Studio A Strobe Light

[citrtech]

Project is to configure a strobe light to flash on whenever a call is coming in to studio A. Reason is the light on the board isn't noticeable enough to grab the attention of the radio host during their show.

To begin I need to configure our attempt in studio B, once I have it working there I will move it to Studio A.

[citrtech]

Looked into the Manuals for configuring the GPIO ports on the back of the axia core in the studio for sending out a "ringing phone" signal to a lamp circuit.

From what Saman and I can gather from the manuals, one it should be possible, and two it isn't immediately possible. Currently we can only configure the GPIO pins in pre-configured manners which don't include a "ringing phone" signal on any of the pins.

We think that we may be able to do it by configuring the Network hybrid channels to send a virtual GPIO configuration to the pins from the iQ6 core in the server room to the core in the studio.

Made an account on the Axia discussion board to ask questions regarding this. Currently waiting on them to activate the account so I can post my questions.

[citrtech]

Still waiting on the Axia Discussion board account activation. Perused the boards yesterday and saw that they haven't seen much use in the last year. I also can't quicken the account activation for my discussion board account, it requires the site admin to carry out and there isn't any contact information listed for me to reach him.

So I gave up on that and instead sent a ticket to the Telos Alliance customer support. Below are the contents of my sent email and of the response I got back the same day.

MY EMAIL

---

Product brand: Axia Audio

Product model(s): Axia QOR.32, Telos iQ6 Phone Interface System

Serial number(s): 0276K1005, IQ6I0132

Problem Description: I am trying to configure the QOR unit to be able turn on a lamp in the radio studio when a call is incoming (the line in ringing). The phone line in said studio is managed by our iQ6 phone interface system located in our server room.

From the reading I have done, I guessed that this should be doable using one of the GPIO ports on the QOR unit with the right configuration. Unfortunately, the only output logic options offered in the GPIO Telephone Hybrid Logic configuration are ON Lamp, OFF Lamp, PREVIEW Lamp, START pulse and STOP Pulse. Looking at this, it doesn't seem feasible to accomplish my goal. And the other possible configurations don't help either (as far as I can see).

Considering that the QOR unit sends the "Line-ringing" signal to the iQ Phone console we have hooked up to the QOR, I would think using this signal to activate a lamp shouldn't be difficult. At this point, I don't have a circuit made for the lamp yet, but at this point I am trying to figure out the proper control signal first and which QOR port it will be pushed through first to figure out my interface.

To summarize, please let me know if there is a way to have an output signal sent from the QOR when a phone line is ringing. And if so, please let me know which port will it be sent through. Thanks for your help and have a nice day.

---

---

TELOS RESPONSE

---

Yes what you want to do is possible.
Start by giving the GPIO port #1 on the iQ6 gateway a unique LW channel number and click apply. (note that GPIO channel numbers do not advertise to the network, so they won't show up in the browse window)

Then go to your QOR's GPIO page and set up a port. Set the LOGIC FOR item to LIVEWIRE MIRROR and inter the channel number you gave to the iQ6 into the LIVEWIRE CHANNEL field and click apply. (in my example, I chose port 3)

When this is finished, the port you configured in the QOR will mirror the port on the Hx/iQ6 hybrid. The capture below is of an incoming call.

(It shows as "input" on the iQ because it's an input to the network)

[citrtech]

So setting up the logic over the network for the GPIO port shouldn't be difficult thankfully. Next comes designing a circuit/light fixture setup.

After talking with Saman, we decided that using an Arduino Nano for the control interface between the light and the Axia QOR would be useful for making the light setup modular and configurable for potential future expansion / alteration.

In terms of the light itself Saman suggested using a bike lamp since it can be very bright/noticeable. Need to one of those (or some other type of lamp) that needs 5V or less to work since that is the max output voltage of the Arduino Nano.

While I wait for the Nano to be ordered, I am going to test the GPIO logic and measure the energy levels associated with the signal pin that will indicate an incoming call.