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Messages - VA6OK

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1
Yes Palle, I think it may be something like that since the radio almost never will power up on the hotspot.  On the rare occasions that it does actually power up, things actually work properly until you power it down.

Mike, has anyone else stumbled onto this issue? 


73
Dale

2
Did you get it working yet?  If not:

Does anything happen when you try to power up the rig remotely?

Are you trying this over a LAN for now?

I'm sure you have tried this already in your attempts to make it work, but on one of my setups you have to press and hold the power button, then the SIP light comes on and you have to press the power button again to get the radio to come on.  This doesn't always happen, but quite often on the one setup.  It becomes natural to "start" the radio that way after a while.

Also, I'm sure it was just a typo, but the 6 pin cable is the ttl and 8 pin for the mic.

3
Hello.

If it happens sometimes while the radio is receiving, then RFI is not your problem. 

Reading the Remoterig manual in the 857 section, it sounds like the separate power supply is only needed if the unit resets when you power on the radio initially.  Perhaps you could try running it on the same supply as the radio?  This could prevent the chance of a ground loop causing the issue.

I would almost suspect that somehow the power is being momentarily lost to the RRC.  Maybe carefully inspect the cable, plug, power supply connection, etc. and perhaps inside the RRC where the power connector is to see if there are any breaks in the connection to the board.  Also, (probably check this first) check the supply voltage of whatever you are using for a power supply to the unit.  If it is a wall-adapter type, they can vary quite a bit from their stated voltage, but I guess you did say you have tried more than one already, so that should not be the case... but one never knows.

Also, double check the ethernet connection between the radio RRC and the router.

Good Luck and 73



 

4
Thank you Mitch for your help in sorting through this.  It will be neat to see if we ever truly get to the bottom of this.

Thanks again and 73
Dale

5
Hello.  I have a few RemoteRig setups and they work great.  However, I have a new setup that I planned to use with a Kenwood TM-V71A.  I have the radio base set up at my home and planned to be able to take the control head mobile, especially to our club repeater sites to give us real life feedback when we make adjustments to the repeaters.

Here is the scenario:  The base unit is connected to my home internet.  The control unit is connected via wifi to my iPhone hotspot.  The units will connect to each other.  The SIP lights come on on each end and the web status page shows that all is well and data is transferring properly.  Yet, the radio control head won't power on and no audio flows.  Also, once you connect, the control head is then unresponsive and you cannot disconnect without removing the power source from the RRC.  As an experiment, I swapped out the radio with a Kenwood TS-480sat.  Once I did this, everything worked normally.  I swapped back to the V71A and it does not work.  If I take the V71A control head to the local library and use their internet connection, the radio connects and works fine.  I have swapped out RRCs, tried various groups of ports, and tried almost everything imaginable and yet no change. 

So to summarize:  The problem only occurs when I am trying to remote a Kenwood TM-V71A over my iPhone hotspot.  If the radio changes to something else, the problem goes away.  If the iPhone changes to a regular internet connection, the problem goes away.  It is when the TM-V71A and the iPhone are being used together there is a problem.  The fact that the iPhone will work just fine remoting the same RRC but with a Kenwood 480 attached suggests to me that the iPhone is capable of doing the job.  The baud rate for both the V71A and the 480 are both 57600.  The RRC configurations for both these radios are essentially identical.  In theory there should be NO DIFFERENCE, yet somehow, there is.

Here are my suspicions:  Is there something different in the data stream between the RRCs for the V71A vs the TS-480?  Is there a higher data requirement somehow for the V71A?  Is there an initial handshake between them that somehow is more difficult to happen on the V71A? 

If anyone is remoting a TM-V71A using an iPhone hotspot at the control end, let me know if it works for you.

Thanks and 73
Dale

6
Feature Requests / Voltage Reading on Web Status Page
« on: 2018-01-15, 18:15:11 »
Hello,

I think a very useful feature would be the supply voltage to the RRC to be displayed on the web Status page.  Many RRCs get deployed to remote locations (the whole point of remoterig) and some of these are on either solar or battery power.  Being able to log in remotely to the status page and see what the supply voltage is would be very useful.... if it is possible to do.

Thanks and 73
Dale

7
I don't know anything about the packets that the RRC sends and receives over the internet.  Would they be different for the V71A vs the 480?  Or does the RRC convert the data into a standard string form that the RRCs recognize and therefore the strings should be similar no matter what type of radio is connected?  That would be something that Microbit would know, not me.

I think I have gone as far as someone with a "customer" level of knowledge can go.

Certainly there is something about the iPhone hotspot that is contributing to the problem.  I don't deny that.  However, if I had decided to remote a TS-480 with this setup from the start, I would have never discovered this issue.  It would have just worked with the iPhone, and I would be none the wiser.  The TM-V71A is a LARGE part of the equation here.  There is something specific to this radio that is not compatible with the RRC/iPhone combination.   

Since I was initially on the wrong track when I started this post, I think I will start another one with what we now know and see if someone out there has ideas.

Again, I have gone as far with this as I can with the knowledge available to me.

8
It's an iPhone hotspot..... what could there be to possibly configure in it?  It's either on or off, they don't give you access to configurations in it.  And however it is, it works with my other remoterigs which happen to be connected to TS-480s.  The problem is specific to the iPhone and the V71A together.  If either of them change, the problem goes away.

The 480 remotes just fine with the RRC connected to it, but not the V71A.

Are there others who have tried this?  Have you tried to re-create this issue there or with someone else?

9
Ok.  Here is what I found.

I swapped out the V71A with another one and no difference.  Then I drove into town and went to the library to use their wifi.  Well, the unit works on their wifi !!!

So, the issue seems to be limited to the internet connection through the hotspot on my cell phone.  But there still is the unanswered question of why won't it work on the hotspot with the V71A but it will with the TS-480.  I can swap radios out at each end, and change nothing else.  The RRCs are being used through their respective internet connections in exactly the same way for each radio.  The TS-480 will remote just fine through the cell phone internet connection and the TM-V71A will not.

So, I am still leaning toward my thinking about the data requirements.  It sure looks like the data transfer via the cell phone is sufficient for the 480 but not for the V71A. 

73
Dale
VA6OK

10
Yes, we are on the same page now.  Your summary of the situation is 100% correct.  In addition to no audio passing on the V71A over the internet, the control head is not showing any sign of life either..... no backlight, no lcd digits, nothing. Yet, every once in a while (like 1 out of 50 tries) it will connect and work....but only that one time.  Once you turn it off it won't turn back on again.  The control RRC is working on the same internet connection (hotspot) that the 480 control head was on when I verified proper operation with the TS-480 so I doubt the problem is there. 

I'm starting to wonder about the actual data that flows between the control head and the radio.  Is it possible that the requirements are higher on the V71A than on the 480 ?   Perhaps the internet connections are transferring sufficient data rates for the 480 but not quite enough for the V71A ?  Or maybe something in the initial "handshake" is too slow for the V71A but sufficient for the 480?  This could maybe explain why it works on the LAN but not over the internet. 

I agree that trying the control head on another internet connection somewhere  would be a good test. I will see if I can arrange that sometime tomorrow.  I may also try another V71A just because. I have access to another one but the fact that it works on the LAN makes it seem unlikely that it has the issue.

There is a logical solution to this that is patiently waiting to be found.....

Thanks and 73
Dale

11
To clarify further: when I swap radios I am not changing any router ports or anything in the RRCs.  The only thing that changes is the radio and the cables to the RRCs.  The V71A, cable, and RRC combination work fine on the LAN, just not on the internet.

12
Perhaps I haven't properly explained what I did.  I have narrowed the problem down to the V71A essentially.... or the interaction between it and the RRC(s).  It will remote over my LAN so it seems like a bug somewhere in the interaction of the RRCs with the V71A (or that is at least how it appears to me).  I can swap out either the control or the radio RRC and it makes no difference.  The problem is not with any one RRC. If I unhook the V71A from any pair of RRCs and put a TS-480 in its place, there is then no problem whatsoever.  The unit will remote fine over the internet.  Then if I remove the TS-480 (from both ends) and put the V71A back, the problem returns.  I guess my next step could be to round up another V71A to see if it does the same thing.  But again, I come back to the fact that it works just fine over the LAN so that suggests that the problem is not within the radio itself. 

Thanks
Dale

13
I disagree.  Please re-read my last post.  I changed nothing in the RRCs or the router.  Just swapping radios from the V71A to the 480 caused it to work.  Swapping radios back caused it to not work.  Looks like I might have stumbled onto a bug.

Thanks
Dale

14
Ok.  Here is an interesting development:

I can swap the radio out to a TS-480 and everything works fine on the LAN and on the www !!!  Then I hook the TM-V71A back up to the RRCs and it won't work over the www, but it will on the LAN.

So, the problem ONLY occurs when I am trying to use the TM-V71A radio over the www.  I can remote the TM-V71A over my LAN without issues. 

Both RRCs that are in use now are Version 7, Firmware 2.91, Bootloader 1.10, and HW 8.

15
Also, I don't know if this fact is helpful or not.  When I try to connect over the www, the SIP lights come on on each RRC and the status pages show that they are connected and all is fine.  However the radio does not turn on.  Over the LAN, the radio turns on just fine.  Here is one of the interesting facts over the www: once connected, I cannot stop the connection by pressing the power button.  They just stay connected until I pull the power connection from the RRCs.  Once the connection is initiated, the radio control panel is unresponsive.

My two radio RRCs are on one internet connection and the two control RRCs are on a separate internet connection via a cell phone hotspot.  So an internet problem "should" affect them both. 

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