E-Coder 2 Controller

nerfd

3 years ago

The E-Coder 2 panel was designed to control Expert Electronics SDR devices with a focus on remote operation. It has a high quality low latency sound card on board to solve the common SDR issue with latency/delay of monitor audio. This especially important to CW operators operation remote. In addition it has the same wide range of functionality as the E-Coder 2, which makes it the perfect controller for serious DX and contesting.

The E-Coder 2 has a VFO optical sensor that produce 1024 pulses per revolution compared to 200 pulses per revolution for the standard E-Coder EP. This allowed for more precise fine-tuning when using maximum zoom in the spectrum.

In the Panel menu, you can see the settings of the E-Coder 2 control panel. In the drop-down Device menu, you can select the type of the connected control panel. In the meantime, only one type is available – E-Coder. Note! If one E-Coder 2 panel is connected to the transceiver, in the Panel menu displayed one E-Coder tab, if several E-Coder panels are connected to the transceiver, in the Panel menu displayed a several tabs E-Coder #1, E-Coder #2 etc. with identical settings for each panel.

Main:

AGC Up/Down – AGC type switching
Band Up/Down – band switching
Filter Up/Down – receiver’s filter switching
Mode Up/Down – mode switching
MOX – enable/disable manually operated transmit mode
PA – enable/disable power amplifier
Preamp Up/Down – preamp or attenuator level switching
Power ON/OFF – transceiver’s power on/off
RX ANT – enable/disable receive antenna
Step Up/Down – change the tuning step
Tone – enable/disable tone signal in TX mode
WF – enable/disable Wide Filter. Filter for all Nyquist zone. If in the Device menu settings, you set Auto enable checkbox, then you don’t need this function on the panel
Zoom In/Out – spectrum zoom modes switching

VFO/RX2:

A>B – assign the frequency from heterodyne VFO A to heterodyne VFO B
B>A – assign the frequency from heterodyne VFO B to heterodyne VFO A
B<>A – frequency exchange between VFO A and VFO B
Change VFO A/VFO B – switching between VFO A and VFO B
IF as RIT – tune the RIT offset by moving the filter over the panorama
LOCK – lock the frequency tuning
RX2 On/Off – enable/disable RX2
RIT On/Off – enable/disable RIT offset
RIT Reset – reset RIT offset to 0
Sub RX On/Off – enable/disable SubRX
Split – enable/disable Split mode
Switch DDS/IF – tuning the frequency by moving the filter over the panorama, in other words changing the digital IF, or when filter stands still and spectrum moves, this is the central frequency tuning
Switch Receiver – switching between software RX1 and RX2. The main knob will tune the frequency of one of the receivers
XIT On/Off – enable/disable XIT offset
XIT Reset – reset XIT offset to 0

While you operate both RX1 and RX2, usually you need to listen to either only one of them or both of them, but in different channels (left / right). To do that we added special functions to the E-Coder panel, which set the mixer for both RXs

Audio:

Listen both RX1, RX2 – default settings, both RXs have equal volume in both channels
Listen RX1 only – listen to the RX1 in both channels
Listen RX2 only – listen to the RX2 in both channels
Listen RX1 in left channel, RX2 in right – listen to the RX1 in the left channel and RX2 in the right channel
Listen RX1 in right channel, RX2 in left – listen to the RX1 in the right channel and RX2 in the left channel

Similar settings were added for VFOs:

Listen both VFO A/B – default settings, both VFOs have equal volume in both channels
Listen VFO A only – listen to the VFO A in both channels
Listen VFO B only – listen to the VFO B in both channels
Listen VFO A in left channel, VFO B in right – listen to the VFO A in the left channel and VFO B in the right channel
Listen VFO A in right channel, VFO B in left – listen to the VFO A in the right channel and VFO B in the left channel
Mute – switch off the sound
Switch RX and mute former – change the software receiver and mute former one
TX/Play – turn to TX and play the signal record in air
Voice recording – enable/disable voice recording
Volume Up/Down – volume adjustment

DSP:

ANF – enable/disable auto notch filter
APF – enable/disable analog pick filter
BIN – enable/disable binaural mode
NR – enable/disable noise reduction
NB1 – enable/disable noise blanker 1
NB2 – enable/disable noise blanker 2
SQL – enable/disable squelch

The following functions may be assigned on the E-Coder panel knobs:

Unused – encoder is unused
Volume – volume adjustment
Mic Gain – Mic gain adjustment
SQL – squelch threshold adjustment
Filter Low/High – tuning the frequency of the low/high filter’s front
Filter Width – adjusting the filter width
Filter Shift – shifting the filter’s central frequency
Drive – adjusting the output power
IF – tuning the frequency by moving the filter over the panorama
RF Gain – RF Gain control
CW Speed – CW Speed control
RIT Offset – adjusting the RIT Offset
XIT Offset – adjusting the XIT Offset

In the right part of the menu you can see the main panel settings:

Enable – enable E-Coder panel control
Use IF – frequency tuning by moving the filter over the panorama
Use IF as RIT – tuning by IF when the RIT offset is on
Use IF as XIT – tuning by IF when the XIT offset is on
VFO B – enable sub-receiver
Key Led – enable backlit keypad
Encoder Led – enable backlit encoder
RX1/RX2 menu – switching between RX1 and RX2 receivers, or assign an exact E-Coder panel to your receiver
Volume – set the volume change step, per knob’s clack
Mic Gain – set the Mic gain change step, per knob’s clack
SQL – set the squelch threshold change step, per knob’s clack
Filter High – set the filter’s high limit change step, per knob’s clack
Filter Low – set the filter’s low limit change step, per knob’s clack
Filter Width – set the filter’s width change step, per knob’s clack
Filter Shift – set the filter’s shift change step, per knob’s clack
Drive – set the output level power change step, per knob’s clack
RF Gain – set the RF gain step, per knob’s clack

Additional functions:

RX1/RX2 tab – COM-port settings tab for rerouting the PTT signal from the panel to the COMport
Enable PTT Transfer – rerouting of the PTT signal from the panel to the COM-port. Set the Enable PTT Transfer checkbox to enable rerouting the PTT signal
Port name – COM-port number
DTR/RTS – select the COM-port line, which is used for transferring the PTT commands. Set one of the DTR/RTS line checkboxes to set it as the control line