Magic fingers

K9SO · November 2017

There are rare times when my 6500 needs to be reset. I mean factory reset.
This requires a physical button push of the front panel buttons.

I know, this isn't supposed to be required but there is not any software method that enables a factory reset. Being 800 miles away, this has been a problem for me on more than one occasion. Once, on a previous SW upgrade, the remote on feature was disabled by default and I was dead in the water when the radio did the required power down.

I do believe we really need reset capability in software now that so many of us are operating remotely, but the Flex folks have their reasons.

Always looking for useful projects for his 3D printer, my buddy KC9JOB, designed and printed up a bracket that mounts in the relay rack mounting holes on the side of the radio. We then printed up two “plunger” buttons to align with two buttons on the front panel. The plungers move in and out of the bracket freely. Pressing these two plungers manually will still activate the 6500's front panel buttons.

Then we took two Futaba model airplane servos and aligned them so that they would activate the buttons and not press down too hard. My "magic fingers". A bit of felt on the backside of the plungers prevents any scratching of the buttons.

Finishing the design with an Arduino micro with PWM outputs to control the servos, I can now remotely activate the physical front panel buttons using outputs from my IP remote switch to control them.

Overkill? Likely. Fun project? You bet!