DigiPi WebChat RF transmit problem

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Sergej Beresteckij UA6ATG

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May 11, 2026, 8:12:21 AM (7 days ago) May 11
to DigiPi

Hello,

I am testing DigiPi WebChat and I have a problem with RF transmit.

The digipeater works correctly and transmits packets over RF without any issues.
PTT is configured as:

PTT /dev/ttyUSB0 RTS

Dire Wolf is running normally using:

/run/direwolf.digipeater.conf

KISS TCP is enabled and listening on port 8001.

WebChat is accessible locally at:

http://digipi.local:8055/

Current WebChat process:

aprsd webchat --port 8055 --loglevel ERROR

The problem is that WebChat does not transmit anything over RF.
Messages entered in WebChat do not key the transmitter and no packets appear in Dire Wolf logs.

Digipeater RF transmit works correctly, so the radio interface and PTT are functioning properly.

Could you please help me understand:

  1. Does DigiPi WebChat support RF transmit through Dire Wolf KISS?
  2. Is additional APRSd configuration required for RF transmit?
  3. Is WebChat APRS-IS only by default?
  4. Should APRSd be manually configured to connect to localhost:8001?

Thank you very much for your help.

73,
UA6ATG

Sergej Beresteckij UA6ATG

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May 11, 2026, 12:40:43 PM (7 days ago) May 11
to DigiPi

Issue solved — DigiPi WebChat RF transmit is now working correctly.

The problem was not PTT or Dire Wolf configuration. RF digipeating worked the whole time using:

PTT /dev/ttyUSB0 RTS

The actual issue appears to have been the APRSd KISS TCP connection startup timing.

In aprsd.conf I enabled:

[kiss_tcp]
enabled = true
host = localhost
port = 8001

After reboot, APRSd successfully attached to Dire Wolf:

"Attached to KISS TCP client application 0 on port 8001"

WebChat is now transmitting APRS RF packets correctly through Dire Wolf KISS.

I can now see packets such as:

UA6ATG>APZ100,WIDE1-1::UB6LPY-9 :rtt{4235

and WebChat beacons transmitting over RF normally.

It also appears APRSd may start before Dire Wolf KISS is fully ready, which caused the earlier "Broken pipe" errors. Adding a startup delay for webchat.sh may help prevent this.

Also confirmed:

  • APRS messages must be ASCII only

  • Cyrillic/UTF-8 text causes codec errors

Thank you everyone for the help.

73,
UA6ATG


понедельник, 11 мая 2026 г. в 15:12:21 UTC+3, Sergej Beresteckij UA6ATG:

Craig

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May 12, 2026, 6:51:30 PM (6 days ago) May 12
to Sergej Beresteckij UA6ATG, DigiPi
Great work!

Are you using a Zero2w or a Zero?  the latter will have lots of problems like this
if it works at all.  I also noticed a racing condition in the beta like you indicated on the Zero2W,
trying to speed up the home page loading.  Start APRS TNC manually, then webchat,
and you should be good to go.  This shouldn't be necessary on the production 2.0-1
image.

kiss_tcp should already have those values set - that's how webchat talks to direwolf,
I'll confirm.

cool,
-craig
KM6LYW
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