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D-STAR Interfacing

Repeater Modules

The repeater modules have two different types of interfaces, USB is used to set the operating frequencies, and then a proprietary interface is used as a communication bus between modules and the controller.

USB Interface

The USB interfaces use an FTDI USB to serial interface chip to communicate to the outside world.

The driver software and setup utilities are generally shipped on a CD included with the repeater module. The exception to this is the IC-RP2V and IC-RP2D. The drivers and utilites for these modules are on the CD that is shipped with the IC-RP2C controller.

Note that the "Service 1" and "Service 2" USB connectors on the ID-RP2C controller are only used to access the ID-RP2L 10GHz Link radios that would be connected to the "Assist 1" and "Assist 2" ports. The ID-RP2C is configured through the ethernet connector on the front (default address is 172.16.0.1/16).

In the Linux 2.6.17.13 kernel, the ID-1 already has USB support built in (if you compile support for FTDI serial converters). By inspecting the Windows .inf files for the serial drivers, we can find the rest of the PID's for the serial converters. The results are:

ICOM Vendor ID (VID)	0x0C26
ID-1 Product ID (PID)	0x0004
ID-RP2C Product ID (PID) Service 1 (Assist 1)	0x0009
ID-RP2C Product ID (PID) Service 2 (Assist 2)	0x000A
ID-RP2D Product ID (PID)	0x000B
ID-RP2V Service T Product ID (PID)	0x000C
ID-RP2V Service R Product ID (PID)	0x000D
ID-RP4000V Service T Product ID (PID)	0x0010
ID-RP4000V Service R Product ID (PID)	0x0011
ID-RP2000V Service T Product ID (PID)	0x0012
ID-RP2000V Service R Product ID (PID)	0x0013

These are the "typical" VID and PID's of the equipment. At least one other VID and PID is known to exist:

ICOM Vendor ID (VID)	0x0403
ID-RP2D Product ID (PID)	0x6001

You may find that if you add the following patches and re-compile, you will get USB support for these devices under Linux.

	/usr/src/linux/drivers/usb/serial/ftdi.c
	 
	 locate the variable definition for the ID1:
	 { USB_DEVICE(ICOM_ID1_VID, ICOM_ID1_PID) },
	 
	 then add: 
	 { USB_DEVICE(ICOM_ID1_VID, ICOM_RP2C1_PID) },
	 { USB_DEVICE(ICOM_ID1_VID, ICOM_RP2C2_PID) },
	 { USB_DEVICE(ICOM_ID1_VID, ICOM_RP2D_PID) },
	 { USB_DEVICE(ICOM_ID1_VID2, ICOM_RP2D_PID2) },
	 { USB_DEVICE(ICOM_ID1_VID, ICOM_RP2VT_PID) },
	 { USB_DEVICE(ICOM_ID1_VID, ICOM_RP2VR_PID) },
	 { USB_DEVICE(ICOM_ID1_VID, ICOM_RP4KVT_PID) },
	 { USB_DEVICE(ICOM_ID1_VID, ICOM_RP4KVR_PID) },
	 { USB_DEVICE(ICOM_ID1_VID, ICOM_RP2KVT_PID) },
	 { USB_DEVICE(ICOM_ID1_VID, ICOM_RP2KVR_PID) },
	
	
	/usr/src/linux/drivers/usb/serial/ftdi.h
	
	 locate the entries for the ID-1:
	 /*
	  * Icom ID-1 digital transceiver
	  */

	  #define ICOM_ID1_VID            0x0C26
	  #define ICOM_ID1_PID            0x0004
 
 	 then add:
	  #define ICOM_RP2C1_PID          0x0009
	  #define ICOM_RP2C2_PID          0x000A
	  #define ICOM_RP2D_PID           0x000B
	  #define ICOM_RP2VT_PID          0x000C
	  #define ICOM_RP2VR_PID          0x000D
	  #define ICOM_RP4KVT_PID         0x0010
	  #define ICOM_RP4KVR_PID         0x0011
	  #define ICOM_RP2KVT_PID         0x0012
	  #define ICOM_RP2KVR_PID         0x0013
	  
	  #define ICOM_ID1_VID2           0x0403
	  #define ICOM_RP2D_PID2          0x6001
	

Is this useful? Perhaps not yet, but it might be easier to poke at the equipment using scripts under Linux to try and figure out how to put some hooks in for other programs.

It will also be interesting to see if there is any data on the USB connector of the voice repeaters during operation. Perhaps we can get the low-speed data out of the "R" port?

Bus Interface

All of the repeater modules connect to the ID-RP2C through a CAT-5 ethernet cable. This IS NOT an ethernet interface. The only ethernet interface is the one that is on the front of the ID-RP2C that connects to the Gateway computer.

It seems that the pinout of the RJ45 on the rear of all the repeaters is the same. The pinout of this connector is:

	Pin 1 - TC (Transmit Clock)
	Pin 2 - TD (Transmit Data)
	Pin 3 - Ground
	Pin 4 - TE (Transmit Enable)
	Pin 5 - RE (Receive Enable)
	Pin 6 - RSSI (Receive Signal Strength Indicator)
	Pin 7 - RC (Receive Clock)
	Pin 8 - RD (Receive Data)
	

Now, something that is immediately interesting about this is that all of the repeater modules have an RSSI signal that they send to the controller.

This RSSI signal comes pretty much directly from the receiver IC (MC3356 in the RP2D, or TA31136 in the RP2V). It is NOT used by the RP2C.

On the other hand, the repeater modules that need to do duplex require seperate transmit and receive units.