The ultimate portable digitalmode unit (2)

Inside the tablet...

I'm working on a ultimate solution for portable digital operations as you probabely know from my last post about this subject. Most ideal would be a headless unit like the one Julian OH8STN uses. Though I find a raspberry Pi with Linux not always easy to work with. Probabely because it is unknown to me. I've choosen a Windows 10 solution to build on. But getting everything to work like I want is not a easy task as well. This is a first post about my attempts to get what I want: A ideal portable digital mode computer to control and communicate with my radio and get on the air in one package.

For a while ago I bought a second hand PEAQ W1010. A 10 inch Windows 10 tablet, for the more technical: 1,83GHz quad core Intel Atom Z3735F 2Gb DDR RAM and 16Gb Internal memory. It seems to be the right computer for me as it is light, versatile and has a large 7,5Ah battery, besides that it can be supplied with 5V from a cheap powerbank. It was cheaper compared to a Raspberry Pi that needs extras like a external powersource and (touch)screen.

There you go with the advertised 7,5Ah!!!

Well, when you have been reading my blog lately you probabely noticed I didn't have much luck with the tablet. The touch screen (digitizer) broke and I've been trying to get a new touch screen as I have experiences with replacing those things (easy). Though even trying to get help via the PEAQ website didn't give me any answers. So I decided to remove the touch screen, replace it with a piece of plexiglass and get a cheap bluetooth mini keyboard via AliExpress to access the OS. It's a miracle everything works well.

Now, get this thing connected to the radio and make fun! Well, I assumed the tablet had the kind of combined audio/mic connector you find in a smartphone (I did read the specs before I bought this tablet). This might be true for many tablets but not for this one although the specs told me it should be there. So, my simple mind tells me I should remove the mic module and solder wires in to connect my radio with the computer. Well, I measured which wires to get and connected everything together but it didn't work. A colleague gave me a much better idea. Why not have a USB hub and connect a USB soundcard. Actually I need 3 USB and 1 microUSB connections in the field.

1. for the soundcard,
2. for the GPS unit to keep time without internet
3. CAT control
4. microUSB the charge and/or back up power to the computer.

So, AliExpress once again, send me a hub. But things are not so easy as you think. Communicating with several COM ports through a hub seems to be not that easy and I lost either the connection with the U-blox 7 GPS USB stick or my USB soundcard. I didn't even try connecting the CAT control since I expect a problem as well. The u-blox GPS receiver was not good either, I had it working but it showed up as a sensor device on my W10 tablet. A common problem that can be solved with a obsolete COMport driver, but after I installed that driver I can't get a fix on any sat even not outside in the open. So, go for another solution: bluetooth.

Suddenly remembering my bluetooth GPS experimental device I tried last year. Together with BktTimeSync from IZ2BKT it worked well but after some time locked and I didn't use it anymore. Well, it seems Mauro IZ2BKT is still developing and there is a new version out which works fine on my W10 tablet. It is worth looking at Mauro's site for a suitable GPS solution, he even has software to use with a android phone GPS. After a successful test I decided to build the GPS into a nice box so I can use it everywere I want. It is quite sensitive and even in the house close to a window it will have a sat fix within a few minutes. At least one of my concept goals works fine. And it seems till now both BT keyboard and BT GPS stay connected even when used at the same time. Now the next experiment would be connecting a bluetooth soundcard. I've seen several homemade options with a bluetooth headset connected to a radio. However not everyone has the capabilities to make something that works. So again I'm searching at AliExpress for something useable!

Time to do a portable test with the equipment I have so far. The nice thing with the FT8Call software I use here is that even if you don't see any chats or QSO's going on you don't feel alone. I had a excellent connection with F1ABL and even managed to send a relay test message via F1ABL to DJ8NO which I did not see at my portable station.