Portsdown 2018

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Revision as of 07:43, 5 February 2019 by G8GTZ (talk | contribs)
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The Portsdown 2018 DATV system has been designed to provide an easy way to “get on air” with Digital ATV at a relatively low cost covering all of the commonly used modes so enabling it to be used on ATV repeaters but also for RB-TV Dx working.

The filter modulator card and DATVExpress card described on these pages are obsolete and new build should follow the Portsdown 2019 build instructions here.

This user guide is in a number of sections which cover detailed descriptions for hardware and software, how to build and configure the system, some advanced features and an FAQ.

KLB portsdown (1).JPG


System specification

Building the system

Portsdown Software

The software has recently undergone a major update. If you are building a new system, or upgrading one built since March 2018, please refer to the Portsdown 2018 Stretch software guide. The original Portsdown (Jessie) software has also been upgraded to Portsdown 2018 standard.

Configuring and controlling the system

The Portsdown software is now pre-configured to use the Waveshare touchscreen. If you are using this screen, no initial set-up is required.

For advanced set-up, or if you do not have a Waveshare touchscreen, See this guide: Initial setup 2019

You can control the Portsdown transmitter in one of 2 modes: by the use of the touchscreen or through the console using a second computer.

  • Touchscreen mode How to use your Portsdown transmitter using the Touchscreen LCD only
  • Console mode Use this mode to configure your Portsdown and change pre-set configs (such as SR and Freq) used in touch screen buttons.
  • Changing system setup How to change Portsdown transmitter settings when in Touchscreen mode
  • QPSKRF or Ugly mode Notes on this special test mode and the limitations when using it
  • Setting up the WiFi How to set up the WiFi on the RPi3 Portsdown Transmitter

Advanced features

The Portsdown is not just a DATV transmitter but has several advanced features which are or may be available in the future:

On line support / social media

There is a Portsdown area on the BATC forum where the BATC core team and wider ATV community will answer your questions and posting results of the latest builds and on air tests. https://forum.batc.org.uk/viewforum.php?f=103

Note that the BATC core team do not regularly visit Facebook pages - time is just too short to monitor everything and it's not easy to follow threads on Facebook. If you need a question answered please post on the BATC forums first.

Additional information

Filters and driver amplifiers are not part of the Portsdown project but VERY important

The Portsdown user's community including a map showing where user locations

An index of all Portsdown pages

You may also find this index of TLAs useful when reading the manual!

Portsdown transmitter FAQ

And of course we need an FAQ page for those people who don't read the manual!