User Manual

Main screen

  • RSSI meter (top left corner), also serves as a mono/stereo indicator in FM mode (one/two rows).

  • Settings save icon (right after the RSSI meter). The settings are saved to non-volatile memory after 10 seconds of inactivity.

  • Wi-Fi icon (top right area near the battery). Different colors indicate the connection status.

  • Battery status (top right corner). It doesn’t show the voltage when charged, see #36. The only indication that the battery is charging is the hardware LED on the bottom of the receiver, which turns ON during charging.

  • Band name and modulation (VHF & FM, top center). See the Bands table for more details.

  • Info panel (the box on the left side), also Menu. The parameters are explained in the Menu section.

  • Frequency (center of the screen).

  • FM station name (RDS PS) or frequency name (right below the frequency). A frequency name appears for some popular frequencies like FT8, SSTV, CB channels, or a shortwave schedule. Can also display current menu option using a bigger font when the Zoom Menu setting is enabled.

  • Tuning scale (bottom of the screen). Can be replaced with additional RDS fields (RT, PTY) when extended RDS is enabled.

Alternative UI

The differences are:

  • Stereo indicator is on the right side of the band and mode (VHF & FM).

  • Tuning scale (right under the station name). Numbers on the left & right sides are the band limits.

  • S/N Meter (in dB). The range is 0…127 and the visual indicator linearly displays this range.

  • RSSI & S-Meter (the number is in dBµV, the meter is in S-points). Please note that the RSSI range is also 0…127 (no negative values) and according to these tables any values below S4 on HF (rssi < 4) and below S7 on VHF (rssi < 2) are bogus. Thus it is very far from being precise, and also depends on the antenna impedance.

Both meters can be replaced with additional RDS fields (RT, PTY) when extended RDS is enabled.

Controls

Controls are implemented through the encoder knob:

Gesture

Result

Rotate

Tunes frequency, navigates menu, adjusts parameters.

Click (<0.5 sec)

Opens menu, selects.

Short press (>0.5 sec)

Volume shortcut in VFO mode, context-dependent action in other modes.

Long press (>2 sec)

Sleep on/off.

Press and rotate

Direct frequency input mode, fine tuning in Seek mode.

Direct frequency input mode

  • Press and rotate the encoder to select the step (digit or “half-digit”).

  • Rotate the encoder to adjust the frequency.

  • Use short press to align frequency to the current step.

  • To exit the mode, click the encoder or wait for a couple of seconds.

Settings menu

  • Brightness - Display brightness level (10…255). The minimal one draws about 80mA of the battery power, the default one about 100mA, the max level about 120mA.

  • Calibration - SSB calibration offset (-2000…2000, per band).

  • RDS - Radio Data System options: PS - radio station name, CT - time, RT - text, PTY - genre, ALL (EU/US) - everything. Note that the time can be transmitted either in UTC or in local timezone, as well as be completely bogus. The clock is synchronized only once, so you can pick the right time source (switch the receiver power off and on to resync it again).

  • UTC Offset - Affects the displayed time, whether it was received via RDS or NTP.

  • FM Region - FM de-emphasis time constant by region (50µs for EU/JP/AU and 70µs for the US).

  • Theme - Color theme.

  • UI Layout - Alternative UI layouts. For now there is just one alternative UI with large S-meter and S/N-meter.

  • Zoom Menu - Display the currently selected menu item using a larger font (accessibility option).

  • Scroll Dir. - Menu scroll direction for clockwise encoder turn.

  • Sleep - Automatic sleep interval in seconds (0 - disabled).

  • Sleep Mode - Locked - lock the encoder rotation during sleep; Unlocked - allow tuning the frequency in sleep mode; CPU Sleep - the maximum power saving mode. With the display being on, default brightness, and Wi-Fi the power consumption is about 170mA, without Wi-Fi 100mA, Locked/Unlocked modes draw about 70mA, CPU sleep mode draws about 40mA.

  • Load EiBi - download the EiBi schedule (requires Wi-Fi internet connection).

  • Wi-Fi - Wi-Fi mode: Off (default), Access Point, Access Point + Connect, Connect, Sync Only. More details on that below.

  • About - Informational screens (Help, Authors, System).

Wi-Fi

The Wi-Fi mode (2.4GHz only) can be used for the following purposes (for now):

  • Time synchronization via NTP (Network Time Protocol).

  • Viewing the receiver status (frequency, RSSI/SNR, volume, battery voltage, etc).

  • Viewing the Memory slots with saved frequencies.

  • Manage the receiver settings.

  • Backup/restore the settings (EEPROM). The restore function only works on compatible firmware versions (if the settings were changed significantly, the full reset is inavoidable).

There are a couple of modes:

  • Off (default)

  • AP Only - Access Point mode. The receiver creates its own access point called ATS-Mini and starts the web server on http://10.1.1.1.

  • AP+Connect - Access Point mode + try to connect to one of the three configured access points. If the connection succeeds, the receiver will synchronize the time every 5 minutes and start the web server on both http://10.1.1.1 and a dynamic IP address it got from the configured access point.

  • Connect - try to connect to one of the three configured access points, start the web server on a dynamic IP, then synchronize the time every 5 minutes.

  • Sync Only - same as Connect, but Wi-Fi will be disabled after a successful time synchronization.

Initial configuration:

  • Enable the AP Only mode (the receiver will briefly display its 10.1.1.1 IP address).

  • Connect to the ATS-Mini access point from your phone or computer. There is no internet connection available on this access point. When connecting from a phone, it might be necessary to switch off the mobile data connection and any VPN/firewall software.

  • Open a browser and visit the following URL: http://10.1.1.1. The status web page should open. Alternatively, you can try the mDNS address <atsmini.local> in your browser.

  • Click the Config link. Here you can add optional login and password to protect the settings page, configure up to three access points the receiver will try to connect to, and set a time zone and other settings.

  • After that, switch the Wi-Fi mode to AP+Connect or Connect (the receiver will briefly show its new dynamic IP address it got from a configured access point).

  • Now connect your phone/computer to the same access point and open the new URL to check whether the receiver connected to the internet.

From now on you can switch the modes as you want and connect to your receiver either via the ATS-Mini internal access point (if enabled, mostly useful when there are no access points around), or via an external access point and a dynamic IP address. The receiver will always listen on the mDNS address <atsmini.local>.

Hint

When on the go, you can set up a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot on your smartphone and use it to connect the receiver to the internet.

Schedule

The receiver can download the EiBi shortwave schedule and use it to display broadcasting stations, allowing you to quickly tune to them. Here’s how it works:

  • The schedule only needs to be downloaded once via Wi-Fi. It will be stored in the receiver’s flash memory so it doesn’t need to be fetched every time the device powers on.

  • To display scheduled stations correctly, the receiver’s clock must be set. The simplest and most battery-preserving way is to configure a Wi-Fi internet connection and then switch it to Sync Only mode. The UTC offset setting doesn’t matter, as the receiver syncs via NTP in UTC. A less reliable alternative is to use RDS CT, but this requires finding a station that broadcasts UTC time (not local time).

  • Once set up, the receiver will display station names currently broadcasting on specific frequencies (only scheduled times are considered; days of the week are ignored for now).

  • You can quickly jump between stations using the Seek mode (marked by a clock icon). To switch between modes, short press the encoder while in Seek mode.

Reset

To reset the receiver settings (current band, frequency, favorite stations, downloaded schedule, etc):

  1. Switch off the receiver

  2. Press and hold the encoder

  3. Turn on the receiver

  4. Release the encoder after the EEPROM Resetting message appears

Bands table

Name

Min frequency

Max frequency

Default mode

VHF

64 MHz

108 MHz

FM

ALL

150 kHz

30000 kHz

AM

11M

25600 kHz

26100 kHz

AM

13M

21500 kHz

21900 kHz

AM

15M

18900 kHz

19100 kHz

AM

16M

17500 kHz

18100 kHz

AM

19M

15100 kHz

15900 kHz

AM

22M

13500 kHz

13900 kHz

AM

25M

11000 kHz

13000 kHz

AM

31M

9000 kHz

11000 kHz

AM

41M

7000 kHz

9000 kHz

AM

49M

5000 kHz

7000 kHz

AM

60M

4000 kHz

5100 kHz

AM

75M

3500 kHz

4000 kHz

AM

90M

3000 kHz

3500 kHz

AM

MW3

1700 kHz

3500 kHz

AM

MW2

495 kHz

1701 kHz

AM

MW1

150 kHz

1800 kHz

AM

160M

1800 kHz

2000 kHz

LSB

80M

3500 kHz

4000 kHz

LSB

40M

7000 kHz

7300 kHz

LSB

30M

10000 kHz

10200 kHz

LSB

20M

14000 kHz

14400 kHz

USB

17M

18000 kHz

18200 kHz

USB

15M

21000 kHz

21500 kHz

USB

12M

24800 kHz

25000 kHz

USB

10M

28000 kHz

29700 kHz

USB

CB

25000 kHz

30000 kHz

AM

Serial interface

A USB-serial interface is available to control and monitor the receiver. Use PuTTY or Picocom to connect to the serial port. Alernatively, open the following web terminal in Google Chrome: https://www.serialterminal.com/. A list of commands:

Button

Function

Comments

R

Rotate Encoder Up

Tune the frequency up, scroll the menu, etc

r

Rotate Encoder Down

Tune the frequency down, scroll the menu, etc

e

Encoder Button

The e emulates a single push and can not be used for EEPROM reset or long press

V

Volume Up

v

Volume Down

B

Next Band

b

Previous Band

M

Next Mode

Next modulation

m

Previous Mode

Previous modulation

S

Next step

s

Previous step

W

Next Bandwidth

w

Previous Bandwidth

A

AGC/Att Up

Automatic Gain Control or Attenuator up

a

AGC/Att Down

Automatic Gain Control or Attenuator down

L

Backlight Up

l

Backlight Down

I

Calibration Up

i

Calibration Down

O

Sleep On

o

Sleep Off

t

Toggle Log

Toggle the receiver monitor (log) on and off

C

Screenshot

Capture a screenshot and print it as a BMP image in HEX format

$

Show Memory Slots

Show memory slots in a format suitable for restoring them after the reset

#

Set Memory Slot

Example #01,VHF,107900000,FM (slot, band, frequency, mode). Set freq to 0 to clear a slot.

T

Theme Editor

Toggle the theme editor on and off

@

Get Theme

Print the current color theme

!

Set Theme

Set the current color theme as a list of HEX numbers (effective until a power cycle)

Hint

To edit/backup/restore the Memory slots, you can open this web based tool in Google Chrome.

The following comma separated information is sent out on the serial interface when the monitor (log) mode is enabled:

Position

Parameter

Function

Comments

1

APP_VERSION

F/W version

Example 201, F/W = v2.01

2

currentFrequency

Frequency

FM = 10 kHz, AM/SSB = 1 kHz

3

currentBFO

BFO

SSB = Hz

4

bandCal

BFO

SSB = Hz

5

bandName

Band

See the bands table

6

currentMode

Mode

FM/LSB/USB/AM

7

currentStepIdx

Step

8

bwIdx

Bandwidth

9

agcIdx

AGC/Attn

10

volume

Volume

0 to 63 (0 = Mute)

11

remoteRssi

RSSI

0 to 127 dBuV

12

remoteSnr

SNR

0 to 127 dB

13

tuningCapacitor

Antenna Capacitor

0 - 6143

14

remoteVoltage

ADC average value

Voltage = Value x 1.702 / 1000

15

remoteSeqnum

Sequence number

0 to 255 repeating sequence

In SSB mode, the “Display” frequency (Hz) = (currentFrequency x 1000) + currentBFO

Making screenshots

The screenshot function is intended for interface and theme designers, as well as for the documentation writers. It dumps the screen to the serial console as a BMP image in the HEX format. To convert it to an image file, you need to convert the HEX string to binary format.

A quick one-liner for macOS and Linux (change the /dev/cu.usbmodem14401 serial port name as needed):

echo -n C | socat stdio /dev/cu.usbmodem14401,echo=0,raw | xxd -r -p > /tmp/screenshot.bmp