Ant Switch extension on v1.671 [fixed in v1.672]
I have noticed that when the extension is configured to 'Switch to default antenna(s) when no users connected' and 'Deny antenna mixing?' is set to 'Yes', when returning to a vacant radio, both the default antenna and previously selected antenna are selected.
This isn't the behaviour I would expect and it is undesirable.
Comments
Hey, thanks for the bug report. I'll make sure that gets fixed. Unfortunately I had to rewrite a lot of the code that depended on the extension framework. And this has led to all sort of problems.
Ha,
I also noticed that problem, this afternoon, when I changed the existing default antenna to another.
I think this may be the same as the problem I reported, where I had to turn mixing on and back off again to restore normal operation.
Regards,
Martin
Which antenna switch backend? GPIO?
Yes, GPIO
Regards,
Martin
In my case, yes GPIO.
Okay, fixed. Will be in the next release. Thanks guys.
Okay, I can confirm all works perfectly in v1.673.
Quick question, is it possible to choose a specific antenna in the DX Label?
I can select the extension, but can I also specify which antenna?
I thought it was possible by adding the appropriate command into the extension part of the DX label editor.
e.g. ant_switch,3
However, I couldn't get it to work, but I may have got the syntax wrong.
Regards,
Martin
OK, using ant followed by a comma and then the antenna number does work.
If you edit the DX label, you may then have to refresh the browser session before the switch command will function.
Regards,
Martin
Yes, the syntax Martin gives, which is the general way to invoke an extension when a label is clicked, will still work for the antenna switch even though it is no long actually a formal extension.
The syntax works. However; the first time in a browser session it works, but after changing the antenna and then clicking on the DX label it doesn't switch to the appropriate antenna, you have to refresh the browser.
I may have to video this behaviour to make it clear.
Should I start a new thread?
No, let me try it here and see for myself.
I see the same behaviour on my home sdr, 198kHz is tagged to select Ant 2.
http://g8jnj.zapto.org:8073
Regards,
Martin
Okay, I see what's wrong. Fixed for the next release..
I woke up this morning and both my Kiwis are on v1.674, but the DX label switching isn't working now.
Otherwise, the Ant Switch is working.
EDIT; I have just seen your other post about v1.674 and you have changed the syntax from ant_switch,3 or ant_sw,3, to ant,3. After editing my DX Label to reflect that, it then does in fact work.
Thanks for the quick resolution of the issue, very much appreciated.
I missed that Martin was using
ant_switch, the full name of the old extension. The extension name selection code allows for unique prefix matching. That's why specifying justantalone works. I will make my fix for the DX labels do the same soant_switchwill be accepted as well.Also, to be consistent, I should really allow for the other former extensions to be specified in the DX labels as well (noise blanker/filter, waterfall control). Although the use cases for those in that context is much more limited.
It all works fine for me now, so I am happy. ant,1 makes total sense.
After using this for a while now I have a suggestion. When set to "If multiuser is denied then antenna switching is disabled when more than one user is online." the option to auto switch to the Default antenna would be useful. At present one user could switch to a less than suitable antenna, another user joins, invoking the multiuser restriction, but leaving the antenna switch as was with no one able to switch, giving less than optimal reception. The option to auto switch to the default would be useful.
On various kiwis (including one of mine) I see this message popping up when loading the site.
Antenna switch extension is disabled.
Please tell me of a public Kiwi that's doing this. None of mine are so I can't debug the problem..
http://hb9tmc.ddns.net:8074/
The message appears maybe 15 seconds after clicking "start". and disappears after a few seconds.
It doesn't seem to happen on my other kiwi. I think I've seen it on one of the oe9.at kiwi too, but I can't reproduce it at the moment.
I've restarted kiwid and now it doesn't happen anymore 🤷♂️
When the antenna switch code was integrated it had to leave the general extensions "framework" which gave each extension its own realtime task and a bunch of other stuff that made the life of the extension-writer easier.
I wasn't quite sure what to do about that. In the end it resulted in me rewriting almost all of the code and having all kinds of weird timing problems as a result. I also made it do more than it previously did. So now it's one of those things where it mostly works, but an argument can be made for tearing it all apart again and finding a better way to implement it.
But I am completely buried with new critical tasks at the moment. So I really don't want to reopen that can of worms right now if I can get by with fixing a few simple bugs. But I don't know if that's possible anymore..
Hi. I am trying to test out the built-in antenna switch with kmtronic-udp selected, as the only (afaik) UDP control option. KMTronic provide test code and I can see Wireshark packets received on my test PC where the switch will be when using the test app.
However, try as I might, I can't see any packets being sent from within Kiwi when the 'IPAddress or URL' field is set to the same IP:port as the test code. (I assume that's where the port number is entered as it accepts it, and there's nowhere else.)
So, has anyone got the remote switch working using kmtronic-udp as the switch device cos I can't see what else I need to set. (I'm not clear when a restart is needed as sometimes it's announced as needed, and sometimes it's not).
Thanks
Dave G4GTE
Hi Dave,
So I think I see one issue. It looks like the kmtronic-UDP backend script uses netcat (/bin/nc) compared to all the others that use curl. But netcat is not installed by the default Kiwi installation process.
From the admin console tab try the command "pki netcat" to install /bin/nc. And then give the kmtronic-UDP another go. I will add netcat to the list of packages installed by the Kiwi build process in the next Kiwi software release.
Note also there are a whole bunch of shell aliases that allow less typing when using the antenna switch frontend script. So again from the admin console tab (or Debian ssh connection) type "cda" to change to the antenna switch directory. Then "al | gr frontend" to see all the aliases.
So "abi" to see the current switch selected. "aga" to get the address of the switch. "as" to see the current ant selected. "a1" to select ant 1. "ag" to ground all ants, etc.
Hi jks,
Many thanks for looking into this so quickly - that fixed it! (I can only assume no-one has tried using the switch since the facility was integrated)
Not sure if I'll have to re-do this per bootup, but hopefully the next s/w update will be fairly soon.
Thanks again, you've saved me a weekend of hair pulling!
Dave GTE
You only have to install netcat once ever. Sorry for the trouble.
That's even better! - thanks for the excellent support.
Still struggling to get KiWi to see UDP packets from me without giving me ICMP port unavailable messages??