Difference between revisions of "CX-Auto"

Revision as of 06:29, 2 March 2013

The Kessler Engineering CX-Auto is a high quality CI-V controlled antenna switch that will handle you most demanding antenna switching needs.

Features

• 8 selectable antenna connections available.
• Companion to the AT-Auto antenna tuner.
• May be controlled through the AT-Auto or stand-alone using DDUtil.

Setup

File:Cx-auto.jpg

Controls

• Enab select this check box to use this feature.
• AT-Auto select this check box if the AT-Auto tuner will be used to control or in conjunction with the CX-Auto switch.
• DTR/RTS select one or both of these check boxes to power your CI-V adapter. Consult your CI-V adapter owners manual for details.

  Note; some adapters like the ICOM CT-17 have their own power source and don't require the DTR/RTS check boxes to be selected.

• Serial Port selects the port used to connect the CI-V adapter to the PC.
• Comm Data selects the appropriate baud rate and data properties to match your CI-V adapter.
• CX Addr selects the proper CI-V address to match the CX-Auto selected address as described in the CX-Auto owners manual. The options are B0, B1, B2 and B3 with B0 being the default.
• Clear button disconnects all coax outputs (grounds each port).
• Radio Buttons 0 - 7 press any button to select the matching port on the CX-Auto.

Other Hardware

• You will also need a Serial to CI-V Adapter to convertt the RS232 serial data format to CI-V serial format used by the CX-Auto. You can use virtually any serial or USB device that meets the requirements defined by the Icom CI-V standard.
  • I can recommend the W2ENY CI-V single adapter that I have used for several years. W2ENY also offers a CT-17 clone that looks very nice albeit a little higher in price.

Operation

CX-Auto Stand Alone Operation

DDUtil provides the following methods to operate this switch.

• Automatic Band Following via the band data file (BCD tab).
• Macro Commands via macro buttons or F-Keys (Macro tab).
• Manual Selection of each coax port via GUI (Graphic User Interface) radio buttons (BCD tab).

Automatic Band Following

• Assign a macro number to each 100kHz band segment of the Band Data File you want to assign an antenna to.

Note: the Macro field in the Band Data File must be zero (0) if no macro is assigned.

Freq  Data  Macro
----  ----  -----
1800   1     10
1900   1     10
2000   1     10
3500   2     11
3600   2     11
3700   2     11
3800   2     11
3900   2     11
4000   2     11
more...

• Select the Enable check box on the Ports tab under Data Signals.

Note: Make sure one the parallel ports is selected (<>None) even if you don't have a parallel port or the feature won't work.

• Select the Enable check box on the BCD tab under BCD Device Setup.
• On the Macro tab create a macro defining which antenna port (0 - 7) you want selected for this band/segment using the DDKS macro command as follows:
  • DDKS01; will select port 1 on the switch.
  • DDKS02; will select port 2 on the switch.

Note: the command DDKS08; un-selects ALL ports.

Manual Macros

• Using the same macro(s) as defined above manually execute the desired macro using a macro button or the appropriate F-Key.

Manual Selection via GUI

• On the BCD tab in the CX-Auto group select the desired radio button for the port desired.

CX-Auto Operation with the AT-Auto Tuner

Automatic Band Following

• See the CX-Auto owners manual for setting up the AT-Auto tuner to control the CX-Auto antenna switch.
  • Pay particular attention to operating manual section 1.3.2.11, configuring the CI-V Tx Enable internal jumper. It must be shorted or the AT-Auto will not control the CX-Auto switch.

Caution! If you setup the AT-Auto to control the CX-Auto do *NOT* use the DDUtil band following feature also or unexpected results can/will occur. You can only use one or the other for band following, not both.

However, you can use the macro or manual CX-Auto features in DDUtil to over-ride the AT-Auto setting of the CX-Auto switch. Like switching from one antenna to another to compare signal strength.