IC-706 MKIIG Menu Settings
The following menu items are found on page 54 of your IC-706 operator's manual. Please review this entire section to ensure you are familiar with changing and saving new settings in the menus of your radio.
Menu#35 - CI-V Baud: Default is Auto: Set to 9600
Menu#36 - CI-V TRN: Default is On: Set to Off
Menu#37 - CI-V 731: Default is Off: Leave Off
NOTE:
In the HRD Rig Connect screen, in the option box titled "Flow Control / Interface
Power", you will see check boxes for CTS, DTR and RTS. For your initial setting, place a check mark in the "RTS" check box. If the transmitter keys when you start the HRD software, close HRD down, turn your radio off then back on to release the transmit key then restart HRD and uncheck the RTS option.
Getting Your Rig Connected
Once you have all your drivers installed, radio menus configured and all your cabling properly connected, it's time to start the HRD software and setup the HRD Rig Connect interface.
Configuring the Rig Connect interface for HRD is quite simple and pretty much straight forward. Although the image below doesn't directly correspond to your particular radio, the written instructions directs you step by step to what is needed in each field in order to successfully connect your radio.
NOTE:
If this is your first time using the HRD software, please pay particular attention to # 7, 8, 9, and 10 in the instructions below. Leaving these options unchecked during the initial setup can aid in troubleshooting any connection issues you may run into. These settings can be changed once you have the HRD software fully configured.
Proceed to set the following options in the Rig Connect Screen. All step numbers relate to options or areas of the Rig Connect Screen.
Select your radio's manufacturer from the dropdown for the "Company" field
Select the model of your radio from the dropdown for the "Radio" field
Select the COM Port number from the dropdown for the "Port" field. If you made a note of the COM Port# earlier in the setup, enter that number. Remember, if your radio sets up 2 COM Ports in the Device Manager, be sure you use the "STANDARD" port number here. If you DO NOT know the port number, you can select the "AUTO-DETECT" option from the dropdown.
Select the COM Port connection speed here. This must be set to the same rate we chose in the USB connection Baud Rate in the radio's menu system. Again, if you don't remember what that speed was, you can use the "AUTO-DETECT" option in this field.
CI-V Address (For Icom Radios Only) must be set the same as the CI-V Address menu in the radio. The CI-V address in the radio menu will show an address as, e.g. "88h". The "h" is not needed as it is only used to indicate the number shown in the Radio's Menu is a "hexadecimal" number.
Leave the "CTS, DTR and RTS" options UNCHECKED
For the initial setup, leave the option "Start HRD Rig Control in Full Screen mode" UNCHECKED.
For the initial setup, leave the option "Always connect to this radio when starting HRD Rig Control" UNCHECKED.
- For the initial setup, leave ALL options inside this box UNCHECKED.
- For the initial setup, leave ALL options inside this box UNCHECKED.
- Before clicking the "Connect" button, double check all your settings to ensure they are correct. If you have set one of the "Flow Control" options AFTER setting the "Speed", the speed will revert back to a default setting, so, please double check and ensure it is set the same as the Connection Baud Rate set in the radio's menu system. When your satisfied everything is configured correctly, click the "CONNECT" button.
Status Window: Once the connect button is clicked, you will see activity in the Status Window. If you selected "Auto Detect" in the Port and/or Speed options, HRD will check each COM Port using each speed the radio is capable of using for a connection, until it locates the proper configuration for your radio and will then automatically connect and open the HRD Rig Control screen.
Once HRD locates and connects to your radio, an entry will be written in the "Preset" tab of the Rig Connect Screen, recording the actual Port, Speed, and Flow Control setting used for the connection. The next time you run the HRD software, instead of the Rig Connect screen opening on the "New" tab, it will open displaying the "Preset" tab. From here, just click [Connect] to connect to the configured radio.
NOTE:
In item #6 above, if HRD fails to start the Rig Control software with the RTS
unchecked, after the search times out, place a check in the RTS option, recheck the port and speed fields to ensure they haven't changed and click the [Connect] button again to restart the connection process.
HRD Rig Control
If all of your configuration settings in the Rig Connect Screen were correct, you should now have the main Rig Control GUI on your monitor. The first thing you need to do here is check to make sure the "Preset" for your radio was written in the Rig Connect module. Follow the numbered steps in the image below to check the "Preset" tab in the Rig Connect Screen.
On the main toolbar, click the "Connect" icon
This opens the Rig Connect Screen, which you are now familiar with.
Check to see if your radio appears in the "Preset" window. You might want to make a note of this information for future reference.
Click the [X] to close this window.
If you have had any problems getting this far in your setup or you receive any error messages when attempting to connect to your radio, please don't hesitate to contact HRD support for assistance.
If you have successfully connected to your radio and can control the frequency tuning, band and mode changes, etc., from the HRD Rig Control screen, you are now ready to load and configure each of the remaining HRD program modules, one at a time.