The JupiterSDR firmware

vfo-knob-jupitersdr, a beta, is a client for Zeus SDR. It talks to Zeus SDR's TCI server over WiFi, as WSJT-X and other TCI programs do. Tune in Zeus SDR and the knob follows. Turn the knob and Zeus SDR moves. Zeus SDR's audio plays on the knob's jack, and the knob's microphone goes back to it. Its face wears Zeus SDR's colours: near-black, its blue for what is selected, its S-meter's amber, and TX in its red. JupiterSDR is compatible with ZeusSDR; it is not made by Zeus SDR's authors.

Help wanted. This beta has received through Zeus SDR on one station, and has not yet been tried on the air through it. If you run Zeus SDR, please try it and tell us what works and what does not: in GitHub issue #17, or with Report a problem on the knob's configuration page.

The pictures are the knob's own screens. The orange marks show what your hand does.

With a FlexRadio

JupiterSDR keys and meters the radios Zeus SDR drives itself. With a FlexRadio, use the FlexRadio firmware instead, beside Zeus SDR. Through Zeus Link for Flex, Zeus SDR's TCI server gives receive audio and the frequency, but it refuses to key and sends no S-meter, because there the radio belongs to Zeus Link, not to the part of Zeus SDR that runs TCI. The FlexRadio firmware is a MultiFlex station of its own on the radio, with its own slice, so it works alongside Zeus SDR.

First run

1. In Zeus SDR, turn the TCI server on, and let it listen on the network (address 0.0.0.0), not on its own computer alone. Its port is 40001.
2. Let that computer's firewall pass TCP port 40001 from your network. On Linux with ufw, for example: sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.0/24 to any port 40001 proto tcp, with your own network in place of 192.168.1.0/24.
3. Put the knob on the same network: see the setup guide. From the setup firmware's list, choose JupiterSDR, stamped BETA.
4. Zeus SDR announces nothing on the network, so give the knob its address. Hold the S-meter for the address card. It shows the knob's WiFi address: open that address in a browser. The user is admin and the password admin. The page first asks for a password of the knob's own, 8 to 32 characters, and shows nothing else until it has one, since the knob can key a transmitter; your browser then asks for the new one. Under Zeus SDR, give the computer's IP address and port 40001. Up to four computers can be listed, each with a name for the dial.

Until Zeus SDR answers, the knob says so, with its addresses. Check that Zeus SDR runs, that its TCI listens on the network, and that the firewall lets the knob in.

The face

Turn the knob to tune: a slow turn moves a step at a time, and a flick crosses a band. Band and mode change on a tap on the panel. Filter, AGC, RIT, volume and mic gain apply as you turn, and any tap closes them.

Unplugged, the knob runs on its own battery and shows its charge at the top of the arc, as a phone does. On USB power the charge cannot be read, and none shows. The address card says which: battery 85 %, or on USB power.

Another computer

With more than one computer listed, swipe up, turn to one, and tap the panel. The knob then restarts into that one.

Transmitting

PTT is a toggle: tap to key, tap again to unkey. It keys as the finger lifts from a tap, so a swipe that starts on it never keys. On the air, a touch unkeys at once.

The knob's microphone is the radio's microphone while you are keyed. Its audio goes to Zeus SDR over TCI. Zeus SDR decides whether to transmit, as it does for its own MOX button: it refuses outside the bands it allows. When Zeus SDR refuses a key, the knob buzzes the refusal and stays in receive. The face turns to transmit:

• SWR across the left half;
• forward power across the right, on a scale that follows the power: 10 W, 100 W or more;
• the knob's microphone level on the thin inner ring.

When the link drops, Zeus SDR does not unkey by itself. The knob sends the unkey again as soon as it is back. Until then Zeus SDR's own transmit timeout ends the over, after two minutes unless you set it otherwise. Keep that timeout on.

A Bluetooth headset

A Bluetooth headset can be the knob's ear and microphone, and its call button the PTT: a press keys, the next unkeys. The slab keeps PTT, with the headset's logo at its right end. The logo is red while the headset has its microphone muted: then neither its button nor the slab keys. The knob's own microphone is off while the headset is connected. The headset's battery shows beside the logo in green, yellow or red, where the headset reports it (its battery). For pairing, the companion firmware and using the boom arm as the PTT, see the headset guide.

A Bluetooth speaker plays the knob's audio along with the jack, and you transmit with the knob's own microphone: see the guide.

Locking the knob

Hold the S-meter for the address card, let go, and tap LOCK, which has come up over the S-meter. A padlock shows at the top of the arc. A turn tunes nothing, a tap or a swipe opens nothing, and nothing keys: not the slab, nor a headset's button or its boom arm. Unkeying is never locked: on the air, a tap on the slab or the headset's button still unkeys. The padlock goes red for a moment when it refuses something. A question the knob asks still takes its answer.

To unlock, hold the S-meter again and tap UNLOCK. With no link it is over the warning. A restart unlocks too.

Another firmware

Hold the S-meter for the address card. Then hold it again for three seconds, until the knob buzzes, and turn: see the setup guide.