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A recent addition to the station was software and hardware to allow the control
on the antennas and rotors around the station from the computer. The software
was developed in C#/.NET and allows the activatuation of relays from a windows
dialog using mouse activated pushbuttons. Additionally, the heading of the
rotating tower is displayed in the dialog on a compass rose. Since I'm
currently doing a lot of SO2R contesting, the antenna pushbuttons are grouped
by the two stations, left and right. The software has two modes, expert and
KISS. The Expert mode displays all buttons and the KISS mode only displays
buttons that are active based on the station and its selected operating band.
The picture on the left shows the display of the antenna controller.
Click on any image for a more detailed view.
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The hardware end of things uses a product called LabJack details at:
http://www.labjack.com/. The LabJack device interfaces into a computer using
USB and offers 20 digital outputs, 2 analog outputs and eight 12-Bit Analog
Inputs. LabJack will not directly drive relays so a homebrew relay driver board
was constructed which plugs into a DB25 connector on top of the LabJack. The
DB25 connector allows access to 16 of the Digital I/O channels. Six other
channels are wired to the terminal strip on top of the LabJack giving a total
of 22 outputs that can be used to control relays around the station. The relay
driver board contains 3 driver chips which source 12 volts to activate the
antenna relays used around the station. Currently one of the eight LabJack
analog inputs is used to measure the heading position of the rotating tower.
The picture on the left shows a closeup view of the LabJack and the relay
driver board.
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All antenna control cables entering the station terminate into a set of
terminal blocks on top of the antenna patch panel. The picture on the left
shows the LabJack and relay driver board connected into the terminal blocks for
antenna control. Using the LabJack, there is only one connection over to the
computer, a USB cable. This USB cable is pulled when the station is not in
operation removing the lightning path between the antenna controller and the
computer.
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The original antenna positioning indicator, now back in service as a VOM.
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The original antenna switching box, now retired to the parts box.
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