4o3a Station Genius - SmartSDR Aware Software in Beta

Steve K9ZW

Just as an FYI a SmartSDR aware test version of the Station Genius software has been provided for wider testing.  It is up to 4o3a and 4o9itt if it is still a Beta or if it is considered a general release. 

For those not yet familiar with the Station Genius, it is a generalized station automation controller with a large flexibility in what it can switch.  As several of the outboard remote relay units can be daisy-chained and now 4o3a says a serious number of main units can be gang-controlled, the number of controllable devices appears to be in the hundreds!! 

Other than owning one and playing with on the bench under the Station Genius v 1.5 Firmware/Software I cannot say too much more.

Will be updating firmware and trying out the SmartSDR aware software hopefully before the weekend is out. 

As a note the Software version levels of the 4o3a Genius series of devices have nothing to do with your station's SmartSDR version levels, nor does the version level of one 4o3a Genius device have any relationship with another 4o3a product's software version level.

So your station could be on SmartSDR v 1.7.30.15 - Station Genius v 2.0.0 - Antenna Genius v 2.0.2 and Rotor Genius v 1.5.0 - and all would be good!

Report soon.

73

Steve
K9ZW

km9r.mike

Steve,

What value does station genius provide for Flex SS owners if an op is using just one flex SS radio ? I am just not familiar enough with the capabilities of the product. I did send 4o3a an email and it appeared that antenna genius plus will eventually (if it does not already) have the ability to command his line of antenna relays as well. In other words, AG+ will be able to command his stack switch to select either the top, mid or lower yagi or any combination thereof if I understood him correctly which would be perfect.

 I saw station genius, but thought that was more geared towards conventional so2r setups. If I was using more than one flex SS radio, I could see where station genius would be a plus but I do not see where this helps if I am not. Am I missing something ?

Steve K9ZW

Hi Mike I am still exploring the Station Genius, but here are some of the tasks i'm looking into: Turning off/on my radio Controlling a 2m Transverter and RX amp Controlling my beverage antenna switch/amp set up Remote shutdown of all station gear Remote control of tower motors Quick reconfiguration of station between Flex based station, all Collins based station and guest rig based station A lot will depend on what bench trials find, and how the present options for removing function. I'm anticipating this is the least likely 4o3a product to be integrated into the Maestro given its free form nature. im hoping the new version software makes more of the things I've imagined possible. 73 Steve K9ZW

km9r.mike

Thanks for the help and better understanding Steve. I also think I may have had an incorrect understanding. Interface Genius is more for what I stated above and SG is more like what you pointed out in addition it appears it can also be a hardware remote for AG and stack switches like you previously pointed out. Looking forward to you findings.

G8ZPX

Hi Steve K9ZW, a basic question ref antenna genius. I would be interested in this as a solution if it fits my needs. Is the soft/firmware able to create fixed relationships between certain antenna / amps mapped to certain bands...even when driven by external apps, such as HRD, FLdigi, M1MM+ etc.

Not sure about other people, but my antennae obey the laws of physic pretty well. Whereby my 80m full sized vertical will only tune/work on 80m. My SteppIR will only work on certain prescribed bands (driven by Fluidmotion USB interface from DDUTIL), my 7 ele for 6m only works on six, my beverage only works on 160m, my 6m amp is dedicated to 6m, etc. i.e. tuned components that only play on certain predefined bands.

Hence I am not interested in anything that follows random slice frequencies from DC to light, i.e. when on 80m I want the 80m antenna selected, likewise on 6m, likewise SteppIR for HF etc.

Can it do that for me? to give me faith that when I TX, I will actually be energizing the right antenna, instead of risking melting the balun in my steppir due to TX 400w of 80m up its kilt?

Fingers crossed!   Failing that I will guess I will be designing one to work with the BCD output of the DDUTIL.

Steve K9ZW

As I am in the learning curve with the 4o3a units, it would make more sense to call Force12 or contact 4o3a directly.

Not trying to duck or weave, but be realistic that my experience is not expertise.

73

Steve K9ZW

Varistor

Steven, yes, Ranko's products, along with similar products from microHam, allow you to map antennas to bands, including the ability to define RX antennas. These type of features and functionality have been standard in the contesting community for roughly 10 years. The "unique" aspect of 4o3a's station automation products is the use of IP based networks instead of the industrial RS-485 protocol used by others.

Ranko's user manual is pretty slim so if you'd like to learn about the realm of possibilities do take a look at microHam's Station Master (antenna automation) and MK2R+ (SO2R controller) products. To be clear, I am not trying to discount or dismiss Ranko's products- which are world class- just trying to point you to a very well written user manual. The GUI is of course different, but the functionality is the same.

Steve K9ZW

Along with others I had trouble updating to version 2.0 due to a downloaded file issue.

While I was traveling, 4o9itt posted a complete set of verified files on the 4o3a website, which I will be trying this week.

You go to http://www.4o3a.com > Support > Downloads - Then Scroll down to Station Genius to navigate to the files. 

Direct link to the downloads page (as of June 2016) is http://www.4o3a.com/index.php/support/downloads/ 

73

Steve K9ZW

Steve K9ZW

As an FYI you may need to watch out on download the .hex configuration file as Win7/10 want to do things like change it to an html file adding attributes and extensions. 

Type an level of mischief apparently depends on the browser being used.

73

Steve K9ZW

K1UO Larry

Steve  SG ver 2.0.1 was released this AM.

Regards

Larry  K1UO

Steve K9ZW

Thanks - fixes or specific changes known?

73

Steve K9ZW