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.
Choose an unused Device tab on the Configuration window, and
Set its Device Name to Antenna
Set # Controls to 1
Set Tolerance to 10 (%)
Set Control 1 to Code
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.
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.
On the Configuration window's Ports tab,
Set the Selector panel to select the appropriate parallel port
In the Data Signals sub-panel
set the Device selector to Antenna
set the Control selector to Code
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 |
Recommended Parallel Ports
Any PCI/PCIe serial/parallel cards based on the MOSchip integrated circuit will work correctly -- e.g. products from Rosewill, SIIG, or StarTech; in the Windows Device Manager, note the resources listed for the PCI Parallel Port device and use the Port Address specified there in the Parallel Port panel on the Ports tab of Commander's Configuration window.
One USB-to-parallel port adapter is known to work: the Piexx SO2Rxlat USB to LPT Translator.