A friend has been having some issues with his new, rather gorgeous, ICOM flag ship radio, the IC-7851. CAT issues, com port issue, cw keying issues, STEPir tracking issues. This post is really to act as a record, and perhaps help anyone else with similar problems. All related to configuration, possible conflicts and other such annoying gremlins.
So, after removing the icom usb drivers, unplugging the usb cable, and reinstalling the drivers, then reconnecting the usb cable, the radio and computer seemed happy. COM7 and COM8 showed up in device manager. However, there does seem to be an issue where upon reboot, sometimes the USB devices will not be recognised. This issue is to be monitored and some more work perhaps required figuring out what is happening.
Moving on, we managed to get the radio talking to HRD and Logger32, at 19200 baud, 8n1, no handshaking, on COM7.
We then looked at CW keying over the USB cable, instead of running a separate cable and related serial interface. The IC-7851 presents two com ports as mentioned above, COM7 seemingly the CAT control, COM8 the keying port perhaps. Another friend did mention that COM8 might be second RX, but not entirely sure on that. Anyway, COM8 was used in the keying config of Logger32, and the 7851 was configured to use USB2 DTR as its CW keying source. All worked great, with CW and break-in selected on the radio.
We then looked into getting the STEPir auto tracking the vfo frequency. The STEPir control box is quite an old version, pre-dating the current SDA100’s. After much head scratching, we decided to use the remote (ci-v) port on the radio. The TIP of the 3.5mm jack, going to PIN9 (ttl rx) of the 9way d-type female that plugs into the STEPir box, and the RING to pin5 (gnd). A quick solder job and it was all working. Note: the pin out of the STEPir 9 way is not standard serial, certain pins are there to be connected to different makes of radios.
It has been noted that the STEPir will only track when the vfo on the radio is adjusted, and not when Logger32 tells the radio to move frequency. The IC-7851 needs to have CI-V transceive turned on.
Some configuration settings recorded here as a record.
73!
