BPQ32 Yapp file transfer

BPQ32 and QTermTCP support the Yapp Protocol. Let’s take a look at how that works.

First we have to great a Directory  ” Files”  in the root dir of Linbpq. The user Pi must be the owner of the Directory.

cd /home/pi/linbpq
mkdir Files
ls -l
drwxr-xr-x 2 pi pi    4096 nov  1 12:10 Files
* If the user Pi does not own the directory "Files", you can change that with.
sudo chown pi:pi Files

Now we can set QTermTCP to use the directory “Files” for uploads and downloads. In the top menu choose ” Yapp” , ” Set Receive Directory” and choose the correct directory (Files).

First we need to connect to a local BBS that supports the YAPP protocol. Now I have set up a BBS here for this test. As modems I use two Ninotnc`s connected with a null modem cable.
Now we are ready to send a file. Again choose in the top menu “Yapp” and “Send File” Now you can choose which file you want to send.

Here we go…..

Monitor screen from Linbpq BBS.

File compleet.

The same file but compressed.

NinoTnc update

On my very expensive scoop (hi) you see a packet frame @ 1200 Baud received from a station about 50 kilometers away. Looks fine to me.

After updating the Firmware from version V2.35 to V2.81 I see a good increase in the decoded frames.

How to update the Firmware

wget http://tarpn.net/zflash2020oct/tarpnflashinstaller.sh
chmod +x tarpnflashinstaller.sh
./tarpnflashinstaller.sh

Run
tarpnflash usb
* My Ninotnc is connected to ttyACM0.
tarpnflash version ttyACM0
* Is there a newer version available in the dir "ninotnc" you can run.
tarpnflash flash ttyACM0 (version number)
* Now the Firmware is being updated.
* Check if the flash of the firmware went well.
tarpflash version ttyACM0
* Great now running Version v2.81
/dev/ttyACM0 NinoTNC v2.81

I immediately built my second NinoTNC. I am very curious how that works with IL2P mode, Improved Layer 2 Protocol. In the picture below, the two NinoTnc`s are running at 2400 Baud with IL2P mode. Functions perfectly. Now I have some problems with adjusting to 4800 and 9600 Baud. I have to look into this.

[0]N9600A3>IDENT::TestPacket=FirmwareVr:2.81=SerialNmbr<0x00<0x00<0x00<0x00<0x00<0x00<0x00>0x00>=UptimeMilS:0007C5F2=BrdSwchMod:02060002=AX25RxPkts:0000001B=IL2PRxPkts:00000000=IL2PRxUnCr:00000000=TxPktCount:0000000A=PreamblCnt:0000001D=LoopCycles:006CD389

Direwolf 1.6 Official release

Today is the Official release of Direwolf 1.6 (29 Oct 2020)

I’ve been running the “Dev” version of Direwolf for a while. 1.6D. But now I read this morning that John WB2OSZ has made version 1.6 official after 2 years. Version 1.5 was released on 8 Oct 2018

I read in the mail that there is almost no difference with the “Dev” branch. So I don’t really see any need to install the official release.

https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf/releases

 

New Build Procedure:
--------------------

* Rather than trying to keep a bunch of different platform specific Makefiles in sync, "cmake" is now used for greater portability and easier maintenance.

* README.md has a quick summary of the process. More details in the *User Guide*.

New Features:
-------------

* "-X" option enables FX.25 transmission. FX.25 reception is always enabled so you don't need to do anything special. "What is FX.25?" you might ask. It is forward error correction (FEC) added in a way that is completely compatible with an ordinary AX.25 frame. See new document *AX25_plus_FEC_equals_FX25.pdf* for details.

* Receive AIS location data from ships. Enable by using "-B AIS" command line option or "MODEM AIS" in the configuration file. AIS NMEA sentences are encapsulated in APRS user-defined data with a "{DA" prefix. This uses 9600 bps so you need to use wide band audio, not what comes out of the speaker. There is also a "-A" option to generate APRS Object Reports.

* Receive Emergency Alert System (EAS) Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME). Enable by using "-B EAS" command line option or "MODEM EAS" in the configuration file. EAS SAME messages are encapsulated in APRS user-defined data with a "{DE" prefix. This uses low speed AFSK so speaker output is fine.

* "-t" option now accepts more values to accommodate inconsistent handling of text color control codes by different terminal emulators. The default, 1, should work with most modern terminal types. If the colors are not right, try "-t 9" to see the result of the different choices and pick the best one. If none of them look right, file a bug report and specify: operating system version (e.g. Raspbian Buster), terminal emulator type and version (e.g. LXTerminal 0.3.2). Include a screen capture.

* "-g" option to force G3RUH mode for lower speeds where a different modem type may be the default.

* 2400 bps compatibility with MFJ-2400. See *2400-4800-PSK-for-APRS-Packet-Radio.pdf* for details

* "atest -h" will display the frame in hexadecimal for closer inspection.

* Add support for Multi-GNSS NMEA sentences.

Install/compile instructions

### Linux - Using git clone (recommended) ###

***Note that this has changed for version 1.6.  There are now a couple extra steps.***


First you will need to install some software development packages using different commands depending on your flavor of Linux.
In most cases, the first few  will already be there and the package installer will tell you that installation is not necessary.

On Debian / Ubuntu / Raspbian / Raspberry Pi OS:

    sudo apt-get install git
    sudo apt-get install gcc
    sudo apt-get install g++
    sudo apt-get install make
    sudo apt-get install cmake
    sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev
    sudo apt-get install libudev-dev

Or on Red Hat / Fedora / CentOS:

	sudo yum install git
	sudo yum install gcc
	sudo yum install gcc-c++
	sudo yum install make
    sudo yum install alsa-lib-devel
    sudo yum install libudev-devel

CentOS 6 & 7 currently have cmake 2.8 but we need 3.1 or later.
First you need to enable the EPEL repository.  Add a symlink if you don't already have the older version and want to type cmake rather than cmake3.

    sudo yum install epel-release
	sudo rpm -e cmake
	sudo yum install cmake3
	sudo ln -s /usr/bin/cmake3 /usr/bin/cmake

Then on any flavor of Linux:

	cd ~
	git clone https://www.github.com/wb2osz/direwolf
	cd direwolf
    git checkout dev
	mkdir build && cd build
	cmake ..
	make -j4
	sudo make install
	make install-conf

This gives you the latest development version.  Leave out the "git checkout dev" to get the most recent stable release.

For more details see the **User Guide** in the [**doc** directory](https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf/tree/master/doc).  Special considerations for the Raspberry Pi are found in **Raspberry-Pi-APRS.pdf**

NinoTnc progress

Boy, I can hit my head against the wall. I made a very rookie mistake. I had  soldered a number of Leds the wrong way round.  Tsss before I finally invented that. Very stupid.
But when I finally found out (it’s even in the description on the tarpn website) it now works the way it should.

Let’s test how the reception is. (aprs on 144.800Mhz @ 1200 Baud)

I feel like he is a little deaf. Looks like he’s missing some frames. Maybe it’s the setup I’m using. I am using a Yaesu ft7800 with the NinoTnc directly on the Mini Din of the radio. I have to figure this out, I will read the Tarpn website one more time.

First let’s update the flash.

Mmmmm, let’s give it a go.

Nice…

A Linbpq configuration example

bpq32.cfg

PORT
PORTNUM=3                                
ID=NinoTNC     
TYPE=ASYNC                                
PROTOCOL=KISS                         
FULLDUP=0                      
COMPORT=/dev/ttyACM0
SPEED=57600                    
CHANNEL=A                      
PERSIST=225                    
SLOTTIME=20                   
TXTAIL=1                       
QUALITY=1                      
MINQUAL=81                     
MAXFRAME=1                     
FRACK=6000              
RESPTIME=40                    
RETRIES=20                     
PACLEN=236                      
UNPROTO=ID                     
L3ONLY=0                       
DIGIFLAG=0                     
DIGIPORT=0                     
USERS=1                        
IGNOREUNLOCKEDROUTES=1  
ENDPORT

I am very happy to be able to add this (Nino)TNC to the collection.

Draws Raspberry PI Hat

With patience (over 6 months) my Draws Hat has finally arrived from NW Digital Radio. I also ordered a GPS mouse.

DRAWS is a platform with multiple components.

First, it is a Raspberry Pi HAT.  This is a purely hardware solution that puts several components that are useful for amateur radio projects on a single board; namely a high-performance sound chip (CODEC), a GPS with pulse per second (PPS) that includes an embedded battery backed real-time clock (RTC), and a 12VDC power circuit to power the onboard devices and the Raspberry Pi from a single power supply.  It has two mini DIN-6 audio sockets that match the ‘TNC’ specification found on many radios designed for amateur radio, an SMA connector for a powered GPS LNA antenna, power connection socket, and a small GPIO array for additional I/O.

Secondly, the DRAWS Workstation, which is the HAT plus an SD Card, Raspberry Pi, and an optional metal case, which creates a self-contained unit.  The Raspberry Pi provides the computing power for the workstation to run the drivers for the HAT components and applications to provide various functions.  Those functions are mostly in the realm of packet radio (Direwolf modem, AX.25, APRS, etc.), other digital modes (fldigi, WSJT-X, etc.), and digital voice (D-STAR, etc.), and ancillary utilities and applications such as a Stratum 1 timeserver, GPS location, and so forth.

Is there a prebuilt image for DRAWS?

Get the current beta at http://images.nwdigitalradio.com/downloads (current_beta.zip) and follow Getting Started

Starting with delivery of the DRAWS HAT, a downloadable image will be available to run the DRAWS workstation.  It will contain the current version of Raspbian (Stretch) including preloaded DRAWS HAT driver and a selection of applications that have been compiled for and tested on the DRAWS platform.

© http://nwdigitalradio.com/draws/

At the moment I use the Draws Hat for Aprs, because I am still busy trying out the possibilities of the Draws Hat. For this I use Direwolf and Yaac.

KPC3 Non Plus

Today I have been playing around with a KPC3 Non +. I bought this KPC3 in America and the upgrade Firmware in England. So you can imagine that it was not cheap.

So now we are going to insert the new Firmware.

I am very happy that it works perfectly. Now I want to do a comparison test with direwolf. Both with the 6.0 Firmware version and the 8.2 Firmware version. First, let’s find some time to get involved (again) with the hobby

KPC-3/9612/Kam Firmware upgrade

OMG…. How

(IK5FKA, Still Alive & Kicking) Tnx for the mail.

I am busy with a number of large projects, so I have very little time for the hobby. In my daily life I work as a Welder and I am used to working with large materials.

And I get scared of the little NinoTNC and parts I received. I know where to start, but I’m scared of squeezing that little thing completely. Or that everything is soldered together. I hope I can find some time this weekend to find out which part should go where and start soldering.

shit ….. i’m very afraid. Wish me luck.

Firmware Kantronics

Firmware for the Kantronics KPC3 Non + and the KPC9612 Non + also the Kam.

Firmware For KPC-3

KPC-3 (non plus) 5.0 Firmware
KPC-3 (non plus) 5.1 Firmware
KPC-3 (non plus) 6.0 Firmware
KPC-3 (non plus) 8.2 Firmware

Manuals

KPC-3 (non plus) Manual
KPC-3 v8.2 Rom Manual Addendum
Kam Manual

Firmware for other Kantronics TNC’s:

KPC-9612 (non plus) v6.0 Firmware
KPC-9612 (non plus) v7.0 Firmware
KPC-9612 (non plus) v8.2 Firmware

KAM v5.0 Firmware
KAM v6.1 Firmware
KAM+ v8.0 Firmware
KAM+ v8.2 Firmware
KAM+ All Firmware, Schematic, & Parts List

KPC-2 v5.02 Firmware, Schematic, & Parts List
KPC-4 v5.01 Firmware, Schematic, & Parts List