guitarpicva / rpikeyerterm

Simple CW keying from the RPi GPIO 21 pin using a 2 component switching circuit

Readme for RPiKeyerTerm software

RPiKeyerTerm allows the Raspberry Pi to become a smart keyer by using software to store macros and which maintains logging. Logging also includes the ability to send ADIF to the N1MM logger, to eQSL.cc, or to QRZ.com (subscription required) via network connections. QRZ.com and eQSL naturally can only be done when connected to the internet, but if N1MM is being used in a local network, then it can aggregate the ADIF log entries for multiple stations.

A new addition is an audio FIR bandpass filter widget. This widget may be shown or hidden from the View menu. It also requires two playback sound card devices to be available on the RPi. Receive audio is filtered and then played back on the second playback sound card. If the on-board RPi headphone jack is used, be sure to enable it in the /boot/config.txt file by ensuring that the line

dtparam=audio=on

is in the file and not commented out. A stock RPi has this value turned on.

If you do not wish to use the audio filter, show it from the view menu and ensure that the widget's checkbox at it's top left position is unchecked, and then hide it again with the View menu.

RPiKeyerTerm uses GPIO to initiate keying to the radio. The radio is configured for straight key operation and a two component keying circuit consisting of a 2N2222 transistor and a 1000 ohm resistor are all that are needed for a reliable keyer for most any radio. A simple circuit design is provided in the file RPiKeyerTerm.png.

Build Instructions

REQUIRED LIBRARIES IN Raspberry Pi OS to run OR to build from source.

sudo apt install gpiod libgpiod-dev libgpiod-doc qtbase5-dev qtmultimedia5-dev

To build from source:

cd ~
mkdir src
cd src
git clone https://github.com/guitarpicva/RPiKeyerTerm.git
cd RPiKeyerTerm
mkdir build
cd build
qmake ..
make -j4
# NOTE: do a normal user install and NOT a super-user install
# because the program will be installed in a new RPiKeyerTerm
# folder in the user's home folder.
make install

The above process SHOULD leave the user with a "/home/login/RPiKeyerTerm" folder which has the following in it:

pi@pico:~/RPiKeyerTerm $ ls -l
lrwxrwxrwx 1 pi pi     46 May 20 16:34 libFIRFilterLib.so -> /home/pi/RPiKeyerTerm/libFIRFilterLib.so.1.0.0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 pi pi     46 May 20 16:34 libFIRFilterLib.so.1 -> /home/pi/RPiKeyerTerm/libFIRFilterLib.so.1.0.0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 pi pi     46 May 20 16:34 libFIRFilterLib.so.1.0 -> /home/pi/RPiKeyerTerm/libFIRFilterLib.so.1.0.0
-rwxr-xr-x 1 pi pi  73624 May 20 16:46 libFIRFilterLib.so.1.0.0
-rwxr-xr-x 1 pi pi 223944 May 20 16:46 RPiKeyerTerm
-rwxr-xr-x 1 pi pi    113 May 20 07:55 RPiKeyerTerm.sh

If you wish to create a shortcut on your desktop system, use the RPiKeyerTerm.sh shell script for that purpose, otherwise, use that shell script to start the program. First run will create a logs folder and a couple of .ini files for settings.

rpikeyerterm's Issues

Filter RBN Dialog for duplicates

if 10 people spot the DX station you get 10 alerts from RBN with the same call sign. filter down to 1 and leave the rest blank if necessary.

Deployment issues for FIRFilter library

Having some issues getting things to function consistently with the libFIRFilter.so. Not sure if it is deployment, startup shells script or what at this point.

Recent compile on Alpine linux 3.18 has both the lib and the program compile ok, but there is either a path or some other oddity with the FIRFilter library to where it will not get resolved appropriately.

Haven't really noticed this on RPiOS just yet, so just so all are aware.