to me you have a CI-V jack, and an Accessory jack which together will give you CAT control including PTT and audio with the DR Mobile with the correct radio to DR Mobile cable package.
I have the same cable and DR Mobile set-up on my IC-7000, which I’ve written about elsewhere in the forums if you’re interested, you can search for them. The factory DR cables are listed here, and I find them to be of excellent quality vs the time/effort to make my own:
If you’re not ordering direct from Digirig, the Mobile version from the likes of Amazon etc. will only be available in Logic Level voltages, not compatible with CI-V.
Have no fear, the signaling levels can be easily changed with a solder bridge/break and is described here:
Dear Steve - thank you for your message. I took the plunge and ordered a digirig mobile and the ic-706 cable set. Thanks for your encouragement! \
TL;DR: I got CI-V working, but I’m still not confident the IC-718 can be keyed via CI-V. Appreciate advice on how I might test this, e.g. in flrig or other software.
We’re pulled into harbor for a couple days, so I could actually solder without jamming the iron in my eye ;-). I set the solder jumpers for CI-V, and confirmed that I can control the IC-718 from flrig. It works! Yay! flrig can tune, flip on and off radio features like ATT, NB, etc etc.
Buuuut… I still haven’t managed to key the IC-718 from digirig via CI-V. Maybe I’m being a doofus, I’m completely new to all of this so quite likely I am, but I can’t find a way to actually PTT/key the IC-718 from flrig. I notice PTT is greyed out.
My earlier concern (probably unfounded, as most of my concerns are lol) was I couldn’t find a PTT command in the CI-V command set documented in the IC-718 advanced manual page (Icom IC-718 Advanced Manual (Page 27 of 28) | ManualsLib).
Any suggestions? Does flrig have a way to activate PTT/key that should theoretically work? Should I try another program? I’m not sure what’s me not knowing the software and what’s hardware not working/having features
Indeed some transceivers do not support PTT command in their CAT control profile requiring the use of hardware PTT. You’ll need to configured PTT by RTS under Generic PTT configuration section of FlDigi/FlRig.
I don’t use FLRIG on my IC-7000, but just for you I’ve set it up with the DigiRig
I’ll take the risk in assuming that since you have CAT control for the rest of the radio, all radio and FLRIG COM port, Stop Bits, Baud Rate et al settings in that regard, are working.
**I have found that sometimes the first Init or two MAY lock the radio in transmit, so ensure the radio is terminated to an antenna or dummy load, just in case. This happened on my IC-7300 during set-up as well - doesn’t do it once everything is configured. I suspect it’s the next step that causes it…
Here’s what I have directly related to the PTT, and my PTT works:
With the radio turned on and the DR connected between the radio and the computer…
Configuration, XCVR, RTS +12 V and DTR +12 V must be unchecked - it’ll lock the radio in Tx otherwise;
Configuration, PTT Generic, PTT on CAT Serial Port = BOTH; All other boxes are unchecked, or set to OFF or NONE. At this point you should be able to click Init in the PTT CAT Serial pane to connect the radio to FLRIG - a re-start of FLRIG will then occur.
Configuration, Poll, Additional Controls, Set all (which will also enable PTT if it’s not already); The two “Disable” features at the bottom of that pane are unchecked.
Let me know if that helps, and I can always dig deeper and/or provide more of the configuration settings that are not directly related to PTT.
I tried configuring PTT by RTS, and got PTT working, thanks VE7IIF and K0TX.
Just firming up my mental model, is this correct: a RTS sent to digirig on serial cause Digirig to pull a pin on the “audio” cable (which in the Icom cable set connects to the Icom ACC connector)?
Yep, that’s how PTT by RTS is implemented in Digirig Mobile. There is also PTT by CAT which is available for capable transceivers. Digirig Lite uses different methods (PTT by GPIO and PTT by tone/VOX).
so 
