[WT-support] Wintest Support for FT991

[Bob Wilson, N6TV]

Marcin,

I apologize, I did not know that Yaesu was finally supporting On/Off CW
keying (and FSK) via virtual serial port pins.

To my knowledge, this is the first time any radio other than Elecraft or
Flex has supported that.  It looks like it is available for the FT-991,
FTdx1200 (?), and FTdx3000 only.

FYI, you may send Win-Test screen shots or attachments directly to me.

"Network" means use the serial port for a Win-Test network, for log sync
between between two PCs (a legacy serial port computer network, rarely used
these days), so selecting "Network" would be inappropriate for connections
to a radio, and could have unwanted side effects.

The Yaesu documentation for the USB device driver says:

FT-991 transceiver contain two virtual COM ports, an Enhanced COM Port and
a Standard COM port.  These ports offer the following functions:


   - CAT communications and firmware updating ... Enhanced COM Port
   - TX control (PTT,KEY, FSK) .................. Standard COM port

For the FT-991, there is a menu setting "060 PC Keying" which can be set to
RTS or DTR to indicate which pin on the Standard COM port is to be used for
CW keying.  I assume you have PC Keying set to DTR.  For CW mode, Yaesu
does not seem to be a separate PTT PIN, so you have to trust their PTT
timing.

I do not understand this statement:

"I do wonder why it didn’t work as other interface – COM6 was not
accessible. Iwas using other interface item to key radios by separate
USB/uart dongle."

Are you using a USB-to-serial adapter with the FT-991 or are you talking
about another radio?

What do you mean by "COM 6 was not accessible."  Yes the baud rate will not
be enabled when you select COM6="Other Interface", but you can still set
DTR=CW and RTS=Always OFF.  Did Win-Test say COM 6 was "Not available" or
did it say something else?

If you let OmniRig control the radio via COM 5 (which means COM5 must NOT
be checked in Win-Test), is should be possible to let Win-Test control COM
6 to do CW keying, as long as you tell OmniRig NOT to use COM 6 at all.

In sum, if you have the Yaesu menu set to PC KEYING = DTR, selecting COM6 =
"Other Interface," DTR=CW, RTS=Always Off should work fine.  If it doesn't,
please tell me me exactly what error message you see.

And to repeat, having to set COM6 set to "Network" does not make any sense.

OmniRig is a good solution until native FT-991 support is added.  But when
or if it is added, there should be no real advantage to having native
FT-991 support in Win-Test vs. having it in OmniRig, other than ease of
configuration.

73,
Bob, N6TV

On Sat, Nov 21, 2015 at 12:02 AM, Marcin <sp5iou at 10g.pl> wrote:

>
>
>
>
> Bob.
>
> I am not using any additional hardware interface – just USB cable
> connecting FT991 to my laptop. It attaches FT991 to PC as two com ports
> (COM5 and COM6 in my case) and a sound card. No additional hardware is
> needed to have cat radio control and kaying.
>
> As I wrote in previous mail, “Other Interface ” doesn’t work.  There is an
> error message stating that interface is not accessible. On “Network” it
> works properly.
>
>
>
> One of FT991 advantage is that it has computer interface built in so Ham
> can save a money on expensive digital interface or save a time for building
> DIY one, and make exhibition station more handy- Just radio, laptop, USB
> cable, antenna and source of electrical energy. No need to carry additional
> interfaces and associated cables.
>
>
>
> Anyway I am happy that it works, but still demand from wintest developer
> to include support this great radio.
>
>
>
> 73’s Marcin SP5IOU
>
>
>
> PS: I am sending this reply second time because it didn’t appear on the
> discussion list. Maybe because I attached config screenshots from wintest,
> but I do not know how to do it on this forum.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Support mailing list
> support at win-test.com
> http://lists.f5mzn.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support
>
>
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