Controlling an External Device like an Antenna Switch via a Parallel Port

You can use one of Commander's Frequency-dependent Devices to control an external device via parallel port signals. The example described here is control of an Antenna Switch.

  1. Choose an unused Device tab on the Configuration window, and

    1. Set its Device Name to Antenna

    2. Set # Controls to 1

    3. Set Tolerance to 10 (%)

    4. Set Control 1 to Code

    5. In the table, create entries for the frequency ranges of interest. The entries should be less than 10% apart in frequency. Each entry's Code item should be the numeric value need to make the antenna switch select the appropriate antenna for the frequency in question, as shown in the example below. The large tolerance reduces the number of entries required for each band; when using this approach to control an antenna tuner, choose a smaller tolerance and specify more entries.

    6. Check the Enabled box in the upper-left corner. As you QSY Commander to each band, the Antenna panel on Commander's Main window should display the proper band selection code.

  2. On the Configuration window's Ports tab,

    1. Set the Selector panel to select the appropriate parallel port

    2. In the Data Signals sub-panel

      1. set the Device selector to Antenna

      2. set the Control selector to Code

      3. check the Enable box

Sample Table

(values shown are appropriate for use with Top Ten and W9XT decoders, which use parallel port pins 9, 8, 7, and 2 to select a band using the scheme supported by WriteLog and N1MM)

Freq

Code

1800

1

1900

1

2000

1

3500

32

3700

32

4000

32

7000

33

7300

33

10100

64

14200

65

18100

96

21300

97

24900

128

28500

129

29500

129

50000

160

51000

160

52000

160

53000

160

54000

160

Parallel port data bit outputs generated from the above table

Freq

Code

pin 9

pin 8

pin 7

pin 2

1800

1

0

0

0

1

1900

1

0

0

0

1

2000

1

0

0

0

1

3500

32

0

0

1

0

3700

32

0

0

1

0

4000

32

0

0

1

0

7000

33

0

0

1

1

7300

33

0

0

1

1

10100

64

0

1

0

0

14200

65

0

1

0

1

18100

96

0

1

1

0

21300

97

0

1

1

1

24900

128

1

0

0

0

28500

129

1

0

0

1

29500

129

1

0

0

1

50000

160

1

0

1

0

51000

160

1

0

1

0

52000

160

1

0

1

0

53000

160

1

0

1

0

54000

160

1

0

1

0


Transceiver Control

Getting Started with DXLab

ControlAntennaSwitch (last edited 2023-04-26 15:07:19 by AA6YQ)