RigCon Extension Board for the uConsole

uConsole
1

I bought the uConsole for one sole purpose: Easy digital modes for mobile ham radio activities - especially for “summits on the air”. My external sound card was working fine, but it lacked features that other solutions like the DigiRig or the AIOC provided. An RTC was also missing.

But why having external thingamabobs and more cables if I can have it already built into the uConsole?
That’s why I designed my own extension board based on the DigiRig 1.9: The RigCon.

I does a few more things than being a DigiRig-clone:

  • Rig Interface equal to the DigiRig
    • Audio interface + PTT (2,5mm Audio Jack)
    • UART interface (2,5mm Audio Jack)
  • Additional external USB-C Port (500mA max)
  • RTC with Backup Battery (CR1220)

The DigiRig was my choice as a basis because it is very compatible with a lot of rigs. Therefore I’ve take over the solder bridges from this project 1:1. Your DigiRig cables will fit as well, you just need an adapter for the 2,5mm audio jacks.

Another feature is that the audio jacks and the USB-C connector are sunken into and perfectly centered on the side of the PCB. At the moment I just have a shabby 3D-Printed front panel, which will be replaced with a PCB later on.

I exchanged the CM108AH with the CM108B on my own for this project and realized only later while debugging, that the DigiRig 1.11 was released with exact the same change in the mean time. If I had just waited a bit longer … :stuck_out_tongue:

The first batch is tested and the two bugs I had are already fixed. The latest version is available on GitHub: GitHub - SwiftyTheFox001/RigCon: Extension Board for the ClockworkPI uConsole to connect ham radio equiptment

RigCon
RigCon604×600 66.6 KB

The BOM is not finished for v1.1 yet, since I wanted to clean it up a bit and also provide the extra BOM for the connectors/battery clamp ordered on DigiKey. I also wanted to put an internal USB port on the lower end of the board like others did, but the routing is a bit dense in the center. Maybe I’ll have that added in future versions.

So far I am super happy with it, I hope you like it too! Critics and Suggestions are welcome as well.

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