For remote site is there any need to have a power disconnect?

Dale97

I am working with a Flex 6600 that will be moving to a mountain top repeater site when the weather improves. This will be a club station, completely remote controlled. The radio will be on both Internet and a microwave network. A Raspberry Pi will be on the same network as the Flex. When users make a VPN connection to the Flex radio it will activate a relay connected to the Flex power-on connector.

At the moment the Flex is always connected to DC power and the Raspberry Pi watches for a VPN connection and will turn on and off the Flex radio when a VPN connection is active.

I am considering adding a latching relay such that the Flex normally has DC power but in the event that "something goes wrong" I can have the Raspberry Pi disconnect power to the Flex and then restore power. I want to know if there is any need for this ability. I would use a latching relay so I was not wasting current through a relay coil all the time.

I did have one experience in which the Flex radio did not boot up. I investigated and found that the red light on the power switch was giving 3 blinks then a pause which I believe indicates boot failure. I have the Flex and Raspberry Pi on a VLAN and think the error may have been caused by some firewall changes that messed up my network. I resolved this by disconnecting DC power to the Flex momentarily.

I do not know if toggling the remote power connection on the back of the Flex will do everything that actually power cycling the radio will accomplish. Does anyone know if a remote site should have the ability to power cycle the Flex radio other than using the remote on connection?

I am really enjoying this radio. I am a long-time ham but this is my first experience with a waterfall display and also my first experience being able to operate from the comfort of my office while the radio is out in a somewhat cold shack. This is a great new experience.

Thanks, Dale, K7FW

Mike-VA3MW

Hi Dale

I have been running remotely since 2005. For my FLEX-6600, I use the remote RCA connector for powering it off.

When I really want to shut down things, I use another relay to turn off the Power Supply (70Amp Astron).

I use a combination of KMTronic web switches to manage this which work very well if you want to keep it simple.

https://info.kmtronic.com/kmtronic-lan-ethernet-ip-8-channels-web-relay-board.html

There are many IoT remote switches that will work as well.

I think you will find that there are many answers to you question.

73

Dale97

I spoke with someone at Flex and the answer is that for a remote site some way to power cycle the radio beyond just the auxiliary power jack is useful. There is always a chance that something could get messed up - this is a computer after all - and a power cycle would be desired. So for our remote site the radio will normally use the aux jack to switch power on and off but we will also have a large normally closed relay that we can open to remove power from the radio should we ever find that necessary to force a full reset.

Bob KC9RF

It is useful to have both the remote contact closure for the remote on/off and a complete power down. There are times where powering off the radio is needed. I recently upgraded the firmware on my 6600 remotely. a complete power cycle is necessary to reset .

There are many ways to achieve the remote power on with a relay contact closure. I have used the Microbit 1216H which has 5 relay contacts and each relay can be energized with port forwarding. Also I use the Denkovi 16 output relay module as a backup to my power on contact. I've also used other ethernet relays output cards to control the remote power on over the years. I have found that the WEMO Wifi outlets have not been reliable over the years and have switched to hardwired Ethernet relay cards with no failures this year at all.

David Decoons, wo2x

I use the DLI Web Switch Pro at two remote sires. They have 8 individually switchable outlets. I use two DLI AC relays at each location. One for Radio Remote On and other for remote control of Aux PTT. Aux PTT needed for SmartLink registration changes.

A PC at each location set up in bios to turn on when AC is applied.

A Raspberry Pi at each location running Node Red server.

Both AC Relays, PC, Pi, rotor controller, SteppIR controller, 12 v supply, and fiber gateway/router are plugged into the Web Switch Pro. All equipment interfaced to Node Red which has a web based dashboard accessible from any web browser.

Over time, you learn what can go wrong at a remote site.

73 Dave wo2x

Neil D Friedman N3DF

I have used WEMO Wi-Fi outlets on a nearly daily basis for 5+ years without issue. A very easy solution (with the inexpensive FLEX kit) for remoting the radio’s power switch and the power supply.