Node-RED in the HamShack An improvement on Station Automation

Node-RED in the HamShack

An improvement on Station Automation

MICHAEL WALKER

VA3MW

Feb. 2021

M. Walker VA3MW © - Feb 2021

REMOTE OPERATING FOR EVERYONE

WHY OPERATE REMOTE?

▸Noise

▸ Location

▸Downsizing

▸ Your buddy is a shut-in

▸My new QTH is an apartment

▸My hobby needs a hobby

▸And more

Welcome to bread boarding

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THINGS TO CONSIDER - KEY MODULES

▸Radio choices - FlexRadio has remote designed in from the ground up.

▸ Your Internet - the backbone of the system.

▸Remote Power control (AC and DC)

▸Remote Antenna control

▸Remote Rotator control

▸How to you control something when you can’t reach up and touch the button that goes with it

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REMOTE SWITCHES - 2 TYPES OF SOLUTIONS

▸ iHome, Wemo, Stitch, etc

▸All use a 3rd party broker (good and bad)

▸RemoteQTH server, KMTronic, Digital Logger (and more)

▸No third party routing, but require VPN or Port-forwarding

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ROTATOR CONTROL - SOFTWARE

▸PSTRotatorAZ on a local PC with a Web interface as well

▸K3NG - awesome Arduino project

▸RemoteQTH Server linked to the K3NG controller

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ROTATOR CONTROL - HARDWARE

▸ IdiomPress EZ Rotator

▸ For Hy-Gain and Yaesu rotators

▸K3NG

▸Green Heron

▸MFJ RC1 Series

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REMOTE HF OPERATING FOR EVERYONE

WHAT ABOUT ???

▸ Lightning

▸You need to have a way to remote disconnect antennas

▸This is a risk that cannot be removed, but we just do the best we can.

▸ (Google “ham radio lightning protection”)

▸ Ward Silver on Lightning

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OPERATING COMPONENTS

▸Operating

▸How the operator controls the radio (VFO, Memories, etc)

▸Command and control - Where?

▸Having all the remote ‘buttons’ local to your operating position

▸Having all the remote ‘buttons’ local to the radio

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2018 - Command and Control

Breadboard design for easy debugging

Not very pretty

Very functional though

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The big view - 2021

Fans

Flex 6600 and 6700

Power Genius XL Amp

Windows 10 Pro PC

UPS

70A Astron Power Supply

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The details

KMTronics Web Switches

Lightning Map RX

4 Port RS232 for NodeRed

RPI - Monitoring Tools

12V Accessory Supply

120V AC Power SwitchRPI - NodeRed

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The Operating Position 12


Command and Control

IBM’s Node-RED

Node-RED is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways.

Born in 2013. It is a model that lends itself very well to a visual representation and makes it more accessible to a wider range of users. If someone can break down a problem into discrete steps they can look at a flow and get a sense of what it is doing; without having to understand the individual lines of code within each node.

It provides a browser-based editor that makes it easy to wire together flows using the wide range of nodes in the palette that can be deployed to its runtime in a single-click.

https://nodered.org/

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Command and Control

Browser-based flow editing

Browser-based flow editing

Node-RED provides a browser-based flow editor that makes it easy to wire together flows using the wide range of nodes (your program) in the palette (your workspace). Flows can be then deployed in a single-click.

JavaScript functions can be created within the editor using a rich text editor.

A built-in library allows you to save useful functions, templates or flows for re-use.

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Node-RED

I get this in the mail from George▸ 12V Station Controller

▸ 8 Relays▸ 4 Voltage Monitors▸ 2 Voltage Differential Monitor▸ 4 Logic low or high sensors▸ RS485▸ xBee

I am sure there are few other things he hasn’t me about

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Node-RED

GPIO Command setPING Pings device

REBOOT Restart the device

Relay commands

RY,01000000 Turns off all relays except relay 2 which is on

RY3,1 Set relay 3 to be on (options: 1=on, 0=off, T=Toggle, P=Pulse)

UPDATE return packet format

/0100:UPDATE,GPIO1,01000000,0110,12.000,13.700,13.850,4.950,48.200,26.850:XX

Where...

UPDATE This is a status update packet from a device

GPIO1 Device type which tells the master the format of the following arguments

01000000 State of relays 1..8

0110 State of digital inputs 1..4

12.000 Value of volt meter 1 (referenced to common ground)




28.200 Value of differential volt meter 1

26.850 Value of differential volt meter 2

XX CRC or LRC value. XX is dummy and this feature is not implemented

All commands must start with a / and can be addressed or broadcast.

Broadcast format //ping Where // is the broadcast indicator followed by the command "ping"

Addressed format /0012:ping:xx Where / is start of packet, 00 is the from master address, 12 is the

to address which must match the dip switches or jumpers on the board. :'s are delimiters and XX is the

CRC or LRC value which is currently dummy "XX"

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Node-RED

And, I turn it into this in a few hours

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Query

To Serial port of RPI

From Serial port of RPI

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Node-RED

Desktop & iPhone or any Web device

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Node-RED

How to get started▸ Supported Node-RED computer

▸ https://nodered.org/#get-started

▸ RPI, Windows, Linux, etc

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Command and Control

Documentation - https://nodered.org/docs/

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Node-RED

Flows - ‘stuff’ ready to go

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Node-RED

Node-RED for HamRadio (groups.io)

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Node-RED

Wiki - Node-RED setup

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Node-RED

Reference Stuff

▸ Remote Station video: https://youtu.be/QyOpOXla8jo▸ Remote Station Overview: https://youtu.be/_QxapW0bMLc▸ Node Red site: https://nodered.org/▸ Groups.io: https://groups.io/g/nodered-hamradio▸ YouTube on Node-RED: https://youtu.be/OSsYq1Wbua4▸ Opto Video on Node-RED: https://youtu.be/3AR432bguOY

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https://youtu.be/QyOpOXla8jo

https://youtu.be/_QxapW0bMLc

https://nodered.org/

https://groups.io/g/nodered-hamradio

https://youtu.be/OSsYq1Wbua4

https://youtu.be/3AR432bguOY


Node-RED

Flows ready for sharing▸ Array Solutions Stack Master▸ Freq Alarm and TX inhibit▸ Flex TX power limiter▸ Power Sequencer▸ Green Heron RT21 ▸ Weather Alerts and cool stuff▸ KPA500, KPA1500▸ KAT500▸ Lightning disconnect▸ Stream Deck integration▸ HF-Auto & LA1K ▸ Steppir tuning▸ SWR Alarms▸ Flex meters (lots)▸ MacDoppler ▸ Power Genius XL

▸ ‘Spot’ the call and lookup▸ WSJT Dashboard▸ WSJT Log listener▸ BCD to Band▸ PST Rotator AZ EL▸ LP-100 watt meter▸ DLI Web Switch▸ Elecraft W2 watt meter▸ 403A antenna switch▸ FRStack▸ GPIO pin actions

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Command and Control

The simple web switch

▸ 4 dry contact relays▸ 10A contacts

▸ Web based - access it from any device

▸ Runs on a Raspberry PI▸ Plugs on top▸ No Soldering ▸ Very reliable▸ An excellent practice device you can

build on▸ $8.99 on Amazon

https://wiki.keyestudio.com/KS0212_keyestudio_RPI_4-channel_Relay_Shield

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Node-RED Dash Boards 28






























REMOTE HF OPERATION FOR EVERYONE

Michael Walker va3mw

[email protected]

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mailto:[email protected]

Documents

Node-RED in the HamShack An improvement on Station Automation