RPi 3, TNC-pi Setup problems

[Randy Buxton]

Hi. I am new to this group. Hope someone or more can help.  I am using a RPi 3 with the the Jessie Pixel with a TNC-pi.  I cannot seem to get the settings right so that I can transmit over the radio with APRX.  It would be most helpful if someone with a similar set-up could advise me how they configured their RPi and/or set their aprx.conf.  I had a RPi 2 with the same TNC-pi and it worked fine.  So, I am thinking there must be something in particular with the newer version RPi or the flavor of Jessie. 

[Max Harper]

I would start by posting a copy of your config file so we can see your settings. Also more info such as are you using AX.25 and is the TNC-Pi setup to use I2C or serial. Did you follow an install guide somewhere? You indicate that transmitting is a problem, but what about receive as that would eliminate some of the settings.

Max KG4PID

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 From: Randy Buxton <randy...@gmail.com>
To: Aprx software <aprx-s...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 2, 2017 1:29 AM
Subject: [Aprx] RPi 3, TNC-pi Setup problems

Hi. I am new to this group. Hope someone or more can help.  I am using a RPi 3 with the the Jessie Pixel with a TNC-pi.  I cannot seem to get the settings right so that I can transmit over the radio with APRX.  It would be most helpful if someone with a similar set-up could advise me how they configured their RPi and/or set their aprx.conf.  I had a RPi 2 with the same TNC-pi and it worked fine.  So, I am thinking there must be something in particular with the newer version RPi or the flavor of Jessie. 

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[Jens Bremeier]

Am Sonntag, 2. April 2017 08:29:37 UTC+2 schrieb Randy Buxton:
> Hi. I am new to this group. Hope someone or more can help.  I am using a RPi 3 with the the Jessie Pixel with a TNC-pi.  I cannot seem to get the settings right so that I can transmit over the radio with APRX.  It would be most helpful if someone with a similar set-up could advise me how they configured their RPi and/or set their aprx.conf.  I had a RPi 2 with the same TNC-pi and it worked fine.  So, I am thinking there must be something in particular with the newer version RPi or the flavor of Jessie. 

It sounds like the Bluetooth is still activated. Thats the change on RPi3.

[Mohd Hamid Misnan]

I believe so, when I moved from RPi2 to RPi3, I thought it was just plug and play. Found out we need to do extra stuff as explained in the manual, page 14 about moving the bluetooth to different device name.

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[Randy Buxton]

Here's my aprx.conf file.  Update,,, the tnc-pi is transmitting but it seems the APRS system (as in, my APRS transceiver in my truck or local digipeaters) is not seeing my beacon packets.   At the end of the aprx.conf is a line from the aprx.rf-log that indicates to me that what I have set in the aprx.conf is not what is being transmitted. Why is that? 

Also, I have successfully created a script to take line 2 out of the the Cumulus wxnow.txt file and have aprx transmit that but it seems that file may be missing something also.  Like maybe time and lat/lon.  Any suggestions?

#
# Configuration file for the APRX-2.9
#


mycall  W4IFI

myloc lat 3845.33N lon 07744.03W

<aprsis>

#login     W4IFI    # login defaults to $mycall
passcode 9360
server   noam.aprs2.net
heartbeat-timeout   0    # Disabler of heartbeat timeout

</aprsis>


<logging>

pidfile /var/run/aprx.pid

rflog /var/log/aprx/aprx-rf.log

aprxlog /var/log/aprx/aprx.log

dprslog /var/log/aprx/dprs.log

erlangfile /var/run/aprx.state

</logging>


<interface>
   serial-device /dev/ttyAMA0 19200 8n1 KISS
   #callsign     W4IFI  # callsign defaults to $mycall
   tx-ok        true    # transmitter enable defaults to false
   telem-to-is  true    # set to 'false' to disable
</interface>


<beacon>

beaconmode radio
cycle-size  4m
beacon symbol "/_" via WIDE2-2  $myloc file /home/pi/CumulusMX/Wxnow/wxnow.txt comment "W4IFI WX"

</beacon>

<telemetry>
    transmitter    $mycall
    via        TRACE1-1
    source        $mycall
</telemetry>


#################
From my aprx.rf-log

2017-04-02 16:18:22.756 W4IFI     T W4IFI>APRX29,WIDE2-2:352/003g008t056r000p000P000h42b10249 


My wxnow.txt file:

326/002g008t057r000p000P000h41b10247

[Randy Buxton]

And, my setup for all of this began with the tnc-pi manual which has been updated for the Raspberry Pi 3.  The instructions took care of the Bluetooth port which is now ID'd as ttyS0. Then I went I downloaded the pre-compiled .deb package for APRX and installed it and went through the manual to configure the aprx.conf as you see in my previous post. 

I don't understand why I set the beacon parameters and they are not all transmitted.

[Max Harper]

The differences in the data file vs transmitted data maybe a timing issue since aprx doesn't look at the file to see if it has changed or not or is even current. How often does the wxnow.txt get updated?

Max KG4PID

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From: Randy Buxton <randy...@gmail.com>
To: Aprx software <aprx-s...@googlegroups.com>

Sent: Sunday, April 2, 2017 11:31 AM
Subject: [Aprx] Re: RPi 3, TNC-pi Setup problems

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[Randy Buxton]

wxnow.txt is created anew every minute

[Kenneth Finnegan]

When you use the "beacon file [filename]" option, Aprx delegates crafting the entire packet contents to your external file, so it ignores directives like $myloc and comment. You'll need to add the GPS coordinate and comment to your external program which is updating the text file.

--
Kenneth Finnegan, W6KWF
http://blog.thelifeofkenneth.com/

On Sun, Apr 2, 2017 at 9:27 AM, Randy Buxton <randy...@gmail.com> wrote:

And, my setup for all of this began with the tnc-pi manual which has been updated for the Raspberry Pi 3.  The instructions took care of the Bluetooth port which is now ID'd as ttyS0. Then I went I downloaded the pre-compiled .deb package for APRX and installed it and went through the manual to configure the aprx.conf as you see in my previous post. 

I don't understand why I set the beacon parameters and they are not all transmitted.

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[Randy Buxton]

Ah, that explains it.  So time to teach myself some more linux programming.  So I will now learn how to append the date/time and lat/lon to the beginning of the weather sequence.  If anyone else has done this please advise me what steps to take.

So if I remove the file from my beacon why would that not make it from RF into the APRS system?  Maybe my local digi isn't hearing my signal.

[Kenneth Finnegan]

I don't think you need a timestamped location for weather reports, so you can just prepend a "!" position report with /W as the symbol (i.e. "!4903.50N/07201.75W_[YOUR WEATHER REPORT]")

How are you updating the file now?

I still don't understand your issue with regards to transmitting. Is your transmitter keying or not? Are there packets showing up in your aprx-rf.log or not? What is APRS not doing that you expect it to be?

--
Kenneth Finnegan
http://blog.thelifeofkenneth.com/

On Sun, Apr 2, 2017 at 2:06 PM, Randy Buxton <randy...@gmail.com> wrote:

Ah, that explains it.  So time to teach myself some more linux programming.  So I will now learn how to append the date/time and lat/lon to the beginning of the weather sequence.  If anyone else has done this please advise me what steps to take.

So if I remove the file from my beacon why would that not make it from RF into the APRS system?  Maybe my local digi isn't hearing my signal.

[Randy Buxton]

What does the '!' symbol signify? I was using "/_" for the weather station symbol. To get my weather sequence I have created a script that takes line 2 of the wxnow.txt file created by the Cumulus program that reads data from my weather station.  That script creates a text file with just the weather script that aprx reads.  So now I need to write the script so that it appends the lat/lon to the beginning of it. Would I need to also put the ! in front of the lat/lon in the text file?

Upon further research my tnc-pi is transmitting. I think that my signal is not being received by any digipeater. And maybe since my packet is not valid it would not be read and digi'd anyway.  As a test I will beacon my position and a symbol of lying and see if I can receive it direct on my truck aprs radio.

Also, there are entries in my aprs rf log. I think this problem may be 1) bad weather format and 2) no digi reception.

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[Randy Buxton]

...symbol of "/_"

[Patrick Domack]

As long as you have a valid path, the digi wouldn't care about
anything else. It sounds like you have a layer1 issue.

Are you sure your transmit audio is setup correctly? Since this is
using emphasized audio, it makes a huge difference, and if you
overpower your transmit audio, no one will be able to decode your
signal.

>>> email to aprx-softwar...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>.

[Kevin Hedgepeth]

Hi Randy,

you may need to disable some of the new features of rpi 3 to make the serial port work on the GPIO.  also did you block the Pi from using the GPIO pins in the CONF file???  I am using a PI 2 for my APRX gateway through a TNC-pi.  But if you like I can send you my conf. and a paper that I have written to help users get their gateway on the air.  Let me know.

seven three de Kevin/NB7O

[Randy Buxton]

Send me what you have. My email is rkbu...@comcast.net

I have disabled the serial and remote GPIO setting in the raspi-config settings, is that what you mean by 'block'? 

And, my pi/radio are transmitting.  My issue at the moment is getting the weather packet to beacon. But, as I have been advised in previous posts, I need to write a script (or someone can provide me one ;) ) to create the correct format.

[Kenneth Finnegan]

Sorry, I mis-spoke. I believe "/_" is the correct symbol. "/W" was me parsing my example incorrectly.

--
Kenneth Finnegan
http://blog.thelifeofkenneth.com/

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[Kevin Hedgepeth]

Ok if you are that far then I misunderstood.  I thought you were not getting any xmit.  No weather station here so what I have will not help you any.

 

Sorry for sticking my nose in.

 

Kevin/NB7O

 

From: aprx-s...@googlegroups.com [mailto:aprx-s...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Randy Buxton
Sent: Monday, April 3, 2017 8:12 AM
To: Aprx software
Subject: [Aprx] Re: RPi 3, TNC-pi Setup problems

 

Send me what you have. My email is rkbu...@comcast.net

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[Randy Buxton]

I still would like to see your instruction page and confirm file.

Thanks

Randy 

[Randy Buxton]

I meant 'conf' file

[Kevin Hedgepeth]

Ok.  here you go.  Prepped for presentation at Quartzfest last January but due to wx we could not get there.

 

Seven three de Kevin/NB7O

Version: 2016.0.8012 / Virus Database: 4769/14240 - Release Date: 04/04/17