Rotator control (and audio)

[g8gtz]

Hi

Thanks for a great program, really starting to use it to control my remote microwave station (144 MHz > 3cms) - previously used web4hrd but this is much better, except on ipad / iphone due to flash ;-(

Have you given any thought to rotator control, either directly or via the HRD interface?  I currently use a great little program called PSTRotator, which has a TCP client / server setup for remote ops (perhaps you could use his server side program?) but I would really prefer web based control so I can just have 1 window to do all.

BTW - the major problem I have with remote VHF / UHF operation is finding an audio codec which will handle white noise for narrow band (USB) operation.  HF doesn't seem such a problem as the background noise has different characteristics.  Skype is horrible as the algorithm tries to make it in to speech and you end up convinced someone is calling you!  The best codec I've found is Nellymoser Asao which is a proprietary codec used in the flash media 10 encoder - the unreal encoder uses MP3 which even at 100Kbit/s isn't great... 

Any thoughts welcome...

Best 73 - Noel, G8GTZ

[kg6ypi]

I currently use a great little program called PSTRotator, which has a TCP client / server setup for remote ops (perhaps you could use his server side program?)

I'll have to get more details about the program, if the protocol or data sent over the network is documented i could make a client potentially.

The best codec I've found is Nellymoser Asao which is a proprietary codec used in the flash media 10 encoder - the unreal encoder uses MP3 which even at 100Kbit/s isn't great...

I've been working on a VOIP solution that will soon be integrated into Remotehams. You can find special stand-alone sever/client here
http://forums.remotehams.com/index.php/topic,347.0.html (Uses the Speex codec), i'm still working on a possible flash based player for this setup...thsi is new only a few days old!

[g8gtz]

Hi

Thanks for the quick response - I've posted a question on the PSTrotator yahoo groups to Codrut - YO3DMU - who wrote the program to see if the protocol is available and if he is interested in such a co-operation :-)

Re audio - I'll try the RCF codec and let you know how I get on.

Best 73

Noel

[g8gtz]

Hi

It turns out that PSTrotator does not have a specific server client protocol but encapsulates the RS232 data provided by all the different controllers it interfaces to and requires an update to server and client when a new device is added - sounds like a hard way to do it.

I quess the other way is via the HRD rotator program interface - web4hrd has a very limited implementation to it but I quess proves it could be done. I think it is a standard interface as once controller type is selected in HRD you don't have to set it up in web4hrd.

73

Noel - G8GTZ

[kg6ypi]

HRD rotator program interface - web4hrd has a very limited implementation.....

If you can find the commands needed to control the rotator, i could implement.  When i get time i may be able to look at web4hrd's code to see what commands it may be sending to HRD.  Not sure if these commands are sent to HRD's IP-Server or its own Rotator server...

[barney]

It looks like it is done by DDE to the HRD remote serial server on port 7806, VU2SJD (Sanjay) of web4hrd fame uses a dll (jDDE.dll) in his program.
For azimuth I think the command would be something like, SET-AZ:"degrees", example SET-AZ:270.1
For elevation SET-EL:"degrees"  
There are other commands neeeded like rotator type etc.
I'm winging it, I don't have clue.    
Oh yeah forgot to say, Simon never did get around to giving the rotator server IP server support.

Barney
  

[kg6ypi]

It looks like it is done by DDE to the HRD remote serial server on port 7806, VU2SJD (Sanjay) of web4hrd fame uses a dll (jDDE.dll) in his program.

(DDE = Dynamic Data Exchange)

Well, in the future I may write a DDE client, but I'm not in any hurry to get that working in RCForb. DDE has been unsupported by Microsoft for a long time (years) and they do not recommend using it for exchanging data between programs. It still exists in Windows for legacy support...(from what I understand, Im not always right, hihi)

Since Simon is not developing HRD anymore, I dont really know whats going to happen with it.  I do know 5.1 should be out sometime before 2011 or maybe in Jan of 2011. Lets hope the new owners dont break anthing

Time to start bringing in more native support for radios in RCForb!