Remote CW feature request

W9OY

I've been playing around with running SSDR on a remote computer in my office.  I would like to be able to send CW from a paddle connected to a physical serial port.  I have peripheral neuropathy which limits my typing speed and accuracy but I can still run a paddle pretty well.  I was thinking about this and just plugging a paddle into a port seems it would have a lot of issues.  So I thought a better choice might be a cheap keyer running the data stream on that port.  The keyer handles the vagaries of iambic vs single lever, memories, code timing and formation, and gives you a local perfectly timed side tone and the network needs to deal with only one serial input stream.  The radio would simply act as a CW modem and turn the CW stream into RF. 

I would create a port choice in SmartCAT that allows a pin on a RS232 to control the key port on the radio similar to what was done in PSDR, except this port would work across the network.  A very competent but cheap keyer for this would be the $20 K16 by K1EL

73  W9OY

Larry Loen WO7R

This appears to be a difficult problem in that latency is a killer. Do you send one dot or dash or buffer them and send several? remoterig offers a solution today that I use, but it is pricey. It seems quite effective, however, I get good results on CW except in times of significant ISP congestion. That is when I resort to CWX. Keep in mind that while the receive side is technically easier, the "stutter" that congestion will cause on receive can be significant. There are times (only an hour or two a day, max) where I just have to give up. It mostly works very well, though, even in fierce pileups. I suspect those who prefer CW above 25 WPM will be less satsified than I am (the higher the speed, the tougher all of this gets). I'm not sure that a really cheap solution will be satisfactory. we may require a cooperative solution with devices on the scale/cost of 50 to 100 dollars on each end (looking at raspberry pi at about 50 for a product with a case). Clearly, given what I gladly paid remoterig, there is money in a good solution (though remoterig does SSB as well as CW for that price and has a lot of configurability). We should not expect a cheap solution here unless the latency of the 2.0 (or 1.5) solution is really unexpectedly outstanding (read: low bandwidth to the point latency takes care of it self, doubtful IMO). In the short run, cleaning up and remotingCWX would make a lot more sense though it may not help your situation very much. A remote CWX would deal with latency better than trying to do dots and dashes individually.

Paul Christensen, W9AC

Lee,

I am using a pair of WinkeyerUSB devices, running K1EL's client/server software.  This allows for perfect CW timing over a LAN or WAN link.  Local sidetone injection comes from an N4YG audio DDS chip.  N4YG sells a complete CW sidetone kit that fits nicely inside the WinkeyerUSB.  Anyway, that's just one option that may work for you.

Paul, W9AC 

W9OY

Larry:  My latency is <1ms with 0 dropped packets.  The reason I decided to use a keyer is precisely to avoid latency issues and the vagaries of software keying and to solve the sidetone issue  I'm mostly interested in being able to conduct a CW QSO from my office to the 6500 in my ham shack and I'm not too worried about working CW over the internet, nor am I very worried about full QSK etc.  100-200 ms turnaround suits me fine.  I also considered using a AFSK scheme where you use the sidetone as a kind of AFSK source to drive CW from a DAX channel.  You already have VOX to turn the radio off and on.  Virtually every tablet has a MIC input but not every one has a serial input.  I expect some fancier solution will be needed to solve the internet issue.  In the mean time....

Paul  I have an old old 8 pin version of winkey serial which I was able to connect to my winkey USB using the k1el remote server, but I couldn't make it key the radio from remote.  I think there is an issue between that old chip's output code and the remote server/client instructions.  I think but it did prove the concept.  I went ahead and ordered a new USB 3 version but I suspect a pair of serial 2 versions @ $36 each would get the job done as well.  I'll check the side tome kit tnx for the hint

73 

IW7DMH, Enzo

Hello Lee,
I built a cheap solution, waiting for official remote cw key.
It seems very close to the feature you are asking for.

I am using it on my own vpn and up to 25 wpm I am not experiencing any issue.

All details are on my web pages http://iw7dmh.jimdo.com/remoting-idea...

W9OY

Enzo  Very cool

W9OY

why not just have a second 6000 program on the local computer decode the output from the remote 6000 program and send that data to a serial port then on to the key line of the 6300?

DH2ID

Enzo, I love your setup, congrats for your ideas and design! I am just starting to learn to program an Arduino. For CW I am using G4ZLP's CW keyer.

IW7DMH, Enzo

Many thanks, dear Alex.
I like very much your G4ZLP cw keyer.
Surely I'll get one, it is a perfect companion for my 6300 and Begali Expedition key.

73' Enzo

IW7DMH, Enzo

Probably because Flex Signature rigs have enough power to handle one or more cw key without external software. For this I suppose we need some more patience.
Anyway, I think the real challenge is having a remote Flex running next power amplifiers and dynamic antennas without a personal computer.
At least this is my wish, and all my experiments follow this unique logic

73' Enzo

W9OY

Your Ardurino solution could easily do this.  Simply make your remote program with different band buttons that turn on or off 4 pins on the Arduino.  Program the pins to follow yaesu BCD and switch the bands in the radio using the API.  Then when you choose 160 for example the radio switches to 160 and the BCD reads 0001 which then drives the amp and antenna to switch to 160. 80 is 0010 etc.  I use this technique with a ALS-1300 which speaks yaesu BCD and a Ameritron RCS-4 I modified to speak yaesu BCD.  I do have the local computer running DDUTIL to drive the logic but your Arduino CW keyer could easily be modified to do this stand alone at virtually no extra cost.  In fact I was thinking of modifying it to turn the 6500 on and off remotely in case Ineeded to do a reset. 

73  Lee W9OY

IW7DMH, Enzo

It is not as simple as you wrote, but I am thinking the same.
Actually I am working on converting my Due libraries for the Mega platform but I am having great issues with memory and probably (but non yet tested) with overall performance.

W9OY

Can you pick up the freq from the api on the laptop and have that convert to bcd band data sent to the arduino Ddutil can run on the remote computer and could export band data to the arduino

W9OY

Just an update, I built Enzo's circuit and have installed it on my 6500 station.  It works extremely well.  I wrote a blog post regarding the experience  sdr-w9oy.blogspot.com and made a little demo video.  If you want to do some CW work with a paddle by the pool this is the way to go.  No need to even turn on the computer in the shack, its all self contained except for 5v and a ethernet connection.  I have less than $10 in the system.   Combine it with a $20 K1EL K16 keyer or whatever keyer you have laying around and you have a remote keyer that far outperforms the WinKey remote setup.  BRAVO Enzo!!

73  W9OY