Remote operating and Node Red

Thanks Lee

You are way ahead of me.

But, I did get my basic switch working and a web page built for it.  The learning curve is key, but in about an hour, I now have my basic web interface that even looks good on an iPhone.  If anyone is interested in the very very basics, I'm happy to explain further as I find getting from getting it installed to sort of working is a big jump and all the tutorials have a different focus.    Let me know and I can a video in baby step mode and how it works for us ham operators.

I even added a few hosts to ping to see if they are running.  

This is with 2 relays and I really didn't have to write a single line of code.  Relays 3 and 4 haven't been moved to display on a web page yet.

This is how I created the actual dashboard http://www.steves-internet-guide.com/node-red-dashboard/

Mike va3mw

Hi John

If the Digital Logger Web switch can be commanded via an API or something similar, I would say yes.  You  may want to look in the NodeRed repository and see if anyone else has done it.  

Yes, it could.  I am already querying the radio for RF power and such.  This is a big advantage of the Flex  product and their API's.

No idea, as I don't do any remote connections such as that.  Again, you could ask in the NodeRed user group and I am sure someone has played with it already.

Mike va3mw

Hi Steve

If you got it running, that is great.  

I think the next step is to build some of your own flows and see if you can get a GPIO port to turn on and off.  

Since all our HAM stuff is generally RS232 (except Flex Radios which does LAN based communication), what is it that you want to control?  Let me know and I can help you get started.  If it is RS232, there are some Palettes, you'll need to install.  

The Palettes are the plug ins to do things.  You will need the Dashboard palette.  And the Serial (RS232) one.  

See if you can get those loaded and then share with us what you want to control.

Mike

That is awesome!!  Nice job.  

What I liked about playing with Node-red is that it was easy to make progress and be successful.


Case in point.

I added 2 temperature probes to my RPI so that I could see and be alerted if the cooling fans in my remote case failed.  

But, first, I need to be able to read the LM75s could be imported into the Dashboard.

The LM75 uses the I2C buss and getting them working is well documented.  http://www.pibits.net/code/raspberry-pi-and-lm75-temperature-sensor-example.php

But, I needed to be able to just see the temperature.  I had to make sure I2C was working on the RPI and what 'address' they were using.  Again, Google.   There are other Temperature probes like the bmp180, bmp280, bme280 and more (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2652).  

Then, I found this code, which I could never write on my own to pull the temperature from the probe (I am going to **** this line apart so I understand it later this week).

sudo i2cget -y 1 0x48 0x00 w |awk '{printf("%0.1f C
",(a=((("0x"substr($1,5,2)substr($1,3,1))*0.0625)+0.1) )>128?a-256:a)}'

That turned into this using the Node-red Exec box (you paste the above in the Exec).  That means you want Node-Red to Execute the command on the RPI which is a Linux operating system.  



And, then using the Dashboard tools (for others to see how it is done).  This is called a Pallet and you will need to install it https://flows.nodered.org/node/node-red-dashboard.  This is the tool that helps you to be so successful to create a web interface.

Now, I can monitor the temperature in my case, and even write some more actions to turn fans on and off.  




Here is my flow in case you want to look at it.  I added the I2C scan stuff.

[{"id":"e91d7619.a8a808","type":"tab","label":"Temps","disabled":false,"info":""},{"id":"ebd6490b.83a8d8","type":"inject","z":"e91d7619.a8a808","name":"","topic":"","payload":"","payloadType":"date","repeat":"30","crontab":"","once":true,"onceDelay":0.1,"x":147,"y":95,"wires":[["94bd0a6b.717018","962dd4e9.d622d8"]]},{"id":"94bd0a6b.717018","type":"exec","z":"e91d7619.a8a808","command":"sudo i2cget -y 1 0x48 0x00 w |awk '{printf(""%0.1f C\n"",(a=(((""0x""substr($1,5,2)substr($1,3,1))*0.0625)+0.1) )>128?a-256:a)}'","addpay":false,"append":"","useSpawn":"false","timer":"10","oldrc":false,"name":"Temp","x":431,"y":130.5,"wires":[["3f59295f.8041e6","fb9bbee7.2754c"],[],[]]},{"id":"962dd4e9.d622d8","type":"exec","z":"e91d7619.a8a808","command":"sudo i2cget -y 1 0x4a 0x00 w |awk '{printf(""%0.1f C\n"",(a=(((""0x""substr($1,5,2)substr($1,3,1))*0.0625)+0.1) )>128?a-256:a)}'","addpay":false,"append":"","useSpawn":"false","timer":"10","oldrc":false,"name":"Temp","x":435,"y":216,"wires":[["f04cc7b4.eb6988","98197d69.8d7c3"],[],[]]},{"id":"3f59295f.8041e6","type":"ui_text","z":"e91d7619.a8a808","group":"2dbe67ac.f10de8","order":12,"width":0,"height":0,"name":"","label":"Mid Temp","format":"{{msg.payload}}","layout":"row-spread","x":784,"y":221,"wires":[]},{"id":"f04cc7b4.eb6988","type":"ui_text","z":"e91d7619.a8a808","group":"2dbe67ac.f10de8","order":11,"width":0,"height":0,"name":"","label":"Top Temp","format":"{{msg.payload}}","layout":"row-spread","x":753,"y":309,"wires":[]},{"id":"98197d69.8d7c3","type":"ui_chart","z":"e91d7619.a8a808","name":"","group":"cd1c8110.1e37e","order":1,"width":0,"height":0,"label":"Top Temp","chartType":"line","legend":"false","xformat":"HH:mm","interpolate":"linear","nodata":"","dot":false,"ymin":"","ymax":"","removeOlder":1,"removeOlderPoints":"","removeOlderUnit":"3600","cutout":0,"useOneColor":false,"colors":["#1f77b4","#aec7e8","#ff7f0e","#2ca02c","#98df8a","#d62728","#ff9896","#9467bd","#c5b0d5"],"useOldStyle":false,"outputs":1,"x":778,"y":390,"wires":[[]]},{"id":"fb9bbee7.2754c","type":"ui_chart","z":"e91d7619.a8a808","name":"","group":"cd1c8110.1e37e","order":2,"width":0,"height":0,"label":"Mid Temp","chartType":"line","legend":"false","xformat":"HH:mm","interpolate":"linear","nodata":"","dot":false,"ymin":"","ymax":"","removeOlder":1,"removeOlderPoints":"","removeOlderUnit":"3600","cutout":0,"useOneColor":false,"colors":["#1f77b4","#aec7e8","#ff7f0e","#2ca02c","#98df8a","#d62728","#ff9896","#9467bd","#c5b0d5"],"useOldStyle":false,"outputs":1,"x":791,"y":270,"wires":[[]]},{"id":"7de9d007.be84c","type":"i2c in","z":"e91d7619.a8a808","name":"","address":"74","command":"0","count":"1","x":432.07643127441406,"y":544.6805801391602,"wires":[["a76aec42.2ce13"]]},{"id":"c0ed8a1e.519778","type":"i2c scan","z":"e91d7619.a8a808","x":427.07643127441406,"y":443.72571563720703,"wires":[["a76aec42.2ce13"],[]]},{"id":"7222be8f.680f5","type":"inject","z":"e91d7619.a8a808","name":"","topic":"","payload":"","payloadType":"date","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"onceDelay":0.1,"x":195.07987213134766,"y":439.9722261428833,"wires":[["c0ed8a1e.519778","7de9d007.be84c"]]},{"id":"a76aec42.2ce13","type":"debug","z":"e91d7619.a8a808","name":"","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"false","x":717.5277862548828,"y":495.94791412353516,"wires":[]},{"id":"2dbe67ac.f10de8","type":"ui_group","z":"","name":"RF Info","tab":"d6ba9a2a.f3f0d8","order":7,"disp":true,"width":"5","collapse":false},{"id":"cd1c8110.1e37e","type":"ui_group","z":"","name":"Temps","tab":"1abf24f5.9cd13b","disp":false,"width":"8","collapse":false},{"id":"d6ba9a2a.f3f0d8","type":"ui_tab","z":"","name":"VA3MW Shack Control","icon":"dashboard","order":1,"disabled":false,"hidden":false},{"id":"1abf24f5.9cd13b","type":"ui_tab","z":"","name":"RPi Control","icon":"dashboard","order":1}]

Hi Rudy

I don't, but then, I am the only user and I don't hot switch.    When I change bands, I stop for 10 seconds and check Antenna settings and RF power settings.  That comes from blowing a few things up at 3 in the morning.  At least any current equipment today has amazing protection built-in, and the Flex radios are no exception.  

However, since all the status of the radio is available by doing a TCP connection to the radio, you could script it then do some lockouts.

As for SO2R and multiple clients, I haven't tested that at all personally.  Others are playing with it, so you might want to ask in the main community as they might miss it in this thread.

FRStack has some of these features http://www.mkcmsoftware.com/Flex/Index.  I think that Carl N4PY's Pegasus may also have some features to help with that. http://www.n4py.com/.  And, both Authors are active on the community here and have been known to make changes to improve the user interaction.  Check out the features on both.

Both of those programs have some very slick add ons.  

I also know we have a significant number of stations that have our radios but have their own members who program.  They have done some cool stuff, but they choose not to share it since they don't want to have to support it.  With the right person, you could actually write your own GUI.


Mike

To the best of my knowledge, this is it but I haven't really searched.  I  posted about it once in the Facebook ham radio group that has over 20,000 members  and no one had heard about it.   

Andreas N6NUis doing the most to the best of my knowledge.  He is using MQTT to share data to muliple stations and offloading the RPI of data.  I only use MQTT to move the Rotator Data.