Shut down via IP

Jay -- N0FB

I just got to thinking of a way to take advantage of Linux in a way to assist with Remote Management and remotely powering the unit on and off.

Current State

From a remote standpoint, if/when the Flex 6000 needs to be restarted (the radio is hung) you must rely on a third party piece of hardware and software connected to your radio to remotely hard boot.  This may be able to be accomplished within software within the Linux environment directly on the radio.  

The Idea

Create a separate protected process as a service within Linux whose job it is to listen to IP for the commands to "Restart".  My assumptions are that the linux distro being used in the 6000 is robust and stable.  Even if the radio's server-side software stops talking or gets hung and unable to continue communicating with the SmartSDR client software, I imagine that Linux is still running fine within its protected memory state and just the Radio Processes are hung.   This would mean that other process, such as the new daemon/service which I'm speaking of would also still be alive and well and capable of restarting the OS nominally.

Wake-On-LAN

If the 6000's ethernet port is capable, wired correctly internally and enable for Wake-On-LAN on the 6000, a "Wake-Up" command could be sent via IP to power-on the unit even if the radio is off.

In "Next Generations" of the 6000, FRS might even consider dual ethernet ports as to allow Multi-Homing and totally separate power management from the main Ethernet port.  If they wanted to offer this ability on the "Legacy" 6000's, they could sell existing customers an ethernet-dongle which would plug into one of the USB ports on the back of the existing 6000's to add this functionality.

All of this could be accomplished without additional 3rd party hardware or software.  

Caveat

I know I'm making a lot of wild assumptions as I don't know the intricacies of the hardware and operating system.  Theoretically it seems to be a plausible solution.

What do others think?

G8ZPX

3 years ago and not a single reply?

Yes yes yes. Even if not supported in the older radios then the 6400 and 6600 really should have this implemented.

Tim - W4TME

When the radio is shut down, Linux is not running.  There is also a good use case for having an external process outside of the radio logic to shut down the hardware.

Jay -- N0FB

Agreed. No Power, No LINUX.   That's why the Wake On LAN feature would likely need to be a hardware feature as implied by my original posting.   The shut down logic as you said could be outside the realm of the radio process.
 

G8ZPX

If implemented properly it shouldn't need Linux running. Like on a PC, WOL is hardware and BIOS control using the 5Vsb power rail. Windows is not even in the building!

Sounds like a design shortfall if a "remote server" can't do that.

Norm - W7CK

Tim states "There is also a good use case for having an external process outside of the radio logic to shut down the hardware".

While I agree with that, at present there is a need for TWO external processes.

1:  There is a need to have an external IP actuated relay that can be patched into the jack on the back of the 6000 in order to turn the rig on and off.

2: There is a need to have an exteranal IP switch that is able to shut down the 12 dc going to the rig so that it can be shut down when process number one fails. 

While I agree with the need for option 2 to be external, It would have been nice if option 1 was built into the 6000 like some of the other new rigs on the market.

Marc Lalonde

he what i do  is use a DLI "web" access server power BAR

i use outlet 8 for relay that do  on/off to the radio  
and if fail  outlet 1 is the Astron 12 PSU

in last resort  power-bar PING every 5 min  my home router via the 10km microwave link  ,if no ping reply for 3 PING it shutdown all outlet