IC-R30 USB, CI-V & Cloning

Summary: Connecting the IC-R30 to a PC: the USB driver, serial (CI-V) control, USB Connect and Serialport settings, and cloning between receivers.

USB Connect Modes

MENU, Function, USB Connect:

• Charge Only – the USB cable only charges.
• Serialport (default) – program the receiver, output D-STAR data and GPS information, and remotely control it with CI-V commands. You need the USB driver installed.
• SD Card Mode – transfer files with the microSD card (see IC-R30 microSD Card: Backup, CSV Import/Export & SD Card Mode).

The USB Serialport Function (Function menu) chooses what the serial port carries: CI-V (Echo Back OFF) (default), CI-V (Echo Back ON), D-STAR Data or GPS Out. When Serialport is active and a PC is connected, the USB indicator shows on the display.

Installing the USB Driver

The receiver uses a Silicon Labs (CP210x) USB serial driver, on Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 (the manual’s list). Don’t connect the USB cable until after the driver is installed (it isn’t recognised automatically). If you already installed the CS-R30 software the driver is already there.

1. Download the driver from Icom’s Firmware/Software downloads (or use the driver on the CD) and unzip it.
2. Run CP210xVCPInstaller_x64.exe on a 64-bit Windows or _x86.exe on 32-bit, and follow the prompts (accept the User Account Control and Windows Security prompts).
3. Connect the USB cable, turn on the receiver, and confirm USB Connect is set to Serialport.
4. Open Windows Device Manager, Ports (COM & LPT) to see the COM port number. A “!” or “x” means the driver didn’t install properly: uninstall and reinstall it.

Some applications can’t use COM ports above 5, so you may need an application that supports higher numbers.

CI-V Settings (MENU, Function, CI-V)

• CI-V Address (default 9C): each receiver needs its own address (02-DF) if several are controlled at once.
• CI-V Baud Rate (Auto): 4800, 9600 or 19200 bps.
• CI-V Transceive (OFF): when ON, a change on one receiver is applied to other connected Icom equipment (the RS-R30 apps need it ON).
• CI-V USB/Bluetooth -> REMOTE Transceive Address (00): set a value other than 00 to stop external control through the [SP] jack.

To output D-STAR data to a communications program use 4800 or 9600 bps, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit and Xon/Xoff flow control.

The CI-V command frame is: FE FE, receiver address (9C), controller address (E0), command, sub command, data, FD. See the Advanced Manual’s command table for the full list. The receiver can also connect through an optional CT-17 level converter to an RS-232C port (not guaranteed).

Squawker Connect

Squawker PC’s Connect panel talks to the IC-R30 over CI-V; see IC-R30 Loading Frequencies From Squawker PC & Squawker Online.

Cloning

Receiver to receiver: on the master, save the settings to the microSD card (Save Setting), turn it off, move the card to the second receiver, turn that on and Load Setting, then restart. Voice recordings aren’t part of the cloning data.

From a PC: the optional CS-R30 cloning software works over the supplied USB cable, or you can edit the icf file (from the card’s Setting folder) in the CS-R30 and put it back in the IC-R30 > Setting folder using SD Card Mode, then load it on the receiver. Others, Clone, Clone Mode puts the receiver into clone mode for the CS-R30 (restart the receiver to cancel).