20 lines
1.3 KiB
Markdown
20 lines
1.3 KiB
Markdown
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### Yaesu Rotator Driver Shim
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The Yaesu G-5500DC rotator is a nice piece of hardware, but it has an analog (0-5 V) control interface and requires a separate GS-232B box for computer serial control (which will run you a nice $600 for a new unit). Someone used to sell an adapter board for the Labjack U12 (which basically consists of a DIN-8 jack, a darlington transistor array, and a few resistors + LEDs), which provides precise computer control of the G-5500DC at a much lower cost.
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However, the Labjack U12 is just basic 12-bit data acquisition device that is not specifically made for controlling a rotator, so common satellite tracking software (e.g. hamlib) does not support it as a Yaesu rotator interface.
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Fortunately, labjack provides an open-source libusb-based driver for the Labjack U12, which makes it eminently possible to expose this hardware stack as controllable through the hamlib protocol (or, more precisely, a simulacrum thereof).
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### Implementation
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I mostly just want this to run on Linux, as a static executable. The zig build system is good.
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Dependencies are fully vendored.
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### Status
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Build with `zig 0.13`.
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It builds for Linux and macOS. It does not currently build for Windows due to `ljacklm` having a dependency on pthreads (specifically, it uses mutexes).
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