RF Power Nanny main App screen

The main screen shows real-time readings received from your RF Power Nanny device. It also has functionality to interact with Power Nanny for settings and statistics.

A Controller temperature and Coupler temperature

B Forward Power in Watt

C Frequency in MHz

D SWR

E Forward and Reflected power dial

F Forward and Reflected power graph

G Statistics

H Settings

I Link to Look Who’s Talking App

J Open separate App window

Controller temperature (A) is the temperature of the microcontroller unit on the outside of the enclosure. It will likely be (much) warmer than ambient temperature. Coupler temperature (A) refers to the current temperature inside the enclosure where the directional coupler is located. Longer transmissions with high power levels (notably digital or CW continuous modes) will warm up the inductors. In our experience temperature increase is fairly moderate. Values shown in green are safe, red color indicates temperatures have reached a critical level.

The main power indicator (B) shows forward power in Watt. The current scale is visible next to the dial and also in the graph (yellow). When power levels exceed the current selected scale, it will turn red. You can select the scale in settings. If you need more accurate info and/or different units like dBm, you can switch to the statistics screen (G).

(C) shows real-time frequency readings in MHz with 3 decimal places.

(D) shows the calculated SWR using the current Forward/Reflected power. High SWR will change the color of the SWR display area.

The power levels are shown in a dial representation (E) and as a graph (F). Forward in green, Reflected in red. The dial can be configured to retain a residual hold which can be convenient when power levels are constantly changing (for single sideband modulation for instance). The scale is also configurable.

Button (G) opens the statistics screen where you can watch real-time values. Using the menu you can switch to “Captured” which enables you to capture and save values over time.

Button (H) takes you to the settings screen Where you also have a menu to switch to different settings areas.

Button (I) will open a link to the “Look Who’s Talking” App. You can open this App from any browser, the button here is just for convenience.

Button (J) will open the Power Nanny App in a separate window. Sometimes it can be convenient to have a separate browser window which you can scale and place where you want it on your desktop. Be aware that there is a limit on how many clients your Power Nanny can serve at the same time. So don’t try to open too many windows.

Settings

Settings are grouped by area of interest which can be selected by using menu (A).

General

A Settings menu

B Context-sensitive help

C Connection status

D Back to main screen

E Measure Average or Peak power

F The time window for measuring max. Peak value in ms

G Hold residue of maximum for the dial

H Scale

Station

A Callsign used when sharing activity with Look Who’s Talking

B Shared message used when sharing activity with Look Who’s Talking

C QTH location used when sharing activity with Look Who’s Talking

D Turn on or off sharing

WiFi/Pairing

A Opens up WiFi settings dialog

B Button to un-pair a paired display

C Pairing info

WiFi dialog

Here you can enter your Wifi network credentials. If your Power Nanny has incorrect credentials (or they are not set) it cannot connect to your local Wifi network. However, you can still connect to the private PowerNanny Wifi network created by your Power Nanny. You can then use this settings page to enter the correct credentials.

The Hostname extension can be used to differentiate when having multiple Power Nannies on the same network. Use a small few characters identifier. This identifier will be added to the default URL. This way you have one unique URL for each Power Nanny. If you have just one Power Nanny you can leave this field empty.

After pressing “Save and Restart”, your Power Nanny will restart. It’s best to close your browser tab/App and restart after the blue LED turned off on the restarted Power Nanny. If the blue LED does not turn off but starts to blink, your Power Nanny was not able to connect using the provided credentials. You can connect only by switching to the private Wifi network “PowerNanny” to correct the credentials.

In the field, where you have no Wifi network available you can connect to your Power Nanny using the private Wifi network “PowerNanny” by default.

Pairing

If you have an external display like the M5Stack ATOMS3R, you will need to pair it with your RF Power Nanny. The procedure for doing so can differ per device. Please read the instructions supplied with the external device firmware. We will publish firmware for external displays seperately. Currently there’s only one firmware available for the M5Stack ATOMS3R. We encourage other developers to create firmware for other devices and to share their firmware. The programming interface is documented (see Programmers Reference). It should be straight forward to implement custom firmware for other display devices.

Firmware

A Current firmware (currently used on your Power Nanny)

B Dropdown to select other available firmware

C Flash button

Flashing new firmware

You need an internet connection, so your Power Nanny should be connected to your local Wifi network. RF Power Nanny will look for available firmware versions during startup. It will also check if a newer firmware is available. When you press the Flash button it will immediately start flashing the selected firmware (B). You will see progress messages and when finished it will restart your Power Nanny with the new firmware. It’s best to close your browser tab/App and restart after the blue LED turned off on the restarted Power Nanny.

Advanced

A vCal - calibration setting

B fCal - calibration setting

C Restore factory defaults

D Reset ADC

Calibration

We calibrated your RF Power Nanny during manufacturing. If you think your Power Nanny needs to be recalibrated with other settings you can do so here. You can always restore factory defaults. The normal procedure would be to connect your Power Nanny to a good dummy-load and to have a calibrated source to generate different power levels. Captured readings of your Power Nanny can then be saved to a file and be compared with expected values.

The vCal setting can be changed adjust the power level independent from frequency. The fCal setting adjusts the power level frequency dependent.

ADC reset

The on-board ADC is responsible for converting the output of the directional coupler (which measures power levels) to digital values. This button will reset the ADC. Under normal conditions this will never be needed.

Statistics

The statistics screen provides more measurement details. Use the Pause/run button to freeze or un-freeze capturing, to be able to study the output without constant refreshing of the data. Up to 50 values are captured in memory. Choose “Captured” from the menu to go to the capture settings.

A Detailed readings

B Pause (freeze) or resume capturing

Captured Statistics

A Shows current records in memory

B Clear memory or export captured statistics to a file

C Capture one record per Tx or capture every reading

Export of captured readings are saved in CSV format. You can open the file using Excel.