Universal QSYer

Direct Frequency Entry for ICOM and Yaesu Radios

Assembly Instructions and Operating Manual

By John Hansen, W2FS
April 5, 2002

Thank you for purchasing the Universal QSYer.  This product will allow you to directly enter frequencies into nearly any ICOM brand radio.*  It will also work with the Yaesu FT-100 and FT-817 models.  In addition to direct frequency entry, the QSYer will also select the most likely operating mode for any particular frequency you select.  It will allow you to toggle between the two VFO’s in your radio and will allow you to turn the split function on and off.  Additional functions are also available depending on your radio as follows:

ICOM – The keypad can also call up any memory in the radio by memory number.  For ICOM radios that support computer control of the speech function, the keypad will also kick off the voice announcement of the radio’s frequency and mode.

Yaesu – The keypad can also change operating modes, change the repeater offset and step through the various filters that you have installed in the radio.** 

	This manual is divided into three sections.  Section one contains instructions on how to construct the unit if you bought it as a kit.  If you purchased a wired and tested unit, you may safely skip to section 2, which explains how to configure the keypad for your radio.  Section 3 explains how to utilize the various functions of the unit.

Assembly Instructions

The kit is supplied with the following parts.  Please verify that all parts are included before proceeding:

•	Printed Circuit Board
•	Pre-drilled box
•	16 Key Keypad
•	Programmed 16F628 IC
•	LM2936 Voltage Regulator
•	3.58 MHz Ceramic Resonator
•	200 1/8 Watt Resistor (QTY 8)
•	10 uf electrolytic capacitor
•	IC Socket
•	1 – 8 Pin header
•	1 – 8 Pin SIP socket
•	Panel Mount 1/8 phone jack
•	Piezo Speaker 
•	Pushbutton
•	6 inches of wire
•	9 volt battery clip 

You will need a low wattage soldering iron (15 to 30 watts is fine) and either some strong glue or, better yet, a hot glue gun (the low temperature type is best ).  Small hot glue guns are generally available at discount stores such as Kmart or Wallmart for under $3.  In addition, a voltmeter will be very helpful.

Begin construction with the Keypad and the 8 pin header.  The header is the part that has the row of pins sticking up. 
 
•	Install the header in the Keypad and solder it in place.

Install the header so that the middle 8 holes on the keypad  are used (each pin should have a corresponding solder pad on the keypad).  The header should be installed so that the side with the shorter pins sticks through on the side of the keypad with the keys.  Thus the shorter pins are soldered to the keypad.  Make sure there are no solder bridges between pads.

•	Install and solder the 8 resistors on the printed circuit board.  

All parts are installed on the side of the printed circuit board that has the part numbers on it.  The resistors are labeled R1 through R8.  Carefully install and solder each resistor in place and clip off the excess leads on the solder side of the board.  Resistors are not polarized; it is impossible to install them backwards.

•	Install and solder the IC socket in place.

Make sure that the indentation on the end of the socket matches the marking on the PC Board.  Also be certain that the socket is flush against the PC Board before soldering.

•	Install and solder the Ceramic Resonator.

The ceramic resonator is the brown part with 3 leads.  There are only 2 parts in this kit with 3 leads; the resonator is the larger of the two.  It should be installed at position Y1.  It is not a polarized part, so it is impossible to install backwards.  After installation, clip the excess leads.

•	Install and solder the Voltage Regulator.

The voltage regulator is the other part with 3 leads.  It is black and looks like a transistor.  It is a polarized part and must be installed so that the outline matches the part outline on the PC board.  After installation, clip the excess leads.

•	Install and solder the electrolytic capacitor.

The electrolytic capacitor should be marked 10 uf.  It should be installed at C1.  Place the part so the longer lead is in the hole marked +.  After installation clip the excess leads.

•	Install and solder the 8 pin SIPP socket.

This part is installed along the edge of the board.  It is not polarized. 

•	Connect and solder the 9 volt battery clip. 

Trim the 9 volt battery connector wires so they are about 3 inches long.  Save the wire that is trimmed wire.  Install the connector in the holes that are to the right of the SIPP socket.  The black wire goes to – (nearest the board corner) and the red wire goes to +.

•	Connect a battery and test for the proper voltage.

Turn the PC board so that the notch on the IC socket faces away from you.  After the battery is connected, place the negative lead from your voltmeter on the center pin on the left side of the IC socket (pin 5) and the positive lead on the center pin on the right side of the IC socket (pin 14).  The meter should read about 5 volts.

•	Solder the Piezo speaker.

There will be a row of 5 unused holes on the top of the IC.  Connect the red lead from the piezo speaker to the hole nearest the four resistors.  Connect the black lead to the next hole down.

•	Connect wires for the phone jack and reset button.

Use the wire trimmed from the battery connector to provide connections to the phone jack.  Connect the black wire to the next hole down from the piezo speaker connection.  Connect the red wire to the hole just below.  This will leave one unused hole on the end of the row of five holes. 

Solder the phone jack on the ends of the red and black wires.  The black wire should go to the pin on the phone jack on it’s side (nearest the front).  The red wire should go to the pin on the rear. 

 You will see two additional holes in the PC Board near the capacitor.  Cut two additional 3 inch pieces of wire and hook one to each of these holes.

•	Install the IC’s. 

Make sure that the notch on the end of the IC lines up with the drawing on the printed circuit board.

•	Test the unit. 

Plug the keypad into the printed circuit board so that the parts side of the board is sandwiched between the keypad and the printed circuit board.  Thus the printed circuit board should not extend beyond the bottom of the keypad.  Connect the battery and press the # key.  You should hear a beep.  Connect the cable between the phone jack and your radio.  Refer to the section of this manual on “configuration” and verify that the keypad works properly.

•	Mount the keypad in the box.

Disconnect the battery and unplug the keypad from the printed circuit board.  Place the keypad in the plastic box so that the keys show through right side up.  Use hot glue (or glue) around the two sides and the top of the keypad to secure it in the box.  It is best to not glue the bottom edge to ensure that there is enough room for the battery.  If using a hot glue gun (which is the best approach) run a thick bead of glue all the way around the three sides of the keypad.  Do not apply the glue too thickly in the area of the hole for the phone jack because you want to make sure that there is room to install the jack.   Allow the unit to dry.

•	Mount and wire the Reset Button.  

You will find a small 5/32 inch hole in one side of the box.  The pushbutton can be mounted on the inside of the box so the that button part is visible through this hole.  Glue the switch to the inside of the box so that the button goes into the hole.  The pushbutton will not actually extend all the way through the hole, but it should be possible using a paperclip or other pointy object to push the reset button without opening the box.  After the glue cools (or drys) Solder the remaining wires from the PC Board (the ones near the capacitor) to the leads on the pushbutton.  Use two of the pushbutton leads that are diagonally across from one another.

•	Finish up

Plug the printed circuit board into the keypad once again.  Install the phone jack in the hole in the end of the case using the supplied hardware.

Place a blob of hot glue on the back of the keypad and push the piezo speaker into the blob (the speaker hole should be towards you).  It may be necessary to slide the speaker slightly under the printed circuit board to fit it in.

Finish the assembly by installing a battery and sliding it in just below the keypad assembly.  Install the back of the box with the four supplied screws.  Retest the unit to make sure it still works.

Congratulations!  You’re done!

Configuration Instructions

	Ensure that your radio is set up to communicate at 4800 baud.  This is the default setting for Yaesu radios.  The FT-100 is permanently set at this baudrate and cannot be changed.  The baudrate on the FT-817 or newer ICOM radios can be checked from the radio’s configuration menus.   

	If you are using an ICOM radio, you must also check to see what the CI-V address of the radio is.  If it is one of the newer radios (such as the 706, 746, 756, etc.) it can be checked from the radio’s configuration menu.  Note that if the menu says 48h, for example, this means that the address is 48.  For older radios, it is not possible to change the address, but the radios manual will tell you what the address is.  If your radio has a menu item that says something like “CI-V 731 mode,” make sure it is set to “off”.

	Make sure the keypad is hooked to the proper jack (the one for computer control) on the radio.  Note that you will need a different cable for ICOM radios than for Yaesu.  Now press the # key once, just to ensure that the keypad is in a known state.

	Press the following key sequence to configure the keypad:

**817       for the FT-817.

**100       for the FT-100.

**0XX       for any ICOM radio, where XX is the CI-V address of the radio.  Because ICOM addresses are specified in hexadecimal numbers, you may run into a problem if the CI-V address that you want to use contains the hexadecimal digits "A", "B", "C", "D", or "E", because this keypad does not have 16 keys.   To specify one of these digits, press the # key first and then 1 for A, 2 for B and so on.  So, for example, if you want to specify the address 46, press the following keys:

**046             

but if you want to specify the address 2E use the following:

**02#5          (where #5 represents the E)

	Note:  This configuration procedure only needs to be performed the first time you use your keypad with your radio.  The configuration will be remembered by the keypad, even if the battery is disconnected.  If you want to use the keypad with more than one radio, you can do so by simply reconfiguring the keypad whenever you switch between radios.  Verify that the radio is working properly by entering a frequency and pushing the # key.  

	A word of caution on the FT-817:  I have found that if you send ICOM commands to an FT-817, the radio will “hang”.  If this happens, you can recover the radio by momentarily disconnecting the battery.  A better approach is to make certain that the keypad is in 817 mode before attaching it to your FT-817.

Operating Instructions

To enter a frequency, simply enter the digits (using the star key as a decimal, if needed) and finish by pushing the pound (#) key.  You may enter the frequency either in kilohertz or megahertz, the keypad is smart enough to figure out which you mean.  Here are some examples:

3*725#  	=  3.725 MHz
3725#	=  3725 kHz
14250*5# 	=  14250.5 kHz
146*64#   	=  146.64 MHz
0*730       	=  730 kHz
14		=  14 MHz

Note that you cannot enter a star as the first character.  If you wish to enter a frequency starting with a decimal point, enter a zero first and then the star.  

	Pressing the B key will toggle between VFO’s (note this does not work on a few of the older ICOM radios).  Pushing the C key will cause the split function to be turned on and off.

	The functions of the A and D keys differ depending upon the radio in use.  On ICOM radios, the A key can be used to access the radio’s memories.  To do this simply press A followed by the two digit memory number.  When accessing a one digit memory, use a zero for the other digit.  For example, to go to memory number 1 press “A01”.  Do not press then # key after you enter the memory number.  To return to VFO mode you can either enter a frequency, or simply press # to go to the last frequency that the VFO was on.  When  you are in VFO mode, you can go to the last memory that was in use by pressing the A key three times in a row.

	Yaesu’s CAT computer control scheme does not allow computer access to the radio’s memories (don’t blame me, this was Yaesu’s decision).   As a result, there is no way to access the Yaesu memories from the keypad.  On the Yaesu FT-100 the A key can be used to step through the filters installed in the radio.  However, you will only notice a change if you have that particular filter installed.  The CAT command set on the FT-817 does not support this function, so on the 817, the A key is unused.

	On ICOM radios the D key kicks off the speech synthesizer to announce the operating frequency if the speech option is installed in your radio and if your radio supports this feature via computer control.  It appears that only the newest ICOM radios support this function.  So far, this has been confirmed to work on the IC-746 and the IC-756PRO.  This feature was specifically incorporated to assist blind operations.

	On the Yaesu radios, the D key allows you to step through the + , - , and simplex repeater offsets when you are operating in repeater band.

	Finally, on the Yaesu radios, pressing the # key without first entering a frequency allows you to step through the radio’s operating modes.  

	If you find that the keypad hangs up or quits working,  you can recover it by pushing the reset button.  Just tap the button with a paperclip or other pointy object, don’t hold it down for an extended period of time.  I expect that you will never actually need to use this button, it is provided in case all else fails.
 
	Thank you again for your purchase.  If you have any problems, you can contact me by email at: john@hansen.net