HamGadgets ID-O-Matic III Operating manual

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2014-01-17
HamGadgets ID-O-Matic III
Assembly, Setup and Use Guide

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Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3
Using Windows ............................................................................................................................................. 4
Setting up PuTTY ................................................................................................................................... 5
Setting up HyperTerminal ..................................................................................................................... 7
Linux and Mac Software................................................................................................................................ 8
Programming the ID-O-Matic III.................................................................................................................... 8
Timers and Time-Of-Day (TOD) Clock .................................................................................................11
Messages............................................................................................................................................. 13
Courtesy Beep..................................................................................................................................... 15
I/O Signal Polarity................................................................................................................................16
Baud Rates .......................................................................................................................................... 17
Connecting to Your Equipment................................................................................................................... 18
Power .................................................................................................................................................. 18
Signal Levels ........................................................................................................................................ 18
Connections ........................................................................................................................................19
LED Indications.................................................................................................................................... 19
Non-Repeater Use............................................................................................................................... 19
Updating the Firmware............................................................................................................................... 21
Assembly Instructions.................................................................................................................................23
Parts List..............................................................................................................................................24
PCB Layout & Schematic (Rev C)......................................................................................................... 26
PCB Layout & Schematic (Rev D)......................................................................................................... 27
Assembly Order...................................................................................................................................28
Adding Voice ID...........................................................................................................................................30
Install the voice ID board ....................................................................................................................30
Set up the ID messages ....................................................................................................................... 30
Adding GPS Timing...................................................................................................................................... 33
Hardware Specifications .............................................................................................................................34
Service and Warranty.................................................................................................................................. 34
Changes and Errata.....................................................................................................................................35

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Introduction
The HamGadgets ID-O-Matic III is a versatile ID timer and annunciator. It can be used as a
relatively simple repeater controller with some advanced features such as “polite” ID, voice
identification, courtesy tone, time-out timer and much more. While intended as a repeater
controller, it’s also simple to set up for applications such as beacon transmitters, a “fox”
controller for transmitter hunts, link ID and even automatic station ID for HF or VHF/UHF.
Setup is done with a computer equipped with a USB port, and any program capable of emulating
a serial terminal.
The ID-O-Matic III differs from earlier ID-O-Matic versions in several ways. The most obvious
is the inclusion of a USB interface in place of the earlier serial interface. This makes connecting
to most computer systems much easier, and eliminates the need for a USB to serial converter for
laptops and desktop systems lacking a serial port.
While you don’t need a serial port or serial converter, you will still need software that emulates a
“dumb” terminal. A program such as PuTTY that emulates ANSI or VT100 formats is ideal.
This software is available for free from numerous sources; check the HamGadgets web site for
links and more information. The ID-O-Matic III will appear as a virtual serial port on your
system, so software designed to communicate with serial devices is needed.
The setup menu has also changed. In place of the earlier product’s step-through setup procedure,
a series of menus allows you to go directly to the item(s) you wish to change. While changes
you make take effect immediately, no changes are saved to the nonvolatile storage until you
select that option.

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Using Windows
The first step in connecting the ID-O-Matic III to your Windows computer is to download and
un-ZIP the Windows device driver information (INF) file, available from the Downloads tab of
the ID-O-Matic III product page on the HamGadgets web site. The driver information file will
work with Windows XP and later versions. The ID-O-Matic III uses the Windows built-in USB
virtual COM port driver, so this file just tells the computer what to do when the board is
connected. Save the file to your computer (and remember where you put it). Make sure you
extract the .INF file from the ZIP archive before connecting your ID-O-Matic III. If you don’t
know how to do that, someone under the age of 30 should be able to help you.
Once your board is assembled and ready to use, connect it to your computer’s USB port using a
USB A to mini-B cable. If your computer asks for a device driver, point it to the INF file you
saved from the HamGadgets web site. If you’re having trouble with this step, it may be easier to
just copy the .INF file to the C:\windows\inf directory.
As with Linux and Mac OS, you’ll need to first determine the COM port number to use with
Windows. Many PCs have only one serial port, named COM1. Some have more than one.
Since the ID-O-Matic III appears as a virtual COM port, it can show up with different COM port
numbers depending on which port it’s plugged into. You can use the Windows Device Manager
to see what serial ports are available on your system. Look for a device labeled “Repeater
Controller”.

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Setting up PuTTY
Now that we know the COM port number, we can set up our terminal program accordingly. The
free program PuTTY is available for download from www.putty.org; it’s easy to use and works
well. There is no special installation process; the program has a single executable file that can be
run by itself. You can also use Windows HyperTerminal if you have it, or under Linux you can
use Minicom. The example below uses PuTTY.

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Open the PuTTY program. This will be the
first screen you see.
Type the COM port name (COM4 in this
example). Click the Serial radio button.
You don’t need to change anything else.
Type a name for this connection in the
“Saved Sessions” box – “ID-O-Matic” is a
good choice. Click Save.
Now you can double-click the session name,
or select it and click Open.

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Setting up HyperTerminal
I strongly recommend using PuTTY for serial terminal emulation. If you absolutely must, you
can use Windows HyperTerminal to communicate with your ID-O-Matic. HyperTerminal has
some limitations and bugs and is not present with many newer versions of Windows, but here is
how to set it up if necessary.
After starting HyperTerminal, type a name
for this connection (ID-O-Matic would be
a good choice). Select any icon you like.
Select the COM port number assigned to
your ID-O-Matic.
Modify the port settings for flow control =
NONE. Since this is a USB connection,
the bits per second setting does not matter.
Click the “Call” icon (looks like a telephone). You should now be able to communicate with
your ID-O-Matic.

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Linux and Mac Software
Linux: Linux users will probably have minicom, picocom or seyon installed. The screen
command can also be used, if present. There are a lot of free, open source terminal emulation
programs available that can be installed and used on your system.
Mac: Numerous choices also exist for Mac users. The simplest for Mac users is screen, a
command normally installed with Mac OS X. Other choices include simple serial terminal
emulation programs such as picocom, minicom, iTerm, zTerm and others.
To use the screen command (Mac or Linux):
1.) Open a Terminal window.
2.) Determine the name of the virtual serial port you’re using to connect your ID-O-
Matic. This will likely be /dev/ttyUSB0, /dev/ttyACM0 or something
similar –different operating systems and distributions will use different naming
conventions.
3.) Type the command: screen /dev/ttyxxxx 9600 (use the name of the virtual
serial port you found in Step 2).
4.) You should immediately see the response from the ID-O-Matic. Press ENTER to
enter the setup menu, then refer to the following pages to set up your ID-O-Matic III.
Remember that new settings are not automatically saved; make sure you save your
changes before quitting!
5.) To exit the screen program, type Ctrl-a followed by K. If that doesn’t work, try Ctrl-
A then ? to see your key bindings. On a Mac, try Ctrl-a followed by Ctrl-\.
Programming the ID-O-Matic III
Once you have established a terminal session and connected to your ID-O-Matic III, you should
see a brief header printed on the screen. The header will tell you the product name (ID-O-Matic
III) followed by the firmware version. The next line will give the system date and time, if the
real-time clock is set. If it’s not, it will display “Clock not set”. This is the normal state after
power-up. The real time clock does not have battery backup, so the date and time is lost when
power is removed from the board. If your installation requires that the clock stay synchronized
to the real time, a backup power source can be used. A USB phone charger or a 4-12V battery
pack plugged into the USB port in addition to the standard power connection can be used. As an
alternative, you can connect a GPS receiver as detailed in the “Adding GPS Timing” section of
this manual.

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If you do not see the header information immediately, hit the ENTER key and you should see the
setup menu.
This is an example of what you will see in the main setup menu. Operation is as simple and
intuitive as I could make it. To change a timer value or to set the clock, type 1 and hit the
ENTER key. To add or change a message, type 2 and hit the Enter key, and so on.

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Note the last few items –specifically, the options to back up and save the configuration. I
recommend backing up your configuration (C command) before making any changes. You can
easily revert back to your original settings if you make a mistake –even if you’ve already saved
your changes multiple times.
Don’t forget to save changes to the on-board nonvolatile FLASH memory (W command) before
removing power or putting the ID-O-Matic in service. If you make changes and don’t save them,
they will be lost when power is removed.
There is a timeout built into the setup menu. If no keys are pressed for five minutes, the ID-O-
Matic III will return to normal operation. Note that any changes that have been made will be in
effect, but will not be saved to non-volatile memory –so they will be lost if the board is reset or
if power is turned off. If the timeout occurs before you’re finished making changes, you can re-
enter the setup menu by pressing ENTER and pick up where you left off.