Some time ago I bought one of these small and light 2 in 1 tablets with Windows 10. The device was very small in size but the battery lasts very long. With only 1,7kg the weight was not too high for my portable ops. I did not take it into the field yet. The reason was simple: The tablet has one USB-port only. I need one port for the USB cat lead and another one for the USB-soundcard to connect my existing PC-interface made by Alan, M0AQC. After a long search on the internet I did not find a simple FT-817 interface with one USB lead, CAT-control and built-in soundcard. So what did I do? I built an interface that meets my requirements by myself.
I found the website from Dan, YO3GGX. He had the idea to put a cheap chinese USB CAT-interface, a USB soundcard and a USB-hub in one single box and solder everything together. I did it this way too, but for the audio path I used 2 600 ohm 1:1 transformer, which I ordered in China. They cost only 4€ incl. shipping and they work just fine. I trigger my PTT via CAT, not via the sound outlet of my FT-817. Not sure why Dan used the PTT which comes in the audio socket.
Here are his "manuals", from this documents you get the idea how to build your own interface:
FT-817 DIY Data Modes miniature USB interface
FT-817(ND)/FT-857/FT-897 DIY Data Modes miniature USB interface version 2
My USB soundcard came from China for 1 Euro shipped (!), the USB-hub was 3 Euro and the CAT-interface was 5 Euro shipped from Hong-Kong. The plastic box came from Conrad Electronic and was rather expensive with 3 Euro. The 8 pin mini din connector was taken from the USB-CAT interface and the 6 pin mini din connector for the sound in/out was also around 1 Euro. The whole project was about 15 Euros in total.
Here are 2 useful links for the sound in/out module:
https://www.min.at/prinz/o/oe1rib/CAT/SoundCard.htm
http://www.qsl.net/ta7i/index_htm_files/isokit_ftmdin.gif
I tested the interface after I assembled everything and PY1ON came back to me. Brazil, 9377.9 km (5827.1 mi). That was a nice moment, when the hard work paid off.
