← Back to hardware

USB GPIO Adapter

A USB GPIO adapter (FT232-bitbang or a dedicated USB-GPIO board) adds general-purpose I/O to a node computer that has no GPIO header — typically an x86 mini PC or a laptop-class host. Why it matters: On a Pi you'd use the onboard GPIO for PTT/COS; on an x86 ORLP host you don't have that, so a USB GPIO adapter (or the CM108 GPIO on a USB sound interface) provides the PTT output and COS input lines. Use: Expose at least one output (PTT) and one input (COS/COR). Combine with an opto keyer for isolation on the PTT side.