I am building a radioless node using a Masters communications RL-20 interface. They are quick to take money but won’t email back on support. Anyway, I have it all connected up and it will receive just fine, I key the mic and have no audio out. I can see that I am keying my other node at the repeater site. Ptt is going to COS pin 3 and mic is going to pin 6, PTT is active high and usbinvert. I have also tried active low even though that should not change audio out. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Oh, I have wired three mics with the same results. So I am pretty sure this is not a mic problem. One Alinco ems-54 with DTMF 5 volts and two Alinco DTMF with 5 volts.
While I’m not familiar with the hardware you are using, problems like this are normally simple but take some time for you to realize that the PTT is not following the same logic as the audio gating.
You may need a transistor to invert the logic.
Radiowise, most PTT’s switch to ground ‘active’ which is not the same as just a low signal of 0V.
Take your time and follow that logic through based on what I just said.
Thanks Mike. Yea I have built a couple of nodes in the past using Maxtrac, 888’s, and uv5r. This project is radioless, there is not radio involved. It is just a Pi, interface,and microphone. PTT from the mic goes to the COS pin and Mic goes to discriminator, I think. I am sure this is going to be something simple.
As a test, why not force the ptt (cos) and try some other mic.
Think you need to use process of elimination.
Next, I would try a local/remote connection from iaxrpt and look for audio out.
Setup/Download IAXRpt - AllStarLink Wiki
btw… if you have not located it, please show us your usbradio.conf
A Few questions and suggestions…
Is the RL-20 a kit you built? If so did you recheck soldering for R9 Pot
Have you tried adjusting R9 or read the pot to make sure it isn’t faulty?
Also do you have boost turned on in the node’s sound driver settings.
If a new node which driver are you using? Is the node Public or Private?
Have you made sure that your repeater node opens the proper port for your incoming Radioless node’s audio?
Just things to look at.
Larry - N7FM
I found that the problem was the Microphone. When I switched from the three Kenwood mics to a Yaesu MH-27, I had audio. You just have to make sure you have a good quality mic.
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Moral of the story… never assume. LOL Thanks for the follow up.
It seems to me, while my memory for such things is poor when I have not delt with them for 20 years, That there is something different about the Kenwood mics as far as how the mic element is switched through the PTT switch. But , I’m probably off my rocker LOL.
But worth investigating if you still want to use them. Let us know if you should try and find something.
I found this old thread - and decided to reply since “lack of support” was mentioned early on in the original post. Steve emailed me between Christmas and New Years on December 28th 2021 at 11:22 AM. I replied the same day at 1:15 PM. Reads bottom to top. The reply likely went to his SPAM folder.
On 12/28/2021 1:15 PM, Kevin Custer wrote:
Steve,
Yes - you can parallel LED’s but the brightness will be reduced to each LED. If you’re okay with the reduced brightness then your suggestion is fine. If you want full brightness, then it’s best to remove the existing LEDs and make all of the current go to the other location. Removal of LED’s isn’t easy, and it may be necessary to smash the plastic lens with a pair of pliers enabling you to remove each lead individually. Obviously - this ruins the LED, but that’s better than ruining the circuit board.
The circuit board you received is one revision back, and is green instead of purple. There are no circuitry changes other than an extra hole to connect an optional audio amplifier. You can parallel the audio amp and microphone power and feed both from the hole on the RL-20 marked “MIC +5VDC”.
Kevin
On 12/28/2021 11:22 AM, Steve wrote:
Just purchased the RL-20. Thank you for the fast delivery. Being a novice in basic electronics, I have a question. I am building a radio less node and I want to have the LED lights out side of the box. Can I just run a small wire from each LED on the bottom of the RL-20 up to other LED’s outside the box? Leaving the existing ones on the board? Thanks again.