Racal Cougar Standalone Programmer - Part 1

After completing the first version of the Racal Cougar Programmer i decided to make a standalone version of this programmer.

This post is a little sneak preview of this project i am currently working on.

 Development version of programmer with 4x20 LCD and keypad.

After collecting the required parts like an Arduino, 4x20 LCD, 4x4 keypad and rechargeable battery i started working on the user interface and menu. This was taking longer as expecting mainly because the existing menu libraries didn't fit my needs so i needed to write my own menu code.

At this moment the menu and user interface are complete, all features of the programmer can be controlled using the keypad and all what is left to do at software level is copying the code which is handling the actual programming  from the original programmer and execute it when the program menu option is selected.

The hardware displayed on the picture is a 3D printed case i made with the purpose of keeping all parts together while writing the Arduino code.

Development version inside view.

As you can see on thee picture it is missing some essential parts like a bottom and parts like the rechargeable battery and controller are just tossed in there.

So on the Hardware part there is still a lot to do and this will be next on my to do list.

Programmer in action:

If you are in a hurry and looking for a working solution to program your Racal Cougar PRM4515 check this post were you can find the schematic and a linkt to the Arduino sketch of my console-based programmer using an Arduino.