Remote operating and Node Red

Alan

Well.....tried again, and this time it worked.   Maybe I did not get a full "copy".

By the way, upgraded to SDR 3.17 and all went smooth. Everything including Maestro and multiple third-party apps worked out of the box.  W10 running on Mac Parallels.  Nice!

Alan

Thanks, Mike for encouraging me to try out Node-Red.  I am hooked.

Here is a screenshot of my LEO Satellite Tracking Screen.  I was previously using my iPhone Home Kit to control the antenna selection, pre-amps and polarity.  Now, using Node-Red, I have an on-screen antenna control panel.   Nice.

The new antenna control panel is on the right, just below Smart SDR.

The shack is in the house about 200 feet from where all of the radio and antennas are located, so remote control over the LAN is a "must" need.

Now, working on a monitor panel for the server cabinet containing all of the radios and auxiliary equipment.  The server cabinet is in a somewhat dusty environment, so I have a fan configuration to regulate air temperature while keeping a slight positive pressure inside for dust containment.  Present controls are analog and I do not plan to change.  Just want to monitor in case something fails.

The Flex API remains a mystery to me.

Will share any of my work products or point you to where got them, just ask.

Alan
WA9WUD

Mike-VA3MW

Nice job!  Dave has some Flex IP stuff he can share and if you can follow the code, you can hack your way to the next part.  I just love the way I can rapidly prototype this.

BTW, if using Chrome for your interface, you can shrink the screen size with zoom in and zoom out.  I run mine at 50% but if someone is vision impaired, they could go to 200% as well.

Mike

David Decoons, wo2x

If anyone would like copies of my flows, please email me at my call at arrl dot net. Allow a day or so to get back to you. Had major surgery today and laying in a hospital bed unable to sleep. Dave wo2x

Alan

Thanks, Dave

I am in receipt of your flows two weeks ago.  Thanks.

Please get well soon.  I too had surgery and am in the end stages of recuperation.

Back to the flows.  

I was able to get your VITA49 flow working nicely.  I see that it receives the UDP broadcasts from port 4992 of the Flex.

I have not been able to get your "flexradio" flow to work.  I see that the flow sends a request to the Flex API and looks for a response.  You then parse the response into desired parameters for Node-Red to process.  Your "flexradio" flow also uses port 4992, same as the VITA49.  Is that correct?   Node-Red is reporting an error message saying there is a port conflict??

Get well and maybe we can talk more after your recuperation.

Alan
WA9WUD

David Decoons, wo2x

Hi Alan They are sending me Down for a nerve block. I will resend the flows as I tweaked and fixed a few things. Make sure to edit the FlexRario flow to set the IP of the TCP send to match the IP of your radio, not PC. There were a few tweaks. I changed VFO A Freq to TX Freq. also added some stuff to the KPA1500 flow as well as fixed the Wake On LAN feature. Added power status and power off by tons as well. The DLI Web Switch was tweaked to increase the icon size to make it easier from a smartphone. 73 Dave wo2x

Chris DL5NAM

where i cant found my missing usb relay ?  Get always "unknown Node Typ"
[that's my first steps with]

Mike-VA3MW

I have added my KMTronic flow to GitHub.

https://github.com/va3mw/node-red-KMTronic

Mike

K1UO Larry

Be well Mr. Dave

Larry  K1UO

David Decoons, wo2x

Thanks Larry. Leave it to me to get a very rare infection in my artificial knee. Luckily I have found probably The Best doctor to deal with it. Now sitting in a hospital in Philadelphia, two hours from home..

They removed the knee joint and installed rods, plates, and cement spacers until the infection is cleared. Could be anywhere from 3 to 12 months.

Dave

Stefan AF6SA

Building my station with ESP8266 based controllers.
Link to some info, pictures and movie:

http://af6sa.com/projects/automation.html

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPTfS6H3qpxggioas6Y9aGIAayQ-eyuq-YFuLbr4X0XL4mGFXooXrlWsm0b5KvP...

Currently have a antenna tuner / switch with 24 outputs and FWD/REV power meter, Amplifier controller to my home build PA and a 3x rotor controllers on Wi-Fi.
Working to integrate all the data into a single WEB page for remote control.

Stefan / AF6SA

Alan

Mike

I tried to load your flow and only the Dashboard Node was included in the file.

Alan

Mike-VA3MW

Which flow and where did you load it from?  I have flows sort of scattered all of the place.

Alan

I spent some time looking at the Flex Downloads for the API.  I did not recognize any of the file types.

On the "Description" Tab, Flex says, "SmartSDR FlexLib provides access to the SmartSDR TCP and UDP/IP APIs using .NET classes and events."

Can anyone point me to a learning source for the above?

Or....am I in the wrong category for learning how to use Node-Red with the Flex API?

Alan

Mike-VA3MW

There are a number of project that use Node-Red and ESP8266 devices.  This is one example.

https://randomnerdtutorials.com/esp8266-and-node-red-with-mqtt/

Mike

Alan

Sorry

KMTronic flow on GitHub

Mike-VA3MW

ooopppps.. try it now

Stefan AF6SA

Thanks, They are many, and MQTT is good to turn on your lights and/or radio.
But it's to slow to read and send data in real time.

Mike-VA3MW

Hi StefanI know of at least one contest station using MQTT. What part is too slow for you that you need sub-second response time?Can you provide some examples? Mike

Joe N3HEE

I've been using this document with Node-Red and Flex.  Been having issues sending commands to radio consistently.  Getting error messages back from radio saying malformed commands?  Not sure if this document is up to date.  I am running 2.5.1 firmware.

http://wiki.flexradio.com/index.php?title=SmartSDR_TCP/IP_API#SmartSDR_TCP.2FIP_API

David Decoons, wo2x

Joe

just got home from the hospital last night. I have plenty of time. 

Send your flow you are having issues with and I will try to debug it. I really haven’t done much with Flex communications but can give it a try.

73
Dave wo2x

Mike-VA3MW

What Dave said.    I'll look at flow as well.

Joe N3HEE

Only having issues sending commands to radio via Node-Red TCP node.  If I use Putty all is good.  I also found that you must subscribe to objects to get status messages from radio.  For example issue command (C21|sub slice all) to subscribe to all slices and receive messages pertaining to any slice information like frequency, mode, filters, etc.

Joe N3HEE

OK. I will send you my flows.  This needs to be straightened out before I go any further with Node-Red.  Thanks -Joe

Joe N3HEE

Node-Red 1.0 released 9/30/19. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIVBZQi18fQ

Joe N3HEE

I figured out how to send commands to the radio last night.  You have to append a carriage return and new line (
) onto the command.  I use function nodes to send commands to the radio. 

Function node to set CW speed:

msg.payload = "C19|cw wpm " +msg.payload +"
";
return msg;

The speed value (0-50) is sent to the function node above via a slider node.

NOTE :

Thanks to Eric at Flex radio to help me understand how to receive certain messages from my radio.

In order to receive and then parse messages you must first subscribe to an object using the Flex Ethernet API. 

For example, to receive and parse messages about ALL slice information and changes send the command below to the radio.  The messages will then start to flow when changes are made to a slice such as frequency, mode, filters, etc.

msg.payload = "C21|sub slice all
";

return msg;

See the SUB and UNSUB commands in the SmartSDR Ethernet API.

http://wiki.flexradio.com/index.php?title=TCP/IP_sub

My basic Node-Red dashboard so far...

I am not a "real" programmer but I can now build a cool web interface to my Flex 6600M using Node-Red via the Flex SmartSDR Ethernet API.  I've learned allot and had fun doing it !

http://wiki.flexradio.com/index.php?title=SmartSDR_Ethernet_API

David Decoons, wo2x

Thanks for sharing Joe. 

I haven’t ventured into the shack yet since I got home from the hospital but plan to do so today

Dave wo2x

Joe N3HEE

Next steps are remote audio, tuning the radio and sending CW via Node-Red.  Then I will have a more usable web interface. 

I will publish my Node-Red code when I'm finished. 

Mike-VA3MW

It is awesome how these things evolve.  

I added a 24V FAN to the cabinet running on a 12V circuit.  So, next I needed a fan control to turn it on and off.   Bam.. I have a thermostat that uses one of the relays in the KMTronic.    It checks the Temp as recorded by the probe on the RPI every 5 minutes.

I'm still working on smoothing it out.  I need to understand how the high and low pass filters work.  

Mike 

David Decoons, wo2x

I’ve been doing a lot of remote operating over the last 1 1/2 weeks. I have been using the iPad and Bose earbuds. Then bringing up Node Red GUI on my iPhone for monitoring and control of ancillary equipment. Node Red has been flawless.

If a solution for audio from radio to Android phone can be easily cobbled together then radio control and operation from an Android phone is doable. Don’t get me wrong, it is not going to be a replacement for Marcus’s excellent SmartSDR for IOS but a fun project none the less.

Just a thought.

Dave wo2x