Cannot connect HRD via RR to IC-746

[gtvanben]

First, I'm a "newbie" to RemoteRig and while I have read a great deal of the User Manual, I have not read it all, nor claim to completely understand it all. My perception thus far is that the RemoteRig is very flexible, but with all that flexibility comes significant complexity - lots of "details" to be concerned with getting right.

What I have working so far: Control and Radio boxes are talking across my local home network. I can hear audio and PTT triggers the IC-746 to transmit mode.
My next logical step was to start/configure HRD on my Toshiba laptop running WIN7 Pro, 64 bit. There are no serial ports on my laptop. Checking the Ports through control panel it appears that the Microbit 2.0 driver installed OK, I see what looks like 4 virtual ports that disappear when I unplug the RR-Control box from the Toshiba. COM0 appears to be mapped to COM5 and so on.
From reading the user guide I "inferred" that I should be able to run the HRD to RR-Control connection over COM0 between my laptop and the Control box, thence on to the RR-Radio box, and then on to the IC-746 via the TTL - CI-V Patch cord I made. I would prefer to use COM0 (COM5) so that I keep the other serial ports free for other uses like rotor control, etc. If this set-up is not feasible, someone please let me know.
So to make a long story shorter, I've tried, to no avail, to connect HRD via COM0. Just seems to time-out. I tried a couple of the other virtual com ports (COM1/2) - same result which makes me a bit suspicious of the Microbit USB-Serial drive on WIN7, but what do I know.

I'd appreciate some guidance on what I'm doing wrong, or something else to try, etc.

[sm2o]

Yes you should use COM0. Have you activated "Use USB Com Port as COM0". I assume you have tested to connect direct to the radio without renoterig so you are shure that the serial settings CI-V address etc are correct.

73 de mike

[gtvanben]

Yes, I tested HRD via separate USB to Serial converter and 9-pin D-shell manufactured cable to my CT-17 CI-V interface. Works fine. Serial port settings are 9600 baud, data bits 8, stop bits 1, Parity is NONE, and Flow Ctl is NONE

In RR-Control, under Radio settings I have "Use USB Com Port as COM0" set to Yes, baud rate is 9600, data bits 8, stop bits 1, parity is off, COM0 Program mode 3 char timeout is 2. Connection to IC-746 is via TTL to CI-V using a hand built cable directly to the CI-V jack on IC-746. So there is a difference in the physical connection when using RR.

[sm2o]

Hi

Program mode 1 should be used for ICOM CI-V

try that

73 de mike

[gtvanben]

Sorry, I must have confused you - I do have Program Mode (top setting on the Radio settings panel) set to 1 which is for ICOM CI-V.

I was referring to the bottom radio setting just before the submit button - that has a default value of 2 which is supposed to work with all radios except the FT1000 in 4800 baud mode (per the user guide).

[sm2o]

OK

It looks that you have done it correct, I can't say what's wrong then.

May the TTL to CI-V cable ?

You can test to use COM2 with the CT-17 interface.

/mike

[gtvanben]

I was concluding the same thing - that the problem was with my hand-wired CI-V cable - double checked it and sure enough I miss-wired it (read the pin-outs backwards). My error!

I am now successfully connecting HRD via COM0.

Now on to the rotor connection. Then connecting the control box from outside of my home network.
Do you recommend connecting the rotor via COM1 or COM2 and can I use these ports via USB virtual ports?

Many thanks for your help Mike

[sm2o]

OK Glenn

You can use both com1 or com2 for the rotator, Note that the pinning is not the same in the Radio-RRC for com1 and com2

73 de mike