How-To Corner

Converting VComm Legacy Radios and Intercoms

To VComm Version 8 Objects

VPLus legacy radios and intercoms have been discontinued. In their place, a new generation of radios and intercoms has been introduced and is actively in use within VPLus Build 320. They were actually introduced a few builds ago in VComm V8[1], but a lot of house cleaning was performed in Build 320 which did away with legacy radios, intercoms, and their support objects.

The Old Legacy Radios

The legacy radios needed Split Audio Device and Stereo Connection objects to select a sound card channel and connect the wave in and wave out streams to the network (see figure below). These objects have been discontinued because they are just not needed as their capabilities have been incorporated in the new radios.

The New and Easy to Use VComm Radios

The new radios simplify your VPLus designs by removing the Split Audio Device and Stereo Connection objects. Use either the VComm GENERIC Radio, V8 DIS Only (2026) or VComm GENERIC Radio, V8 DIS/HLA (2031).

The antenna position information is now accepted in Geocentric X, Y, Z coordinates instead of Geodetic Altitude, Latitude, Longitude coordinates. But Not to Worry! If your old radio was accepting antenna position in Geodetic coordinates (say an ownship position coming from the host), you can convert this position to X, Y, Z Geocentric coordinates by wiring up object 2029 – ALT, LAT, LONG to Geocentric conversion.

Another thing that has changed is the Frequency pin. In the legacy radios, the frequency was expected in MegaHertz (MHz). The VComm radios expect this input to be in units Hertz (Hz). Converting from MHz to Hz is easy though. All you need is object 1018 – Multiply By Static Data Constant with a static value of 1,000,000.

The Volume, Squelch, and Exercise ID pins remain the same as in the old Legacy radios. Volume and Squelch have a continuous range from 0 to 1; Exercise ID ranges from 1 to 256.

The On/Off and PTT pins are new and are Boolean in nature, with 0 representing the Off state, and 1 the On state.

Static data remained pretty much the same. With the legacy radios you would use a Split Audio device to allocate a channel of a sound card for input and output. This is now part of the static data for the new GENERIC radios. Also note that the DIS/HLA radio has a Send To Network element which used to be a pin on some of the old legacy radios. You would normally want this to be set to a value of 1 for sending it to the Primary DIS Socket. If a value of 0 is entered, the radio will not transmit over the network.

The Old Legacy Intercoms

The legacy intercoms also needed Split Audio Device and Stereo Connection objects much like the legacy radios (see figure below). Again, these objects are not needed as their capabilities have been incorporated in the new intercom.

The New and Easy to Use VComm Intercom

The new intercom simplifies your VPLus designs by removing the Split Audio Device and Stereo Connection objects. Use the VComm Simple Intercom (DIS/HLA) (2032).

The Simple Intercom object is essentially a VComm GENERIC Radio with the following fixed attributes:

1. It is always positioned at the Geocentric center of the Earth (0, 0, 0).
2. It is always full-duplex.
3. It ignores bandwidth.
4. It does not model Wave Loss Propagation, Tuner Effects, Fresnel Effects, Terrain Occulting, Curvature of the Earth, Thermal and Atmospheric Noise, Squelch, and Automatic Gain Control (the radios do).
5. The CHAN pin is analogous to the FREQ pin on the VComm GENERIC Radios. Since bandwidth is ignored, the channel used between two (or more) intercoms must match exactly for communication to work.

The PTT pin is new and is Boolean in nature, with 0 representing the Off state, and 1 the On state.

Static data remained pretty much the same. With the legacy intercoms you would use a Split Audio device to allocate a channel of a sound card for input and output. This is now part of the static data for the new Simple Intercom. Also note that there’s a Send To Network element which used to be a pin on some of the old legacy intercoms. You would normally want this to be set to a value of 1 for sending it to the Primary DIS Socket. If a value of 0 is entered, the intercom will not transmit over the network.

For more detailed information on the specifics of the new radios and intercom, refer to the VComm User Manual, the VPLus Release Notes, and the VPLus On-line Object Help System.