CI-V Adressing

Icom CI-V Bus Adressing

Each message (frame, packet, pdu) sent to a rig or received from a rig contains two adresses: the destination (to-adress) and the sender (from-adress). Each model has it’s own default CI-V adress, which can be changed by the user. If two or more rigs of the same model are used on the bus, you need to change the adresses of at least one of the rigs. Each individual device must have it’s own, distinct adress.

The ‘Icom CI-V Reference Manual (3rd edition)’ from 1991 specified the adress range from 0x01 to 0x7F. That range was exhausted in 2010 with the IC-9100. But Icom has been happily using addresses above the originally specified range without any issue. Now (Spring 2023) we are at address 0xAC (IC-905). With a rate of 1 to 2 new rigs per year that leaves room until 2036 or so 🙂. But then there are the odd addresses which haven’t been used at all in amateur radio products. Values 0xFA to 0xFF are reserved for special protocol functions.

There are some reserved adresses with special meaning:

• 0x00: Used as to-adress, means all connected rigs.
  Any rig with CI-V Transceive set to on should react to commands adressed to 0x00.
  Any rig with CI-V Transceive set to on adresses it’s messages to 0x00 when tuning the dial, changing mode etc.
• 0xE0: Reserved for the controller, i.e. the computer. But to my knowledge no rig really cares where the messages come from, so any adress could be used as from-adress.
• 0xFA – 0xFF: Reserved for protocol functions such as frame delimiters, Ok, Not-Good, collision signals, empty memory etc. These values must not be used as adresses.

Default adresses

Each Icom model has it’s own, distinct default adress. As a general rule, Icom used only even adresses ($02, 0x04, 0x06 …). Each model was given a new default adress when it came out. The user can change the default adress if required. On older rigs this was done by (re-) soldering some diodes, on newer rigs the adress can be changed by setup through the front panel or even by CI-V commands. Adresses can be selected from 0x01 to 0xEF, giving 239 distinct adresses.

List by model number

The following is a hopefully complete table of all known adresses from CI-V capable rigs, not only by Icom.

Thanks to John, Trevor, Dave, John, Sergey, Mark, Don, Stephane, Robin, Tobias and others who helped completing this table.

List by address

The same list, sorted by adresses. Since Icom assigned adresses in an ascending order when new radios came out, it gives a historical overview of the rigs appearance on the market (mostly, with some irregularities and gaps). This list shows only Icom rigs, not those of other vendors capable of the CI-V protocol. The years when the rigs appeared on the market are from my memory, info gathered at work or from www.rigpix.com (tnx Janne!).

Interfaces

• TTL: the traditional 5V TTL level, single wire interface
• RS-232C: Serial interface with ±12V levels, either 25 pin or 9 pin D-Sub socket
• USB: USB 1.1 or 2.0 socket, usually Type B or Micro-B, Micro-C for the IC-905
• Bluetooth. Some radios require an option to support BT
• Wifi: Only IC-705 so far, supports a different protocol to CI-V, faster, much more capable
• Ethernet: supports a different protocol to CI-V, faster, much more capable

Where do the gaps in the adress table come from? I have no idea. 😕 If you know I would appreciate an e-mail.