ANAN-7000DLE MKII - Internet Remote Base (IRB) - PTT and Audio

g4fph
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ANAN-7000DLE MKII - Internet Remote Base (IRB) - PTT and Audio

Postby g4fph » Sun Feb 09, 2020 1:40 pm

Hi all!

Having a fun time trying to get my IRB working with a '7000 rather than a conventional transceiver at it's heart. It's 90% there, but I have one silly on the ANAN PTT and TX Audio.

In outline, my setup is a PC in the shack running:

1. PowerSDR OpenHPSDR mRX v3.4.9, networked to the Anan, taking care of the signal processing;
2. VNC Server, to allow me to see PSDR from remote;
3. Virtual Audio Cable to pipe the PSDR baseband RX and TX audio into-;
4. DF3CB RemAud Server (https://www.df3cb.com/remaud/);
(There's a few more software applications running too for Virtual Serial Ports, DDutil, Logging, PA control, etc, but they all work and are incidental.)


On the remote end, I'm running, amongst other software, the DF3CB RemAud Client.

The DF3CB RemAud software can transport a PTT signal from the Client to the Server. I would like to make use of this for three reasons:

Firstly it give a control channel that's independent of VNC. (Pressing the 'MOX' button on PSDR UI via VNC OK fine until VNC crashes!)
Secondly, it saves 20 kbps, or so, of Internet bandwidth, as it means RemAud can run in 'Simplex' mode, with only RX, or TX, audio transported over the Internet at any one time.
Thirdly, having the TX audio transported with the PTT signal in the same control channel (I think!) means that the timing between the two gets sorted, so no cutting off the end of an over by pressing the MOX button before the TX audio buffer in RemAud Server has emptied.


That's a very long introduction to the nub of my issue which is: When I connect the interface I made betweween the shack PC COM port and Anan 'PTT In' and enable PTT in Setup - General - Hardware Options in PSDR, PSDR seems to assume that I will be using a local microphone plugged into the Anan and disables transport of TX audio over VAC. I wasn't expecting this behaviour.

Can this behaviour be changed, so I get the benefit of hardware PTT AND keep my TX audio in the digital domain via VAC? I've dug out the audio interface I built for the last incarnation of the IRB. Usual thing with two audio transformers in a box. Hoping I don't have to use it!

Regards,

Mark, G4FPH.
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w-u-2-o
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Re: ANAN-7000DLE MKII - Internet Remote Base (IRB) - PTT and Audio

Postby w-u-2-o » Sun Feb 09, 2020 2:42 pm

g4fph wrote:That's a very long introduction to the nub of my issue which is: When I connect the interface I made betweween the shack PC COM port and Anan 'PTT In' and enable PTT in Setup - General - Hardware Options in PSDR, PSDR seems to assume that I will be using a local microphone plugged into the Anan and disables transport of TX audio over VAC. I wasn't expecting this behaviour.

Can this behaviour be changed, so I get the benefit of hardware PTT AND keep my TX audio in the digital domain via VAC? I've dug out the audio interface I built for the last incarnation of the IRB. Usual thing with two audio transformers in a box. Hoping I don't have to use it!

Mark,

There are probably at least a couple of things going on here.

First, there is no setting in Setup > General > Hardware Config or Setup > General > Options (there is no "Hardware Options", so I'm not sure which you were writing about) that is relevant to your problem.

To make this work, you are going to need to set up a virtual serial port pair. Then assign one of those ports to the PTT Control port in Setup > CAT Control > CAT. Assign the other port to RemAud for PTT. You'll have to play with the signaling assignments (DTR, etc.) in both PowerSDR and RemAud to see what works. I hope you will not need a virtual null modem connection!

The second issue is that you need to ensure that in VAC1 setup none of the "Allow xxx to override/bypass..." boxes are checked.

73,

Scott

P.S. moving this topic to the Remote Operation subforum, since it is not a microphone or audio hardware issue.
g4fph
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Joined: Thu Apr 27, 2017 8:43 am

Re: ANAN-7000DLE MKII - Internet Remote Base (IRB) - PTT and Audio

Postby g4fph » Sun Feb 09, 2020 3:16 pm

Scott,

Many thanks. My post does indeed sit better in this section of the board.

I actually fixed my issue before I saw your reply.

The part of the PSDR setup I was referring to in my initial post was in 'Setup - General - Hardware Config', not quite as I wrote:-( Within that tab, there is a 'Hardware Options' group that sets the configuration of the microphone Tip / Ring etc. In that section, 'PTT' has to be set to 'On', which I had already figured out.

The other option I was hoping existed somewhere in PSDR, and does, was the one you mentioned in the 'Audio - VAC 1' tab. For my setup, I needed to take the tick out of the box. 'Allow PTT to override/bypass VAC for Phone'.

Now to have some remote fun on SSB, prior to adding a WinKeyer for CW and looking into how to make Data work.

Regards,

Mark, G4FPH.
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w-u-2-o
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Re: ANAN-7000DLE MKII - Internet Remote Base (IRB) - PTT and Audio

Postby w-u-2-o » Sun Feb 09, 2020 4:20 pm

Mark,

You must be having the PC generate a hardware PTT signal from a COM port then?

I would recommend using the virtual port pair instead. Less opportunity for RFI. Plus you can use it for WinKeyer, etc.

73,

Scott
g4fph
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Re: ANAN-7000DLE MKII - Internet Remote Base (IRB) - PTT and Audio

Postby g4fph » Sun Feb 09, 2020 5:52 pm

Scott,

Yes, the PC connected to the radio generates a hardware PTT signal which is configured in RemAud Server. Usual one-transistor interface, driven from (in my config.) pin 7 (RTS) off the D9F connector. Would be cool if this same functionality could be achieved over a Virtual Serrial Port pair, with Rem Aud Server on one end and the '7000 on the other.

I already have VSPE providing a Virtual COM port pair for the radio into DDUtil, so that gets to find out what frequency and mode the radio is on. DDUtil then drives another Virtual COM port pair to pass the radio data to Logger32 and also puts Kenwood format frequency data onto a real COM port to keep my SPE amplifier tracking.

About time I drew a diagram of this rats nest!

Regards,

Mark, G4FPH.
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w-u-2-o
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Re: ANAN-7000DLE MKII - Internet Remote Base (IRB) - PTT and Audio

Postby w-u-2-o » Sun Feb 09, 2020 7:23 pm

It should be possible to have the PTT go via a virtual serial port pair, as I described above. I'm guessing you simply weren't aware of the serial port PTT functionality of PowerSDR.
g4fph
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Re: ANAN-7000DLE MKII - Internet Remote Base (IRB) - PTT and Audio

Postby g4fph » Mon Feb 10, 2020 10:44 pm

Scott,

I had assumed the Virtual Serial Port (VSP) into PSDR would be limited to just transporting the relevant CAT commands for TX and RX but, looking in Setup, it seems it can support PTT via the RTS line, which is what comes out of RemAud Server.

Some more experimentation is called for next weekend. If adding another VSP for my phone PTT works, that will leave the hardware PTT in free for my WinKeyer USB to use for CW, which would be neat.

I had my first successful SSB contact tonight, controlling the station over the Internet from a hotel bedroom over 100 miles away. Everything worked like a charm. While transmitting, I could monitor my TX signal on a WebSDR receiver. Forget full break-in CW, this was true, single-frequency full duplex phone!

Regards,

Mark, G4FPH.
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w-u-2-o
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Re: ANAN-7000DLE MKII - Internet Remote Base (IRB) - PTT and Audio

Postby w-u-2-o » Mon Feb 10, 2020 11:17 pm

Just as I described...

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