Hi. Name is Charlie KB8CR. I am new to Node-Red, but have some experience with Raspberry Pi.?
Equipment here is a Flex 6400, a Flex 3000, and an Icom 7100. (all in a rack cabinet in the basement below the study (shack)
I use a KMTronics Web relay (8 port) which does the following from its web interface:
-Turn 6400 on/off (soft on/off from RCA jack on back)
-Turn 3000 on/off (hard relay switching)
-Switches another relay board to switch antenna (coaxial relay) from 6400 to 3000, Switches local Speaker output from 6400->3000, and local PTT from 6400->3000
-Turns power to 7100 on/off (it is on a separate HF antenna system)
-Switches VHF/UHF antenna (coaxial relay) between 7100 and a scanner.

The 6400 is usually controlled by a i5 Lenovo Mini PC (Win10-64bit), and the 3000 by a MacMini i5 running Win10-64bit because it has a firewire port for the 3000.
Both computers are used headless via VNC.

What I would like to do is have a 'dashboard' that controls the KMtronic relays, displays the Power, SWR, and Temps of the 6400 (and 3000 if that's possible)
Future items would be to control a KPA500 amplifier, and perhaps a KAT500 tuner.? (right now antennas are tuned by SGC tuners mounted at the feedpoints of the antennas.?

Remote audio and CW keying for the 3000 is done with Remoterig boxes from Sweeden.

Are there tutorial videos anywhere?.....or are there 'pre-done' modules for the 6400 or 3000 (or that KMtronic relay boar) here (or somewhere)?

Thanks,

de Charlie KB8CR

OK, Mike, you said it was OK. ?

I have uploaded my PG-XL Node-Red Flow. ?It is "ugly", but it works, mostly, for what I need.

I received my PG-XL yesterday and learned that when I use my Node-Red Dashboard "Tune Button" the PG-XL stays in "operate", so I get many watts when tuning that way.

This is not a problem when using any of the devices that Flex has interfaced with the PG-XL to because there is a "handy" button available to easily change the mode of the amp.

So....I "Sharked" the PG-XL, found the commands and responses, and with the help of the "parsing wizard of Jersy", built an "Amp Mode" button. ? I then tied the "amp mode button" into my "Tune" button, so when I tune, from the Node-Red dashboard, the amp goes to "standby". ?

I added an additional 50ms (80ms total) to the PTT delay on the Flex PTT settings for good measure to make sure the Node-Red commands were complete before RF goes out the pipe.

The tune button background changes based on the status response from the PG-XL to confirm there was an actual mode change. ?Using the status also provides the data for the button to "toggle" between "Operate" and "Standby".

The rest of the flow was an attempt to extract the remaining status messages from the PG-XL. ?As you will see, some make sense, like "band" and "VAC", others do not......like I said, WIP.

Alan
WA9WUD

The following files have been uploaded to the Files area of the [email protected] group.

• /Wd9gym.json

By: Marty Boroff

Description:
Flows for a Flex 6600 in Mundelein. Rem O/Off, Disconnect/Connect antenna and Tuner

Glad to be of help.?

______________
73 de Santiago
HI8SMX - KB8SMX
web:?
YouTube: HI8SMX?
Twitter: @hi8smx
Instagram: hi8smx

Santiago

开云体育

Santiago,

Thanks for the little push Mike. I have been guilty in not posting my flows due to the possible "embarrassment" factor. I need to get over this misplaced fear and will post my flows. Who knows, there might something others find useful hidden in them somewhere.?

Gary
K6HN

Thanks. Will do that later today.

Santiago

______________
73 de Santiago
HI8SMX - KB8SMX
web:?
YouTube: HI8SMX?
Twitter: @hi8smx
Instagram: hi8smx

开云体育

I agree.

While I had computer programming in college back in the VERY early 80’s (FORTRAN, COBOL, PASCAL, BASIC), I know almost nothing about current programming languages. I did write a remote control program in the 90s in Visual BASIC for my Kenwood TS-450. It was clunky but worked.

Most of what I have learned with Node Red came from Google searches. Examining other people’s flows (thanks Andreas & Mike) plus collaborating with Alan to add features and debug the flows. The best way for me to approach creating a flow is to create a block diagram of what you are looking to accomplish. A quick doodling on a piece of paper with something like “get status of relay” -> “update button status in Node Red” => “monitor for button push” -> “send command to relay” -> “get status of relay”…..
Then come up with nodes to accomplish each step. Manufacturers like KMTronics and Digital Loggers have sample code you can examine to help understand how to communicate with their devices. The Flex API is also published and helped me understand how to talk to the radio.

Debug nodes are your friend! Use them to test at various points along the flow to see how data is being manipulated and check that the previous node is doing what you want.

Here’s a short description on how I wrote a flow. This may help others who are just getting started. Maybe it is not so short ?

I just finished for the 4O3A 2x8 Antenna Genius to show status of which antenna is connected to radio antenna 1 & 2 (I have a dual SCU radio, 6700). First thing I did was use Wire Shark to watch communications to and from the antenna switch from the Windows app. I saw it used port 9007 and the string sent to the switch for an antenna change was !000a!00cf80!1;1
Looking at the protocol for the AG which is available on the web the first part 000a is the header. 00cf80 is the command to change antenna. 1;1 is the payload saying set port A to antenna 1. Again, using the protocol posted here

I wanted to see the status of which antenna is currently connected to port A and port B of the switch. On that page I found command 401 which is 00c880. That gets the general information about the switch. I created a TCP request node and set it to stay connected, I entered the IP address of the AG switch and port 9007 (found from Wire Shark). I put a debug node on it to capture the output. I added an inject node which was programmed to send a string (not timestamp). The string I sent was !0007!00c880! The first part between the ! is the header and the second part is the command. In the case of Get Information there is no payload to send. I click on the inject node and see !0020!08c880!0;2;0;4;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;1 returned.

First thing is to split it into three parts, header, command, and payload. I use a function node to format the returned information as a string then split using the ! character. This creates an object array of 4 parts. The info before the first ! which is blank, the header info, the command info, and the payload. I connect the output of the function node to a split node which splits the array into three message parts. I can then use the command and header info to do whatever I want to with the flow.

I'll stop here before everybody falls asleep.

73
Dave wo2x



From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Michael Walker
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2020 8:12 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [nodered-hamradio] Posting flows

Hey all

Just a thought, as I think this all the time.

I get my flows running, but then I am embarrassed to post some of them since, well,then are a work in progress and a mess. Then, I get embarrassed.

I want to encourage everyone not to worry about this. Posted flows will not be judged, but learned from and if you want to clean up someone's flow, excellent. No judgment of course. We all learn from them.

Ask questions. There is no stupid question.

I would like to encourage the sharing and mentoring of others (you don't want to see my Java--all my code is from Andreas, just hacked to work :) ). And, if someone provides feedback, please consider it a teaching moment.

We all started at getting our first On/Off button to work and look like we want. And, how exciting that was.

Carry on... as you were!

73, mike va3mw

Good morning, as I am going deeper in the use of Node Red for my remote operations and monitoring I know I?m putting a lot of pressure on my Raspi and my card as plenty of the shack will depend on the Raspi being there. I exported all my flows to a safe place, but if Raspi or card fails I?m left with nothing.

What do you recommend that I do to better protect my flows, my Pi3 and my card? Should I see how long this card and/or Pi3 goes or should I begin to plan for an upgrade, keep multiple cards, external drive, etc...

My current memory situation is as follows:



Will be looking for your recommendations.

______________
73 de Santiago
HI8SMX - KB8SMX
web:?
YouTube: HI8SMX?
Twitter: @hi8smx
Instagram: hi8smx

Excellent comment Mike. Totally agree with you. At first I didn?t like posting my flows (most of them are modifications of other users flows), but then I thought that if I don?t share what I am doing I had no way of knowing if I was doing it right or wrong or more complicated than necessary. Now I?m confident to share my work and won?t be ashamed if someone corrects me. As for questions, I am never afraid to ask questions nor ask for help (just ask Dave and Alan jajaja), asking is learning.

But I must also say that we are lucky because we have a group of great people, that loves to help and that doesn?t think less of someone who just don?t know, because I?ve been (and left of course) in groups which are the complete opposite, a groups of bullies.

Santiago

______________
73 de Santiago
HI8SMX - KB8SMX
web:?
YouTube: HI8SMX?
Twitter: @hi8smx
Instagram: hi8smx

Thanks all for the help and guidance. Like Alan said, if it wasn't for you guys I would have not started this adventure. I?ll try to explain my process.?

I have a OpenWeather flow that I adapted with Alan?s help to monitor weather at my QTH and in case of a given event (Rain, Thunder, Clouds, etc..) can do certain things. In my case I?ve configured an email when Thunder is on the weather report with a message ("Thunder at QTH. Please disconnect"), and as of yesterday, it also sends instructions to my DLI flow to shut down the sockets. For that I used a Gate node and a Link node to the DLI flow. I also added a switch after the gate and before the Link so I can bypass it if I want (ie. false weather report). The flow includes a led alert (courtesy of Alan) to give a quick visual aid on the weather status.

Here are some pictures:



At the DLI flow, I included a Link from the Weather flow before the switch nodes and in the specific case of the Flex Power Supply I added a delay of 10 seconds just to? make sure it doesn't turn off before the Flex Remote is off, in other words, to make sure the radio power supply does not go off with the radio on. In this flow I found on the web a function to make sure the switches retain the previous states after refreshing (which was a headache at first).




At the dashboard end, it looks like this:







As I mentioned, I?m not sure if this is the most efficient way of making this work, but I?m just happy enough it works. Finally here is a picture of my current main dashboard.




Files have been updated in the file section of this group. The names of the files are self explanatory? :-)

Feel free to change it for your needs.

Santiago?

______________
73 de Santiago
HI8SMX - KB8SMX
web:?
YouTube: HI8SMX?
Twitter: @hi8smx
Instagram: hi8smx

开云体育

Yesterday I completed an update on this flow and the weather flow Alan helped me with in order to shutdown the sockets in case of thunderstorms in the weather flow. Later today I will post pictures and will update files on the files folder if you are interested.

i don’t know if my flows are the simpler they can be but at least it works and I’m still surprised I could made it.

Santiago
______________
73 de Santiago
HI8SMX - KB8SMX
web:?
YouTube: HI8SMX?
Twitter: @hi8smx
Instagram: hi8smx