Malahit/Malachite?

⭐ All other radios not in the list below
stoat
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2021 1:56 pm

Malahit/Malachite?

#1

Unread post by stoat »

Has anyone used this software to control the russion Malahit-DSP SDRs?

if so, what settings are you using?

Max
Posts: 853
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 9:47 am

Re: Malahit/Malachite?

#2

Unread post by Max »

I would very much doubt it as it's not in the list:

https://www.sdr-radio.com/radios

Max

bagmouse7
Posts: 43
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2020 4:24 pm

Re: Malahit/Malachite?

#3

Unread post by bagmouse7 »

You can actually control a Malahit using the external radio connection in SDRC.
I am not sure what type of connection you were hoping for, but it can be controlled if set up as a Kenwood rig in Omnirig/External Radio settings.
https://www.sdr-radio.com/external-radio

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Simon G4ELI
Posts: 2134
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2020 7:27 am
Location: Mawnan Smith
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Re: Malahit/Malachite?

#4

Unread post by Simon G4ELI »

I also don't know anything.
Simon Brown :shock:
www.sdr-radio.com

Do not send me direct e-mail, thank-you!

etienne51
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2023 4:17 pm

Re: Malahit/Malachite?

#5

Unread post by etienne51 »

Hi. Not sure if I should create another thread or just post here, but since it's related to the Malahit radio, I thought I'd post in this one.

Today I just received my first Malahit, it's the latest chinese clone to date of the DSP2, but with the latest 2.30 official licenced firmware.
Very well built unit, with a complete solid CNC aluminium case, a lot of internal shielding for the separate modules, big front facing speaker that sounds really nice, both Hi-Z and 50Ohm inputs.

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For information, I bought it from Deepelec on Aliexpress, link below. This particular model is quite expensive I have to admit, but the build quality seems really good. Hopefully price goes down in the future.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006002813127.html

I didn't have time to test everything yet, but something very important to me was to see how it works plugged in to the computer.
So when plugged in to USB C, it shows up in Windows as 3 sound cards and 1 COM port:

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PC ► Malahit Headphone (speaker) - Plays PC audio on the Malahit speaker, but volume can not be adjusted at all, neither from Windows master volume, nor the radio! Individual software volume can be used.
PC ◄ Malahit IQ (mic) - Outputs 192kHz bandwidth IQ data that can be used on SDR software.
PC ◄ Malahit RX (mic) - Outputs the radio audio, can be used perfectly fine by WSJT-X standalone, alongside CAT control.

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PC ◄► USB Serial Port (COM5 in my case) - Bidirectional CAT control, using TS-590 protocol (see below for settings).

So, I first tried WSJT-X for FT8 decoding. It supports "Malachite DSP" directly, worked on first try. Frequency and mode can be set by software, all works perfectly as expected.

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Then I was about to download HDSDR, but I don't really want to use any other SDR software than SDR Console. I have all my settings on it, I tested a few different SDR softwares over the years, but I always very quickly come back to SDR Console. I was going to use HDSDR only for testing here, not as a permanent solution for the Malahit.

That said, before doing so, I went through all the SDR definitions on SDR Console, to see if there was not some sort of "generic" entry that would take a sound card IQ input, and allow me to control the radio via CAT. Unfortunately there was nothing quite like that, but the closest thing I found was SoftRock - XTAL with a fixed frequency.

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I'm glad to report that, using this with the External Radio plugin, and Omni-Rig controlling the Malahit, it gets quite cumbersome as I'll explain below, but it does work perfectly fine!

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Here are the Omni-Rig settings for the Malahit below.

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Now, this is not practical at all, and definitely not a "good" way to use this radio with SDR Console. But it gets the job done for now.
The issue is, it is impossible to use Track on the External Radio plugin, as the Malahit has to be set to the center frequency of SDR Console, and not move when tuning in the range displayed.
But when moving to another frequency outside the displayed bandwidth, then Track needs to be enabled to move the Malahit to the correct center frequency, and disabled again to tune the band.

I think it would be invaluable if SDR Console could implement a "generic" definition for radios that output IQ data using a soundcard, just like it already does with the SoftRock - XTAL option, but instead of being a fixed frequency, just select a COM port for CAT control with the correct settings (or use Omni-Rig) and let the radio in use track the center frequency (separately from External Radio, if possible), and not the tuned frequency.

Obviously, when tracking the center frequency, the radio will not be tuned to the same frequency being monitored on the software. The radio here would only be used as an IQ data source for the software, it can be set aside and everything has to be done in the software itself.

An easier and much quicker alternative could be to just add the option to External Radio to track the center frequency instead, I suppose? I might have missed that setting, but I don't think that's currently an option in the latest v3.3 beta.

That said, the Malahit has an option to fix the center frequency and tune within the displayed range. When getting close to the edges, it will start moving the center frequency. I don't know if this can be done via CAT control, but I suppose not. Quote from Malahit manual below, documenting the NCO ("Numerically Controlled Oscillator") function, and its limitations:
This function allows radio reception of signals without changing the center frequency of the spectrum. To control this function, go to the RADIO menu and select the value of the NCO parameter:
- Enabled - for radio reception of signals without changing the center frequency of the spectrum; in this mode, the sight moves, the center frequency of the spectrum does not change until the sight reaches the extreme left or right value; in this mode, signals with AM and NFM modulation are received with distortions when they are located in the center of the spectrum, at a frequency of 0 Hz - at this frequency, the signal carrier is suppressed due to hardware features;
- Disabled – in this mode, the sight is motionless, while tuning the center frequency of the spectrum changes.
Here is the full manual in PDF format for the DSP1 and DSP2:

Also, I just found out there is a new version of Omni-Rig, v2.1. But on their webpage it says the following:
The new OmniRig v2.1 is not compatible with OmniRig v1.19! The new OmniRig v2.1only runs with programs that have been developed for it, e.g. Swisslog v5.99e (Dec. 2019) and HDSDR v2.80 (March 2020) or v2.81 Beta6 (June 2022).
It might be interesting to add support for this, as it now supports up to 4 radios with much lower latency as well, as far as I could read.
- Supports now up to four RIGs
- You can name the tabs of your RIGs with your own text
- The minimum polling interval is now 20ms instead of 100ms
- The GUI of the main Window is bigger to see all your four RIG-Tabs
- GUI in English and German

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