Easy-Digi Parts, Price, Source & Tips
(1) "EASY DIGI” Sound Card Interface, $7.95, eBay item# 323255997507
(1) 100x60x25mm Plastic Electronic Project Box, $1.90, eBay item# 272590733575 (5 min)
(2) 3.5mm 1’ Male to Male Stereo Audio Cable, $1.52, eBay item# 302826667716 (3 min)
(4) 3.5mm Female Stereo Panel Mount Jack, $0.27, eBay item# 253947882510 (10 min)
(1) Top USB 2 to Serial RS-232 DB9 Adapter Cable, $2.30, eBay item# 113682859199
(1) D-Sub Connector 9 Pins Female, $0.60, eBay item# 233184125667 (5 min)
(3) 3.5mm 3’ Male to Male Car Auxiliary Cord, $0.74, eBay item# 392038513285
I use the longer 3' 3.5mm jack cables to connect from the computer to the Easy-Digi. The shorter foot long 3.5mm jack cables are for connecting from the Digi-Easy to the radio. My uBitx used 3.5mm stereo jacks for headphone and mic jacks. Other radios may use larger ¼” jacks, or something completely different.
The Easy-Digi seller includes several pages of assembly and wire-up instructions.
The DB9 connector is kinda wide, so when drilling holes for the ⅛” stereo connector jacks on the
“Computer” end of the enclosure, be sure to drill as close to the edge of the box as possible so that all the attached cables will fit without interfering with each other. Making the hole for the DB9 connector takes some time. Predrill a hole(s), then with an X-Acto knife keep whittling a large D
shaped hole until the connector fits snugly, then drill the mounting holes after to get an exact fit.
For all the ⅛” jack connectors, I connected black wires (GND) to the longer jack lugs, and the signal to the “tip” lugs. For “Radio Mic/PTT” I connected the Mic signal to the tip, and PTT to the middle conductor. Your radio may be different.
For the RS-232 DB9 connector, connect:
- DTR to pin 4
- GND to pin 5
- RTS to pin 7
When I setup the fldigi software, I went to Configure → Rig Control → PTT Hardware and checked Use separate serial port PTT, Use RTS, Use DTR. Baud rate and stop bit are NOT used so don’t worry about setting this. I suppose you could select one or the other (RTS or DTR), but if one quit working, the other would automatically serve as a backup. Other apps should be setup in a similar fashion, i.e. WSJT-X, Winlink, etc.
I printed a 2”x3.5” label on my laser printer to label the device, jacks, and of course my call sign. The finished product looks pretty good for a homebrew project :)
Computer
O Headphone
D USB / Serial
PTT
O Microphone
|
EASY-DIGI
Radio to Computer
Interface
KC8VRI
|
Radio
Headphone O
Mic / PTT O
|
Good luck!
