node-red in the hamshack an improvement on station automation
TRANSCRIPT
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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REMOTE OPERATING FOR EVERYONE
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 OPERATING FOR EVERYONE
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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REMOTE OPERATING FOR EVERYONE
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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REMOTE OPERATING FOR EVERYONE
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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REMOTE OPERATING FOR EVERYONE
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
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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)
13.700 Value of volt meter 2 (referenced to common ground)
13.850 Value of volt meter 3 (referenced to common ground)
4.950 Value of volt meter 4 (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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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
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Node-RED Dash Boards 29
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Node-RED Dash Boards 30
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Node-RED Dash Boards 31
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Node-RED Dash Boards 34
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Node-RED Dash Boards 35
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Node-RED Dash Boards 36
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Node-RED Dash Boards 38
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Node-RED Dash Boards 39
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Node-RED Dash Boards 40
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Node-RED Dash Boards 41
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Node-RED Dash Boards 42
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REMOTE HF OPERATION FOR EVERYONE
Michael Walker va3mw
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