PicoTuner – An Experimental Dual TS Alternative

Colin (G4EML) has recently been working on a great new project. Its a Raspberry Pico USB interface alternative for the FTDI FT2232H module. This module is fairly expensive and difficult to get in some countries so this is a welcome project. This project also supports dual TS reception with the advantage that you only need 1 USB cable instead of the usual two for the two FTDI modules.

The project is still fairly new and experimental but I’ve added initial support for this in the latest OpenTuner 0.9 and it seems to work well. Keep in mind that there is no adapter PCB available and if you want to try this then you will need to manually build your own adapter. (I’ve hear rumours that this will be used in the next iteration of the BATC Minitiouner V3 ;))

The instructions for flashing the Pico is described on Colin’s github page along with the connections required. But the process is fairly simple:

(1) Download the compiled firmware from the releases section
(2) Place the Pico into programming mode, by holding down the BOOTSEL button before connecting your USB cable.
(3) Copy the .uf2 file into the enumerated mass storage device.

Once the firmware has been loaded you only need to install the usb drivers to be able to use it with OpenTuner. To install the WinUSB drivers your need to use Zadig which can be downloaded here. Using Zadig you can now install the WinUSB driver for both of the USB interfaces presented by the Pico.

Keep in mind you need to install the driver for both interfaces. The driver install will probably be more streamlined in the future, but this is the simplest method currently.

By default Open Tuner will always look for the FTDI Modules, but if you want to use the PicoTuner then you need to change the default in the settings.

Keep in mind this all still very experimental, but we all do love a new project 🙂 Thanks to Colin (G4EML) for this great project.

73,

Tom – ZR6TG