RF2K S Amplifier

RF2K-S Amplifier

The RF2K-S Amplifier panel gives Zeus operators a native control surface for the RF-Kit RF2K-S HF linear amplifier — forward-power meter, OPERATE/STANDBY, antenna selection, fault reset, and the Tune/Bypass front-panel actions — so you don't need a VNC viewer open just to watch the amp during routine ops. Add the panel from Add Panel → Tools → RF2K-S Amplifier.

The amp ships an undocumented but stable REST API on TCP/8080 (Bottle/Python in firmware) plus a VNC server on TCP/5900. Zeus uses both — REST for everything except Tune and tuner-mode toggle, which the firmware only exposes as local touchscreen buttons. Those two ride on a tiny mouse-click injection over VNC.

Initial setup

1. Add the panel from the Add Panel modal (Tools category).
2. Click Settings in the panel to open the configuration drawer.
3. Fill in:
   • Host — the amp's LAN IP (e.g. 10.70.120.41).
   • REST Port — 8080 unless you've changed it in the firmware.
   • VNC Port — 5900 unless you've changed it.
   • VNC Password — the password your amp's vncserver requires (RFB security type 2). Leave blank only if you've explicitly disabled vncserver auth. Truncated to 8 characters per RFB spec; longer values are silently shortened. Stored in zeus-prefs.db unencrypted — treat it as a low-value LAN credential.
4. Tick Enabled, click Save. The status panel populates within ~1 second if the amp is reachable.

If you click TEST REST and get "ok", but the panel still doesn't populate, double-check the Enabled checkbox.

Status readout

Once connected the panel shows two rows of chips:

Chip	Source	Notes
Band	/data.band	e.g. 40m, 20m
Freq	/data.frequency	kHz on the wire; rendered as MHz once over 1 MHz
Ant	/antennas/active	INT-1..4 or EXT
SWR	/power.swr	Yellow over 1.5, red over 2.0
Tuner	/tuner.mode	OFF / BYPASS / AUTO / …
Temp / V / I	/power.{temperature,voltage,current}
Status	/data.status	OK in green; any fault string in red, with the Reset Fault button armed

The forward-power bar uses the firmware's reported max_value as its ceiling and the firmware's value for live position. Yellow up to ~70%, switching to red past ~90% of rated.

OPERATE / STANDBY

The two pill buttons round-trip via PUT /operate-mode. The active state mirrors what the amp reports — clicking OPERATE/STANDBY in the panel is exactly equivalent to pressing the front-panel button.

The amp will refuse to switch to OPERATE if it's currently faulted. Click RESET FAULT first.

Antenna selection

The antenna grid shows whatever antennas the firmware reports — usually four internal jacks (INT-1..4) plus one external (EXT). The active one has the active-button border. Click any other to switch — relays click on the amp and the new antenna takes the active marker after the next poll cycle.

Tune & Bypass — first-run calibration

The amp's REST API does not expose a way to engage tune or toggle the tuner mode (/tuner is GET-only, and the CAT/UDP/TCI handlers are receive-only frequency-trackers). Those two buttons are only reachable on the amp's touchscreen. Zeus drives them by injecting a mouse click over VNC.

Because the firmware uses Tk's dynamic-grid layout, the button positions aren't constants we can ship — you need to tell Zeus where Tune and Bypass land on your amp's 1024×600 screen.

One-time calibration:

1. Open the panel Settings drawer.
2. Scroll to VNC Click Calibration.
3. In the Test X / Test Y fields, type a guess — e.g. 512, 300 for screen-centre.
4. Click SEND TEST CLICK. Watch your amp's display (via your VNC viewer or just looking at it physically). The cursor will land somewhere; adjust X/Y and try again until your click hits the Tune button cleanly.
5. Save the working coordinates as Tune X / Tune Y in the form, click SAVE.
6. Repeat for the Bypass button → Bypass X / Bypass Y → SAVE.

Once both pairs are saved, the panel's TUNE and BYPASS buttons enable. They're greyed out (with a tooltip explaining why) until you've done this.

The whole VNC interaction is click-only — Zeus opens a TCP connection, does the RFB handshake, sends one mouse-down/mouse-up packet, closes. No framebuffer is ever requested or decoded, so idle CPU is zero and there's no continuous network load.

TCI auto-band-follow (optional but recommended)

The RF2K-S can switch bands automatically based on the rig's current frequency, if you point its operational interface at a TCI server. Zeus already includes a full TCI server (used by Log4OM, N1MM+, JTDX, etc.) — you can point the amp at Zeus and it'll track your VFO directly, replacing REST polling for band/freq.

Zeus side:

1. Enable Zeus's TCI server (Settings → TCI tab in Zeus).
2. Set Bind Address to 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces) — easiest for a home LAN — or to your machine's specific LAN IP.
3. Note the Port (default 40001).
4. Restart the Zeus backend — TCI shares Kestrel's listener, which only binds at host startup. The TCI panel will tell you "Restart Zeus for TCI to take effect" when this is needed.

Amp side (must be done on the amp itself, not via REST):

1. Open your existing VNC viewer or use the amp's touchscreen.
2. Menu → Operational Interface → TCI.
3. Enter your machine's LAN IP and the port from above.
4. Save.

The amp's TCI client config can not be set via the REST API — the firmware doesn't expose that write. This is a one-time touchscreen/VNC step. Zeus controls which operational interface is selected (UNIV/CAT/UDP/TCI) but not the per-interface config.

When the connection is up, the panel's "Control Source" shows TCI active and the "No TCI available" warning clears. Tune your radio around — the amp's band and frequency readouts should track Zeus.

What this panel does not cover

• Amp menu / setup screens — TCI client config (above), antenna naming, network settings, firmware updates, factory reset. Use your existing VNC viewer for those rare tasks.
• Live screen mirroring — Zeus does not embed the amp's display. If that's a feature you'd like, please open an issue; the right answer is probably a separate "RF2K-S Console" panel using a JS VNC client (~300 KB dep) — not added by default because day-to-day operation doesn't need it.

Troubleshooting

Panel shows "Not connected" with an error

• Check the amp is on the same subnet as your machine (panel pings via REST; you can confirm with curl http://<amp-ip>:8080/info from a terminal).
• If the amp is reachable but the error mentions JSON parsing, the firmware version may differ from the CT1IQI/RF2K-S v159 reference. Open an issue with the amp's reported software_version.

Test click error: "VNC server requires a password (security type 2) — set VNC Password in the panel settings"

• Self-explanatory. Enter your amp's vncserver password in Settings.

Test click error: "VNC SecurityResult failure: Authentication failed"

• Wrong password. Note the 8-character truncation — if your full password is longer, only the first 8 characters are used by the RFB protocol on both sides.

Test click runs but nothing happens on the amp

• The click is reaching the screen but missing your target. Iterate the X/Y until you see the cursor land on the Tune (or Bypass) button. Use a wide cushion of about ±20px from the visual button center for reliability.

TCI connection still says "No TCI available"

• Confirm Zeus's TCI server is enabled and bound to a routable interface (0.0.0.0 or the specific IP the amp can reach). From a terminal: nc -zv <bind-ip> 40001 should print "succeeded".
• Confirm the amp's TCI client config is pointing at the right IP/port. That setting only lives on the amp side; Zeus doesn't manage it.

See also

• PA Settings — the radio-side drive/tune calibration that determines what wattage you're feeding into the amp's input.
• TX Controls — MOX / TUNE behaviour on the radio side.
• Meters — Zeus's TX stage meters; cross-reference the radio's meter readings with the amp's forward-power bar.