RIGblaster Duo Support

Windows^® drivers for RIGblaster Duo

RIGblaster Duo Windows® drivers in a self extracting .exe file

For a first-time hardware driver installation with Windows 98SE to Vista you should plug in the RIGblaster's USB cable and let the Windows "Found New Hardware" plug & play wizard popup "Search for the best driver". If the computer is connected to the Internet the wizard will get the latest drivers, on-line, from the Microsoft's driver update server.

Letting the plug and play wizard get the drivers this way will assure that you get the latest certified drivers.

You may also download, run and save the driver package above. This will copy and save the driver files to C:/RIGblaster_duo_drivers.

When doing a new driver installation this way "tell" the Windows® Plug & Play Wizard that you "Have Disc" and browse to the RIGblaster Duo drivers folder created C:/RIGblaster_duo_drivers.

You may download and use this package without warnings as these drivers are certified for XP and Vista and may be more up to date than the drivers supplied on on the CD that came with your RIGblaster.

FOR WINDOWS 7 ONLY:

Windows® 7, 32 and 64 bit driver installations (4) for RIGblaster Duo

• Download, run and save the driver package above. This will copy and save the driver files to C:/RIGblaster_duo_drivers.
• Plug the RIGblaster Duo into to USB Port using the supplied cable
• A balloon will pop up at bottom right that says "Installing Device Driver Software"
• A balloon will pop up at bottom right that says "Device driver software was not successfully installed"
• Do not click "Click here for details"
• Left click Windows Start button (bottom left)
• Right click "Computer"
• Left click "Properties"
• Left click "Device Manager"
• You will see two entries under "Other Devices" "RIGblaster Duo” and “RIGblaster Duo" with a yellow     warning!
• Double left click the upper entry
• Left click "Update driver"
• Left click "Browse my computer for driver software"
• Left click "Browse button"
• Browse to, and highlight the C:/RIGblaster_duo_drivers DUO” folder
• Left click “OK”
• Left click “Next”
• You will see two different entries under "Other Devices":  "RIGblaster Duo” and “USB Serial Port", with                 yellow   warnings!
• Double left click the upper entry
• Left click "Update driver"
• Left click "Browse my computer for driver software"
• Left click "Next"
• You will see now see another two different entries under "Other Devices": "USB Serial Port” and “USB Serial Port" with yellow warnings!
• Double left click the upper entry®
• Left click "Update driver"
• Left click "Browse my computer for driver software"
• Left click "Browse button"
• Left click "Next"
• You will now see one entry under "Other Devices" "USB Serial Port" with a yellow warning!
• Double left click this entry
• Left click "Update driver"
• Left click "Browse my computer for driver software"
• Left click "Browse button"
• Left click "Next"
• On the "Device Manager" window you will see two new entries under "Ports (COM & LPT)", "RIGblaster Duo (COMxx)” and a second “RIGblaster Duo (COMxx)"
• Make note of the COM port numbers assigned (xx) as you will need these to set up Amateur Radio        programs. The upper RIGblaster port number should be COM A and the bottom COM B as                assigned by Windows for the Duo.
• Close all windows this completes the driver installation.

Mac OSX drivers for RIGblaster Duo

This version 2.2.14 Mac driver installation has been provided to us by Ronald G. Parsons W5RKN with our sincere thanks for Ron's huge effort.

This driver package has been tested with Leopard (OS X 10.5.x) and Snow Leopard (10.6.x) for both Intel and PowerPC Macs.

It is NOT tested on OSX 10.4.x but should work. Please tell us if you install it on OSX 10.4 and it does install and work correctly.

RIGblaster Duo Mac OSX driver installation instructions.

RIGblaster Duo Mac OSX driver .dmg file

1. Unplug your RIGblaster Duo from the USB (if it was plugged in)
2. Download the above file to your Mac.
3. Once downloaded, double-click this file to extract the installation packages.
4. Double-click the appropriate package for the operating system (10.6 or 10.5/10.4).
5. Follow the instructions on the screen. When the installer finishes, it tell you that the system will now be restarted.

Once the system has restarted, plug the RIGblaster Duo into a USB port, it is now ready to use.

It creates two serial ports -- usbserial-RB-DuoA and usbserial-RB-DuoB.

Yaesu modular 6 custom mic cable and RIGblaster Duo jumper diagram

Jumper Diagram for P2 and/or P3 when using the Yaesu Modular 6 Custom Mic Cable to a Yaesu radio mentioned in paragraph 3 of RIGblaster FAQ #7.

Please note you will not be able to plug the microphone that matches these radios into the RIGblaster Duo.

Jumper questions or your mic does not work

The installation of microphone and radio jumpers are explained in the manual, please follow those instructions for installation.

The RIGblaster Duo may be used with any standard 8 pin round connector microphone regardless of what radio it was intended for, and that microphone will work with any radio that connects to the RIGblaster Duo output. Considering that; you must set the microphone jumper block to match the microphone and each of the two radio outputs to match those radios.

The microphone can be any 8 pin round screw on connector microphone that does not require 12 volts supplied from a separate pin to operate. Microphones that need power to bias a electret element will work as the RIGblaster has provision to supply that bias if the bias jumper is installed on P5.

If you are having trouble activating PTT with whatever microphone that you are using make sure that DC power is supplied to the RIGblaster and its power switch is on and the PWR LED lit. If you have in on an the jumpers properly installed for your mic, pushing the mic's PTT switch should activate PTT on the RIGblaster as indicated by the PTT LED. Check to be sure that this happens before expecting that the radios work.

The diagrams for compatible radios, which include all 8 pin round and RJ45 modular radios, are in the manual also on the CD or downloadable above. 4 pin round and RJ22 6 wire mic. connector type radios require optional cables, not supplied with the Duo, and those cables come with the appropriate diagrams. Otherwise be certain you are using the correct diagram that matches not only the radio make but also what type of connector it has, 8 pin round or 8 wire RJ45 Modular square.

Note that the RIGblaster Duo does not pass through and connect all of the wires needed to support any switches or buttons on a mic. except for the PTT button/switch.

Microphones and radios only need three connections to pass audio and PTT switching. The audio return or PTT negative may be wired separately to the RIGblaster output or left separate. There are common wire jumpers indicated with a dashed line in the Duo manual jumper diagrams and marked optional. Most radios and mics will work with or without this jumper but if you have any problems with the PTT keying or mic audio try it both ways, with and without the optional jumper.

The computer will not activate transmit ptt

First you must follow the Duo instruction manual on the CD that came with the RIGblaster and install the four USB drivers, (two USB and 2 serial emulators). After doing that you must look in your Windows® device manager and find what COM port numbers were assigned to the RIGblaster Duo's virtual serial ports in your device manager.

If you have found and recorded which virtual com port numbers have been assigned to the RIGblaster's virtual COM ports and your ham radio program will not activate PTT go back and read the setup or configuration instructions for that program. Most if not all programs have help files or tutorials on how to set up and use the program.

You must set the COM port number in every ham radio program so it can communicate the PTT commands to the RIGblaster. You should normally use the default serial control

Note that if your program keys both RTS and DTR on PTT transmit activation you will also see the CW LED light. This is not a problem as your radio will ignore CW keying if it is used with a sound card program in the SSB mode. If the program is a multi mode program it will let you configure PTT on RTS and CW on DTR.

Station grounding precautions

It is extremely important that you have a SINGLE PHYSICAL (not just electrical) ground point for all of the equipment in your station that is interconnected in any way. Not only is this important for proper RF and audio performance but it is also a major safety issue to you and to your equipment.

Since computers and other equipment in your station will have grounded AC power cords connected to the AC service ground of your house that ground must be solidly connected to your station ground at a single point.

If your have an antenna ground, that ground should be connected to the AC ground at the power outlet strips that each piece of equipment is plugged into. That point should become the ground point for each piece of equipment. Each unit should have a SINGLE ground wire going to that point! NOT TWO OR MORE!

Do not rely on a 12 DC power supply' AC cord ground wire to connect 12 VDC equipment to ground! Most good DC power supplies have a negative lead that is isolated from that supplies AC ground wire!

Setting and testing receive audio to the computer software

Read this QST article first: "The In's and Out's of a Sound Card"

Reprinted from October 2003 QST,with permission of the ARRL

Follow the manual to set the volume of the computer in relation to the radios before setting the audio to sound card software.

Read the documentation, help and manuals that come with the ham sound card software you are trying to use. Also read Windows® help regarding "volume control".

Please do not call or e-mail us at West Mountain Radio with 3rd party software questions, we have nothing to do with that software. You should e-mail the software author if you can not get their program to work. The most direct way to solve a software problem is to try a different program from a different author. If several programs do not work you may no receive audio connected or you have a problem with your sound card adjustments, or you sound card software driver installation.

Refer to the sound card control panel diagram below to set your receive audio that should be fed in to your software. This is a typical diagram, yours may differ especially with Windows® Vista®.

Don't forget the obvious: you should hear signals if you expect to copy any! The bands may be dead or your antenna isn't working.

Setting and testing the transmit audio.

Read this QST article first:  "The In's and Out's of a Sound Card"

Reprinted from october 2003 QST,with permission of the AARL

Assuming the software you are using correctly activates transmit(PTT Activation) when you "tell" the software to transmit, continue reading otherwise go back and fix that problem.

With the RIGblaster powered on put the software you are using in to transmit and make sure that the RIGblaster's PTT LED comes on and you have PTT transmit activation of your radio. This must happen in order for audio from the computer to be transmitted. If this does not happen go back and read "THE COMPUTER WILL NOT ACTIVATE TRANSMIT" on this support page.

When software is in the transmit mode it should generate a transmit audio signal. You should be able to hear that tone coming from your computer speakers if the computer audio is selected and set to be monitored.

Your radio should be set to your normal mic. gain setting for you and your mic. The speech compressor should set on or off depending on the mode you are running, see the software help files. Set your radio's RF Power (drive control) at maximum and the radio in USB, even for sound card operation with RTTY AFSK.

Set the RIGblaster's xmit level so the RF output is something less than full RF power output. Never set it to full power, approximately 50 % is safe. Setting to full power will cause your signal to be distorted and you may overheat and damage your radio.

Not following the Duo owners manual to set up audio monitoring may cause you to have too little audio to to transmit at a normal power level.

It was mentioned before but make sure you have the RF power (drive) control of your radio set at maximum. You must do this even if you wish to run 1 watt with your 100 watt rig. Your power output should be set with the transmit audio level fed to the radio's mic. jack. It is like speaking softly in to your mic., your radio will show less power.

Note that most rigs will not run digital modes at full duty cycles and full power. You set your sound card audio level to 50% RF power output or less to keep your rig from overheating.

Setting and testing the transmit audio with an fm transmitter

Read this QST article first: "The In's and Out's of a Sound Card"

Reprinted from October 2003 QST,with permission of the ARRL

With an FM transmitter you do not normally have mic. gain, speech compressor, ALC meter or power output meters to watch or set. FM audio level should be set either with a deviation meter, AC millivolt meter or by listening on a second receiver. If you lack the equipment or technical experience simply listen to your signal on a second receiver. Set your audio level so that your radio sounds as loud as other stations. Do not confuse how loud the audio (modulation) is with how strong your RF signal is. This is easily done on packet as there are usually several stations on the same frequency. With voice or SSTV it is going to be harder to find a signal to match to. You should, with some practice, be able to set the audio to your radio to match another good signal.

Presently the EchoLink^® system does not have detailed instructions on how to do this. Understand that if you are setting up an EchoLink system link station or repeater link that you must have a an audio signal (VOIP) coming from remotely from the Internet to your computer and then out of your sound card through the RIGblaster and then to your radio. You must have two computers and two Internet connections to test this audio level or use the EchoLink system test server. Also consider that if the other computer is set too loud or too soft your radio's modulation level will be incorrect even if you set it correctly.

Rig control connection and setup

Rig control is easiest with an Icom radio. Icom uses only two wires and we supply the cable you need and we ship the RIGblaster with the rig control jumper set for the Icom or Ten Tec CI-V control system. The only problem you may encounter is the CI-V address or baud rate is not matched between your software and radio. If you double check the software setup and the radio's setup menus to correct this it should work fine.

With a Yaesu it is a little more complicated. Yaesu's CAT system uses three wires, they have different connectors and pin wiring arrangements between different models. Older Yaesu's require the rig control TTL (5 volt) to RS232 level converter built in to the RIGblaster Pro. Newer Yaesu radios have DB9 RS232 CAT jacks.

For an older Yaesu CAT system you must set the RIGblaster Pro rig control jumper J16 to Yaesu/Kenwood as shown on Page 29 of the manual. You must also change the plug on one end of one of the supplied mini plug cables to match your Yaesu's DIN jack. You must make sure that the tip of our plug comes from the data out of your radio and the Ring goes to the data in of your radio.

Note: we found on the web that some of the wiring diagrams printed in the Yaesu manuals was incorrect, we have not heard back from Yaesu as yet regarding this issue. We did discover that two similar model Yaesu manuals had completely different wiring charts for the same type of DIN plug but on closer examination we realized that they actually were wired the same, the pictures of the same type of DIN plugs had different numbering making it so the charts were actually the same.

You must set your software to match the correct Yaesu model, the correct baud rate, the correct parity and the correct stop bits to match the radio. If your wiring or any ONE of the software settings are wrong it will not work.

Older Kenwood radios that have provisions for TTL control are NOT possible to control with a RIGblaster Pro. These Kenwood radios utilize what is referred to as Negative Logic and are not compatible with the Positive Logic used in the RIGblaster Pro TTL to RS232 converter. Positive logic, as employed in most computer interface circuitry, represents a logical one with a positive voltage and a logical zero with a zero voltage. See the item in this section titled "Kenwood TS-450S/690S/850/950S & and other Kenwood radios, utilizing TTL Negative logic Rig Control interface." above for a work-around.

You may have to set your software to match the correct Kenwood model, you will have to set the correct baud rate, the correct parity and the correct stop bits to match the radio. If your wiring or any ONE of the software settings are wrong it will not work.

If you are using a Heil mic. with a Yaesu be aware that the Heil mic. with their Yaesu adaptor may have the PTT and mic. audio ground leads wired incorrectly. If this is the case the RIGblaster may not work with that mic. unless you fix the wiring error by changing the RIGblaster wiring to correct the Heil wiring error. You will have to take the Heil adaptor apart or check it with a meter against the pin numbers in the Yaesu manual.

If you have a Yaesu or other brand of radio with an RS232 level control jack you should not use our rig control output (CTL IN/OUT). You may use the RIGblaster Pro's RXD & TXD on A passed through to B option. This will allow both sound card operation, CW and rig control with a single serial port using software such as HamScope, MixW or WriteLog. If you wish to use separate sound card and rig control programs at the same time you will have to make a direct connection from your computer to the radio's RS232 control jack. If the radio is equipped with a FEMALE DB-9 RS232 connector for Computer Control (CAT), the following cable will be necessary from the B Port on the RIGblaster Pro to the radio RS232 DB-9. Both DB-9 connectors shown here are MALE connectors.

My audio is not perfect when I have my computer monitor on.

CRT computer monitors have strong AC magnetic fields, not a problem with a laptop or LCD display. Make sure that the RIGblaster and all the associated cables are not too close to your computer monitor. If your reports are not identical to the reports you get without the RIGblaster and it's cables, turn off your computer monitor and leave the computer on. If turning off the monitor fixes the problem you must move the RIGblaster and it's cables further away from the monitor.

If you are using a Heil mic. with a Yaesu be aware that the Heil mic. with their Yaesu adaptor may have the PTT and mic. audio ground leads wired incorrectly. If this is the case the RIGblaster may not work with that mic. unless you fix the wiring error by changing the RIGblaster wiring to correct the Heil wiring error. You will have to take the Heil adaptor apart or check it with a meter against the pin numbers in the Yaesu manual.

Especially when using the Pro's mic. bridging to the computer you may pick up hum from an AC transformer power supply. Determine what the source of the hum is by turning off near by equipment. Move the RIGblaster away from the magnetic hum source, all microphones, mic. wiring and microphone transformers are subject to picking up hum from near by magnetic fields. If you do not intend to use the RIGblasters computer mic. output put the RIGblasters P6 mic. mode jumper back to the default position as shown in the manual.

Digipan problems

If you are having trouble with DigiPAN stop using it and try WinPSK! We have had numerous reports of DigiPAN having a blank waterfall display. In QST there is a report of this which was cured by increasing the display colors to 256 colors or higher. We have experienced this but we were running high color and we fixed it by re-booting the computer. We have also had reports, and experienced it ourselves, of, DigiPAN not working with the serial port. We do not know what causes this but they are aware of the problem. We fixed this by completely removing and re-installing the program.

The mysterious missing transmit audio

Read this QST article first: "The In's and Out's of a Sound Card"

Reprinted from October 2003 QST,with permission of the ARRL

This is a good one and has gotten many. It goes like this, you hook it up and the rig doesn't get any transmit audio, a week of evenings later you call West Mountain Radio and we usually help discover the problem was one mouse click away, literally a week of evenings and it was a mouse click.

The following paragraph has evolved from many phone calls. Many of the problems may be a mouse click but they turned out to be obscure and subtle.

Check the following and do not miss or ignore anything!

Make sure you are plugged in to the OUTPUT of the sound card to feed the "COMPUTER: AUDIO, LINE IN" of the RIGblaster. In the dark corner behind your computer it is very hard to see the infernal "international symbols" that label the output jack. Make sure you have the audio output not one of the inputs!

Make sure you use a STEREO 1/8" 3.5 mm mini plug cable like the ones we supplied. The kind with a plug EXACTLY like the ones on Walkman style headphones. They must have three connections commonly referred to as tip, ring and sleeve. Make sure you have the same plug on BOTH ends. DO NOT USE RCA phono plugs, don't laugh someone did this. An RCA phono plug is NOT a phone plug, notice phone/phonO...... If you use a mono cable with 2 connections just tip, sleeve you will be shorting out one channel of the sound card and the other channel will be pulled down by the attenuate network inside the RIGblaster due to the short circuit created by the wrong plug. It may work with a mono cable but you will get less than half the audio for transmit that you normally would. ABT mono is OK for the receive connection.

TOO MANY volume controls, yes you may have as many as 7 adjustments between the computer the RIGblaster and the radio. If any of which are turned down too far or muted will make it appear that you have no transmit audio. You have to adjust them all for the best compromise to end up with proper mic. audio level. Look for the RIGblaster's level light to light with computer transmit audio. On your radio you probably have mic. gain (set it for your mic. to work normally and properly), your speech compressor (usually off for digital modes with some exceptions). Your RF drive/power adjustment should be all the way up and you should use the audio adjustments to set the sound card mode RF power output.

The RIGblaster has only one audio level adjustment on the front back and it is intended to achieve a balance between your computer and your radio. Turning it clockwise gives you the maximum audio drive. If the RIGblaster control is all the way up and it's level light is on and you still do not have enough RF output simply turn up the wave and/or volume output of your sound card.

Here is where Bill Gates gets in the act and gets people messed up. Remember you have to push the "START" button to turn off your computer! Think like Microsoft when adjust you sound card. There are many hidden virtual controls for your computer sound. Take your mouse and "double click" the little yellow speaker icon that is usually located in the bottom right corner of your computer screen. You will find a nifty little virtual control panel that is poorly labeled. Some of the adjustments you need may be hidden and have to be dug out with terms like "Properties" and "Advanced". If you get your RIGblaster transmitting without understanding the Volume Control panel then it is just dumb luck.

Sound card volume control panel and they ARE different from computers to computer. The horizontal balance slider should normally be set in the middle. The far left vertical "Volume control" is the master output which controls transmit audio and everything that comes out of your sound card, it must be pushed up and un-muted to get anything. The vertical "Wave" slider controls the output of your sound card software and it is the primary transmit audio adjustment but it can be defeated by the master.

Note: if you don't see the "wave" adjustment you may have to go to the volume control "Options" and then "Properties" to select the missing ones. It is a good idea to mute, turn down or de-select the ones you are not using, like midi, CD, telephone mic. (on a desktop).

HERE IS ONE THAT GOT US AND OTHERS: Several RIGblaster customers seemed to be doing everything right but they had no audio with popular PSK31 programs.

Here is what it is: if you select less than 500 Hz or, too high, more than 3000 Hz on your DigiPan or WinPSK program by clicking on the far left or far right sides of the waterfall tuning screen, IT WILL NOT WORK.

What is going on is you can't hear 150 Hz come out of a 1" laptop speaker and worse yet your SSB transmit audio filtering in your radio can't "hear" it either. It will appear that your RIGblaster isn't hooked up. Do not get caught by this trap. We stumbled on it by accident with a customer after going through everything step by step.

If anyone has figured out another way to make their RIGblaster not work please tell us and the author of the sound card software.

REMEMBER you must hear audio coming out of BOTH channels of the RIGblaster's "COMPUTER: AUDIO SPKR.OUT" from your computer speakers and you should see the RIGblaster level light lit. You should also hear it from headphones plugged in to the front of the RIGblaster. If you do not hear transmit audio you do not have any sound card audio going in to the RIGblaster, you will not transmit!

RF feedback in your mic audio

If you install your system according to our manual and use a microphone that is made by a radio manufacturer you should not have a problem.

Make sure that you have NOT added any extra ground connections to the RIGblaster. Make sure that your computer is plugged in to the same house wiring circuit as you station, switch of that circuit breaker and make sure everything in your station goes off including the computer.

If your antenna is close to your station you will have more RF in the shack. Also if you are using an antenna tuner with a non resonant antenna you will have more RF in the shack. The RIGblaster cables and all cables act like antennas with different lengths and resonance which can increase or reduce the amount of RF on the microphone cables. We have had reports of RIGblasters actually curing RF feedback problems.

A microphone RF feedback problem can be identified by listening to your audio with headphones with your radio in the monitor mode. If turning down your RF drive eliminates the problem you can be sure you have a microphone RF feedback problem. Check the RIGblasters mic. jumpers and your mic. wiring, be suspicious of after market microphones and their wiring.

If you hear RF coming out of anything besides your radio's monitor output you have some other type of RFI problem. Amplified computer speakers are very poorly shielded and bypassed and usually pick up RF especially at VHF frequencies. The extra wiring to these speakers changes the "antenna":

If you are using a Heil mic. with a Yaesu be aware that the Heil mic. with their Yaesu adaptor may have the PTT and mic. audio ground leads wired incorrectly. If this is the case the RIGblaster may not work with that mic. unless you fix the wiring error by changing the RIGblaster wiring to correct the Heil wiring error. You will have to take the Heil adaptor apart or check it with a meter against the pin numbers in the Yaesu manual.

Sequencing with high power VHF stations.

Sound card software should have sequencing delays written in to the program such as K1JT's, WSJT. If computer software is going to automatically key up your station you need to consider proper transmit receive sequencing just as if you were controlling PTT manually.

The RIGblaster Duo has nothing to do with proper sequencer operation and you should not need to make any changes if your station's sequencing if was already properly sequenced. The RIGblaster simply mimics your PTT switch with a set of relay contacts. If your PTT switch was sequenced properly before you installed the RIGblaster, it will be after the installation, whether or not you are keying PTT via software or you mic's. PTT button.

The following has nothing to do with a RIGblaster but some extra info. Connecting a sequencer to a mic. PTT switch alone is not fool resistant, much less idiot proof. If you use the MOX button on your radio or break-in CW you may be bypassing your sequencer. If you ignore those two PTT control options it is just a matter of time before push the wrong button and toast your preamp or relays.

EchoLink is a registered trademark of Synergenics, LLC