Remote operations
Task
My working life is mobile and busy. Time for radio is limited and I don’t want radio to interfere with my job too much (which it does anyway 🙂 Besides I don’t have a transceiver at home, since I live in a city center and I have to drive 1-1.5 in one direction to my QTH and maybe even more in the future. So remote operation is a necessity.
Ever-evolving solution
The setup is an ever-evolving thing. Tomorrow it can be very different from today. However, today this is a view of a remote computer via TeamViewer:
Current setup
- Icom 7300
- Icom RS-BA1 Remote Control Ver2
- 2 x Yaesu G-800DXA rotators (two masts)
- TeamViewer
- ZeroTier for fixed IP address
- Remote laptop Windows-based
- Local laptop Windows-based
- Remote control utility by Burst (a solid-state PA)
- Remote Control Unit (RCU) software and hardware by Marvelmind Robotics
Fixed IP address is a key
If you can get a fixed IP address, get it. You will save a lot of time and troubleshooting.
If you can’t get it, get ZeroTier – a very neat solution. I was very happy when finally discovered it. It works very well and is strongly recommended.
TeamViewer, AnyDesk and other
A remote control software is an essential element for operations. It would be great to get rid of them but not yet.
RCU
RCU is our own RCU hardware board that is controlled by the RCU software on the remote computer via virtual UART over USB.
The remote RCU will be UDP controlled by an RCU software instance installed on the local computer very similar to what Icom Remote Utility does with the Icom transceiver. But it is a work in the progress. Currently only the remote part works and thus it controlled via TeamViewer.
The RCU hardware board contains a local antenna switch for several antennas. It can also send commands over the ISM/SRD radio (868/915 MHz) to a similar remote antenna switch which can be hundreds of meters away depending on the ISM/SRD antennas on both ends. It is a much more convenient solution than to put long wires, for example, like Yaesu G-800DXA rotators do, or even twisted pairs to control the remote switches.
RCU controls the G-800DXA rotators via the connector on the back side of the rotators.
Overall performance
It works, which is good. But it is still fragile and consists of too many elements and requires too many settings where it is too easy to make mistakes, which is bad.
Issues and solutions
There has been all kind issues that we getting rid of one by one:
Windows updates
- They blocked TeamViewer for whatever reason. The result: a need to drive 1 hour in one direction, reboot computer, and let Windows to unblock TeamViewer.
- Current solutions: setting Windows to disable automatic updates and nightly forced reboot at 4 am to be on very safe side. Of course, required programs are in the Startup apps
Anydesk conflicted with Icom Remote Utility
- Anydesk used UDP ports 50001, 50002, 50003 – the same the Icom utility used. It was very difficult to detect and very unclear why everything suddenly stopped working, when I installed AnyDesk as a backup to TeamViewer.
- Solution: to move Icom utility to 40001, 40002, 40003. It worked but somehow not as good as before. Perhaps, because Icom solution too much forced 50001, 50002, 50003 ports and didn’t test other options. Even better solution – get rid of AnyDesk (unfortunately)
Sudden changes in TeamViewer use policy
- At some point of time, TeamViewer started limiting me with just 5 minutes of usage, which made it completely useless. That was the reason I started playing with AnyDesk and lost a lot of time. Then, everything normalized with TeamViewer without my conscious efforts and deleted AnyDesk
- But the TeamViewer induced troubles may return at any moment. Thus, it is better to become independent from them as soon as possible
No embedded VPN by TeamViewer anymore
- Before building the setup as it is, I spent a lot time trying to set up using guidance based on TeamViewer’s VPN. Only after days of search, it became apparent that the VPN functionality and the fixed (or known) IP address it brings is not available in the free version anymore. Again, TeamViewer can change something at any moment and everything may collapse at once
Unstable LTE connection for the remote station
- LTE cells can “breath”. Thus, if you have more users in the cell than before, it can shrink, i.e your connection may drop completely, some packets may drop, or latency may become too high. In any case, it is bad for remote operations: your transmission is interrupted and other hams think that either your TX/RX switch is glitchy or PA protects itself and cuts off
- Solutions: get wired connection (GPON, for example), select the most reliable LTE/5G provider after extensive testing, use LTE/5G routers with automatic failover/switchover – switching to the best provider at a given moment
Icom Remote Utility settings are very confusing and may suddenly change or the app stuck
- Several issues with the Icom Remote utility which can be better, less confusing, and more stable as an app
- First, screens of working settings:
Sometimes, I lost a possibility to transmit, because MOD setting self-changed to unselected microphone, I didn’t have signal from the microphone at all, and the PA didn’t even switch TX because it needs not only the TX signal to the ground but also the RF signal. Since it received RF of nearly zero power since my microphone was effectively mute, the PA didn’t switch to TX and it was very unclear whom to blame since there so many interfaces and elements. It was the Icom Remote Utility MOD settings to blame:
So, instead of Mic selected, there was nothing selected. Why? – I have no idea. Glitchy Icom app, I guess. But as a result – lost hours to find why suddenly the transceiver stopped emitting TX.
Note that you have the same Icom Remote Utility app on the local and remote computers but their in different modes: local and remote. The pictures above are for the local (for you local – not for the transceiver) computer. For the remote computer, her are the right pictures:
Our own RCU suddenly “lost” software
- This is a very new issue and we don’t yet have a good solution for it. The problem was that the RCU hardware somehow suddenly “lost” the software and stopped connecting completely. If it is not connecting, you cannot reflash it or reset it. It looked like broken hardware. It could be also a lost driver somehow. After extensive debugging, it wasn’t drivers. it was a loss of software. How and why – very unclear. Since the board is in a very raw variant – not based on a printed circuit board variant, maybe, a 1 kW RF signal that is very near in the open power amplifier induces too high voltage and it erases something in the flash memory of the RCU. Just a wild guess
Further steps
- Do RCU on regular PCB boards
- Set RCU for truly remote operations and avoid dependency over TeamViewer
- Replace a regular remote Windows laptop with something more reliable and predictable – either Raspberry Pi or similar single-board computers, if other software (Icom, TeamViewer, etc.) allows, or move to more reliable Linux-based machines, or somehow manage to set Windows so tightly so that it doesn’t run what is not asked to run and doesn’t self-changes its configuration or performance over the time
- Generally speaking, replace piece by piece all 3rd party software with Marvelmind software to make a smoothly working system with far fewer settings and potential problematic interfaces and over dependencies than now
- Start offering the solution to other hams first based on Icom and then on other transceivers
Other solutions and relevant links
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