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
, I thought “how can this go a bit quicker?”, so I invited Rob to do a two day tour of all ON summits with winter bonus points. And he accepted !
