➔ Homemade Data Cable for Yaesu FT-2D
| 2 minute read
A while ago I bought a Yaesu FT-2D in order to try some YSF with MMDVMs. I discovered that German shops sell the data cable for nearly 90€ which seems quite expensive - especially after discovering that I just contains a pl2303 USB-RS232 adapter and a MAX3232 or similar level coverter. So the only difficulty left to clone this cable was the connector on the radio side. There is a longer thread on Twitter about this (see [1]).
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➔ Excluding FT-232 from ftdi_sio Driver
| 2 minute read
For the upcoming AMBEd daemon needed by XLX reflector software there is a need to connect an FTDI USB-serial adapter without using the default ftdi_sio kernel module. Instead the software makes use of the D2XX drivers by FTDI. This driver is available as binary only from FTDI’s website.
The problem with Linux operating systems is that it loads the ftdi_sio driver by default. One option is to blacklist that module.
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➔ Make SVXlink tell 24h time / UTC
| 2 minute read
After re-setting up my SVXlink node I encoutered the problem that the time announced was using German spelling but English time format. That lead to very strange time announcements during the long identification transmission. Also the 24h time format was missing. After reading around on [1] and [2] I found that this can be overridden locally. The best local.tcl settings were found on a German forum (see [2]). Andi, DL1HRC made a nice local.
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➔ Interfacing Motorola GM1200
| 2 minute read
I had an unused GM1200 that should be interfaced to a SVXlink node. Turns out that it is not as easy as I thought. I wanted to use the CTCSS decoder and a hardware squelch signal. The CPS offers different options that can be programmed per FM channel. The essence is the option “Data Channel”. That enabled unfiltered raw output on pin 25 of the accessory connector. The audio input can be connected to pin 24.
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➔ Interfacing Tait TB7100 and MMDVM
| 2 minute read
The other day I got hold of a Tait TB7100 1U repeater. I thought I might make a good basis for a MMDVM HotSpot or even repeater. Apparently the RX had a sort of a problem. Using the service manual I discovered that the TCXO for the RX was missing its power supply due to a removed resistor. After fitting in a replacement the unit worked ok with a testing configuration for a FM repeater.
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➔ Monitor a DAPNET Transmitter With Nagios
| 2 minute read
After describing how to get notified of system criticalities via pager I wanted to have my DAPNET transmitters monitored via Nagios. A basic description can be found under [1]. Firstly you need to set up the plugin check_http_json. The source and installation hints can be found on [2]. That enables Nagios to query the DAPNET master using a JSON request and process the result.
A little different to the manual by RWTH Aachen I also configured the hostname of the master in /etc/nagios3/resource.
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➔ DAPNET Alarm Page by NAGIOS
| 2 minute read
After settinp up a DAPNET client for the POCSAG Amateur Radio paging network I was looking for some good source for interesting information to be sent to my pager. I already had a Nagios monitoring solution set up in order to monitor several D-Star service and repeaters in my area. So I wanted to get Nagios to inform me as soon as one of these services changes state to critical.
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➔ Compiling aprsc for ARM Platform
| 2 minute read
After discovering that the HamserverPi release 1.5 is actually a Debian wheezy based system and therefore not supporting RustPager ([1]) I manually set up a Debian Jessie lite on my Raspberry Pi to serve as web server for the HamNet. RustPager compiled fine after two hours of full CPU load.
As I had set up an APRS server for HamNet use I also wanted to do that on the Jessie lite system.
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➔ Flashing STM32F446RE Nucleo
| 2 minute read
After building the MMDVM shield by Toufik F0DEI I tried to flash the MMDVM firmware using the MMDVM Makefile and executed “make deploy”. That command failed and the output said something about that it could not open the port. After looking through the openocd config files I discovered that it looks for a device with 0x0483/0x3748 as VID/PID.
But in my case the board showed up with 0x0483 0x374b. After changing this in /usr/share/openocd/scripts/interface/stlink-v2.
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➔ IC-2820 with Fixed GPS Position
| 3 minute read
I am running an ICOM IC-2820 at home for D-Star repeater use. It has the D-Star unit built in and the GPS antenna was connected. The GPS module seems quite deaf at it takes ages for it to get a satellite fix. And what also was annoying is that the reported GPS position suffers from (small) drifts over time. That results in a bunch of point on aprs.fi maps and similar.
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