Since I recently bought the new IC-7300 Mark 2, I wanted to sell my old IC-7300, and luckily I found a buyer ;-).
I wanted to keep my "Nintendo" controller, but surprise ... it didn't work with the new rig !
See the original article about that Nintendo controller (with two buttons) here.
Or see the extended version (with 8 buttons) here.
Two problems are the cause it didn't work: the Mk2 has a new hex address, $B6 instead of the old $94. And the CI-V command table has been revised, and many commands have changed codes as well.
To make it easy, and because some PC programs don't support the Mk2 yet, I changed the transceiver address back to the old $94. One problem solved !
Then I reprogrammed my Nintendo controller with the new commands for the Mk2. The revised CI-V Reference Guide for the Mk2 can be found on the Icom Japan website, download it here
The new Arduino sketch for the Mk2 is available on my github here.
Look for the file called MiniPro_IC7300Mk2_PaddleKeyKSwitch_2026.ino
Basically, the only changes are for the Key type (01 64 became 02 24), and the USB AF <> IF setting (00 59 became 00 69).
Of course you can make this project with any Arduino (UNO, Nano, etc), or use less buttons if you don't need all the functions. And if you find some more useful commands in the reference guide, feel free to adapt the code to your preference. If you make all 8 buttons short & long press, you can have up to 16 different commands.
$ $ $
To be sold with the old rig, I built another controller in a new box, also containing 8 pushbuttons, which have the same function as in the previous build. The circuit is still based on the original, only adding more buttons to pins 2-3-4-5 and 10-11.
I started by putting 8 pushbuttons on a piece of perfboard, and prepared an Arduino Pro Mini with the necessary wires. I did solder a 4-pin programming input, and added a wire to the RESET pin, since this won't be accessible once the box is closed. A reset button was then added on the back of the perfboard (not on the picture below).
I attached the Arduino Pro Mini to the perfboard with double sided adhesive tape, and connected all wires, the diode and 10k resistor. A 5V wallwart, and half of a 3.5mm stereo cable complete the assembly.
As an extra, I added a red LED, that blinks each time a command is sent.
Once the box was closed, I fixed some printed labels with Scotch tape.
See the final result in the top picture.
Happy tinkering !
73 de Luc ON7DQ
