DAB DAB+ FM Digital Radio Development Board

[mspw]

Mickz, you've kicked a bit of arse with this. Just bought mine off ebay tonight and I think I might nick a copy of your demo. Very nice btw..

[Mickz]

Mickz, you've kicked a bit of arse with this. Just bought mine off ebay tonight and I think I might nick a copy of your demo. Very nice btw..

Thanks, it was modded as I had the time over the past week or so, it may not be what people want but at least it gives you an app that does just about all you could want as far as radio functionally goes and is made with a small touch screen in mind. It looks great on my 24” monitor as well. No fancy graphic skins or anything like that, just plain old VB button code.

Updated the setup screen: (Uploaded)

1. Big station rescan button – saves trying to double touch a tiny text heading on a car pc screen.

2. Button to add or remove a Window heading Name.

[Mickz]

NO AUDIO?

There has been a change in the DLL and the latest batch of radios will not un-mute with the older DLL. If you get no audio out then that’s the problem. Download the latest Demo if you are using it or the DLL (with the demo) if you are rolling your own. I have added the latest DLL to my download file – so make sure to download it again if you plan on using it.

Just had a chance to put a calibrated Step Attenuator in the Aerial line and do some actual measurements between this module and the CB DAB-FM module. Initially I was disappointed as this new module appeared to be 13DB down which is REALLY not good. I decided to swap out a small metal SMA adaptor that I had been using for the past week in the Vehicle and the SOB was open circuit. (should never happens as it’s a straight through pin adaptor) The modlue has been working in the vehicle for a week with that OC adapator. How good is going to be now!

Anyway DAB sensitivity is the same between modules, for what it's worth the new module has slightly better sensitivity on FM.

[Mickz]

The designer of the DLL has been adding features like a smart mute function and has plans for some nice future enchantments. Looks like we are on a winner here, especially if this module gets the support I think it deserves. The only two problems I encountered have been solved and answered in about 3 minutes after sending an email, man you can’t do better than that! FYI the two problems were com port hang up on a vacant standard RS232 port and no Audio on the latest released board, that last one was my fault as I thought I had the latest DLL download but a new one a day or two later had sneaked in. So it pays to check regularly for updates. Speaking of which, I found a slight Button highlight glitch in mine and have just uploaded a fixed version.

[stretch4x4]

Very impressive

[Dexamenus]

Sounds awesome!

My board arrived yesterday, so I had a quick play with it, but could only get fm to work, dab wouldn't pick up signal with either app.

Not sure if it was something I was doing wrong but will try suss it out this weekend. Being in metro Adelaide, signal should have been perfect.

But cheers for all your work!

[Mickz]

Sounds awesome!

My board arrived yesterday, so I had a quick play with it, but could only get fm to work, dab wouldn't pick up signal with either app.

Not sure if it was something I was doing wrong but will try suss it out this weekend. Being in metro Adelaide, signal should have been perfect.

But cheers for all your work!

Did you rescan the Stations?

The module reads the current stored presets and station list which were most likely set in Sydney, it returns these to the app display but of course they are unlikely to work in any other location.

[Mickz]

One of the latest mods made by the programmer for this new release module was a smarter hard mute system. One change mutes the audio line between station selections.

As some of us have found, a few PC sound card interfaces can cause a POP when the audio input is pulled low (leaky caps, poor design etc). Fortunately (??) I have one such MB in my test setup and with lots of Low Frequency equalisation and real time DSP sound levelling SW that POP was annoying. The newer vehicle MB has no problems. I mentioned this to the supplier in case some owners encounter a problem like this. He came up with a modified DLL that allows the smart mute function to be enabled or disabled between station changes. I tested the DLL and have modified my APP for an option to have this switched on or off as required. As soon as the new DLL is officially released I’ll upload the revised application. BTW for anyone looking at my previous code, I have cleaned up a lot of the old crap that was left in there from when I was testing new changes (remember guys, high level programming is just an occasional self taught hobby for me) I mostly do microcontroller’s in assembler and even that is now just a hobby.

What more can I say about the service from the supplier, reprogramming the DLL interface, listening to our/my requests and coming up with solutions so fast

[Dexamenus]

Did you rescan the Stations?

The module reads the current stored presets and station list which were most likely set in Sydney, it returns these to the app display but of course they are unlikely to work in any other location.

Yeah, I did rescan, but just downloaded your latest app, and all is good!

Is there any way to set the presets or FM channels without the slow manual scan?

[Dexamenus]

Yeah, I worked that out, but every time I get the new software, I have to manually scan through and preset each channel, It would be awesome to be able to either type in a station, or be able to edit a txt or config file and program in default preset channels for FM