TOPIC:

Hello, I'm on the FlexRadio Alpha team and I'm working on a small MacOS utility similar to the PGXL utility. This is NOT an official FlexRadio project but is something I may offer to the Mac users to monitor and control their PGXL amps.

I have figured out how to query and control the amp using the ethernet commands. However I'm not sure how to convert some of the status response values.

When not keyed the amp returns to a status response some values like this

FWD=29.2
PEAKFWD=29.2
PEAKPWR=0
SWR=-60.0

When I key that amp to like 250 watts out I get these values:

FWD=53.9
PEAKFWD=53.9
PEAKPWR=246
SWR=-17.4

I want to understand how to convert the "FWD" values and "SWR" value to meaningful numbers. Can some one provide conversions for these values?

Thanks in advance - Mark WS7M

Hello Mark,

That sounds exciting!

The values you get are in dBm, you can convert them to watts using this calculator:
www.rapidtables.com/convert/power/dBm_to_Watt.html

This is how to calculate VSWR from return loss:
www.everythingrf.com/rf-calculators/retu...s-to-vswr-calculator

Good luck!

Thanks Dragisa,

I was able to figure it out over the weekend with some experimentation.

I have another general question for you so I can color my display appropriately:

For TEMP and HLTEMP I am thinking these are in deg C. What would be a warning level value for each?

For Id and Vdd these are in amps I assume. Again, what would be a warning level for each value?

The idea is to show green when good, yellow when in the warning zone and then red if a max is being exceeded.

Thanks in advance!

For TEMP and HLTEMP, yes, it's in Celsius.
TEMP is the temperature on the heating of the RF module. We recommend: 50-65 yellow, 65-75 red, 75+ alarm.
HLTEMP is harmonic load temp. We recommend: 70-90 yellow, 90+ red, 105+ alarm.

Idd and Vdd are in Volts, yes, we recommend: 50-60V yellow, 60-67V red, 67+ alarm.

That said all alarm, error and warning messages are sent from the amplifier asynchronously.
These are the most important and fastest to react to so you should probably pay attention to them.

Thank you for the temp ranges.

Can you provide an example error/warning packet so I can see what the key value pairs should be? I have yet to see anything like that from my amp.

Mark

Idd and Vdd are in Volts, yes, we recommend: 50-60V yellow, 60-67V red, 67+ alarm.

I think you must be Id which I would expect to be in amps correct?

Screen shot of the utility in transmit:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/au78ceohy2o0wco/PGXLUtilInTransmit.png?dl=0