A Yaesu DR-1x Voice Identification Controller w/ a Raspberry Pi Pico Board
This project, also known as picoIDx or simply IDx, is based around the Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040). It uses some digital GPIOs to control the repeater for voice identification purposes.
The original YAESU option is very limited.
- ID "every" 10 minutes
- ID only if the repeater is not in use (Detects CTCSS/C4FM)
- Remove ISD voice record/play board dependency by using PWM Audio
- Leds for hmi [ On | CTCSS/C4FM Detect | TX ID (Blinks during ID tryout) ]
- Telemetry
- Announcements
Improvements that could be implemented:
- Agressive mode (ID immediately Vs relaxed ID, wait x seconds without signals on the input)
- Improved ID tryout by averaging instead of a single CTCSS/C4FM detection
The controller it's very basic, it checks CTCSS/C4FM pin for activity on the repeater and also counts minutes until ID. Reaching time to ID it will wait for a, user defined, small amount of seconds without any activity on the repeater input. Any activity will reset the counter, so the controller holds the ID transmition up to the moment where the defined amount of seconds elapsed without any reception and then play the ID.
In this project we decided to go along with micropython.
The advantage of using the Pico and specially the Python SDK is that the filesystem is already there amongst others.
This is crucial for the audio files being used for ID, temperature to audio conversion and announcements.
These files are located in the audio/ folder. Annoucements are programatically
defined as being played every 6 IDs which equates to 1 hour when using ID intervals
of 10 minutes:
...
count_ann = check_if_its_time_to_announce(6, count_ann)
...If we don't want announcements, simply delete the annoucement file main_ann.wav.
The ID file is main_id.wav and all the configurations are listed in constants.py.
If this controller is connected to a PC, you can check the debug output via thonny or any other REPL tool. Here is a sample:
[Init] :: Pico IDx version 1.0 by CT1ENQ @ 2022
[Conf] :: ==================================================================
[Pico] :: CPU Freq: 125.0 MHz
[Conf] :: Usage check duration: 8 sec.
[Conf] :: Usage check frequency: 20.0 Hz
[Conf] :: Usage check period: 0.05 sec (50.0 ms)
[Conf] :: Temperature threshold: 35.0 degC
[Conf] :: ID file audio/main_id.wav found
[Conf] :: Announcement file audio/main_an.wav *** NOT FOUND ***
[Conf] :: ID interval: 10 minutes (600 sec)
[Conf] :: ==================================================================
[HMI ] :: Led Pico started blinking
[Info] :: Checking if repeater is free to ID ...
[Time] :: Elapsed 1/8 sec.
[Time] :: Elapsed 2/8 sec.
[Time] :: Elapsed 3/8 sec.
[Time] :: Elapsed 4/8 sec.
[Time] :: Elapsed 5/8 sec.
[Time] :: Elapsed 6/8 sec.
[Time] :: Elapsed 7/8 sec.
[Time] :: Elapsed 8/8 sec.
[Info] :: Will ID Repeater ...
[DR1X] :: Will START TX now ...
[IDx ] :: Trying to play id ...
[Temp] :: Temperature 27.5 C
[Dbug] :: count is 0 >= 6 ? No ...
[DR1X] :: Will STOP TX now ...
[Info] :: *****************************************************
[Info] :: Will *** SLEEP *** 592 seconds until next ID ...
[Info] :: *****************************************************
The PWM audio code came from:
with dependencies from:
The hardware schematic is available on another repository but some insights are needed on the software side, namely the pinout used for the repeater signals and HMI (Human Machine Interface) LEDs.
Power is drawn from DE/H-15 Plug, 13.8V 2A (Fuse 3A) and regulated to 5V. Not many electronics needed, direct interfacing does work with internal pull-ups. We can have both VCC, from radio and USB VCC as voltage supply but the power switch it's only controlling the supply coming from the radio.
The PWM Audio goes thru a low pass filter and the volume control it's a simple resistive voltage divider.
Three leds present some information to the user:
LED LED LED
[1] [2] [3]
ON CTCSS ID
DETECTED *
ooo
o | o
o | o
o o
ooo
VOLUME
POT
(*) Blinks while checking if channel is free for ID
The Power On Led is connected directly to the regulator, so it will not light up when the circuit is powered only by USB.
- The CTCSS/C4FM detect led it's controlled by GPIO 17 (Pin 22)
- The ID Led it's controlled by GPIO 18 (Pin 24).
Cable colours as used in our DR-1X:
| DE-15 Pin | Colour | Action | J plug | GPIO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blue | Remote | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | White/Blue | PTT | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | White/Brown | CTCSS Detect | 3 | 2 |
| 4 | --- | SQL Detect | --- | --- |
| 5 | Brown | GND | 4 | --- |
| 6 | --- | TONE IN | --- | --- |
| 7 | Green | AF IN | 5 | 5 (+6 and 7) |
| 8 | --- | DISC OUT | --- | --- |
| 9 | --- | AF OUT | --- | --- |
| 10 | --- | GND | --- | --- |
| 11 | White/Orange | EXT1 (operating mode) | 6 | 3 |
| 12 | --- | EXT2 (operating mode) | --- | --- |
| 13 | White/Green | EXT3 (CTCSS RX control) | 7 | 4 |
| 14 | --- | EXT4 (CTCSS TX control) | --- | --- |
| 15 | Orange | VCC (13.8V/2A Fused at 3A) | 8 | --- |
Operating mode is intended as FM Fix/FM Fix which means:
- EXT 1: Low
- EXT 2: High
That's the reason we don't use pin 12, high by default.
These EXT pins are not mandatory to use as the repeater can be used to operate in non remote mode.
CT1ENQ Miguel
ARM - Associação de Rádioamadores do Minho - CS5ARM/CS1ARM/CT1ARM
This project would not be possible without the help of the ARM repeater group, listed below in alphabetic order:
- CT1BDV Emanuel,
- CT1EUK Freitas,
- CT1EYN Costa,
- CS7AFE Carlos,
- CS7ALF Constantino,
- CR7AQJ Soares.
- TextToSpeech: https://wideo.co/text-to-speech/
Done in 2022. CT1ENQ - José Miguel Fonte