Nextion TFT display for AMSAT-DL up/down converters

  • Dear QO-100 friends,


    I set up a /p station (which probably some of you worked as SM/DF2ET/p) which includes a Nextion TFT display which is used to display operational parameters. As some hams asked for more information I decided to share the code. The core is a Raspberry Pi Pico running MicroPython reading the information from the converters using an UART interface. A second UART is used to control the display. During RX it shows date/time along with maidenhead grid locator and GPS position. Also the temperature of the TX PA is shown. During TX the display shows forward and reflected power (which does not work in my case as I have an ancient version of the up converter :-).

    The code for Pi and display can be found on github: https://github.com/phl0/ConverterDisplay


      


    The only issue to date is that a patch for the up converter firmware is needed. The reason is that the configuration parameters are sent out right after power up. At this time the Raspberry Pi Pico has not finished starting the MicroPython code yet. So I did a little patch to the firmware that adds a 2 second start-up delay. The patch can also be found on github: https://github.com/amsat-dl/qo100_upconverter/pull/1.


    Feel free to test and use the code. Comments and improvements always welcome.


    vy73 de Florian DF2ET