New digital interface.

Lots of progress with radio-related technology this week, as my latest gadget - the Digilink Nano audio interface - arrived from Switzerland.

This was a 'let's see' purchase, as I had become irritated by ZLP Electronics' fine interfaces no longer featuring on-board in/out volume controls.  So I accepted that this is the way of interfaces in general now, and decided to look at alternatives, hopefully with noise levels similar to, or better than, the ZLP units that I've used heavily every day for so many years.

Small!  The digilink and supplied cables (you can choose cables for your particular brand of radio when buying the interface).  Coin is Peruvian 1 Centimo, 16mm diameter.

 

Despite potential Brexit delays, the Digilink arrived in just over a week.  The price for the unit works out much the same as a ZLP unit, so the question of which to use is down to noise performance and size - the ZLP is much larger and heavier.  Early WSPR testing, which will last for a day or two here, shows promise.  For example, all reception of 9Z4FV this morning so far:

[Update] A longer test undertaken the following day can be found here.

What I can say for now is that the Digilink is pretty easy to install, even on a Raspberry Pi, which has somewhat more involved processes than Windows machines.  After a very quick package download, the Pi was seeing the Digilink immediately.  Connecting to my Windows 10 laptop was entirely 'plug-and-play', with no need for any downloads at all.

Volume control from the Pi is now pretty easy, using simple Windows-like levels software.  The only problem I had was a 'senior moment', which I have quite often with the FT818, in that I had the wrong transmission mode set on the radio, so the rig was keyed, but no signal was appearing.  Once I woke up from my stupidity, the output power level controls on WSJT-X and JTDX worked as expected.

ZLP Datalink (no longer produced), compared to the Digilink Nano.

 

The online support pages are pretty comprehensive, extending not only to installing the Digilink, but also the various software packages we use.  There is personal support in the event of difficulty.

I think the seller has a nice interface, very small, neatly packaged and well-supported on an attractive web site.  It's not especially cheap, but if it has low noise, it's pretty much the going rate for a good audio interface.  Data on the Audio codec is found here.

In fairness to ZLP, though, I can see why he has ditched the on-board level controls now.  Whilst I still much prefer those controls because they are simpler and faster to access than software, level control from the computer is easy, and not quite the irritation I had expected, particularly with the Pi.