Electronics

I have been wanting to update my ID-31a to the newest firmware release for months, but didn’t want to pay some £20+ for a programming cable. So after a bit of research I found the following website which has some great info on it from Mike (M0MTJ).

Icom Programming Cable from M0MJT

A couple of minutes later, I had built the cable for less than £4 !!

The only issue I had was that the 2.5mm socket in the ID-31a is recessed, and the metal ring around the base of the 2.5mm plug prevented it from being pushed home.  After some filing, and some Sugru to tidy it up, all worked fine.

I managed to get hold of a very recent icf file for the 31a and promptly uploaded it.

Great stuff 🙂

73

Well, managed to get the BR-355S4 GPS module working on the Icom 7100 🙂

Used an LM2596S DC-DC Buck converter to bring the car volts 12-14.5 or so, down to 5.1v for the GPS. The gps module pulls 60ma max, so this device is well suited to regulate the volts.

Only wired the TX from the gps into the icom centre pin on the 2.5mm as didn’t really see the need in getting data from the radio to the GPS. Gounded the 2.5mm to the -ve output on the DC-DC converter.

Turned the ICOM 7100 on, and setup the GPS to external, and the icon showed up. 11 Sats received, good stuff indeed !!!