Power Saving

[g7npw]

Hi. I'm trying to save a bit of energy at home and have recently managed to reduce the consumption of the Radio Shack computer from 120w to just 50w with a change of CPU,PSU and some Bios Tweaks.

This brings me onto a new suggestion. The radio I use for my on-line base is an Icom 706 MKIIg. Unfortunately it is a really greedy little beast!!! If I measure the Primary side of the PSU that runs it I see a 25w-35w load when the radio is switched on receiving. Just pressing the front power button on the radio to turn it off reduces power by this amount!!!!

Considering it is on 24/7 365 this equates to about 263 KWH a year power consumption just for this one receiver. (About £25 GBP)

This got me thinking could RCFOrb provide some kind of output to turn the radio off when no one is connected. Just a thought I had. Obviously other user's will be using say a PCR100 etc and the consumption is next to nothing.

Any suggestions from others?

[alphanova]

Hi,

imo the biggest consumer will be the connected PC. So i decided to use a Intel Atom based Mini-PC see here:

http://www.netbooknews.de/13911/kpc-jcp-330i-aka-foxconn-netbox-nt-330i-mit-atom-330-ion-gerupft/

IF you want to power OFF your receiver remotly via RCF, you can edit a special CAT-command in HRDeluxe and link it to the userdefined bottons in the webinterface, but maybe the problem will be that RCF always try to read data... also if your TRX is powered off. It must be tested.

But i must say... a nice idea! If you will be save more energy you can try to implement a voltage plug with integrated webinterface. So you can power off the holy shack via network.

regards André

[g7npw]

Hi,

imo the biggest consumer will be the connected PC. So i decided to use a Intel Atom based Mini-PC see here:

http://www.netbooknews.de/13911/kpc-jcp-330i-aka-foxconn-netbox-nt-330i-mit-atom-330-ion-gerupft/

IF you want to power OFF your receiver remotly via RCF, you can edit a special CAT-command in HRDeluxe and link it to the userdefined bottons in the webinterface, but maybe the problem will be that RCF always try to read data... also if your TRX is powered off. It must be tested.

But i must say... a nice idea! If you will be save more energy you can try to implement a voltage plug with integrated webinterface. So you can power off the holy shack via network.

regards André

Yes I looked at replacing the PC with an Atom based system but worked out that energy saving would probably take me 5 years or more to break even with the cost of a new PC.

So replacing my CPU and PSU and lowering clock speed and Vcore voltage has knocked 70w!!! of the current consumption. I'm now running an AMD Athlon XP-M laptop CPU in a desktop motherboard.

I'm looking for a automatic way to turn the radio on and off as and when RCFOrb has a connected user. I don't think the 706 supports a power command through CAT or HRD so was thinking maybe a pin on the com port could be utilised to control a transistor & relay to power the radio. Much the same idea as com ports are used to PTT radio's etc.

The PC is already on 24/7 running the GB3DC Echolink repeater and d-star etc. I would like to save 30w or so if possible as it all adds up.

Cheers Dom

[kg6ypi]

Right now,  I would not turn off the radio while RCForb is running. RCForb will have problems and things will not go back to normal when the radio is turned back on. I'll have todo some improvements to support putting the radio to "sleep". If your using HRD, you will have more problems there also.

This got me thinking could RCFOrb provide some kind of output to turn the radio off when no one is connected.

I do plan on adding in support for shorting pins on another com port.  So PTT can be done without CAT support.  This would allow devices like the Rigblaster NOMIC to key up any radio. This feature could also be used to short some other "customizable" pins. This way you could potentially make your own interface to turn the radio off. I know my FT857 can be turned On/Off by shorting Pin 1 for 2 seconds on the Mic port.

[alphanova]

i tested it on HRD with my R8500 which supports power OFF/ON via CAT. It Works.. RCF shows this while Radio is OFF:



I can implement a userdefuined button in the Flashinterface for Power ON/OFF the radio. But i guess it dont be good for the Receiver if someone is playing around stupid with it...

regards André