HAMKit VMAC PiHat v2 Overview

The HAMKit VMAC AV PiHat v2, is a small board which provides a very flexible Audio and Video Switching Matrix, with on-board DTMF Decoder, OSD graphics, Video Signal Detectors and EEPROM.

This new board (Production July 2018), was designed principally as a Raspberry Pi add-on board, however, it can also be connected to other I2C enabled devices such as Arduino, Microchip, Tablets or PC.

The HAMKit VMAC AV PiHat v2 specification is based on the original Wiki VMAC PiHat Specification .

The difference between a HAMKit VMAC AV PiHat v1 and v2, can be found here.

HAMKit VMAC AV PiHat Feature Comparison List can be found here.

A revision from v2.0 to v2.4 has been made in July 2018.  This includes updated impedance matching between the Matrix FMS6501 and OSD MAX7456. This provides much improved video balance and quality between direct, matrix and OSD signals. Input diodes have also been removed as they were found not to be necessary and provided space for some addition passive components and test points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The reason for the updated board was to include an On Screen Display (OSD), capability, plus Video Signal Detectors (these providing a sudo receiver squelch logic automatically upon a valid video signal on an input).

Typical applications for the HAMKit VMAC PiHat are:

• ATV and DATV Repeater Control Logic
• ATV home, mobile or portable stations
• FM Repeater Control Logic
• Audio / Video matrix controller
  • • ATV/DATV
    • CCTV (Matrix or Auto Cycle Select)
    • FPV (5GHz Video Camera Receivers)
    • Video remote switching
    • Audio remote switching

The HAMKit VMAC PiHat is easily software controlled from the Raspberry Pi using your preferred coding language such as Python and all software provided is Open Source in order to encourage people to develop and help each other with ideas and applications.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ready Built Kit:

• 1 x HAMKit VMAC PiHat v2.4 (Fully built, almost ready to plug into a Pi 2 or 3 and tested)
• 1 x Pi GPIO Header Riser Soldered for Pi 2 or 3.
• 2 x JST 6 pin cables
• 1 x Set of Pi mounting posts/bolts
• 1 x Pack of 0805 components (allowing change of input types if needed)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note: A Raspberry Pi is NOT included in this kit.

Software:

All software and examples are on the HAMKit Wiki

User Guide:

The User Guide is a dynamic document and the latest revisions can found in our HAMKit Wiki pages.