Pi Pico Rx

User Manual

Revision 2
Copyright © Jonathan P Dawson 2024
 Pi Pico Rx – User Manual

Default Home Screen

Mode (LSB/USB/AM/FM/CW)
Signal Strength
Volume Battery Voltage (dBm)

Signal Strength Meter Tuning Frequency Tuning Step

(S Units)

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 Pi Pico Rx – User Manual

Optional Secondary TFT Display

Battery Voltage
Mode (LSB/USB/AM/FM/CW)
Tuning Frequency Signal Strength
(dBm)

Cursor/Filter
Spectrum Scope
Signal Strength Meter
(S Units)
Waterfall Display

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 Pi Pico Rx – User Manual
Home Page Actions
Menu Encoder Back

press press press

Enter Menu Memory Recall Change View

...

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 Pi Pico Rx – User Manual
Tuning
Menu Encoder Back

hold rotate hold

Normal

Slow (/10)

Fast (*10)

Very Fast (*100)

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 Pi Pico Rx – User Manual
Shortcuts
Menu Encoder Back

hold hold

Shortcut Description

Encoder Rotate Tuning Up/Down

Encoder Rotate
+ Tuning Up/Down x10
Menu held
Encoder Rotate
+ Tuning Up/Down /10
Menu held + Back held
Encoder Rotate
+ Tuning Up/Down x100
Menu held + Back held
Encoder Rotate
+ Volume Up/Down
Encoder Held

Encoder Rotate
+
Encoder Held Mode Select (AM/AMS/FM/CW/LSB/USB)
+
Menu Held

Encoder Rotate
+
Encoder Held Frequency Step Up/Down
+
Back Held

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 Pi Pico Rx – User Manual
Main Menu
Menu Encoder Back

press = accept/change rotate press = return/cancel

Frequency
Memory Recall
Memory Store
Volume
Mode
AGC Speed
Bandwidth
Squelch
Auto Notch
De-emphasis
IQ Correction
Spectrum Zoom
Band Start
Band Stop
Frequency Step
CW Tone
HW Config

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 Pi Pico Rx – User Manual

Menu Settings – Part 1

Setting Range Description
Frequency 0-30 MHz Manual Frequency Entry. Selecting a frequency
outside the current band will reset the band limits to
allow free-tuning across the full frequency range.
Memory Recall 0-511 Select One of 512 memory channels
(A channel can be a single frequency or a band of
interest)
Memory Store 0-511 Save the current frequency, mode etc. in one of 512
memory channels

Volume 0-9 Audio Volume 0=mute

Mode Receiver mode (AM, AMS, FM, LSB, USB, CW)

AGC Speed Very Slow Automatic gain control adjusts the gain so that weak
– Fast and strong stations have a similar volume level. Fast
settings respond quickly to changes in signal level,
(Manual slow settings change more gradually. A slow setting
Gain 0dB might prevent adjustments to gain during gaps in
to 60dB) speech. Manual gain control is also possible, this
might be useful when a constant gain is desirable,
e.g. when working with digital modes.
Bandwidth Very Adjust the filter bandwidth, a narrow setting reduces
Narrow – background noise and can improve intelligibility of
Very weak signals. A wider settings allows through a
Wide greater range of frequencies giving better sound
quality for strong signals.
Squelch S0 - The squelch function gates background noise. The
S9+30dB signal is muted unless the signal strength reaches a
defined level. Squelch can be adjusted to allow
signals to be audible when active, but remove
background noise when inactive.
Auto Notch On/Off The automatic notch filter can be used to remove
interfering tones. If stable interference is detected
consistently at the same frequency, a narrow notch is
enabled to automatically suppress the interference.

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 Pi Pico Rx – User Manual

Menu Settings – Part 2

Setting Range Description
De-Emphasis off/50us/ Enable de-emphasis filter
75us
IQ-Correction On/Off Compensates for differences in phase/magnitude in
the IQ inputs. Enable this setting to improve image
rejection (remove mirror frequencies).
Spectrum 1-4 Zoom level for spectrum scope. 1=30kHz, 2=15kHz,
Zoom 3=7.5kHz, 4=3.75kHz
Band 0-30MHz The band-start and band-stop settings define the
Start/Band tuning range of the current band. The band-start and
Stop band stop settings are stored in memory channels
allowing memory channels to hold bands as well as
individual frequencies.
Frequency 10Hz- Set the default tuning step. Note that fast and slow
Step 100kHz tuning from /10 to *100 the nominal frequency step
can be achieved by holding the menu/back buttons.
CW Tone 100Hz - When received, the CW signal has a very narrow
3000Hz bandwidth close to DC, lower than the range of
human hearing. The CW tone increases the
frequency of the CW signal to a frequency that can be
heard comfortably A frequency between 500Hz and
1000Hz is typical.
HW 0-9 The Pi Pico RX is designed to be as flexible as
Configuration possible to allow different configurations and
experimentation by constructors. A separate
hardware configuration menu is provided to configure
the hardware.

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 Pi Pico Rx – User Manual
Hardware Configuration Menu
Menu Encoder Back

press = accept/change rotate press = return/cancel

Display Timeout
Regulator Mode
Reverse Encoder
Encoder Resolution
Swap IQ
Gain Cal
Freq Cal
Flip OLED
OLED Type
TFT Settings
TFT Colour
Bands
Display Contrast
USB Upload

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 Pi Pico Rx – User Manual
Hardware Configuration Settings-Part 1
Setting Range Description
Display Never, 5 Display turns off after a period of inactivity. This can
Timeout seconds be useful for power saving when running from
–4 batteries. This may also help prevent noise being
minutes generated by the display being received.
Regulator FM/PWM The Pi Pico contains a switched-mode regulator.
Mode Under light loading, the regulator can switch into a
FM mode to save power, this does however increase
supply ripple. The PWM setting reduces supply ripple.
Reverse On/Off This allows the direction of the encoder to be
Encoder reversed (clockwise/anticlockwise). This allows for
variations in hardware construction where the
encoder is wired in a different configuration.
Swap IQ On/Off Swap the I/Q ADC input channels. Can be used to
correct for a difference in wiring of the LO inputs, or
IQ inputs. It causes the received spectrum to be
reversed so that positive frequencies become
negative and vice-versa. This is also useful for
checking image rejection.
Gain Cal 1-100dB Specifies the gain of the receiver, this is used by the
software to calculate the signal strength for the S-
meter and dBm signal strength. The breadboard
version of the receiver with default components has a
gain of 57dB. Constructors may use alternative gain
values, additional filters or preamplifiers. This setting
also allows the S-meter to be calibrated so that it
reads the correct signal strength with a known input
signal.
Freq Cal -100 to Allows oscillator frequency to be calibrated to account
+100 ppm for process variations in the pi-pico crystal oscillator.
Frequency can be tuned using a reference oscillator
or frequency counter. It may also be possible to
calibrate by “zero-beating” a station with a known
carrier frequency e.g. WWV.

Flip OLED On/Off Allows the display to be flipped horizontally, this may
be useful to constructors who need to place the
display in a different orientation. Only landscape
orientations are supported.

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 Pi Pico Rx – User Manual

Hardware Configuration Settings-Part 2

Setting Range Description
OLED Type SSD1306 Allows different types of OLED display to be used.
/SH1106 I2C OLED displays using SD1306 and SH1106 driver
chips are supported.
Display 0 to 15 Allows contrast of OLED display to be adjusted.
Contrast Lower values reduce power consumption, higher
values improve readability in bright surroundings.
TFT Settings Off, An optional SPI TFT (ili9341) display can be
Rotation connected to provide an enhanced waterfall/spectrum
1-8. scope. By default the secondary TFT display is
disabled. To allow for variations in hardware, 8
different rotation settings are provided.
TFT Colour RGB/ To allow for variations in hardware, 2 different colour
BGR settings are provided.
Bands Band 1-5 Pi Pico Rx provides 3 GPIO outputs to control up to 8
0 to band filters. The default settings are intended to work
32MHz with the PCB version and provide a good compromise
for a general coverage receiver. The boundary
between the bands can configured through this menu,
this allows constructors to define their own custom
bands (e.g. one band-pass filter for each amateur
radio band).
USB Upload Allows user specified memory channels to be loaded
(Memory) in bulk via USB replacing the default memory
channels. A simple Python utility can be used to
upload settings from a CSV files via USB serial
interface.
USB Upload Places Pi Pico into USB firmware upload mode. The
(Firmware) device appears as a USB drive, and can be upgraded
by dropping writing a .uf2 firmware image. This is
equivalent to holding the pico push-button during
power on.

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 Pi Pico Rx – User Manual
Scanning

Pi Pico RX provides a scan feature, the scan feature can be

accessed as a separate “home screen view”. (Different views
can be selected by pressing the “back” button on the home
screen.

There are 2 scanning modes, frequency scan and memory

scan. In frequency scan mode, the receiver searches for
signals in the current band frequency range (e.g. 20m SSB
band). In memory scan mode, the receiver searches memory
channels for active signals.

The encoder controls both the direction and speed of the

search.

In both modes, the squelch setting is used to determine the

threshold level, if the signal strength exceeds the squelch
threshold, the search is halted. Searching can be continued
by rotating the encoder.

The current signal strength and squelch level are indicated by

a vertical bar on the right hand side.

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 Pi Pico Rx – User Manual
CAT Control
Cat control is provided through a USB serial port interface.
The Pi Pico Rx emulates a subset Kenwood TS-480. The
CAT interface allows the receiver to be controlled via a host
device by software such as grig, wsjtx and fldigi.

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 Pi Pico Rx – User Manual
USB Audio
The Pi Pico Rx supports USB audio, and when connected
should appear as a USB microphone. This allows a host
device to easily make audio recordings (e.g. using audacity),
and is compatible with software such as wsjtx, fldigi and
QSSTV. When combined with USB cat control allows a fully
functional PC connection using only a single USB cable. The
direct digital audio connection provides superior audio quality
compared to an analogue connection using a sound card.

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