Racal Cougar Standalone Programmer - Part 4

Since i posted about the stand alone programmer earlier this year i have been working on the protocol used to fill the crypto keys, a PCB for the programmer and a 3D printed case to house the electronics of the programmer.

Inside the programmer

In this post will try to give some details including the schematic and binary version of the code driving the programmer (the sketch it self will be released later).

Important:

This information is supplied "As is" meaning i'm not responsible for any damage to your precious Cougar. Also i don't have the time to support you on your build, feel free to send me an email message with questions but don't expect 24/7 support.

Schema

The design is basically made up of all the components described in a previous post, Racal Cougar Standalone Programmer - part 2 with the addition of some additional parts in a single schema used to create a custom PCB.

The programmer code should also work on a default Arduino Nano with a 4x4 keypad, an I2C LCD driver and a 20x04 LCD as long as you keep the pins connecting them to the ATMEGA 328 the same as used in the above schema.

A note on the I2C LCD driver

The I2C LCD driver is based on the NXP PCF8574A I2C 8-bit I/O expander. There are two versions of this IC: the PCF8574 and the PCF8574A which only differ in the usable I2C address range:

PCF8574         0x20 ... 0x27
PCF8574A      0x38 ... 0x3F

(see datasheet)

On the PCB and in the code i used the PCF8574A set to address 0x38.

PCB

I had some PCB's made that could be placed on top of the 20x04 LCD. This PCB contains the following parts:

• DC-Jack and power regulator to generate 5 volt to drive the battery charger
• Single cell Li-Po/ Li-Ion charger circuit with status leds.
• 5 volt DC DC converter (without under-voltage protection so use li-po/li-ion's with protection circruit)
• ATMega 328 micro controller (as used in Arduino Nano).
• PCF8574A I2C 8-bit I/O expander set to address 0x38 (see datasheet)
• Racal interface circuit (level shifter, DB9 connector)

The Gerber files for the PCB can be downloaded using this link.

Battery

I used a 18650 Li-Ion battery to power the programmer. There is no under voltage or reverse polarity protection so make sure you use a battery containing a protection circuit and when you accidentally connect it the wrong way around it will for sure damage the DC-DC converter IC.

The Sketch

I'm still working on the sketch and will release the code as soon as i think it is ready to be released. In the mean time i will provide a binary version of the sketch which can be downloaded using this link.

More information about how to upload hex files to the Arduino can be found on the Arduino forum using this link for example.

3D printed case

The housing of the programmer is made up of 3 separate parts that are tied together using M3 hex screws and M3 stand-off nuts:

• Top part containing all the elctronics
• 18650 battery holder that is placed on top of the keypad using 4 short M3 screws.
• Bottom part with ventilation slots.

I printed these parts using PLA and PETG with a 0.4 mm nozzle and 0.2 mm layer height and as long as you set the correct speed/ nozzle temperature there is little shrinkage. I haven't tried to print the casing using  ABS.

The STL files for the housing can be downloaded using this link  

Racal Cougar Standalone Programmer - Part 3

It has been a couple of months since my last post so its time for a quick update.

Last couple of months i have been busy working on the Racal Cougar Programmer and made two changes. I have made some hardware changes (more on that in a following post) and added support for crypto keys to it.

Have a look at the video above where i demonstrate how to program the keys using the programmer.

Racal Cougar Standalone Programmer - Part 2

After playing with the initial version of the Arduino Racal Cougar standalone Programmer i decided i didn't like the cheap stick-on 4x4 keypad used so i replaced it with a different one. After make a new 3D model of the case and printing it this is the result:

Version 2 of the standalone programmer

Wonder what's inside it ? Besides a 4x20 LCD, Arduino Nano and a 4x4 keypad there is also a 3.7 volt 1200 m.a.h rechargeable battery with a Adafruit charger/ booster inside the case.

Inside the programmer

Programmer in action:

Besides working on the hardware i also completed the Arduino Sketch making the programmer fully functional and able to program the PRM-4515. 

An introduction and programming a cougar using the programmer can be seen in this video:

Used components:

I used the following components in this programmer. Please note that the provided links are displayed for  reference purposes and i am not affiliated to both shops.

• Arduino Nano (or clone) (opencircuit.nl)
• 20 x 4 LCD (opencircuit.nl)
• I2C LCD interface module (opencircuit.nl)
• 4 x 4 keypad (opencircuit.nl)
• 5V Step-Up/Step-Down Voltage Regulator S9V11F5 (opencircuit.nl) 
• Adafruit 5V Lipo USB boost, 500mA (www.kiwi-electronics.nl)
• 3.7v Lipo battery 1200 mah (www.kiwi-electronics.nl)

Besides the component mentioned above i also used some items you probably have in your spare box:

• DB9 female connector + mounting screws
• Small power switch 
• Power adapter  9 - 12v DC + chasis connector 
• 2N7000 N-Channel mosfet
• 10K resistor

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.