Hi,
I am working on a project to provide a 'modern' remote 'VFO' control system for a 1980s vintage military HF manpack radio. The radio in question is the Clansman PRC-320.
The project will use Microchip PIC microcontrollers. One will act as an 'intellegent' bidirectional serial to parallel converter, to be embedded inside the radio. Its job will simply be to read the state of the synthesiser BCD control lines, or to set those lines, and will communicate with the remote device via a serial link. The other will act as the remote control, and will have the job of displaying the working frequency, selecting between A and B VFOs (purely a memory/logic task), reading a rotary encoder and various inputs, incrementing/decrementing the frequency and step etc etc, all the stuff needed to control an RF synthesizer in the way we are these days accustomed.
Now, Although I have the necessary radios and have performed the required modifications to access the control lines, and although I can build and integrate the PIC control system into said radios, I cannot for the life of me write the code! I have tried to learn to do so but have not got far, certainly not good enough to write the code needed for this project,
So, I am looking for a partner. Someone who can commit a little time to developing the necessary code. It shouldnt be too difficult. The inputs/outputs needed for the synthesizer are all 3v logic BCD and conform to a set of lookup tables. They can be tested with switches/LEDs in the absence of the radio. The key aspect for me is the serial link between the two devices, and the need for the 'local' device (the one in the radio) to have a LOT of I/O pins!
I would have to make some design specifications, such as what I require the controller to do, what features etc, and some suggestions, such as preferred ICs (due to the physical contraints inside the radio), but the implementation in code would be entirely the developers choice, and the credit for the code also. The whole project is to be 'open source' and eventually published for others to copy.
SO if you are a whiz with PIC microcontrollers, can implement a good serial data link between two of them, and are interested in commiting some time to a project of this sort, please drop me a PM, and we can discuss whats required,
Cheers
Martin G7MRV