Flex, Steppir and Ver3

Sergey KN7K

I would like to share my observation and learn if anyone figure out how to deal with Steppir and Flex radio.
I have Flex6600 and AG.
My Ant 1 is configured to Vertical for 80/160m and Steppir 40m-12m. My Ant 2 configured to 6el 6m Beam.
I plan to redefine connections as Ant1 Vertical and Ant2 Steppir+6m Beam. That way I can use 40m Steppir and 80/160m at the same time.

Now about Steppir:
With ver3 (or even 2.4.9) I can open few slices but my Steppir will constantly switch back and force depends which Slice is active. 
It is not practical and even if I can keep it on the same segment in contest, let's say CQ at 14005 and look for multiplier around 14050 or higher, I have to wait for Steppir to retune every time it going to another segment.
My conclusion, that Steppir is not so practical for Flex radio with so many choises to operate, Steppir is just a bottlneck to operate effecitiently.
It seems like multibeam antenna or monobeam antennas are better choise for Flex. Unfortunatly it is not solution for me as I live on a very small city lot.
I do not want to open any complains about any product, i just trying to figure out if anyone use Steppir with multiflex function or few slices on the same band and what is your experience.
Thanks
Sergey, KN7K

Dwayne_AB6A

Sergey KN7K

Hi Dwayne, In this case palstar will have to retune as well, will take time, right? Let’s say you operate 15 and 20m at the same time

Andy - KU7T

I have found that auto tuning is not worth the trouble. I have a SteppIR and just manually tune it with the controller. If I put it in the middle of a band segment, I can work anywhere on that segment without retuning. Whether you tune it with the SD100 controller on your desk or with software (Pstrotator can do it) is your choice. 73, Andy KU7T

Dwayne_AB6A

Correct... Each user ideally would know to hit tune button before xmit.

Eric-KE5DTO

Dwayne_AB6A

Correct. Each user needs to hit tune before transmit. I do that anyway.

Dwayne_AB6A

The context is simultaneous multiband use.

Mark - W6MSB

Eric - a bit unrelated to this thread, but I've never been able to get this to work. Can you be more prescriptive on how to connect the TX Req Line to my SDA 2000 (which includes the tuning relay)? Thank for your help.

Eric-KE5DTO

The best place to start is here: https://www.flexradio.com/downloads/usb-cable-interface-guide-pdf/. See SteppIR on p12.

Mark - W6MSB

My SteppIR controller talks to my 6700 just fine via a USB cable. My question had to do with how to connect TX Req (the RCA plug in my case) to the SDA 2000 (or SDA 100 for that matter) in order to prevent the radio from transmitting while the antenna is tuning. I thought that was what you were suggesting in your original post, and for which I have not been able to get to work. I have studied both the hardware and software manuals, and have posted to this forum previously but to no avail. If you know the details, great. If not, no worries.

Mack

Mack

Dwayne,

I realize my solution may not be practical for everyone but here's how I address "retuning my SteppIRs" by a second multiFlex user. 

I have three HF towers. Two of the towers have SteppIR antennas and the third has a Mosely 7 Band antenna. Via lock out antenna switching I assign one of the SteppIRs to one user (perhaps the run station in a contest scenario. And the Mosley 7 band antenna to the other user (perhaps the multiplier station). This is for all bands 40M-6M. For 160M and 80M the antennas can be shared between both stations. Of course the 8 element active receive array can also be shared on 160M and 80M.

In summary I either share a multiband antenna or the second SteppIR with the second multiFlex station. Hopefully this will give you some ideas.

73,

Mack
W4AX
Alpha Team 

Sergey KN7K

Mark - W6MSB

Eric - thank you for following up and asking Mack to chime in. 

Mack - thank you for taking the time to write this up. In my last attempt, I tried to take advantage of the SteppIR supplied Y-cable where I ran a RCA patch cord from one female connector on the Y cable to TXREQ, and put a shorted RCA male connector in the other RCA  on the Y. I don't recall how I set the software, but I believe I set the RCA jack to Active High (which would have been wrong). Regardless, I'll try anew by just building a straight cable as you suggest and will report back. I'm in the midst of some intense travel, but will jump on it as soon as I can.

Thanks again!

73,
Mark
W6MSB

Eric-KE5DTO

Thanks Mack.  It's always great to have first hand information from someone who has done it.

Sergey KN7K

Pat N6PAT

Mike VE3CKO

Sergey KN7K

Mark - W6MSB

I finally got around to making this work. Again, my thanks to Mack and Sergey for taking the lead here,  and to Eric for kicking it off.

My solution is similar to what others found -- my cable connects TIP and RING (not COMMON/SLEVE/SHIELD) to the RCA plug. In radio setup, Interlocks - TX REQ is set to RCA: Active High.

Like others, I agree that TX does not cease if the antenna starts to tune during a transmission. Lockout is provided only if TX hasn't begun yet. For me, this isn't a particular problem, but I appreciate it is for others and I would like to see Flex fix this.

73,
Mark
W6MSB

AC9S

Hi Mark,

Did you connect tip to the RCA center connector and ring to the shield? I am not quite sure how this works; I interpret Active High to mean the transmitter will be disabled with +3v on on the RCA.

Keith - AC9S

Mark - W6MSB

Hi Keith,

If memory serves (which is suspect because I'm not even sure what I ate for breakfast this morning), yes, the 3.5mm TIP goes to the center of the RCA plug, and the 3.5mm RING goes to the RCA shield (I think more accurately called the Sleeve). I definitely do not recall exactly how Active High works, but I believe you're mostly right -- the transmitter can't be PTT'd if the voltage is >~1.5v (I do remember it's explained in both the hardware reference manual and the software users guide). Note that if the transmitter is already key'd, transmission does not stop should voltage be applied to the pin from the SteppIR controller.

What I can tell you, is that it all continues to work flawlessly to this day, except those times that my Flex seems to forget its configuration and I have to reset TX REQ back to RCA: Active High in Radio Settings (TX).

Hope this helps.

73, Mark, W6MSB

VK2PW

"Hi all,

Please find attached a video showing how to link a SteppIR SDA2000 or SDA100 Controller to a Flex 6xxx series radio over a remote VPN network and control the controller remotely. All cables used and required are shown to achieve this. The video assumes you know how to set up and configure a VPN Server and have client level access to it from your remote location.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t23hrbfsf7x22ve/SteppIR-SDA2000-SDA100-VSPE-FRStack.mp4?dl=0

You may need to remove the QUOTES from the link above or cut and paste without them into your browser. I recommend downloading the video if you want to see it as full resolution.

Adam
VK2PW

Alan

I just came across this discussion.

FYI, Dave, WO2X and I used Node-Red and FRStack to build a control system for another ham's multi tower, multi antenna, multi SteppIR yagi station.

The system is Flex Multiplex capable. Also, using Flex TCP commands, If either SteppIR antenna is "moving" and the Flex Client TX slice is using the "moving" SteppIR, Flex TX is inhibited.

The key is using N1MM to select the tower (rotor), the N1MM band to select the available antennas, and "F9" to toggle thru the available antennas on that tower on that band. All flows from the N1MM antenna config page. Each of the two rotor's gets it bearing inputs from N1MM, or any other source (Log4OM) in this case.

And then on the N1MM data entry page, you select the available antenna on that tower and that band with the band toggle "F9". Here is a screen sho of N1MM with Slice 1 on 15M and slice 2 on 40M. Antenna Genius does the antenna switching for each tower:

Here is the dashboard with Flex 6600, PG-XL, Antenna Genius, SteppIR and Rotor controls. Note on tower two, control is from "Log4OM" to demonstrate the ability to change the control source, when not using N1MM.

Alan

WA9WUD