New user new node troubleshooting - stuck in transmit

Hi all! I am completely new to the Asterisk/Allstar/appt_rpt stuff but have extensive Linux experience (day job), I have read a lot of things and it seems setting up a node should not be that hard yet my experience has been exact opposite.

I have successfully installed ASL 1.01 and connected to AllStar, linking in via a IAXclient (DVSwitch Mobile) seems to work good.

The problem I am having is with the radio setup, I have a URIxB and configured via asl-menu as SimpleUSB, seems this should do what is needed. However when I use the asterisk CLI to trigger time playback (rpt fun *722) the URIxB’s red transmit light lights up but then stays lit until I restart asterisk. To limit test I detached the URIcables.com cable from the URIxB to ensure nothing from the radio was getting stuck and I could limit testing to the server or URIxB (maybe this not not correct methodology in this case but I did).

Beyond the URIxB I have a cable from uricables.com attached to a Kenwood TM-D710, when the transmit is stuck the radio is keyed but no audio seems to be transmitted (next thing to debug once I know it will inky properly).

Help and feedback is appreciated as I have been working on this for about 2 weeks now with no success.

What is your duplex= setting? It should be duplex=1 for a half duplex mobile radio. The setting is in /etc/asterisk/rpt.conf near the top of the node stanza.

duplex=1 in rpt.conf, I selected it via the asl-menu TUI, not sure if it needs to be set somewhere else too or not

On the surface I would want to think that the tx logic is wrong. I know that may not make sense on the surface, but a possibility.

Do a test and run it through expecting the error, when it gets stuck in TX,
remove the URI from the usb port, wait 3 seconds and plug it back in and tell me what it does.

I ran 2 tests, both results were the same, one was without anything attached to the URIxB and one was with URI cable and radio attached to the URIxB. In both cases the red TX light came back on within a second of being plugged in and the radio keyed up (when attached).

As an extra measure I found I could enable some debugging in the asterisk CLI, for these tests I set the verbosity very high, not sure if this output is helpful or not but here it is:


root@asl:/etc/asterisk# asterisk -rvvvvvvvvvvv

AllStarLink Asterisk Version 1.01 2/13/2018 GIT Version 004b9dd
Copyright (C) 1999 - 2018 Digium, Inc. Jim Dixon, AllStarLink Inc. and others.
Created by Mark Spencer <markster@digium.com>
Asterisk comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; type 'core show warranty' for details.
This is free software, with components licensed under the GNU General Public
License version 2 and other licenses; you are welcome to redistribute it under
certain conditions. Type 'core show license' for details.
=========================================================================
  == Parsing '/etc/asterisk/asterisk.conf': Found
Connected to Asterisk GIT Version 004b9dd currently running on asl (pid = 9056)
Verbosity was 0 and is now 11
asl*CLI> rpt fun 56187 *722
Node Variable dump for node 56187:
   RPT_TXKEYED=1
   RPT_LINKS=0
   RPT_NUMLINKS=0
   RPT_AUTOPATCHUP=0
   RPT_ETXKEYED=0
   RPT_RXKEYED=0
    -- 6 variables
Node Variable dump for node 56187:
   RPT_ETXKEYED=1
   RPT_TXKEYED=1
   RPT_LINKS=0
   RPT_NUMLINKS=0
   RPT_AUTOPATCHUP=0
   RPT_RXKEYED=0
    -- 6 variables
    -- <DAHDI/pseudo-620290549> Playing 'rpt/goodafternoon' (language 'en')
    -- <DAHDI/pseudo-620290549> Playing 'rpt/thetimeis' (language 'en')
    -- <DAHDI/pseudo-620290549> Playing 'digits/5' (language 'en')
    -- <DAHDI/pseudo-620290549> Playing 'digits/oh' (language 'en')
    -- <DAHDI/pseudo-620290549> Playing 'digits/7' (language 'en')
    -- <DAHDI/pseudo-620290549> Playing 'digits/p-m' (language 'en')
    -- Hungup 'DAHDI/pseudo-620290549'
Node Variable dump for node 56187:
   RPT_ETXKEYED=0
   RPT_TXKEYED=1
   RPT_LINKS=0
   RPT_NUMLINKS=0
   RPT_AUTOPATCHUP=0
   RPT_RXKEYED=0
    -- 6 variables
    -- Hungup 'DAHDI/pseudo-606518206'
Node Variable dump for node 56187:
   RPT_TXKEYED=0
   RPT_ETXKEYED=0
   RPT_LINKS=0
   RPT_NUMLINKS=0
   RPT_AUTOPATCHUP=0
   RPT_RXKEYED=0
    -- 6 variables
asl*CLI> 
asl*CLI> 
asl*CLI> 
[Feb  5 17:09:31] WARNING[9068]: chan_iax2.c:10127 iax2_do_register: REGISTER-LOG: Sending registration request for '56187'
[Feb  5 17:09:31] WARNING[9069]: chan_iax2.c:7690 registry_rerequest: REGISTER-LOG: registry rereqquest
  == Set device 1-2.1:1.0 to usb_56187
  == Parsing '/etc/asterisk/simpleusb_tune_usb_56187.conf': Found
[Feb  5 17:09:38] WARNING[9083]: chan_simpleusb.c:1637 hidthread: Loaded parameters from simpleusb_tune_usb_56187.conf for device usb_56187 .

root@asl:/etc/asterisk# service asterisk restart

I would say next you are going to have to put your ‘logic’ hat on…

I see the software shows it is turning off.

PTT on a radio is normally a line that has voltage and switches to ground to activate.

You need to manually test the URI voltage for PTT.
It may not show a voltage when ‘inactive’, but it will need to switch to ground when active.

Now run the same test with it connected.

It could be that you need a buffer transistor on the ptt line if the current on the radio ptt line is to much to sink on the URI. But I always suggest you use one anyway.

Now I am more confused, you are suggesting a transistor between the URI and the radio, however I am testing with no radio attached, no cable on the radio side of the URI. Maybe this is a bad test? the URI (which is from DMK Engineering) is indicating it is still trying to send a transmit signal. To me this implies something is trying to hold the radio keyed up from the software especially as the URI’s red transmit light comes back on after doing the unplug/replug test.

I purchased pre-built cable (uricables.com) and URI (URIxB from DMK engineering) in hopes to avoid any problems in the wiring for my first attempt. Does anyone have a working TM-D710 with URIxB using ASL 1.01 and would be willing to share a config I can test with?

Well, I look at the text you sent with the clear indication that the software is dropping the TX
So, there has to be something on the hardware side.

Node Variable dump for node 56187:
RPT_ETXKEYED=1
RPT_TXKEYED=1
RPT_LINKS=0
RPT_NUMLINKS=0
RPT_AUTOPATCHUP=0
RPT_RXKEYED=0
– 6 variables
– <DAHDI/pseudo-620290549> Playing ‘rpt/goodafternoon’ (language ‘en’)
– <DAHDI/pseudo-620290549> Playing ‘rpt/thetimeis’ (language ‘en’)
– <DAHDI/pseudo-620290549> Playing ‘digits/5’ (language ‘en’)
– <DAHDI/pseudo-620290549> Playing ‘digits/oh’ (language ‘en’)
– <DAHDI/pseudo-620290549> Playing ‘digits/7’ (language ‘en’)
– <DAHDI/pseudo-620290549> Playing ‘digits/p-m’ (language ‘en’)
– Hungup ‘DAHDI/pseudo-620290549’
Node Variable dump for node 56187:
RPT_ETXKEYED=0
RPT_TXKEYED=1
RPT_LINKS=0
RPT_NUMLINKS=0
RPT_AUTOPATCHUP=0
RPT_RXKEYED=0
– 6 variables
– Hungup ‘DAHDI/pseudo-606518206’
Node Variable dump for node 56187:
RPT_TXKEYED=0
RPT_ETXKEYED=0
RPT_LINKS=0
RPT_NUMLINKS=0
RPT_AUTOPATCHUP=0
RPT_RXKEYED=0

Have further testing it seem I left out an important piece of information, my ASL server is running as a VM on ESXi 6.7. Testing by downloading the exact same VM from my ESXi server to VMware Fusion 10 on my laptop and trying the URI there it works as expected, this leads to 2 potential issues, 1) there is a compatibility issues using ESXi 6.7 or 2) compatibility with the USB controller on my physical server (Dell PowerEdge R420). I suspect #1 is the issue. I have already reached out to DMK Engineering to see if there are any known issues with ESXi 6.7 and I wait a response.

If anyone has experience running on ESXi 6.7 using a URI, particularly one from DMK Engineering it would be appreciate to hear about your experience. Or hear about working USB interfaces I could try instead.

Also additional behavior experienced (for reference to others), the green light on the URIxB is supposed to blink when its communicating with apt_rpt stuff, when using it with my server on ESXi server the green light stayed solid.