Because of your awesome work on this, I have just ordered a X6100! I can't wait to start playing around with this (and learning a bit more Linux too). Keep it up!
Great to hear! Let me know when you get it and what you think! Be sure to join TOADs and discuss along in real time. We are making some changes pretty rapidly over there!
SWEET! Shout out to LInks2004 for making such great progress. Steve, you are pushing the envelope on this radio to the point where it will have a cult following.
On initial boot from the constructed microSDCard, I had a black screen as another noted. The x6100 would not boot with or without the card. I reinstalled V1.1.5, booted up, shut down, inserted the Armbian card and booted to the OEM radio. After a shutdown I was able to boot with Armbian with Button 2 press. Dunno - but it work OK every time now. WiFi connected fine - gonna try a BT keyboard/mouse later. I have a IC-705 and got the x6100 just for light & EZ JS8CALL in the field. Add Winlink and VARA HF/Chat and this is a mini-EMCOMM rig. Great stuff - many thanks!
Holy f'ing crap. This is big. I cannot wait until the process is simplified down and things get stabilized. Thanks for all the videos you put out on this.
I appreciate all the hard work you and others have done and it's amazing how far you guys got with this radio. So if you're able to run FT8 directly, you should be able to run PSK31 and other modes as well. Thanks again for all the work you've done.
Steve, I hope other radio manufacturers will see where this is headed and get on the band wagon. This is extremely cool and will be extremely versatile! Surely even the non-digital operators could benefit from an all in one radio/computer setup. You and the TOADS are doing Yeomans work. Gerald - KG0VA
I have this radio coming on Tuesday. This looks way cool. How about a video with suggestions on what one ought to do first with this radio. The SDR stuff is new to me. Thanks for a great video
Incredible to know the real capabilities of this great little radio. My dream for a long time has been a good stand-alone all-in-one FT8 radio and this looks to be the possible answer. Can it be just a matter of time before Xiegu or someone else perfects this and offers it as a finished product?
It could be, we now have a working. Ideo driver, so we aren't far away. They didn't intend to make this (type) of radio. They set out to make something else... they don't know what the world wants.
I got this running and the last bit was the Audio settings. The armbian I downloaded included audio devices with "X6100" in the name, like X6100_TX and the like. They don't work. By copying what you had @16.12 I got it to work! So thanks!. Now if I could just see the radio params, like ATU, PWR settings, RF gain -- I'm running blind without those.
There is supposed to be a VNC serer built in that you can connect to to see the old radio UI that is now hidden. I don't remember what it is, and I'm not setup for it right now, but some linux-fu would ferret it out. Join us over on the TOADs discord and we can help you find it if needed.
The X5105 is a great radio, totally different animal. If you're really interested, you can sell the 5105 and get the 6100. I won't tattle to the radio police.
Indeed this is completely awesome! Thanks for sharing. Just one question: on WSJT-X it's possible to move the mouse cursor by finger pointing on the touch screen? Like doing it on a tablet when remote controlling a PC. Or a mouse is needed?
It's a group effort for sure. There are some limitations as we are asking the radio to do things it wasn't designed for. Maybe we can recruit some smart people to help us break the need for the internal QT app. That would jump us very far forward!
Not sure how linux handles this situation, but when you run the `dd` command, you left `/dev/sda1` mounted at `/media/pi/TRANSFER`. I would recommend unmounting `/dev/sda1` (I think `sudo umount /dev/sda1` would suffice) before running `dd`.
Hi Steve, I now have Armbian OS and digital programs running on the X6100. I can boot from the SD card. Do I have to connect a "c usb" cable between the 'DEV' and 'HOST' to run digital modes. Sorry for the stupid question just feeling my way through this. I am so glad i bought the X6100 as it gets out well for POTA use here in Australia. vk2jcc
I connected through USB this time. You can run a USB Hub on the HOST port and connect a bunch of things. The radio doesn't provide a lot of USB power, so be aware of that and adapt accordingly.
I just plugged a USB keyboard and a USB mouse into the USB hub and unplugged the Jelly Comb USB/Bluetooth keyboard/touchpad. I opened the Bluetooth app in Armbian and selected Search. It saw the keyboard - I selected Connect and it connected then disconnected. I clicked to make it a Trusted Device then hit Connect again - it connected and stayed connected and is responding.
Thanks for sharing this! Very cool to see Linux on a radio. Friendly tip: When working with a gzipped tarball, you can unzip the gz file at the same time you extract the tarball using tar command: "tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz" One less command to run. :) 73 from Canada VE3KLT
Ok....that's the last nudge. I was thinking about getting the G90 or die X6100 . But as Linux User myself this is the sign to get the X6100. Even if Xiegu one day should stop support for it..well... than we can maybe get our own linux with sdr software running on it. That's so cool. All the possible things you can do. I guess python (for example) is also running on it or you can install it.... yeah... like a HackRFOne for Hams. Cool Stuff... Thanks a lot to all involved. 73
Great job Steve. Wsjtx works like a charm. I tried to connect a BT mouse so I don't need a hub or vnc. It is detected and I can pair/connect but the pointer doesn't move. Any ideas ?
Great work here, Steve! Is this project still alive and well? I noticed that there haven't been any recent comments or tags on the repo. I am considering buying a X6100 for the purpose of experimenting with turning this rig into an EmComm Tools appliance. I am on the fence on spending $650 USD. Is it worth the effort as I am looking for a stable platform for my project? Thanks, man.
I haven't heard from Links in a while. It could be good to get some fresh life into it. My concerns would be RAM and USB power. USB power can be fixed with a powered hub and I even have one that runs on 12v. DM me and we can talk more.
Please do it. I really want/ need this little radio and I want to use it with your emcom ecosystem. Side note, maybe if you have time check out ATAK. It’s a tactical tool that I’ve been working with a bit lately and it’s very useful for people like us. In my head I’m imagining atak running over HF and all kinds of cool things that would be useful in a grid down scenario.
@@PacketFPV I see the value, but unfortunately I do not have the time. In fact, an ATAK a plugin was on my list the first two year, however, I still do not have enough supporters to make this my full time gig. My day job eats up 40-50 hours/week, UA-cam another 20 hours, my bag business another 10 hours, social media another 10 hours. I am trying to spend a 60-90 minutes a day on EmComm Tools, but I am nearly out of hours. I've been on the verge of burnout for months and may have to stop all the projects. Not to be a downer, but UA-cam cut my ad revenue 400-500% as of January 2023. Sadly, only a small fraction support these content and product initiatives. Sorry about the rant...this is coming from some who is burnt out doing too many things. I'll push for a bit longer, but the financial numbers are not looking good. Take care.
Hi Steve. I have an idea: what about to plug the USB-C hub with HDMI input into HOST port? Would we get the possibility to attach the external monitor?
Unfortunately no. It's only USB-2 signals with a USB-C connector from what I understand. That might change as we get a better kernel built and learn more. 🤞
I broke down today and ordered an X6100 so I can get in on this too. I've already been perusing the wsjt-x source with an eye to making a small-screen friendly UI. I'm tempted to go full-screen like X6100's native app, maybe just use fb. That route kinda throws away the existing GUI framework entirely, though. I'm trying some scratchpad ideas on the Raspberry Pi in the meantime. PS: joe is my favorite editor too, jstar variant. I cut my teeth on WordStar long ago, so taking my fingers off home row while coding is painful - reaching for a mouse is a tragedy.
@@temporarilyoffline Yes, I dropped in over there after some talk in your QDX video comments, I think it was. But I haven't really caught up to speed yet. My X6100 probably won't arrive for a week, but I can try to read up in the meantime. Looks like others are doing well on the Linux OS front, so I'll just focus on my WSJT-X frontend. Obviously I can work on that without the radio.
@@Randrew A better screen interface would be a great thing - from what I've seen in the WSJT-Z, project you can link into the existing screen and make changes - the 800x480 resolution is the default res of the official RPi touchscreen, and many other Pi touch screens fall below a usable res for WSJT-X
@@temporarilyoffline I got my x6100 today and pulled up a serial console first thing. As I suspected, they used Buildroot for their cross-build environment, which is cool. I'm somewhat familiar with Buildroot through my (mostly hobby) work on embedded things and OpenWRT. I think I heard that you TOADie guys have been using an Armbian distro, but I'll first try to set up a Buildroot image for it 'cause I want a familiar cross-compiler environment anyway. I sure don't want to be compiling anything significant on a Pi when I've got a new AMD build machine lying fallow ;) I just wish Xiegu would open source the darned thing already so I wouldn't have to reverse engineer (and guess) the kernel config and mem/disk image settings. And didn't they open-source the GSoC? I have one of those but I haven't looked at it in ages. I think it has a Sun7i processor, but I bet their OS environment is much the same.
Hi Steve, i have the Armbian software running. Have put in the screen panning command, how ever after inputting the setting, i can not move the screen down enough to click on the OK button at the bottom of the page in wsjt-1. How did you achieve this please? vk2jcc
I am a new ham. I have the x6100 and no hf digital or Linux experience. This setup looks pretty awesome but also looks intimidating. I am unsure what to start looking up so I can follow what is going on. Maybe l am more intimidated than I need to be. Do you see future updated where I can just save a file to a sdcard on a windows computer and it will be ready to run on the x6100?
If you were to get the X6100 and do nothing more than "play radio", it would work great for you. QRP (5w or less) is a bit of a difficulty on its own, but there are ways to do it and still have fun. You can't beat the price on this rig. Maybe with a G90 instead at $200 less and 20w, but its a different kind of beast. I personally find that having a "need" to learn something makes it easier than just trying to learn something with zero application. Imagine trying to learn how to drive a car without having a car, or the ability to actually drive one even if you did... As for a downloadable image of linux in our future: Yes. Its a ways away at this point though.
I noticed you put a usb cable as a loopback, between the usb host and usb dev. I was told you need to have a special cable for that, because there are issues : so I searched amazon for "usb to usb bridge cable" and got a whole lot of cables that fit this bill. Are my concerns unfounded? Can I use just a regular USB cable between them? Or should I be safe.
Hi Steve,I have loaded the firmware once again and now it seems to be more stable,anyway there is the bluetooth that give me some problem,infact it remains locked with " wait" on the screen and it doesn't accept any command...
hello dear, I have some other important question that could be useful to many beginners of this software like me ... 1: is it possible to disable the armbian login? so that when we start it, it opens automatically? 2: is it possible to set the external keyboard / mouse with integrated bt card to connect automatically when armbian is started? so that you don't have to physically connect a usb keyboard at every boot? thanks I hope you can help me, I congratulate you again for the excellent job you do for us! fabio
Can the panning settings in terminal be added so it's automatically run when the SD-Card is loaded? It's no big deal to pop up the terminal and rerun the saved string - but even better if it's automated.
@@temporarilyoffline Any way to script this in Armbian? Open the Bluetooth app in Armbian and select Search. When it recognizes the BT keyboard/touchpad - make it a Trusted Device. Connect
This looks like a great platform for digital mode fiddling, unfortunately, the image has been removed from the archive. Any clues for how it could be recreated? Thanks.
@13:15 I could see that you swapped into a remote view, and I'm assuming it's VNC. When I try to connect via VNC, it immediately disconnects after I enter my creds. What am I missing?
Can you check your VNC logs and see? I'd assume that your VNC client is asking for some type of connection type that the radio doesn't support and you're getting dropped. Try removing all special connection settings (like encryption or example)
I'm fairly positive I've done everything shown here, but I've not been able to boot it into the armbian SD card. I'm eager to get this working for use in field day communications, but after I turn on the radio and hold the #2 button I don't get the boot screen for armbian. Any ideas?
@@temporarilyoffline I can try another SD card and see tonight. Followed the commands you did in Ubuntu as I do not usually use a raspberry pi and had no luck. Fingers crossed, I really want to get this to work! I've got it formatted FAT32, so I'm curious if the file structure just isn't formatted correctly either?
Great start, but the audio settings you describe do not work on my rig. I don't have "hw.CARD=Device.DEV=0" option. I do have a "hw:CARD=sunBia33audio.Dev=0" but I always get this error message: "Requested input audio format is not supported on this device". For transmit, the option you list is not shown, but I have "sysdefault:CARD=sunBia33audio". The error message with this is basically the same, except for "output" instead of "input". Based on some other stuff I have found, I tried mixcapture for input and mixplayback for output. RX works, TX, no power out, but no error message, either. It may be that there is a setting somewhere that will resolve this, but I have no idea where it might be.
Hey Dave! Sorry to hear you are having trouble. My guess is that there are differences between your radio's release date and my radio's release date that cause this to be a little different. If I was at the controls, I would very methodically try every input interface until I saw info on the waterfall display... and then use that to narrow down what the output device is. Its time consuming, but that's all I can think of. "Maybe" (big maybe) if you unplug the USB cable, then run WSJT-X and take note of the interfaces... then quit WSJT-X, plug in the USB cable, start WSJT-X and see the new interfaces that will make the list more obvious - Without the USB cable, the sound card in question will not exist in the list of choices. Hope that helps!
@@temporarilyoffline hmmm, new x6100 with 6 July 2022 inspection certificate FW V1.1.5 using the Armbian build 0.0.4 and I cannot find any Audio Input listed that doesn't give an error message and shows waterfall signal.
Hi Steve,I have a question,I tried to make all the procedure to load the armbian and so on,but it is happened something strange.When I switched on the Xiegu with normal operation as transceiver,I got only a black screen without any signal,it was like dead.I needed to load again the firmware...could you tell me what it could be? Is it happened also to you this problem.Thanks for your reply.I7BNX Rino.
When trying to configure the internal WSJT-X, all I get is soundcard error, doesn't matter which device for input or output I select WSJT-X just states not supported. Also how do I clear all wifi and bluetooth information as I'm sending my X6100 back as it's just not worth the effort of having to re-install the firmware after freezing. 73 Mike G1ZRN. 😞
With 1.1.6 there is no specific delete button, but what I did was to go into WLAN, "edit" the wifi connection that I have (no scan or connect, just straight to edit) Next, Next, Next until it was done and it erased (which it shouldn't have) and after a reboot it still wasn't there. If that doesn't work, I'd try installing a pre 1.1.6 firmware which doesn't preserve settings and then see if that removes it... maybe even installing it a second time to be sure.
Hi mr., sorry i have run armbian on mi x6100 and try again the wsjtx, the cat and ptt command working good, the sound in and out not work. A program popup say me: this audio format is not supported. Please can you help me? Thanks, fabio in3fob
@@temporarilyoffline Unfortunately, now I'm out for work, tomorrow I'll check. I put the audio settings like in your video. I'll confirm you tomorrow and thank you for your help
I seem to be one of the folks unable to get this up and running. Followed the instructions, step by step, after updating the new radio. No joy. It just ignores the button press. Tried four different SD cards, one of which I used successfully for the update... On 13.8VDC, downloaded the files twice etc. No errors or warnings when flashing the SD. Tried it on my Pi4B first then on my Mint box. Still not working! What am I missing?? KL7UT
Come join us over on TOADs discord. There are a bunch of us in the X6100 room that can help you out. Too many questions to do it in video comments. Link for TOADs is in the description.
good video I got Armbian on my radio but I have no idea of how to getting to the ssh of the radio so I can change the root password and user name can you help a dumb ham out W7DVN
Start by plugging a keyboard and mouse into the radio and getting it on your wifi network. Then ask your radio what its IP address is (open command prompt, type in ifconfig and look for something that looks like an IP on your network) . From there: ssh root@(IP Address)
You don't need to follow all the directions for compiling your own and making the image, they are just there to be extra special nice. In the video I show you how/where to download and burn the image.
If you want to build Your own SD card card, you would have to have the latest firmware download from radiodity To start with. Or you can use the tagged release version that we've already built.
I can't ssh in our out, cannot ping the X6100 (though I can see it on the router), and am getting a port 22 error when trying to ssh in or out. Any ideas, please? Oh, also, chkconfig isn't installed and "sudo iptables -L in" complains "iptables/1.8.7 Failed to initialize nft: Protocol not supported".
@@temporarilyoffline OK, I tried a direct USB cable between my MX Linux laptop and the DEV labeled USB at the X6100 ... not sure how to address that path for ssh.
@@davidcolburn4715 look at some of my early rooting videos for info on using "screen" to connect. That will be a direct serial connection. Join us in the for x6100 room on TOADs for more discussion with all the devs. Link in description
@@temporarilyoffline Well I went ahead and ordered an X6100 as your video was so compelling...unfortunately I did not use your link because my capital one discount was $30 however I will use one of your other donation methods. Thanks for doing what you are doing, this is a huge step in Amateur Radio!
(I tapped the wrong button and accidentally deleted hour reply.) If you can't get BT working, you can use a USB hub. The radio doesn't provide a lot of power, so if things go sideways it could be under powered or RFI issues
Great job Steve, awesome that you got it to work on the radio itself. One less thing to take portable!
That's the plan! A great team effort by the TOADs!
Because of your awesome work on this, I have just ordered a X6100! I can't wait to start playing around with this (and learning a bit more Linux too). Keep it up!
Great to hear! Let me know when you get it and what you think! Be sure to join TOADs and discuss along in real time. We are making some changes pretty rapidly over there!
@@temporarilyoffline awesome! Yep I'll join and can't wait to get involved. I'm in Australia so my rig will take a week or two to arrive. Can't wait!
Hi Steve,
This is amazing even for someone who hasn't used any Linux. Happy Easter to you and the family and you all stay safe. 73 WJ3U
It opens a lot of possibilities! Happy Easter to you!
SWEET! Shout out to LInks2004 for making such great progress. Steve, you are pushing the envelope on this radio to the point where it will have a cult following.
I sure hope so! I love the direction this is going!
FOSS firmware would make this radio everyone's favourite.
Join TOADs discord. We've got you covered. This radio will be totally open before too long.
On initial boot from the constructed microSDCard, I had a black screen as another noted. The x6100 would not boot with or without the card. I reinstalled V1.1.5, booted up, shut down, inserted the Armbian card and booted to the OEM radio. After a shutdown I was able to boot with Armbian with Button 2 press. Dunno - but it work OK every time now. WiFi connected fine - gonna try a BT keyboard/mouse later. I have a IC-705 and got the x6100 just for light & EZ JS8CALL in the field. Add Winlink and VARA HF/Chat and this is a mini-EMCOMM rig. Great stuff - many thanks!
Lots of potential in this rig! Glad it worked out for you.
OH BOY! I've been waiting for this day!
Me Too!
Holy f'ing crap. This is big. I cannot wait until the process is simplified down and things get stabilized. Thanks for all the videos you put out on this.
Anytime brother! We're making progress and learning lots.
@@temporarilyoffline All the progress you and the people in TOADS are greatly appreciated! There's just so much potential in this.
I appreciate all the hard work you and others have done and it's amazing how far you guys got with this radio. So if you're able to run FT8 directly, you should be able to run PSK31 and other modes as well. Thanks again for all the work you've done.
Yes you can, and FLDigi is already installed!
@@temporarilyoffline How about Winlink?
It's possible!
@@temporarilyoffline You put JS8, FT8,PSK and winlink embedded in the OS, that would be absolutely awesome.
We have all of that except winlink... and only because we didn't put it in yet. $15 off in the description!
Steve, I hope other radio manufacturers will see where this is headed and get on the band wagon. This is extremely cool and will be extremely versatile! Surely even the non-digital operators could benefit from an all in one radio/computer setup. You and the TOADS are doing Yeomans work. Gerald - KG0VA
Thanks Gerald!
This project has been so awesome.
When are you getting yours?
Incredible! Can’t wait to see Pat running onboard too
You and me both! - A self contained email system!
will include it next build ;)
since apt-get install -y pat is possible
@@Links2004 it looks like pat will run in v4, I just saw it in the tags
Great progress!
Thanks! TOADs are working hard on this radio!
This is amazing. Such an awesome little radio! Strangely when you entered your password all I see is Hunter2
Have a great Easter 73s
I thought I had the password part? Time to take the video down.
Amazing Steve! Thanks!
Thank you!
I have this radio coming on Tuesday. This looks way cool. How about a video with suggestions on what one ought to do first with this radio. The SDR stuff is new to me. Thanks for a great video
Sure thing!
Incredible to know the real capabilities of this great little radio. My dream for a long time has been a good stand-alone all-in-one FT8 radio and this looks to be the possible answer. Can it be just a matter of time before Xiegu or someone else perfects this and offers it as a finished product?
It could be, we now have a working. Ideo driver, so we aren't far away. They didn't intend to make this (type) of radio. They set out to make something else... they don't know what the world wants.
I got this running and the last bit was the Audio settings. The armbian I downloaded included audio devices with "X6100" in the name, like X6100_TX and the like. They don't work. By copying what you had @16.12 I got it to work! So thanks!.
Now if I could just see the radio params, like ATU, PWR settings, RF gain -- I'm running blind without those.
There is supposed to be a VNC serer built in that you can connect to to see the old radio UI that is now hidden. I don't remember what it is, and I'm not setup for it right now, but some linux-fu would ferret it out. Join us over on the TOADs discord and we can help you find it if needed.
Great work!
Thanks Muskat!
That's insane and I love it.
But wait... there's more! (seriously, this is like a year old now and we've come a long way - just yesterday R1CBU created a native FT8 setup)
@@temporarilyoffline That noise you heard was my he hitting the floor.
Awesome new stuff for my whishlist. I am not HAM, but interested. This device is great. Sadly, I have purcased the predecessor X5105 only ;-)
The X5105 is a great radio, totally different animal. If you're really interested, you can sell the 5105 and get the 6100. I won't tattle to the radio police.
That really is a remarkable accomplishment.
We are having a lot of fun. Do you have a 6100?
QRP, just a Icom IC-705. Impressed with your command of the Linux vernacular and of course, the end result. 73 KO4CES
@@markusberg2770 Thanks, I've been playing with linux since Slackware 1.0! (about 1993 or so)
Indeed this is completely awesome! Thanks for sharing. Just one question: on WSJT-X it's possible to move the mouse cursor by finger pointing on the touch screen? Like doing it on a tablet when remote controlling a PC. Or a mouse is needed?
This radio dows not have a touch screen, needs a mouse
Nice work on this are you ever going to make a video using it in the field?
The Linux OS or the radio itself? The video I dropped today used the X6100 in the field.
Interested in when you can fix some of the x6100 issues as well as mirror the x6100 display to an external computer display
It's a group effort for sure. There are some limitations as we are asking the radio to do things it wasn't designed for. Maybe we can recruit some smart people to help us break the need for the internal QT app. That would jump us very far forward!
Another excellent video. What are you using for a keyboard and mouse and how are they connected to the X6100?
Any USB keyboard will work when you plug it into the USB Dev port.
I've also heard that Bluetooth keyboards and mice work too. But I haven't tried that myself.
As if I wasn't sold on this radio already. I have to get one of these.
It's a fantastic "multi-tool"
$ sudo
Great work Steve...
Looking forward to more...
U bet!
Not sure how linux handles this situation, but when you run the `dd` command, you left `/dev/sda1` mounted at `/media/pi/TRANSFER`. I would recommend unmounting `/dev/sda1` (I think `sudo umount /dev/sda1` would suffice) before running `dd`.
I hear ya. Worked fine over here, but you're probably right.
Hi Steve, I now have Armbian OS and digital programs running on the X6100. I can boot from the SD card.
Do I have to connect a "c usb" cable between the 'DEV' and 'HOST' to run digital modes.
Sorry for the stupid question just feeling my way through this. I am so glad i bought the X6100 as it gets out well for POTA use here in Australia. vk2jcc
No problems, yes please connect the two ports together for internal digital modes.
Thx. 👍 Worked great also on my X6100. How did you connect your keyboard and mouse? Bluetooth?
I connected through USB this time. You can run a USB Hub on the HOST port and connect a bunch of things. The radio doesn't provide a lot of USB power, so be aware of that and adapt accordingly.
I just managed to login via VNC / Wifi and configured my Bluetooth mouse. It's working
@@Joseph-tj9yi Excellent! I'd do some testing with that before I relied on it in the field though. The wifi/bt on this radio is a bit questionable.
I just plugged a USB keyboard and a USB mouse into the USB hub and unplugged the Jelly Comb USB/Bluetooth keyboard/touchpad. I opened the Bluetooth app in Armbian and selected Search. It saw the keyboard - I selected Connect and it connected then disconnected. I clicked to make it a Trusted Device then hit Connect again - it connected and stayed connected and is responding.
Thanks for sharing this! Very cool to see Linux on a radio.
Friendly tip: When working with a gzipped tarball, you can unzip the gz file at the same time you extract the tarball using tar command: "tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz"
One less command to run. :)
73 from Canada
VE3KLT
This was an `xz` file and I couldn't find the tar command fast enough to be bothered ;-) You're right though.
Ok....that's the last nudge. I was thinking about getting the G90 or die X6100 . But as Linux User myself this is the sign to get the X6100. Even if Xiegu one day should stop support for it..well... than we can maybe get our own linux with sdr software running on it. That's so cool. All the possible things you can do. I guess python (for example) is also running on it or you can install it.... yeah... like a HackRFOne for Hams. Cool Stuff... Thanks a lot to all involved. 73
As a Linux user, this is the only QRP radio to get
Great job Steve. Wsjtx works like a charm. I tried to connect a BT mouse so I don't need a hub or vnc. It is detected and I can pair/connect but the pointer doesn't move. Any ideas ?
I'd check in the BT app and maybe switch profiles around? This is a rough around the edges build, so you might need some drivers or libraries.
Great work here, Steve! Is this project still alive and well? I noticed that there haven't been any recent comments or tags on the repo. I am considering buying a X6100 for the purpose of experimenting with turning this rig into an EmComm Tools appliance. I am on the fence on spending $650 USD. Is it worth the effort as I am looking for a stable platform for my project? Thanks, man.
I haven't heard from Links in a while. It could be good to get some fresh life into it. My concerns would be RAM and USB power. USB power can be fixed with a powered hub and I even have one that runs on 12v. DM me and we can talk more.
Please do it. I really want/ need this little radio and I want to use it with your emcom ecosystem. Side note, maybe if you have time check out ATAK. It’s a tactical tool that I’ve been working with a bit lately and it’s very useful for people like us. In my head I’m imagining atak running over HF and all kinds of cool things that would be useful in a grid down scenario.
@@PacketFPV I see the value, but unfortunately I do not have the time. In fact, an ATAK a plugin was on my list the first two year, however, I still do not have enough supporters to make this my full time gig. My day job eats up 40-50 hours/week, UA-cam another 20 hours, my bag business another 10 hours, social media another 10 hours. I am trying to spend a 60-90 minutes a day on EmComm Tools, but I am nearly out of hours. I've been on the verge of burnout for months and may have to stop all the projects. Not to be a downer, but UA-cam cut my ad revenue 400-500% as of January 2023. Sadly, only a small fraction support these content and product initiatives. Sorry about the rant...this is coming from some who is burnt out doing too many things. I'll push for a bit longer, but the financial numbers are not looking good. Take care.
Hi Steve. I have an idea: what about to plug the USB-C hub with HDMI input into HOST port? Would we get the possibility to attach the external monitor?
Unfortunately no. It's only USB-2 signals with a USB-C connector from what I understand. That might change as we get a better kernel built and learn more. 🤞
@@temporarilyoffline I’m really crossing my fingers. That would be awesome if the external display can be attached
I broke down today and ordered an X6100 so I can get in on this too.
I've already been perusing the wsjt-x source with an eye to making a small-screen friendly UI. I'm tempted to go full-screen like X6100's native app, maybe just use fb. That route kinda throws away the existing GUI framework entirely, though. I'm trying some scratchpad ideas on the Raspberry Pi in the meantime.
PS: joe is my favorite editor too, jstar variant. I cut my teeth on WordStar long ago, so taking my fingers off home row while coding is painful - reaching for a mouse is a tragedy.
Brothers of Joe! Are you on TOADs? If so, we have a small group of hackers there. (Link in description)
@@temporarilyoffline Yes, I dropped in over there after some talk in your QDX video comments, I think it was. But I haven't really caught up to speed yet. My X6100 probably won't arrive for a week, but I can try to read up in the meantime.
Looks like others are doing well on the Linux OS front, so I'll just focus on my WSJT-X frontend. Obviously I can work on that without the radio.
@@Randrew A better screen interface would be a great thing - from what I've seen in the WSJT-Z, project you can link into the existing screen and make changes - the 800x480 resolution is the default res of the official RPi touchscreen, and many other Pi touch screens fall below a usable res for WSJT-X
@@temporarilyoffline I got my x6100 today and pulled up a serial console first thing. As I suspected, they used Buildroot for their cross-build environment, which is cool. I'm somewhat familiar with Buildroot through my (mostly hobby) work on embedded things and OpenWRT.
I think I heard that you TOADie guys have been using an Armbian distro, but I'll first try to set up a Buildroot image for it 'cause I want a familiar cross-compiler environment anyway. I sure don't want to be compiling anything significant on a Pi when I've got a new AMD build machine lying fallow ;) I just wish Xiegu would open source the darned thing already so I wouldn't have to reverse engineer (and guess) the kernel config and mem/disk image settings.
And didn't they open-source the GSoC? I have one of those but I haven't looked at it in ages. I think it has a Sun7i processor, but I bet their OS environment is much the same.
@@Randrew congrats! Yes, it's buildroot and we have an Arabian distributor. Come to the dark side! Join us!
Hi Steve, i have the Armbian software running.
Have put in the screen panning command, how ever after inputting the setting, i can not move the screen down enough to click on the OK button at the bottom of the page in wsjt-1.
How did you achieve this please? vk2jcc
Does the screen pan? Maybe make it bigger so it can pan more?
I am a new ham. I have the x6100 and no hf digital or Linux experience. This setup looks pretty awesome but also looks intimidating. I am unsure what to start looking up so I can follow what is going on. Maybe l am more intimidated than I need to be. Do you see future updated where I can just save a file to a sdcard on a windows computer and it will be ready to run on the x6100?
If you were to get the X6100 and do nothing more than "play radio", it would work great for you. QRP (5w or less) is a bit of a difficulty on its own, but there are ways to do it and still have fun. You can't beat the price on this rig. Maybe with a G90 instead at $200 less and 20w, but its a different kind of beast. I personally find that having a "need" to learn something makes it easier than just trying to learn something with zero application. Imagine trying to learn how to drive a car without having a car, or the ability to actually drive one even if you did... As for a downloadable image of linux in our future: Yes. Its a ways away at this point though.
I noticed you put a usb cable as a loopback, between the usb host and usb dev. I was told you need to have a special cable for that, because there are issues : so I searched amazon for "usb to usb bridge cable" and got a whole lot of cables that fit this bill. Are my concerns unfounded? Can I use just a regular USB cable between them? Or should I be safe.
I used the usb-c cable that came with my MacBook. If you have a cable already, try it out. Just needs to be a data cable, nothing special otherwise.
Hi Steve,I have loaded the firmware once again and now it seems to be more stable,anyway there is the bluetooth that give me some problem,infact it remains locked with " wait" on the screen and it doesn't accept any command...
Thanks for the info. I don't have anything bluetooth to test with yet. I'll post an update when I get something working.
hello dear,
I have some other important question that could be useful to many beginners of this software like me ...
1: is it possible to disable the armbian login? so that when we start it, it opens automatically?
2: is it possible to set the external keyboard / mouse with integrated bt card to connect automatically when armbian is started? so that you don't have to physically connect a usb keyboard at every boot?
thanks I hope you can help me, I congratulate you again for the excellent job you do for us!
fabio
These are great suggestions. It is possible to do both, we are still in the early stages with this OS upgrade. Lots of fun stuff happening with it.
@@temporarilyoffline ok thanks, then I will look forward to your new developments. thanks for the good job you do
Can the panning settings in terminal be added so it's automatically run when the SD-Card is loaded? It's no big deal to pop up the terminal and rerun the saved string - but even better if it's automated.
I'm pretty sure you can drop it in the xwindows startup script or in rc.local. I'd have to test it out to be certain though.
@@temporarilyoffline Any way to script this in Armbian?
Open the Bluetooth app in Armbian and select Search.
When it recognizes the BT keyboard/touchpad - make it a Trusted Device.
Connect
There is some command line BT magic. I bit to much for a UA-cam comment though. Have you joined up on the discord? (Link in the description)
This looks like a great platform for digital mode fiddling, unfortunately, the image has been removed from the archive. Any clues for how it could be recreated? Thanks.
The instructions aren't in the repo? Join us on the discord (link in the description) and we can walk you through it.
Damnit Bobby…. I am ordering me one now!!! Lol
Be sure to use the discount link in the description!
@13:15 I could see that you swapped into a remote view, and I'm assuming it's VNC. When I try to connect via VNC, it immediately disconnects after I enter my creds. What am I missing?
Can you check your VNC logs and see? I'd assume that your VNC client is asking for some type of connection type that the radio doesn't support and you're getting dropped. Try removing all special connection settings (like encryption or example)
@@temporarilyoffline NVM.... just check again and it works 🤷
@@amnchode that's Ham Radio!
Can you not load the linux version of wsjtx as an app off the SD card? Or does wsjtx not run on arm?
You can do that, sure.
Badass
I love this thing!
I'm fairly positive I've done everything shown here, but I've not been able to boot it into the armbian SD card. I'm eager to get this working for use in field day communications, but after I turn on the radio and hold the #2 button I don't get the boot screen for armbian. Any ideas?
Could be a bad SD card? (Or the radio is unhappy with it?) I've had that happen before on raspberry pis.
@@temporarilyoffline I can try another SD card and see tonight. Followed the commands you did in Ubuntu as I do not usually use a raspberry pi and had no luck. Fingers crossed, I really want to get this to work! I've got it formatted FAT32, so I'm curious if the file structure just isn't formatted correctly either?
@@crazyritchoften the commands I sent don't require the SD card to be formatted. It's probably something simple that's missing. Keep at it.
Great start, but the audio settings you describe do not work on my rig. I don't have "hw.CARD=Device.DEV=0" option. I do have a "hw:CARD=sunBia33audio.Dev=0" but I always get this error message: "Requested input audio format is not supported on this device". For transmit, the option you list is not shown, but I have "sysdefault:CARD=sunBia33audio". The error message with this is basically the same, except for "output" instead of "input". Based on some other stuff I have found, I tried mixcapture for input and mixplayback for output. RX works, TX, no power out, but no error message, either. It may be that there is a setting somewhere that will resolve this, but I have no idea where it might be.
Hey Dave! Sorry to hear you are having trouble. My guess is that there are differences between your radio's release date and my radio's release date that cause this to be a little different. If I was at the controls, I would very methodically try every input interface until I saw info on the waterfall display... and then use that to narrow down what the output device is. Its time consuming, but that's all I can think of.
"Maybe" (big maybe) if you unplug the USB cable, then run WSJT-X and take note of the interfaces... then quit WSJT-X, plug in the USB cable, start WSJT-X and see the new interfaces that will make the list more obvious - Without the USB cable, the sound card in question will not exist in the list of choices.
Hope that helps!
@@temporarilyoffline hmmm, new x6100 with 6 July 2022 inspection certificate FW V1.1.5 using the Armbian build 0.0.4 and I cannot find any Audio Input listed that doesn't give an error message and shows waterfall signal.
Maybe something changed. Drop into TOADs and we'll do some troubleshooting.
Hi Steve,
This is great, what’s going to be next?
I'd like to see the radio app running visibly instead of in a hidden frame buffer.
@@temporarilyoffline that would be cool, everything in one place.
Does it run Crisis? 😄
Panning around looks like a low resolution client on team viewer. Possibilities with the 6100 are endless!👍😄
I don't like the panning, but most ham software isn't meant for a 5" screen... oh well, we adapt and overcome.
@@temporarilyoffline yes, very true. It's simpley not a big screen.
Hi Steve,I have a question,I tried to make all the procedure to load the armbian and so on,but it is happened something strange.When I switched on the Xiegu with normal operation as transceiver,I got only a black screen without any signal,it was like dead.I needed to load again the firmware...could you tell me what it could be? Is it happened also to you this problem.Thanks for your reply.I7BNX Rino.
The Armbian or the xiegu firmware gives you a black screen?
When I run unxz on the .tar.xz file on my raspberry pi, I get "File format not recognized" Pi4 running Buster.
Try a fresh download or a different computer?
Got "error in sound input". The setting are like yours execpt Device is written sun88ia33audio.
Maybe a different hardware revision?
But the question remains; Does this also work on the GSOC?
I'll find out eventually, join the discussion over on TOADs
When trying to configure the internal WSJT-X, all I get is soundcard error, doesn't matter which device for input or output I select WSJT-X just states not supported. Also how do I clear all wifi and bluetooth information as I'm sending my X6100 back as it's just not worth the effort of having to re-install the firmware after freezing. 73 Mike G1ZRN. 😞
With 1.1.6 there is no specific delete button, but what I did was to go into WLAN, "edit" the wifi connection that I have (no scan or connect, just straight to edit) Next, Next, Next until it was done and it erased (which it shouldn't have) and after a reboot it still wasn't there. If that doesn't work, I'd try installing a pre 1.1.6 firmware which doesn't preserve settings and then see if that removes it... maybe even installing it a second time to be sure.
Hi mr., sorry i have run armbian on mi x6100 and try again the wsjtx, the cat and ptt command working good, the sound in and out not work. A program popup say me: this audio format is not supported. Please can you help me? Thanks, fabio in3fob
Do you have the two USB ports plugged into each other?
@@temporarilyoffline yes i have a cable with double type c connected to dev and host port.
@@IN3FOB great, what sound cards did you pick in the audio setup tab?
@@temporarilyoffline Unfortunately, now I'm out for work, tomorrow I'll check. I put the audio settings like in your video. I'll confirm you tomorrow and thank you for your help
@@temporarilyoffline iI solved thanks I hadn't been careful with the audio settings, they were wrong now I corrected them thanks it works well
I seem to be one of the folks unable to get this up and running. Followed the instructions, step by step, after updating the new radio. No joy. It just ignores the button press. Tried four different SD cards, one of which I used successfully for the update... On 13.8VDC, downloaded the files twice etc. No errors or warnings when flashing the SD. Tried it on my Pi4B first then on my Mint box. Still not working! What am I missing?? KL7UT
Come join us over on TOADs discord. There are a bunch of us in the X6100 room that can help you out. Too many questions to do it in video comments. Link for TOADs is in the description.
On Discord... Thanks!
good video I got Armbian on my radio but I have no idea of how to getting to the ssh of the radio so I can change the root password and user name can you help a dumb ham out W7DVN
Start by plugging a keyboard and mouse into the radio and getting it on your wifi network. Then ask your radio what its IP address is (open command prompt, type in ifconfig and look for something that looks like an IP on your network) . From there: ssh root@(IP Address)
Why did you fast forward through the command to make the screen usable?
Instructions are in the description or in other videos. Didn't want to waste your time by repeating myself.
Can we have an image of the sd card ? ta
You don't need to follow all the directions for compiling your own and making the image, they are just there to be extra special nice. In the video I show you how/where to download and burn the image.
Where does the X6100-sdcard-20220219.img file come from?
If you want to build Your own SD card card, you would have to have the latest firmware download from radiodity To start with. Or you can use the tagged release version that we've already built.
@@temporarilyoffline Ok, I see. Thanks!!!
Any chance to show how to install wsjt-z instead of x ?
Sure, I'll add it to the list!
@@temporarilyoffline Great ! Can't wait :)
I can't ssh in our out, cannot ping the X6100 (though I can see it on the router), and am getting a port 22 error when trying to ssh in or out. Any ideas, please? Oh, also, chkconfig isn't installed and "sudo iptables -L in" complains "iptables/1.8.7 Failed to initialize nft: Protocol not supported".
Its a pretty light build, probably doesn't have iptables setup. If you're using the in-built wifi, its pretty lousy, so that could be part of it.
@@temporarilyoffline OK, I tried a direct USB cable between my MX Linux laptop and the DEV labeled USB at the X6100 ... not sure how to address that path for ssh.
@@davidcolburn4715 look at some of my early rooting videos for info on using "screen" to connect. That will be a direct serial connection. Join us in the for x6100 room on TOADs for more discussion with all the devs. Link in description
@@temporarilyoffline It was a Router setting ... sigh.
@@davidcolburn4715 That's how they get you
How do save the resolution? Thank you
Good question! You can find the xrandr command line and save that to the startup file for thr window manager.
Have you tried JS8Call on it? Seems like that would be too processor intensive to run ?
I haven't tried it yet
@@temporarilyoffline Well I went ahead and ordered an X6100 as your video was so compelling...unfortunately I did not use your link because my capital one discount was $30 however I will use one of your other donation methods. Thanks for doing what you are doing, this is a huge step in Amateur Radio!
Thanks Dan! This radio is a lot of fun!
@@temporarilyoffline Got my rig, followed your instructions and boom! JS8Call running on the radio! What a game changer!
@@W5DMH Right! How long have linux, ham radio, and digital modes been a thing? How long have SDRs been a thing... why is this so late?
Is jumpering the two USB ports necessary to operate JS8Call and other digi modes in Armbian?
For now yes, one of them is the usb sound card, the other one is the USB hub to connect it to.
(I tapped the wrong button and accidentally deleted hour reply.) If you can't get BT working, you can use a USB hub. The radio doesn't provide a lot of power, so if things go sideways it could be under powered or RFI issues
@@temporarilyoffline So, HUB plugged into HOST, DEV plugged into the Hub, and the keyboard also plugged into the hub?
@@davidcolburn4715 correct
That worked. Not detecting any JS8Call stations on 14.078 so am trying fldigi ...
Will this run FL Digi as well inside the unit
Sure thing. Might take some work to get it compiled, but I don't see any reason why not.
Steve have tried any Bluetooth mouse keyboard? Well this is so cool.
Note self don't used a old SD card
I haven't had much luck with Bluetooth on this radio. I should try again with linux.
Right!
Well got of Hawaii 30m to Midwest no contacts but it is up
Nice! If the weather holds up I might be able to get on the air today
Will this work on a G90?
No sir, the X6100 just happened to have a "single board computer" inside thatvwe were able to unlock!
I would give it a try if there was a .deb package, but that just fries my old brain.
Yeah, this multiple levels of complexity. Its fun when you get it working as a proof of concept though.
We waiting for doom ;)
RetroPi!
Why would i ever want to do this?
Just add antenna and you have a 100% portable/digital & SSB station complete with logging..
Call me weird, but now I want to see if Kali will boot on an X6100 lmao
Does it build for ARM?
I give it a week before you can't find these for sale, lol.
These are pretty scarce.
I have absolutely no idea what this dude is talking about! - except maybe how to "Brick a Radio" (watch out for "Propeller-heads"'!
Nope, no bricking here.
Great Steve!
Vy 73 de SQ7MRU
Thanks, nice user name