The WinRad DLL for controlling the Elektor SDR via USB

This software is beta. The use of this software is completely at your own risk. It is published under the GNU Public Licence, that means you can do with it whatever you want but you are not allowed to make a profit out of it.

This library is ment to interface between WinRad and the Elektor SDR through the FT-232R USB chip (May 2007). Always download the latest version of the library. The library is compiled with Borland C++ Builder 6.0 and you need to have the device drivers installed from www.ftdichip.com. If you want to help me improving this library, please send your comments to the WinRad mailing list.

Installing the DLL:

Today (21 sept 2008), Andrea Weick send me an email to inform me of the work that he did to make de WinRad DLL compatible with the WinRad version 1.32. Hereby the text of his email, the DLL is in the download section.

Hello Burkhard and Gert,

p in the last half year I worked to extend the DLL of SDR Elektor 2007 for the new Winrad V.132. As Alberto developed the new functionalities in Winrad I extended the existing DLL of Jan so that the new product is (I call it so) an .SDR Navigator..

Parallel to the SW I.ve also extended the HW with a dynamic RF Attenuator and an HF Amplifier to increase the sensibility on the bands over 40m (30,20,.). My HW is working quite fine, is under development and test, should be still better tuned. In my opinion the circuit miss a SW preselector and pump to much gain without preselection. Would be nice to have a tracking preselector, but I couldn.t find any to fit the circuit and my know-how in hf is not enough. I suppose I will look for a fixe SW preselector (not especially thought for HAM bands).

I attach the HW schema in XPS (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/viewxps.mspx) in case someone will be test further, the new DLL and the init file. Both files should be stay in the Winrad directory as before.

Use it and distribute it. Should be open and free.


Feedback to Burkhard and the SDR Elektor Board:

- Aux Input of the 74HC4051 should be cabled to stift on the SDR board (new hf inputs)
- CLOCK 1-6 of the PLL should be cabled to stifts on the SDR board (or at least only two)
- I2C signals should be cabled to stifts on the SDR board. (extention of I2C peripherals)

These 3 cheap modifications let you improve and extend experimentation without troubling with SMD. Mapping a clock to an output PL/BNC (with a Pi-Attenuator) could be used to test the SDR itself and as Generator for other equipment.

Can you please forward this e-mail to the print developer and get they change it for the new HW layout? I.m sure with a bit more open HW would be more HAM interested (= >$$$).


Further deveopment:

- SI570
- HF preselector

Do you plan a new HW release?

For any question I.ll try to answer you. I don.t have any labo to test, only two ears. Don.t ask me dB ;-).


Thank you and hope to have yours news soon.

Andrea Weick, hb9fbd


Revision history:
Version Rel. Date Changes made
1.32 21 Sept. 2008 Contriduted by Andrea Weick, this version should work on WinRad version 1.32
0.9-2 14 Oct. 2007 Mario (DG0JBJ) informed me that he found two errors in the library.
The first was a small frequency offset (circa 800Hz on 4MHz, 1.2KHz on 6MHz, 2.3Khz on 12MHz) in the LO frequency. I have corrected this with a fixed capacitor load value of 0x90 (appr. 13pF) in the clock generator, this fixed the frequency offset for me (checked with some well-known SW broadcast stations by the lack of a frequency counter). Later i will add a frequency calibration routine so you can fine-tune your Xtal.
The second was a big frequency shift and strange mix results above the 12.5 MHz LO frequency. This was caused due to a too-low DIV1N value (2) in the clock generator although i used the fixed /2 divider for high frequencies. After re-reading the datasheet i now set the not-used DIV1N divider to the save value (8).
[UPDATE! - 7 dec 2007] I finally found out what went wrong with the compile of the library. I got a couple of mails from people who informed me that they are missing different run-time libraries when running the DLL while i was shure that i commanded the linker to build a static library. It seems that there is another checkbox on a different tab that should also be deselected. I updated the libraries in both 0.9-2 zip files and hope this problem is solved now.
0.9-1 22 Sep. 2007 Alberto (I2PHD) pointed out to me that the previous version was compiled whitout runtime libraries so it will only run on pc's with C++ Builder installed. This version is linked with runtime libraries included.
Also i enabled the windowborder again and disabled the StayOnTop option. The previous version only positioned correctly on 1280x1024 screens and there was no way to reposition the window. I'm still thinking of a nice way to tackle this, anyone have an idee?
0.9 21 Sep. 2007 First stable version published


Icon  Name                               Last modified      Size  Description
[   ] SDR Elektor for WinradV1.32.rar    2023-05-08 13:53  548K  
[   ] ExtIO_ElektorSDR_source_V0.9.zip   2023-05-08 13:53  170K  
[   ] ExtIO_ElektorSDR_source_V0.9-2.zip 2023-05-08 13:53  460K  
[   ] ExtIO_ElektorSDR_source_V0.9-1.zip 2023-05-08 13:53  243K  
[   ] ExtIO_ElektorSDR_V0.9.zip          2023-05-08 13:53   36K  
[   ] ExtIO_ElektorSDR_V0.9-2.zip        2023-05-08 13:53  314K  
[   ] ExtIO_ElektorSDR_V0.9-1.zip        2023-05-08 13:53   51K  
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