OST Morse Box V3

 The OST Morse Box Software V3.0

The OST Morse Box project started in march 2020, during the first Covid-19 lockdown.
Since then, a lot of changes and additions had been made, like adding a decoder and a basic AF generator.

Read  about how it all started here

And have a look at different implementations by ONL12523 , ON7DQ and OTHERS

Gil (ONL12523) who wrote the software for this project still had some ideas .. so he wrote a complete new Windows Control program. To make it all work, also the Arduino firmware had to be updated, and the result looks like a completely new project.

But … best of all, no changes to the existing hardware were needed !

All you have to do is update the firmware in the Arduino Nano, and download the new Windows program. All files are on github here.
The Arduino program is open source, the Windows program is not.

Updating the Arduino is very simple, with the help of a program called Xloader. Open the correct file from the folder where you downloaded Xloader, e.g. OST_Morse_V300.ino.eightanaloginputs.hex
Check that the Device and Baud rate look like in the picture below, and select the correct COM port, then hit ‘Upload’. After a few seconds your Arduino should have the new firmware, DONE!

The new Windows Control program is written in C# with Visual Studio 2022.
What are the new features ?

The basic Form (or screen) contains the Menu structure, and depending on what you select, the gray area is filled with the appropriate application.

At the top the status of the connected Morse Box is shown (WPM, character spacing etc). On the left are the different menu items. The bottom line shows the connection to the Morse Box, and some other controls.

 All Menu items are well explained in the manual, available on github , in ENGLISH and in DUTCH.

We will just have a look at the latest addition to the bag of tricks: the GAME menu.

Here you can test your progress in sending CW, a skill that is often forgotten in a CW course.

You can use a paddle or the built-in touch paddle if you like, but the game is best played with a straight key, to check if you have the correct dot/dash ratio, and the correct spacing.

Text is shown on the screen, and you have to key it with the key or paddle, connected to the OST Morse Box.  The decoder in the Morse Box will decode it and send it to the program (NOTE: you don’t need to build the receive decoder board for this).

The Characters selection box determines which characters appear in the randomly generated text. Under Random test select if you want 1 character at a time, or words up to 8 characters.
The text to be keyed is shown in grey, the letter to be sent in white.

With the Morse Box, the correct letter is keyed (key, paddle or touch paddle), To make sure the decoder is synchronized correctly, you will be asked to send the letter 'O' at the start of each exercise, this letter is not counted in the score.

A correctly received letter turns green and the next letter white. In case of wrong reception, the letter turns yellow and there is a second attempt. When Retry preview is selected, the Morse code is displayed. After a second error, the letter changes to red and moves on to the next letter.

With Preview selected, the Morse code is also shown on the first attempt.

In the example above, the plotter is set to display the Morse code as dots and dashes, and the scale is also shown per 100 mS and per 1 second (long bars).

Correct characters and errors are counted and after pressing Stop the score is calculated (in %).

Have fun with our newest version, and let us know if you like it.

73 de Luc and Gil