PicoTuner Ethernet Interface

In progress . . .

PicoTunerWH (PicoTuner in WinterHill mode)

PicoTuneWH is software for the BATC PicoTUner.

When the standard USB connected Pico module is replaced by a WIZnet W5100S-EVB-Pico or W5500-EVB-Pico module, this provides two receivers which can be controlled over the Ethernet connection and can send the received transport streams via the Ethernet connection, similar to a WinterHill. WinterHill Receiver Project

Quick Start

In case of problems, or to find the PicoTunerWH IP address, see the section on the broadcast packet below.

The LNB voltage is turned on automatically at power up. If LNB voltage is not required, remove the LNB voltage jumpers on the PicoTuner pcb.

If the software loaded is not the correct version for the type of Pico board, the Pico and activity LEDs will repeatedly flash NO in morse (-. ---)

Connect an Ethernet cable.

Load the W5100S or W5500 .uf2 file, depending on the type of Pico board.

The Pico and activity LEDs will flash HI in morse (.... ..)

There is a three second pause for initialisation.

The Pico then attempts to get an IP address via DHCP.

The Pico and PicoTuner activity LEDs do a single blink every second when waiting for a physical Ethernet link.

The LEDs do a double blink every second when waiting for a DHCP address.

When DHCP is successful, the Pico LED is steady on. The activity LEDs are steady on, until a signal is received..

If the LNB LO is 9750MHz and powered by the PicoTuner or otherwise, the activity LEDs will start flashing after a few seconds, indicating double reception of the beacon.

The received transport stream (TS) data will not be sent anywhere, until a command is received.

QuickTune Setup and VLC reception

Send tuning commands to ports 9921 and 9922.

Receive transport streams on ports 9941 and 9942.

Info streams are available on ports 9901 and 9902 (duplicated on 9903 and 9904).

Add 4 to these port numbers if the base IP address has been changed by grounding GP28.

whpcviewer (on the BATC WinterHill Wiki) is a multi TS viewer for the WinterHill.

whpcrxcom (on the BATC WinterHill wiki) can be used to send receive commands.

Overview

There is no transport stream transfer by USB. A USB connection is not required.

There are different .uf2 files for W5100S-EVB-Pico and W5500-EVB-Pico modules.

There is a debug facility over the USB serial port.

This software is compatible with OpenTuner 0.B

Network multicast is not supported.

Fixed IP address is not supported.

A broadcast packet with device and receive info is transmitted every second on port 9997, even if DHCP is unsuccessful.

If you do not have a WinterHill, see the BATC Wiki, particularly the Documentation and PC Software sections. WinterHill Receiver Project#Documentation

Finding the IP Address

See the section on the broadcast packet below.

LNB PSU Output

The LNB PSU is turned on by default at startup. If you do not want LNB voltage, make sure the LNB PSU jumpers are not fitted on the PicoTuner board.

Software Loading

Connect the USB port to a PC.

Apply power to the PicoTuner while holding down the BOOTSEL button on the Pico board.

On a Pico with two buttons, this is the button nearer the USB socket. The other button is RESET, which can be pressed while holding down the BOOSEL button.

A virtual disk drive window will open on the PC. Copy the appropriate .uf2 file to it. The PicoTuner will restart.

Required Equipment

BATC PicoTuner board or BATC MK2 MiniTiouner with FT2232H replacement board.

WIZnet W5100S-EVB-Pico or W5500-EVB-Pico module.

The Pico + WIZnet Ethernet hat combination should not be used because of voltage regulator issues and the hat is too short to reach the end panel in the BATC PicoTuner.

Basic Operation

Connect an Ethernet cable.

Load the W5100S or W5500 .uf2 file, depending on the type of Pico module.

At power up, the Pico and activity LEDs flash HI in morse as a confidence check.

It is possible to connect to the USB serial port to see debugging and receiver information - see below.

An IP address must be obtained by DHCP at startup. After this, the Ethernet cable can be unplugged and plugged.

Each receiver activity LED is steady on when no stations are being received, otherwise it flashes at a speed relative to the TS data rate.

This can be changed by sending a remote command - see below.

If the software loaded is not the correct version for the type of Pico module, the Pico and activity LEDs will repeatedly flash NO in morse (-. ---)

Parameters and Data Throughput

The maximum symbol rate of a single channel is about 10M.

The maximum network throughput is about 16M bits/s. Note that 10MS, FEC 3/4 gives 15M bits/s.

Network multicast mode is not possible.

The Base IP Port is 9900.

If you already have a WinterHill, the Base IP Port can be changed to 9904. This provides receivers 5 and 6.

To do this, on a PicoTuner board, on the 10 pin GPIO header, connect pin 8 counting from the right (GP28) marked 28, to pin 10 (GND) marked G. Alternatively, put a jumper on Pico pins 33-34 (grounding GP28). Reboot.

The Base IP Port can also be changed to other values by sending a command over Ethernet. See below.

Working with a WinterHill

If you already have a WinterHill, the PicoTunerWH can be set to emulate a second one.

Apply the jumper as descibed in the Parameters section above to make the PicoTunerWH behave as receivers 5 and 6.

Add receivers 5 and 6 to the QuickTune configuration, with the PicoTunerWH IP address.

On whpcrxcom, CTRL-R will expand it to 8 receivers. Set the second IP address for the PicoTunerWH. WinterHill Receiver Project#Documentation

Contact G4EWJ for a 16 screen version of whpcviewer.

QO-100 Frequency Self Calibration

After startup, the first receiver is set to the QO-100 beacon and does the calibration. Two seconds later, the second receiver is set to the beacon. If the LNB has an LO other than 9750MHz, put the beacon on receiver 1 manually.

Ethernet MAC and Host Name

The WIZnet chip does not contain a MAC number (12 character network hardware ID).

A MAC is formed at startup using the 6 character Raspberry Pi Pico W manufacturer prefix and the lower 6 characters of the Pico serial number.

E.g. 28:CD:C1:41:97:2E

The lower three bytes of the Pico serial number are also used to form the host name.

E.g. PicoTunerWH-41972E

The host name will be shown in 'attached devices' in the router and possibly when using IP scanners.

DHCP

The DHCP flow can be viewed by connecting to the USB serial port just after power up.

An IP address must be obtained at startup. After this, the Ethernet cable can be unplugged and plugged and the PicoTuner will obtain an IP address using DHCP.

The Pico and activity LEDs do a single blink every second when waiting for a physical Ethernet link.

The Pico and activity LEDs do a double blink every second when waiting for a DHCP address.

The Pico LED is steady on when DHCP is successful.

The DHCP status is displayed over the USB serial port and in the broadcast packet.

If the Ethernet link is lost, the Pico and activity LEDs will display the DHCP status, as above.

USB Serial Port Connection

Configuration and receiver status information may be displayed over the USB serial port.

On a PC:

use Device Manager to find the COM port that has been allocated

use Putty to make a serial connection at 9600 baud.

On an RPi:

the USB serial port will be something like ttyACM0.

there may be other ttyACM ports and the port allocated may not always be the same.

To find the assigned USB serial port and Pico serial number:

After the .uf2 file has been loaded, unplug and plug the PicoTuner USB cable.

Type:

dmesg

to give a display similar to below:

[ 5270.784596] usb 1-1.4: new full-speed USB device number 10 using xhci_hcd

[ 5270.932417] usb 1-1.4: New USB device found, idVendor=2e8a, idProduct=000a, bcdDevice= 1.00

[ 5270.932438] usb 1-1.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3

[ 5270.932457] usb 1-1.4: Product: Pico

[ 5270.932474] usb 1-1.4: Manufacturer: Raspberry Pi

[ 5270.932491] usb 1-1.4: SerialNumber: E660D4415741972E

[ 5270.947997] cdc_acm 1-1.4:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device

Note the ttyACM allocation and the serial number.

Using the USB Serial Port on an RPi

Configuration and receiver status information may be displayed over the USB serial port.

Type:

stty -F /dev/ttyACM0 raw -echo & cat /dev/ttyACM0 or whichever tty port has been assigned.

You may need to retry when doing this at the same time as the PicoTuner boots up, if you try it too soon.

The Putty font size may need to be reduced to fit the data - try 11 point:

Change Settings, Window, Appearance, Font Change

Giving the Pico a Fixed tty Name on an RPi

The RPi will assign a ttyACM name to the Pico USB serial port, but it may not be the same every time.

The RPi can assign a fixed tty name to the Pico, based on the Pico's serial number.

This has to be done on every RPi that the Pico is plugged in to.

Discover the Pico serial number as described in the USB Serial Port Connection section above.

Type:

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-usbserial.rules

Enter a new line:

ACTION=="add",ENV{ID_BUS}=="usb",ENV{ID_SERIAL_SHORT}=="E660D4415741972E",SYMLINK+="ttyPT0"

Replace the serial number. Replace the tty name with your own choice.

Save and exit

CTRL-X then Y then ENTER.

Uplug and plug the Pico.

Type:

ls /dev

to check that ttyPT0 appears.

ttyPT0 will always be assigned to this particular Pico.

A potentially variable ttyACM port will also be assigned.

The command to display the USB serial port data will now be:

stty -F /dev/ttyPT0 raw -echo & cat /dev/ttyPT0

Getting Into Software Upload Mode

Instead of holding down the BOOTSEL button and connecting to USB to get into software upload mode, once this software has been loaded, the Pico can be put into software upload mode again by opening a USB serial port connection at 1200 baud.

Note that this feature depends on the software already loaded on the Pico. G4EML's PicoTuner USB software uses a different method.

On a PC:

find the COM port number with Device Manager and open a serial connection at 1200 baud with putty and then close it. The Pico virtual disk drive should now appear and the .uf2 file can be dragged onto it.

On an RPi:

find the ttyACM port that the Pico appears as and type:

stty -F /dev/ttyACM0 1200 (use your own ttyACM port)

The Pico virtual disk drive will now be available.

Broadcast Packet on Port 9997

The PicoTuner sends this every second, even if an IP address cannot be obtained.

=======================================
       PicoTuner Broadcast
---------------------------------------
       Sequence   105
       Run time   112s
 Broadcast port   9997
    Pico serial   E6623C3767182B31
   Net hardware   WIZnet W5500
            MAC   28:CD:C1:18:2B:31
      Host name   PicoTunerWH-182B31
     DHCP state   Success
Lease remaining   3495s
     IP address   192.168.77.163
       NIM type   FTS4334L
   LNB supply X   HI
   LNB supply Y   absent
       Software   ptwh0v3b-w5500.uf2
           Mode   WinterHill
   Base IP port   9900
            RX1   10496.708 PE1FWC
            RX2   10498.220 F5DB
  TS target RX1   192.168.77.247:9941
  TS target RX2   192.168.77.247:9942
=======================================

To display this on an RPi, type:

netcat -kluvw 0 9997

Windows does not seem to have an inbuilt equivalent of netcat, but there are probably utilities that can be installed.