Help needed with new URI101 node

App_rpt-users
1

Hi folks, looking for some direction. I am trying to set up a Allstar Node using a Pi3, an Allscan URI101, a pair of Retevis HTs and my VR-N76 to use with the system. I burned a copy of the latest Allstar image and went through the steps that Freddie Mac outlined on his YouTube channel. Sure enough, I have the Allstar system manger up and running – So I made the changes to the rpt.conf and simpleusb.conf files that are outlined on the Allscan webpage and re-started asterisk. (I’ve also tried re-booting)

When I transmit using my VR-N76, the receiving Retevis HT responds (lights up, receive bars respond) and the URI101 COS light lights up. And that’s it. If I try to send DTMF codes to connect to a Parrot node, it doesn’t connect (I can see on the Allstar website I’m not connected). If I go into “Set Rx Voice Level” – I can chat into my VR-N76 all day and the Retevis HT lights up and the COS light on the 101 lights up– but the indicator on the screen does not budge. Also, when I click on “Flash (Toggle PTT and Tone output several times)” the PTT on the URI101 flashes a bunch of times – but the output Retevis HT does not key up.

I’m certain I have a setting incorrectly configured somewhere – but I am running out of ideas (and knowledge). I contacted Davind Gleason (from of Allscan) and he suggested I post here looking for advice. I am hoping someone might have some thoughts…. Happy to provide any additional information about my setup that I may have overlooked.

Mark
N2UEM

2

Hi Mark, Last I heard you had tried a HamVOIP image and then I suggested instead going with an ASL3 image. So that might be the first thing to confirm is what image you're running, if you can post a screenshot or output of the command 'sudo asterisk -V'.

At that point, one first guess would be that you do not have "ctcssfrom=no" set in simpleusb.conf. That is THE MOST common issue I see. Asl-menu fails to mention anything about that, but it needs to be set to no for 99% of nodes. This is covered in my how-to guides, and as stated there it's important to double-check ALL of the settings listed there, because it only takes one missing setting to make things not work. If still no luck also post your rpt.conf and simpleusb.conf file settings here. Thanks, David

3

Hi David! the version of SL3 is: Asterisk 22.2.0+asl3-3.4.5-1.deb1

Tried to upload the files - but the system does not allow new users to do this so I'll try to paste them. Thanks for looking at these!

;!
;! Automatically generated configuration file
;! Filename: simpleusb.conf (/etc/asterisk/simpleusb.conf)
;! Generator: chan_simpleusb
;! Creation Date: Mon May 5 19:41:49 2025
;!
;***************************************************
;******** Template-tized simpleusb.conf ********
;***************************************************
; Note to editors: set tabs to 4 space characters. No wrap to keep comments neat.
; vim: tabstop=4
;
; SimpleUSB channel driver Configuration File
;
;;;;; New to ASL3 ;;;;;
;;;;; The SimpleUSB "tune" settings have moved to ;;;;;
;;;;; this file. The simpleusb_tune_usb_1999.conf ;;;;;
;;;;; file is no longer used. ;;;;;

; If you are going to use this channel driver, you MUST enable it in modules.conf
; change:
; noload => chan_simpleusb.so ; CM1xx USB Cards with Radio Interface Channel Driver (No DSP)
; noload => res_usbradio.so ; Required for both simpleusb and usbradio
; to:
; load => chan_simpleusb.so ; CM1xx USB Cards with Radio Interface Channel Driver (No DSP)
; load => res_usbradio.so ; Required for both simpleusb and usbradio

[general]
;------------------------------ JITTER BUFFER CONFIGURATION --------------------------
; jbenable = yes ; Enables the use of a jitterbuffer on the receiving side of an
; simpleusb channel. Defaults to "no". An enabled jitterbuffer will
; be used only if the sending side can create and the receiving
; side can not accept jitter. The simpleusb channel can't accept jitter,
; thus an enabled jitterbuffer on the receive simpleusb side will always
; be used if the sending side can create jitter.

; jbmaxsize = 200 ; Max length of the jitterbuffer in milliseconds.

; jbresyncthreshold = 1000 ; Jump in the frame timestamps over which the jitterbuffer is
; resynchronized. Useful to improve the quality of the voice, with
; big jumps in/broken timestamps, usually sent from exotic devices
; and programs. Defaults to 1000.

; jbimpl = fixed ; Jitterbuffer implementation, used on the receiving side of an simpleusb
; channel. Two implementations are currently available - "fixed"
; (with size always equals to jbmax-size) and "adaptive" (with
; variable size, actually the new jb of IAX2). Defaults to fixed.

; jblog = no ; Enables jitterbuffer frame logging. Defaults to "no".
;-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

node-main
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;; Template for all your SimpleUSB nodes ;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

eeprom = 0 ; EEPROM installed: 0,1
; 0 = no (default)
; 1 = yes

hdwtype = 0 ; Leave this set to 0 for USB sound fobs designed for app_rpt
; or modified cmxxx sound fobs.
; 1 is for Dingotel/Sph interfaces.
; 2 is for NHC interfaces.
; 3 is for a custom interface.

; Receiver parameters
rxboost = no ; no = 20db attenuator inserted, yes = 20db attenuator removed
; Set to yes for additional gain if using a low-level receiver output
; CM119B devices are hard coded to rxboost 20dB attenuator removed

‚àëcarrierfrom = usbinvert ; no,usb,usbinvert
; no - no carrier detection at all
; usb - from the COR line on the USB sound fob (Active high)
; usbinvert - from the inverted COR line on the USB sound fob (Active low)
; pp - from parallel port (Active high)
; ppinvert - from the inverted parallel port (Active low)

ctcssfrom = no ; no,usb,usbinvert
; no - CTCSS decoding, system will be carrier squelch
; usb - CTCSS decoding using input from USB sound fob (Active high)
; usbinvert - from the inverted CTCSS line on the USB sound fob (Active low)
; pp - from parallel port (Active high)
; ppinvert - from the inverted parallel port (Active low)

deemphasis = no ; enable de-emphasis (input from discriminator)

plfilter = no ; enable PL filter

rxondelay = 0 ; Number of 20mSec intervals following the release of PTT.
; Uncomment and/or adjust for simplex nodes to eliminate "Ping Ponging"
; or "Relay Racing". A positive value here will instruct the usbradio
; driver to ignore the COR line for a specified number of 20mSec
; intervals following the release of PTT. Use this ONLY on simplex
; nodes, and leave commented out for repeaters or other full
duplex nodes.

txoffdelay = 0 ; Ignore the receiver for a specified number of 20 millisecond
; intervals after the transmitter unkeys.
; This is useful when setting up a half-duplex link with an existing
; repeater, where you need to ignore the repeater's hangtime.

; Transmitter parameters
txmixa = voice ; Left channel output (A): no,voice
; no - Do not output anything
; voice - output voice only

txmixb = no ; Right channel output (B): no,voice
; no - Do not output anything
; voice - output voice only

invertptt = no ; Invert PTT: no,yes
; no - ground to transmit
; yes - open to transmit

preemphasis = no ; Perform standard 6db/octave pre-emphasis

; pager = no ; no,a,b (e.g. pager = b means "put the normal repeat audio on channel A, and the pager audio on channel B")

; duplex3 = 0 ; duplex 3 gain setting (0 to disable)

clipledgpio = 1 ; Enable ADC Clip Detect feature to use a GPIO output (0 to disable).
; Supports URI Clip LED by setting a GPIO (if available) high for 500mS
; when clipping detected. Value = GPIO# to use (GPIO1 recommended)

legacyaudioscaling = no ; If yes, continue to do raw audio sample scaling and clipping, resulting in Tx audio levels increasing
; by 0.78dB and Rx audio levels increasing by 0-1.5dB. Should be set to no unless you have an existing
; node with precisely adjusted audio levels and are unable to adjust them. This parameter and associated
; scaling/clipping code will be deleted once existing installs have been able to verify their audio levels

;;; End of node-main template

#tryinclude "custom/simpleusb.conf"
#tryinclude "custom/simpleusb/*.conf"

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Configure your nodes here ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;
; Note: there is no need to duplicate entire settings. Only
; place settings that are different than the template.
;
; Note: the device string is automatically found when the
; USB setting "devstr=" is empty.
;
; Note: the interface "tune" settings will be added to the
; per-node settings (below).

65170
ctcssfrom = no

;;;;; ASL3 Tune settings ;;;;;
devstr = 1-1.3:1.0
rxmixerset = 650
txmixaset = 500
txmixbset = 500

4

Some lines that do not look correct:

No idea what that "‚àë" is at the beginning of the line but that should not be there.

Then at the bottom there is a line that says just 65170, but what it should say is [65170](node-main)

5

interesting - that must be some weird copy/past thing because on the Pi the àë are not there and it reads:
; Note: the interface "tune" settings will be added to the
; per-node settings (below).

[65170] (node-main)

;;;;; ASL3 Tune settings ;;;;;

  • would love to upload the rpt.conf but its too large - perhaps I could email it to you?
7

Are you using 1 or 2 RT85s? If you see COS on the URI then the Rx side is fine and if you see the URI PTT LED light up then ASL is properly seeing the URI. However if PTT is not then keying the HT that would suggest a cabling issue. If using 2 HTs you do need a ground to the Tx HT either with the 2.5mm jack or a ground wire to its battery- or power supply ground. If you checked that and all looks good then maybe post a pic or more details on the cabling setup between everything. As for why ASL would not see COS, hard to say, if you run susbtune menu V option does it show COS? If not you might want to try running asl-menu again and re-enter the node details. Then make sure in simpleusb carrierfrom=usbinvert (with no weird chars in front) and ctcssfrom=no.

8

So I looked again at the simpleusb file in nano and there were no strange characters - so i copied the file over to my Mac again and they were still there. So I went into nano and deleted and retyped the line and magically it's working!!

Thank you for your help and suggestions! Looks like I'm up and running!

-Mark
N2UEM