in case anyone is interested...Actually the coupler does communicate with the GX007 but only optionally. The serial control simply loops through from the coupler to the GX unit and right to a serial terminal (my understanding from various docs I have gathered on the subject). The TX/RX lines just loop directly in and then back out of the GX to the DB25 serial port.
I agree, however, that the length could easily exceed the specs for RS232. In fact I had expected this system to use some differential signalling like RS422/485 and was surprised that it did not seem to. The serial communication is actually optional. There are about 26 lines (4 power, 3 serial comm and about 19 others) used to either configure or report status. Personally I would prefer to use the serial control to avoid running 26 lines from the shack to the antenna site. Ultimately, this coupler only needs 26VDC @ 6A and nothing else. It will work totally automatically (when set to work that way). But it is nice to get temperature and other details from the status messages. http://w2hx.com/x/RohdeSchwarz/ebay%20pix/s-l500%20(7).jpg ________________________________________ From: cctalk <[email protected]> on behalf of Bill Gunshannon via cctalk <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, August 10, 2018 3:25 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: German Translation, Serial Port? On 08/10/2018 01:47 PM, Eric Smith wrote: On Thu, Aug 9, 2018 at 8:26 PM, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: On 08/09/2018 09:39 PM, W2HX via cctalk wrote: > Hello friends. I need a translation from a German manual describing serial > port parameters. I used google translate but it doesn't quite give me the > warm and fuzzy. Anyone here speak German? Here is what it says: > > Betriebsart: Asynchron 16 Possibly they are referring to a UART that internally uses 16x oversampling, which is quite common, but that information is not normally needed in a description of communication parameters. OK, Having read the manual on the antenna tuner and done some research I have found that there is a box that connects to the tuner and and a terminal. My guess is that "Asynchron 16" refers to some proprietary hardware/communications protocol used between the antenna tuner and the GX007 control unit. Considering the function of the unit, I expect the distance between the tuner and any terminal would have exceeded RS-232 and the environment could easily be too harsh for RS-232 as well (think static electricity and even lightening!!) An interesting device at any rate. Wish I had one. :-) bill
