December 5, 2022: v1.00.05 – Increased the polling rate so the ASC’s updates to the Mini get through when the Flex radio is dumping meter and panadapter data to the Mini. Also, block Auto-Disable from turning off the off-line radio’s antenna port if both antenna ports are not active.
This page contains the latest firmware for the CTR2-Mini Antenna Switch Controller (ASC) and the Node-RED flow that you can use to control it remotely.
Download the ASC Firmware
The Wio Terminal makes it easy to update the firmware running on it. Just plug your Wio into your PC, download the firmware here and unzip the CURRENT.UF2 file, then copy it to the Wio. Put your Wio into programming mode by simply double-pressing the power switch past the On position. An Arduino folder will appear in your PC’s file system. Copy the CURRENT.UF2 file to that folder and you’re done. For more information on uploading firmware visit this blog post.
Download the ASC Node-RED Flow
This is a small flow that will allow you to control the ASC remotely from the Internet. It can be merged into an existing flow if you already use Node-RED for station control.
To use it as your only flow, unzip the JSON file and rename flows.json. Then copy that file to the {home/user}/.node-red folder on your Node-RED host.
More information about Node-RED and an installation script for the Raspberry Pi can be found on the Node-RED website.
REVISIONS
December 5, 2022 – v1.00.05
This update increases the polling rate from 2 seconds to .75 seconds. This provided increased reliability when the Mini is connected to a Flex radio that is downloading meter and panadapter date.
This version also block the Auto-Disable feature on the dual-port switch when one of the antenna ports is not active.
September 3, 2022 – v1.00.04 – Feature update
This update fixes several bugs that were in the single port switch code that appeared when I got the new 1X hardware running.
I also added a “Return to Previous Antenna” option to the 1X switch code that operates similar to the Swap A/B option in the 2X code. This option allows you to toggle between the currently selected antenna and the previously selected antenna. This is great when you want to quickly check receiver levels on two different antennas. Like the Swap option, this option can be assigned to the [C] button or to a function button.
August 7, 2022 – v1.00.03 – Feature updates
This update contains the following changes:
- Added the ability to select multiple antennas. This is needed if you want to select two or more phased array elements.
- To select more than one antenna, enter a plus sign (+) and the # of the antenna port you want to parallel in the label for one of the antenna ports. This tells the controller to select additional antenna ports when this port is selected.
- For example: Entering Yagi+2+4 in antenna port #1’s label will cause antenna port 1, 2, and 4 to be selected when you select antenna port #1.
- Note that selecting antenna ports 2 or 4 in the example above only selects port 2 or 4, not all three.
- Added an interlock that block the controller from selecting an antenna when the transmitter controlled by the Mini is transmitting (key down). To use this interlock the ASC must be linked via WiFi to a Mini that is controlling your radio.
- Resolved hardware decoding issues for 2×8 remote antenna switches.
- Added the new Recalibrate Buttons option to the Config->Function Btns menu. This allows you to recalibrate the ADC values from each function button’s resistive ladder value.
July 16, 2022 – v1.00.00 – Initial firmware release
This is the initial firmware release for the new CTR2-Mini Antenna Switch Controller. This controller allows you to control either single or dual-port antenna switches. It operates in standalone mode where you can select antennas using the rotary encoder or it can be linked to one or two CTR2-Minis and controlled remotely from either of them.