RPi Gpio

Greetings,

I’m new to the group here and have some questions regarding All-Star link. I have a raspberry pi already set up with an HT radio (baofeng) and I was using svxlink node. I already have the radio wired up to use the GPIO on the raspberry pi for a PTT and COR. I use a USB dongle for audio and I am not sure if it is the same one that is used to modify and tap the GPIO pins, But I was trying to find a way to use the GPIO from the raspberry pi instead, since it’s already configured that way and works with SVXlink. I have been finding information on the Internet that suggests that the All-Star link software can be configured to use the RPI GPIO pins but haven’t found any solid documentation to do so. I was going to jump back in and look at the configuration files to see if there are any clues there but if someone has done this already can you please clue me in how I can use GPIO from the raspberry pi.

You can check some of my radio projects here http://instagram.com/KD2NFC

Best
Joe
KD2NFC

···

Sent from my iPad

Joe;

Had you found a solution to using R_Pi GPIOs as an alternative to purchasing a USB dongle.
I have a repeater already working (SVXLink) that sounds fantastic and I’m in the process of switching over to AllStarLink and was hoping I could just change software without any hardware changes.

Bryan
W1BRI

I didn’t hand much luck since current forms of AllStarLink and even Hamvoip do now allow for RPI GPIO. I had to use the CMxxxx audio USB for PTT and COR

Joe
KD2NFC

···

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 15, 2020, at 1:35 PM, Bryan Cerqua via AllStarLink Discussion Groups noreply@community.allstarlink.org wrote:

| BryanW1BRI
June 15 |

  • | - |

Joe;

Had you found a solution to using R_Pi GPIOs as an alternative to purchasing a USB dongle.
I have a repeater already working (SVXLink) that sounds fantastic and I’m in the process of switching over to AllStarLink and was hoping I could just change software without any hardware changes.

Bryan
W1BRI


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Thanks Joe;

I bought CM108 USB FOB that I will modify.
Can’t beat join them thing.

Bryan

The issue is that the CM108 chips are becoming harder to find and more expensive. There is currently 1 seller in the US on eBay with them, and they’re charging a premium price. I wanted to build a node, but why on earth would I pay more than the combined cost of the computer and radios used to run the node to get an adapter, when all of the necessary hardware is right there?

ASL needs a way to configure an alternate mechanism for COS and PTT. It shouldn’t even necessarily be GPIO specific, e.g. using serial would be useful for some people rather than GPIO or CM108.

Derek,

I couldn’t agree with you more about COS and PTT!

That’s the beauty of open source software. Anyone can contribute and add features that they want.

I am sure there are a lot of folks that would love for you to add these features to the app_rpt open source project for Allstarlink.

In case you didn’t know where the repository is located, its here.

https://github.com/AllStarLink

You know you can use the CM119 chips and these are only a $1.35. (Quick google search)

https://www.semiconductorstore.com/cart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=48869&utm_source=GoogleShopping&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=Cmedia&utm_campaign=CM119B

or this one from amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Syba-external-Adapter-Windows-C-Media/dp/B001MSS6CS/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6PD3BRDPARIsAN8pHuH5sUVnhSu2xism_AoWOtF0cr7jv9Jg8zUaeiM__LpVymEF2_r1pNcaAtegEALw_wcB&hvadid=409984384766&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1013701&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=12146818204666180651&hvtargid=kwd-301302261806&hydadcr=26610_10407607&keywords=cm119&qid=1593653918&sr=8-3&tag=googhydr-20

only $8.00 delivered.

73

Marshall - ke6pcv

···

From: Derek Chauran via AllStarLink Discussion Groups [mailto:noreply@community.allstarlink.org]
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2020 4:13 PM
To: ke6pcv@cal-net.org
Subject: [AllStarLink Discussion Groups] [App_rpt-users] RPi Gpio





|

af7ux
July 1

|

  • | - |

The issue is that the CM108 chips are becoming harder to find and more expensive. There is currently 1 seller in the US on eBay with them, and they’re charging a premium price. I wanted to build a node, but why on earth would I pay more than the combined cost of the computer and radios used to run the node to get an adapter, when all of the necessary hardware is right there?

ASL needs a way to configure an alternate mechanism for COS and PTT. It shouldn’t even necessarily be GPIO specific, e.g. using serial would be useful for some people rather than GPIO or CM108.


Visit Topic or reply to this email to respond.


In Reply To





|

BryanW1BRI
June 17

|

  • | - |

Thanks Joe; I bought CM108 USB FOB that I will modify. Can’t beat join them thing. Bryan

Previous Replies





|

BryanW1BRI
June 17

|

  • | - |

Thanks Joe;

I bought CM108 USB FOB that I will modify.
Can’t beat join them thing.

Bryan





|

kd2nfc1
June 17

|

  • | - |

I didn’t hand much luck since current forms of AllStarLink and even Hamvoip do now allow for RPI GPIO. I had to use the CMxxxx audio USB for PTT and COR

Joe
KD2NFC

··· (click for more details)





|

BryanW1BRI
June 15

|

  • | - |

Joe;

Had you found a solution to using R_Pi GPIOs as an alternative to purchasing a USB dongle.
I have a repeater already working (SVXLink) that sounds fantastic and I’m in the process of switching over to AllStarLink and was hoping I could just change software without any hardware changes.

Bryan
W1BRI





|

kd2nfc1
April 25, 2018

|

  • | - |

Greetings,

I’m new to the group here and have some questions regarding All-Star link. I have a raspberry pi already set up with an HT radio (baofeng) and I was using svxlink node. I already have the radio wired up to use the GPIO on the raspberry pi for a PTT and COR. I use a USB dongle for audio and I am not sure if it is the same one that is used to modify and tap the GPIO pins, But I was trying to find a way to use the GPIO from the raspberry pi instead, since it’s already configured that way and works with SVXlink. I have been finding information on the Internet that suggests that the All-Star link software can be configured to use the RPI GPIO pins but haven’t found any solid documentation to do so. I was going to jump back in and look at the configuration files to see if there are any clues there but if someone has done this already can you please clue me in how I can use GPIO from the raspberry pi.

You can check some of my radio projects here http://instagram.com/KD2NFC

Best
Joe
KD2NFC

··· (click for more details)


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It’s great that you are open to folks contributing, however it’s not safe to assume that everyone who uses ASL is fluent in Linux & c development, and thus should go make their own features. Open source projects need community support, and taking this attitude towards feedback shuts that down. I’d happily take a crack at it, but the development documentation is very sparse, and seems to assume a very high degree of preexisting knowledge. I cannot even find the code that deals with PTT & COS looking through the repo, nor am I confident that I could successfully build this on the only linux machines I have - 2 Pis.

And yes, I realize that I could buy the chip, but it really isn’t as simple as “buy chip, make board” that requires an even deeper level of knowledge, such as how to design the surrounding circuitry, design a PCB, making a PCB, solder a surface mount package (which requires equipment your average ham doesn’t have) etc…

The link you posted to Amazon is out of stock, and if you keep watching that link, you might notice that the in stock date keeps changing. I did find one that is ostensibly in stock, and will try to get it, but I’m also a bit hamfisted, and have had bad luck soldering to this very same chip in the past (I’ve destroyed 2 of these adapters trying to solder on them in the past). Yes, even using a pre-made USB adapter assumes that someone has a high degree of soldering skill.

Meanwhile, I have been able to build 2 dedicated PC interfaces for my radios using simply the audio portions of USB audio adapters, transformer isolation for the audio, USB serial with opto isolation for PTT, cat control (I couldn’t get the opto circuits to work there), one where I had to build a circuit to invert the logic signals, and a hub to tie it all together with 2 of the ports removed and the adapters soldered directly to them to save space. So I’m not unskilled at building stuff for radios, soldering, rework, etc yet I still can’t manage to reliably pick up a single pin on a small package like that.

So my point is, there are much more user friendly solutions out there. There are even pre-made boards for the audio and PTT isolation (2 of these would give you isolation of audio, PTT and COS for 2 radios for a duplex node) that cost something like $8 apiece.

But moreover, I just think it’s a bad idea to put all of your eggs in one basket. Even if ASL decided to support USB serial and NOT GPIO, I would support that move. Yes I would have to buy another adapter for about $5, and even sacrifice another USB port, but at least it would make the modification easy, and would work on both PC and Pi, and give me the option of picking my chipset (CH340, FTDI, Silabs, etc) or not even caring what chip was on the board. This makes the hardware solution trivial - Buy any USB audio adapter, any USB serial adapter, connect 2 wires from each radio to the audio adapter, and 2 from each radio to the serial adapter (GND/DTR or RTS and GND/CTS).

73 af7ux

Derek,

You do some great ideas and I agree with you on the COS and PTT.

It would certainly make things easier for hams to interface radios to soundcards.

I was kind of trying to be funny when I made mention of the adding these features to the open source project.

What I was really getting at is, there is a lot of work involved with making a system like Allstarlink work.

Sometimes it is not very simple to add features.

There are only a few folks with the programming skills necessary to write or modify the open source to make an alternate mechanism for COS and PTT.

(Until now, no one has offered to step forward and take on the project of an alternate mechanism for COS and PTT.)

I could be wrong, but at some point in time there was some provision for COS and PTT using the parallel port of a PC.

We all enjoy what is offered for Allstarlink for FREE, there is no charge for the software or service.

Sometimes we just have to use what is available, even if it is not the easiest to deal with. :slight_smile:

73

Marshall - ke6pcv

···

From: Derek Chauran via AllStarLink Discussion Groups [mailto:noreply@community.allstarlink.org]
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2020 11:11 AM
To: ke6pcv@cal-net.org
Subject: [AllStarLink Discussion Groups] [App_rpt-users] RPi Gpio





|

af7ux
July 2

|

  • | - |

It’s great that you are open to folks contributing, however it’s not safe to assume that everyone who uses ASL is fluent in Linux & c development, and thus should go make their own features. Open source projects need community support, and taking this attitude towards feedback shuts that down. I’d happily take a crack at it, but the development documentation is very sparse, and seems to assume a very high degree of preexisting knowledge. I cannot even find the code that deals with PTT & COS looking through the repo, nor am I confident that I could successfully build this on the only linux machines I have - 2 Pis.

And yes, I realize that I could buy the chip, but it really isn’t as simple as “buy chip, make board” that requires an even deeper level of knowledge, such as how to design the surrounding circuitry, design a PCB, making a PCB, solder a surface mount package (which requires equipment your average ham doesn’t have) etc…

The link you posted to Amazon is out of stock, and if you keep watching that link, you might notice that the in stock date keeps changing. I did find one that is ostensibly in stock, and will try to get it, but I’m also a bit hamfisted, and have had bad luck soldering to this very same chip in the past (I’ve destroyed 2 of these adapters trying to solder on them in the past). Yes, even using a pre-made USB adapter assumes that someone has a high degree of soldering skill.

Meanwhile, I have been able to build 2 dedicated PC interfaces for my radios using simply the audio portions of USB audio adapters, transformer isolation for the audio, USB serial with opto isolation for PTT, cat control (I couldn’t get the opto circuits to work there), one where I had to build a circuit to invert the logic signals, and a hub to tie it all together with 2 of the ports removed and the adapters soldered directly to them to save space. So I’m not unskilled at building stuff for radios, soldering, rework, etc yet I still can’t manage to reliably pick up a single pin on a small package like that.

So my point is, there are much more user friendly solutions out there. There are even pre-made boards for the audio and PTT isolation (2 of these would give you isolation of audio, PTT and COS for 2 radios for a duplex node) that cost something like $8 apiece.

But moreover, I just think it’s a bad idea to put all of your eggs in one basket. Even if ASL decided to support USB serial and NOT GPIO, I would support that move. Yes I would have to buy another adapter for about $5, and even sacrifice another USB port, but at least it would make the modification easy, and would work on both PC and Pi, and give me the option of picking my chipset (CH340, FTDI, Silabs, etc) or not even caring what chip was on the board. This makes the hardware solution trivial - Buy any USB audio adapter, any USB serial adapter, connect 2 wires from each radio to the audio adapter, and 2 from each radio to the serial adapter (GND/DTR or RTS and GND/CTS).

73 af7ux


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Previous Replies





|

KE6PCV ASL Admin
July 2

|

  • | - |

Derek,

I couldn’t agree with you more about COS and PTT!

That’s the beauty of open source software. Anyone can contribute and add features that they want.

I am sure there are a lot of folks that would love for you to add these features to the app_rpt open source project for Allstarlink.

In case you didn’t know where the repository is located, its here.

https://github.com/AllStarLink

You know you can use the CM119 chips and these are only a $1.35. (Quick google search)

https://www.semiconductorstore.com/cart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=48869&utm_source=GoogleShopping&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=Cmedia&utm_campaign=CM119B

or this one from amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Syba-external-Adapter-Windows-C-Media/dp/B001MSS6CS/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6PD3BRDPARIsAN8pHuH5sUVnhSu2xism_AoWOtF0cr7jv9Jg8zUaeiM__LpVymEF2_r1pNcaAtegEALw_wcB&hvadid=409984384766&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1013701&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=12146818204666180651&hvtargid=kwd-301302261806&hydadcr=26610_10407607&keywords=cm119&qid=1593653918&sr=8-3&tag=googhydr-20

only $8.00 delivered.

73

Marshall - ke6pcv

··· (click for more details)





|

af7ux
July 1

|

  • | - |

The issue is that the CM108 chips are becoming harder to find and more expensive. There is currently 1 seller in the US on eBay with them, and they’re charging a premium price. I wanted to build a node, but why on earth would I pay more than the combined cost of the computer and radios used to run the node to get an adapter, when all of the necessary hardware is right there?

ASL needs a way to configure an alternate mechanism for COS and PTT. It shouldn’t even necessarily be GPIO specific, e.g. using serial would be useful for some people rather than GPIO or CM108.





|

BryanW1BRI
June 17

|

  • | - |

Thanks Joe;

I bought CM108 USB FOB that I will modify.
Can’t beat join them thing.

Bryan





|

kd2nfc1
June 17

|

  • | - |

I didn’t hand much luck since current forms of AllStarLink and even Hamvoip do now allow for RPI GPIO. I had to use the CMxxxx audio USB for PTT and COR

Joe
KD2NFC

··· (click for more details)





|

BryanW1BRI
June 15

|

  • | - |

Joe;

Had you found a solution to using R_Pi GPIOs as an alternative to purchasing a USB dongle.
I have a repeater already working (SVXLink) that sounds fantastic and I’m in the process of switching over to AllStarLink and was hoping I could just change software without any hardware changes.

Bryan
W1BRI


Visit Topic or reply to this email to respond.

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To unsubscribe from these emails, click here.

Thanks Marshall - I get that the devs have a limited amount of time to spend writing features like this, and I very much understand that they’re never as simple as one would expect (I’m a software engineer in a different ecosystem). I guess the main issue that I have is that I’ve dug up threads with this request going back years, and the answer always seems to be either indifference or “deal with it”. The hardware cost and/or complexity is a major gating factor to people using ASL. I am definitely not alone in this thinking.

At any rate, rather than GPIO, I will look into how to make this work with the linux serial interface. That seems like the best approach, as the rpi gpio serial interface can be setup to use GPIO pins for RTS (ptt) and CTS (cos) in addition to the communication interface. I’ve read the old LPT port info, but it doesn’t seem to apply. Someone else (who shares in my frustration) also found a very old patch where someone implemented alsa+serial, so that might have something I can build from.

While CM1xyz boards from China are slower to obtain RIGHT NOW due to Covid-19, there are a multitude of adapters available from many sources in the USA. Here are links to several sources. The CM1xyz is not in going away (or getting more expensive) anytime soon:

http://www.masterscommunications.com/products/radio-adapter/ra-features.html

https://hamprojects.info/dinah/

https://technobygeorge.com/

http://dmkeng.com/URI_Order_Page.htm

73, David KB4FXC

All of these are fine devices for someone who just wants to throw money at a node. Personally, I like to build stuff and do it on the cheap.

The RA adapters are $25 minimum, with no case, for something that has the same functionality as the USB sound card. The one person working on the Dinah/Brian is busy with his Shari backorders right now (really nice guy, quite open to feedback!), not to mention that is an expensive option, TechByGeorge - really nuce stuff - $300 for a node, or $50 for essentially a USB sound card with a parallel port that I don’t need - no thanks, and the URI is $70 for the same thing, but in a case.
Meanwhile, I can interface with any of my radios from FLDIGI, HRD, WSJT-X, DXLabs Commander, etc… using a $3 USB audio controller (if using a pi), a cable or 2 (most of these can be scavenged), and a free GPIO serial port or a $5 USB serial adapter (if using a PC). Technically, I can do this all with no soldering BTW.

It just really doesn’t strike me as a good idea to have precisely 1 supported hardware configuration, which is third party, and which requires either very good soldering skills, or require people purchase expensive premade adapters, when there are literally free options available on the device that most people are using to deploy new nodes, are much easier to setup, and are supported by just about every other ham software out there. I also am not aware of any radio manufacturer who publishes an interface to their radios that involves soldering pins on a tiny SMD component, but plenty publish schematics for using a serial port and and audio connection.

Having already been down this path, there are more challenges than you realize. At some point you have to standardize on supported solutions----or go crazy trying to support a gazillion custom one-off systems that end up with odd problems.

I guess the question comes down to are you an end-user who wants to build a few nodes and get on AllStar, or are you wanting to manufacture a new product. If an end-user, once you start adding up all the time and costs, $50 isn’t expensive for an adapter. If you’re building a new product, just realize that very low-end USB sound FOBs and serial adapters are a rapidly moving target…This is why all the US hams building adapters ultimately do their own thing—they had to have consistency and control quality. The same goes for cheap/clone USB serial adapters. While these adapters may work fine for PTT (using DTR or RTS), once you try to obtain COS signalling, you find that reading CTS or DSR doesn’t have the timing repeatability that is required. So, you end up with chopped off words, etc.

73, David KB4FXC

I’m going to have to disagree that USB and serial fobs are a moving target. Neither require direct support of a specific device, as both have robust and stable abstraction layers. That’s precisely why they are so popular for makers/hams/etc… tty serial hasn’t changed in any major way in linux since… the early 1990s? And Alsa has been around since 1998. ASL doesn’t even have the burden of supporting multiple operating systems that complicates these hardware abstractions.

As to the cost - If I could use any old USB fob ($3 for $10) and the built in pi serial interface I could build an entire duplex node for less than the cost of a URI, and still have overhead on that pi to add a second node (about $25), an RTL-TCP server ($20-30) and probably more.

This is also a bit of a privileged point of view. A lot of our community where I live struggle to afford the cost of a decent radio, or a QTH that allows them a usable antenna in an RF friendly environment. For them that $50 or $70 could be the deciding factor for a friend building them a node with the pi 3 they just replaced with a 4b, or the difference between saving for a few months to build a node and deciding it’s too expensive. Fortunately, we have echolink to offer those people, but echolink has numerous disadvantages, which I am sure are well known here.

The “moving target” is not (usually) the Linux device driver side of the equation. The issue is the USB hardware. Virtually anything you get in the < $10 price range, whether USB sound or serial, is going to be an imperfect Chinese clone, many of which subtly change with each manufacturing run. For example, I purchased many supposedly “real” FTDI serial adapters, only to find they aren’t “real.” They only sort-of emulate the “real” device—enough to fool the device drivers, but unacceptable shortcuts have been taken. I’ve got maybe 25 of these adapters, from various sources, in the junk box right now. I’ve also got dozens of various cheap sound fobs, purchased for evaluation. Some work really well. Others are garbage. Unfortunately, you can’t really tell which you’re going to get until they show up and try them. As I said, I’ve been down this rabbit hole.

Trying to leave this on a positive note, these FOBs will probably work for you and are very cost effective, when considering free shipping:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=cm108+usb&_sacat=0&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=1

Master’s Communications now has a new purpose designed low-end FOB (RL20) for $20+shipping. Personally, that’s the way I would go these days, rather than the board from ebay. There are a lot of very cost effective options available right now.

http://www.masterscommunications.com/products/radio-adapter/rl/rl20.html

73, David KB4FXC

Derek,

We appreciate your thoughts on making more USB sound fobs usable with ASL. And I don’t want to dampen your enthusiasm about it.

In a perfect scenario that would be the desired choice and outcome for ASL.

With Allstarlink there is a lot more than just getting sound to play out of USB sound fob.

Two items that come to mind are the stability issues and timing issues not heard by the human ear that are needed by app_rpt software to do certain functions.

So, So, So much more going on with the app_rpt software than one would think.

I just want to provide you an example of the difficulty in even getting two so called compatible sound chips the CM119A verses the CM119B working correctly with app_rpt.

These two chips are made by the same manufacture! Even the manufacture stated that these two chips were compatible with each other! And we quickly discovered this was not the case! :slight_smile:

Please see this previous post explain some of the issues posted a while ago regarding the work and man hours spent just to figure out these differences.

https://community.allstarlink.org/t/rasberry-uri-and-bridgecom/16773/6

Now times these differences by 100 of the new problems created when dealing with another manufacture of a USB sound fob that has different specifications for their sound chip?

Do you get how this could be so overwhelming that it would practically be impossible to deal with a bunch of different sound fobs?

73

Marshall

···

From: Derek Chauran via AllStarLink Discussion Groups [mailto:noreply@community.allstarlink.org]
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2020 9:26 PM
To: ke6pcv@cal-net.org
Subject: [AllStarLink Discussion Groups] [App_rpt-users] RPi Gpio





|

af7ux
July 3

|

  • | - |

I’m going to have to disagree that USB and serial fobs are a moving target. Neither require direct support of a specific device, as both have robust and stable abstraction layers. That’s precisely why they are so popular for makers/hams/etc… tty serial hasn’t changed in any major way in linux since… the early 1990s? And Alsa has been around since 1998. ASL doesn’t even have the burden of supporting multiple operating systems that complicates these hardware abstractions.

As to the cost - If I could use any old USB fob ($3 for $10) and the built in pi serial interface I could build an entire duplex node for less than the cost of a URI, and still have overhead on that pi to add a second node (about $25), an RTL-TCP server ($20-30) and probably more.

This is also a bit of a privileged point of view. A lot of our community where I live struggle to afford the cost of a decent radio, or a QTH that allows them a usable antenna in an RF friendly environment. For them that $50 or $70 could be the deciding factor for a friend building them a node with the pi 3 they just replaced with a 4b, or the difference between saving for a few months to build a node and deciding it’s too expensive. Fortunately, we have echolink to offer those people, but echolink has numerous disadvantages, which I am sure are well known here.


Visit Topic or reply to this email to respond.


Previous Replies





|

David_McGough
July 3

|

  • | - |

Having already been down this path, there are more challenges than you realize. At some point you have to standardize on supported solutions----or go crazy trying to support a gazillion custom one-off systems that end up with odd problems.

I guess the question comes down to are you an end-user who wants to build a few nodes and get on AllStar, or are you wanting to manufacture a new product. If an end-user, once you start adding up all the time and costs, $50 isn’t expensive for an adapter. If you’re building a new product, just realize that very low-end USB sound FOBs and serial adapters are a rapidly moving target…This is why all the US hams building adapters ultimately do their own thing—they had to have consistency and control quality. The same goes for cheap/clone USB serial adapters. While these adapters may work fine for PTT (using DTR or RTS), once you try to obtain COS signalling, you find that reading CTS or DSR doesn’t have the timing repeatability that is required. So, you end up with chopped off words, etc.

73, David KB4FXC





|

af7ux
July 2

|

  • | - |

All of these are fine devices for someone who just wants to throw money at a node. Personally, I like to build stuff and do it on the cheap.

The RA adapters are $25 minimum, with no case, for something that has the same functionality as the USB sound card. The one person working on the Dinah/Brian is busy with his Shari backorders right now (really nice guy, quite open to feedback!), not to mention that is an expensive option, TechByGeorge - really nuce stuff - $300 for a node, or $50 for essentially a USB sound card with a parallel port that I don’t need - no thanks, and the URI is $70 for the same thing, but in a case.
Meanwhile, I can interface with any of my radios from FLDIGI, HRD, WSJT-X, DXLabs Commander, etc… using a $3 USB audio controller (if using a pi), a cable or 2 (most of these can be scavenged), and a free GPIO serial port or a $5 USB serial adapter (if using a PC). Technically, I can do this all with no soldering BTW.

It just really doesn’t strike me as a good idea to have precisely 1 supported hardware configuration, which is third party, and which requires either very good soldering skills, or require people purchase expensive premade adapters, when there are literally free options available on the device that most people are using to deploy new nodes, are much easier to setup, and are supported by just about every other ham software out there. I also am not aware of any radio manufacturer who publishes an interface to their radios that involves soldering pins on a tiny SMD component, but plenty publish schematics for using a serial port and and audio connection.





|

David_McGough
July 2

|

  • | - |

While CM1xyz boards from China are slower to obtain RIGHT NOW due to Covid-19, there are a multitude of adapters available from many sources in the USA. Here are links to several sources. The CM1xyz is not in going away (or getting more expensive) anytime soon:

http://www.masterscommunications.com/products/radio-adapter/ra-features.html

https://hamprojects.info/dinah/

https://technobygeorge.com/

http://dmkeng.com/URI_Order_Page.htm

73, David KB4FXC





|

af7ux
July 2

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Thanks Marshall - I get that the devs have a limited amount of time to spend writing features like this, and I very much understand that they’re never as simple as one would expect (I’m a software engineer in a different ecosystem). I guess the main issue that I have is that I’ve dug up threads with this request going back years, and the answer always seems to be either indifference or “deal with it”. The hardware cost and/or complexity is a major gating factor to people using ASL. I am definitely not alone in this thinking.

At any rate, rather than GPIO, I will look into how to make this work with the linux serial interface. That seems like the best approach, as the rpi gpio serial interface can be setup to use GPIO pins for RTS (ptt) and CTS (cos) in addition to the communication interface. I’ve read the old LPT port info, but it doesn’t seem to apply. Someone else (who shares in my frustration) also found a very old patch where someone implemented alsa+serial, so that might have something I can build from.





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KE6PCV ASL Admin
July 2

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Derek,

You do some great ideas and I agree with you on the COS and PTT.

It would certainly make things easier for hams to interface radios to soundcards.

I was kind of trying to be funny when I made mention of the adding these features to the open source project.

What I was really getting at is, there is a lot of work involved with making a system like Allstarlink work.

Sometimes it is not very simple to add features.

There are only a few folks with the programming skills necessary to write or modify the open source to make an alternate mechanism for COS and PTT.

(Until now, no one has offered to step forward and take on the project of an alternate mechanism for COS and PTT.)

I could be wrong, but at some point in time there was some provision for COS and PTT using the parallel port of a PC.

We all enjoy what is offered for Allstarlink for FREE, there is no charge for the software or service.

Sometimes we just have to use what is available, even if it is not the easiest to deal with. :slight_smile:

73

Marshall - ke6pcv

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