Description:

This software distribution contains, command line tool, libraries and a GUI frontend to configure LTDZ MAX2870 signal generator compatible boards.

Command Line Tool:

sigenmax2870 is a utility program able to program LTDZ MAX2870 signal generator compatible boards by pc, using serial port.

Prerequisites:

The programs is compatible with MacOS and Linux ( both x86 and Arm distributions) and it's tested using the following OSs:

• Macos Ventura 13.1 (m1 ARM) compiled with Apple clang version 14.0.0 (clang-1400.0.29.202)

• Macos Monterey 12.6.2 (x86_64) compiled with Apple clang vesrion 14.0.0 (clang-1400.0.29.202)

• Debian 12 ( Bookworm ) (aarch64) compiled with gcc 12.2.0

• Ubuntu22LTS (x86_64) compiled with gcc 11.3.0 ( See Ubuntu Troubleshooting ! )

To compile the suite, the following tools are required:

• Autotools
• Libtool
• Automake

As example, the following commands will install the required dependencies on Debian / Ubuntu unvironments:

apt-get update
apt-get install build-essentials
apt-get install automake
apt-get install libtool

Ubuntu Troubleshooting:

The product Id of these boards is assigned to a model of braille board, so it isn't recognized correctly:

# lsusb

... <omissis> ...
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 1a86:7523 QinHeng Electronics CH340 serial converter
... <omissis> ...

As workaround, open the followuing file:

# vi /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/85-brltty.rules

then comment the line related to the Device: 1A86:7523

Installation:

• Create configuration script:

  make -f makefile.dist 

• Launch the just generated configure script:

  ./configure

• Compile the program:

  make

• Install the program and the man page:

  sudo make install

Quick Start:

The following is the basic syntax for the command line tool:

sigenmax2870 <-d device_path> <-f frequency_kHz> <-a amplification> [-p]

Where:

• -d means 'device' and device_path is the full path of the special device associated to the board;
• -f maens frequency and frequency_kHz it the frequency to generate in kHz;
• -a pean amplification and amplification is one of the following values ( corresponding to -4dB, -1dB, +2dB, +5dB ):

1,2,3 or 4

• -p means 'print' , it is the only optional parameter. If present the binary representation of the command will be printed on stdout.

Command Line Examples:

• Set the device to generate a 40.666MHz signal:
  

   sigenmax2870 -d /dev/tty.usbserial-110 -f 40666 

• Same as the previoius example but this one also show the command sent to the device:
  

  sigenmax2870 -d /dev/tty.usbserial-110 -f 40666 -p <BR>
  Response Length: 43<BR>
  216.58.205.195<BR>

Troubleshooting:

• If the library libsigenmax2870.so.1 is not found, you have to add the path in which it is installed (i.e. /usr/local/lib , see 'make install' output or use commands like "find" to verify) in LD_LIBRAY_PATH environmental variable or in system config file ( see Linux documentation for further information );
• If for some reason the executable installation path isn't present in PATH environmental variable, add it to be able to launch the program without prepending executable's path.

Further documentation:

See the man page included in this release.

GUI ( Experimental ):

This software distribution also provide an experimentl GUI based client, writen using QT framework. It has to be considered experimental. A complete / full version will be published asap. You can find installers of alpha versions in 'gui' directory of this software distribution:

• setup is the Ubuntu version installer;
• SignalGenerator.dmg is the macOs version installer (ARM, x86-64 coming soon).

The installer are present in ./gui directory, in the specific directory related to the destination OS.

The following video show the GUI in action ( the appearance could change in new releases ):

GUI Client dependencies:

QT GUI client is tested using:

• 22.04.2 LTS ( jammy )

• MacOs 13.3 ( Ventura ) (ARM, x86 coming soon )

• The following is the list of QT system dependencies necessary for a correct installation of this software on Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install libxcb-xinerama0 sudo apt-get install qt6-base-dev qt6-webengine-dev qt6-webengine-dev-tools qt6-webengine-private-dev qml-module-* libqt6we*

GUI Client Installation:

• On MacOs:

• Install dependencies described in previous paragraph;
• build the dmg: ./prepare.sh
• double click on generated DMG file;
• drag and drop the program shown in destination folder (i.e. "Applications" directory).

• On Linux:

• start the installer ("setup" file) and follow the shown instructions.

License:

* This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License