Antenna switch extension

k0idtk0idt
in KiwiSDR Discussion

Has anyone written a backend to support the Denkovi or SainSmart USB 4/8 channel relay board? Trying tocut down some of the clutter and it would be nice to just plug the board into the USB port on the Kiwi. Any reason this is a bad idea?

Ron K0IDT

Comments

  • jksjks

    Do those devices, when plugged in, cause a USB serial device to appear on Linux/Debian? If so then it should be pretty straightforward to adapt one of the existing backend shell scripts to open and send commands down the USB serial.

  • WA2ZKDWA2ZKD

    I can confirmn that an Ontrak ADU218 appears in lsusb

  • jksjks

    I'm not familiar with lsusb. Does the ADU218 create a serial device entry in /dev when it's plugged in? Something like /dev/ttyUSB0?

  • WA2ZKDWA2ZKD

    lsusb is an ls of usb devices like ls is normally of files

    yes, it does create a usb device

  • k0idtk0idt

    Well it took a while but when the board I have, SainSmart 8ch, is plugged into the kiwi USB port it adds "serial" and ttyUSB0 to /dev. I have a further dump with cat /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices | grep -E "^([TSPD]:.*|)$" if it's of any use. lsusb isn't working on my kiwi but I'm still on Debian 8.5 and I need to upgrade to Buster.

    There are also some drivers for these boards floating around out there. I'll hunt them down later this evening.

  • k0idtk0idt

    I found this for the single relay board.

    stty -F /dev/ttyUSB0 9600echo -e '\xff\x01\x01' > /dev/ttyUSB0 // the relay 1 go ON.

    stty -F /dev/ttyUSB0 9600echo -e '\xff\x01\x00' > /dev/ttyUSB0 // the relay 1 go OFF

    The drivers for the FTDI chip should already be in most Linux flavors. I'll give this a try from the command line before committing to installing anything.

  • k0idtk0idt

    I found a program to drive the Sainsmart USB relay board that works.

    https://github.com/labbots/SainsmartUsbRelay

    It's fairly simple and should be easy to add to the Antenna Switch extension. There are some quirks and minor errors in usage. If anyone wants to play with this let me know and I can help you get started.

  • KenAlexanderKenAlexander

    This is interesting! I'd be able to switch antennas. Better yet, I could switch attenuators, filters or even downconverters into the antenna line.

    How do my users control the relays? Are there provisions in KiwiSDR to switch external devices or do you have to do it via an external app, and would it be accessible to an online user?

  • G8JNJG8JNJ

    Try my home KiWi.

    http://g8jnj.zapto.org:8073/?ext=ant_switch

    Note that any changes you make will affect all users

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