Hi folks,
I'm Christian DL1ELU and have just installed CQRLOG 2.5.2. on Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon. Everything looks good so far, but I'm struggling with rotator control:
In the near future I'm going to control my rotator from a RaspberryPi that will sit on the tower (and do some other things like switching antennas, webcam etc.). On the RPi I have installed a software from here: https://www.clearskyinstitute.com/ham/G5500/
Please refer to the pdf document to verify what I am talking about. When I execute the test software on the RPi and then (on my shack computer, which is in the same network) I browse the RPi web interface using 192.168.178.110:8008 I can see the rotor interface and also can control it. So hardware wise all is good. As well, from the shack computer I can connect to the test software running "rotctl -m 1 -r 192.168.178.110:4533" in a terminal window. The simulation works and rotation returns correct AZ/EL values. Great.
Now I have tried to setup CQRLOG to control the simulated rotator, without success so far. In the preferences menu, I only have set the host from localhost to the RPi's address, the other settings are still default. Hamlib is installed of course, and the path set to it. The rotor control window is red all times, so obviously there is a problem.
But now I'm lost. Do I miss something? Is there anybody using the same or a similar setup or willing to test and can give advice? Any help is highly appreciated...
73, Christian DL1ELU
HI!
I have home made rotor controller with ESP8266 (ESP12e) microcontroller sitting besides the rotor. Only 2 wires up to tower, 24Vac. Controller connects to local WIFi and emulates rotctld commands. https://github.com/OH1KH/WiFiRotorCtl
It can do only Az, but that is enough as Cqrlog can also only that.
(Az turn left, Az turn right, AZ go to positon, Az stop)
Here is Cqrlog's rot configuration:
--
Saku
OH1KH
Hi Saku, thanks for your comment. I set the ID model to NET rotctl like you and at least now CQRLOG sends commands to the simulator. If I rotate left/right, I can see the simulation work. Nevertheless, the rotor window stays red and displays zero at all times.
With CQRLOG stopped, I can establish a telnet link and set a direction, e.g. "P 123 0". I get an answer "RPRT 0" and now the simulated rotator runs to the desired position (as can be seen on its web interface). Trying to ask the current direction with "p" always results in "RPRT -1" instead of putting out AZ and EL values. So, obviously there is a hickup in the simulation software, right?
73 Christian DL1ELU
Hi Christian!
Yep.
If you can not get answer with telnet, so cant Cqrlog either.
Is the software open source? Maybe it could be fixed.
And does it support extended (+) commands? It should as Cqrlog uses them.
+p
get_pos:
Azimuth: 41.381477
Elevation: 0.000000
RPRT 0
You can set up dummy rotor (model #1) and check "run rotctld at program start" to rotor2. Then start Cqrlog from command console:
cqrlog --debug=1
And you see how it polls rotor2 (when selected) and how it answers to Cqrlog
--
Saku
OH1KH
Saku, thanks again for your kind support. Obviously I need to modify the simulation software in order to work correctly. At least now I know where to look at, hi.
73, Christian DL1ELU