Standalone digipeater & igate? I like the idea!!!

While browsing product availability at argendata website, I came across a daughterboard design for ot+ and wrt54gl. Hey, that could be an interesting mini project that I could take.. I've wrt54gl laying around collecting dust, it was supposedly my backup & working as WDS client for my home office but it doesn't work reliably .. so it get replaced by Buffalo WHRG125 instead.

I don't have an OT+, my base has TinyTrack4 with KISS enabled .. what I need to do is to tap the unused serial port on wrt54gl, connect it to the TT4 .. and hopefully will get an igate running using the information found here:

http://www.dimebank.com/cak/k6dbg/k6dbg_igate.html

Will start this little project this few days and see if I can get it anywhere.. now I can spare the PC I bought for the original software based digipeater/igate for other usage ..

Update 1: The internal .. RS232 interface ready ..



Update 2: Couldn't fit TT4 inside the casing .. added one DB9 to the front/face of the wrt54gl. There is one that should go to the side but will add it later on.

Update 3: Software wise, I've loaded OpenWRT and apr4r .. I need to configure it though.. that'll be the hard part I guess.

Update 4: Finally, it is up and running, some more photos to share:




Update 5: There seems to be a problem with the router running out of memory or something else, after running for a day, it just stuck there.. and not igate-ing any packets. Need to look into the log and see what happened.

Building a fish pond ..

Nah, surely I won't do it by my own .. the effort surely too much for me to take. It took two men the whole day to dig out the 9'x6'x3'.. it will surely take me a year to dig it out .. with all the junks left by the developer underneath ..

What kind of fish you may ask? I've no idea really .. but probably I'll go for the most common one, koi.. no .. I don't have any experience in rearing fish before ..so, I know, it will be a hard job for me to maintain the pond .. and then not to let the fish die too soon .. hee..hee..

Day 1: Digging ..

Day 2: Nothing interesting, they just put a power point and stuff..

Day 3: They're putting a skylight now ..

Day 4: Further digging and putting a foundation to the pond (didn't get a chance to snap anything)

Day 5: The pond taking a shape, water feature, filtration chambers, etc..

No idea what going to be here too..

After weeks of no updates since suddenly the pace went slower:




Pebble-washed .. last before it is ready .. the decking .. hopefully can be done this week .. I'll surely need to ready the pond .. I was advised to fill up the pond with water and pour some salt to kill germs, parasites .. and acidic substance such as pineapple into the pond .. someone even suggested that I need to cut banana trunk and put it into the water .. this to remove the toxic from the pond..

Will a tuning unit improves my diesel engine?

No idea really .. will test it out. I have been toying an idea since long ago but due to the prices for the tuning boxes .. it was last in my to-have list for my Triton. Somehow, somebody in motortrader forum brought back the old issue, so .. as usual, me .. with the 'hantu' ebay .. looking for a good bargain until I found one seller which is selling a Vector Tuning box and the price is .. guess what.. half the price they're selling it here locally. Further enquiries and found that the seller is one of the main distributor for Vector and I was well assured that my Triton engine is in the list .. so .. ordered one unit end of last week and now waiting for it to be delivered.. hopefully passes the customs with no problem or otherwise, I need to go down to KLIA once again.

I will update this blog with latest info .. as and when I receive my box.

Where should it goes to? Here???

Update:

DONE! Power? What power? haa..haa.. see, I'm not good in evaluating stuff .. they might sell duff box to me without me knowing it .. wondering, the thingy has microprocessor isn't it? Does the cable provide power to it? What kind of communication it has over the connector? I guess since it has only three wires, it might be serial stuff.. and it should be learning my driving style now.. should I push it hard or go soft?

Update 18/06/09:

Had a go at MRR2 this morning .. It might be just my feeling .. I feel the car is lighter, a slight push of throttle and it zooming ... and going from 80 to 110km/h is spiffy .. ah.. might just be the feeling of the RM spent on the vector made me think that suddenly my Triton has more power to it.. oh.. one other thing, sorry for those drivers that I cut into this morning .. suddenly I couldn't stop the Triton from zig-zaging in the traffic..

TinyTrack4 & Display - mini project

Received my 20x4 display in the post today and spent half an hour trying to make it working. I messed up with the wiring for sure and scratching my head why it does not work .. yes, the RS and E pins were swapped .. silly me. Anyway, result .. as photos posted below (oh yeah, chosen this black over greenish LCD since it cost me only RM38/pc)...!

Next mini project will be, to put this display and TT4 into much better casing and to get the PS/2 keyboard interface wired up .. and to get the display working with OpenTracker2 too. If I fancy myself, might use STAMP2 but wondering if mine has serial memory built-in .. otherwise, I'll just wait a bit for Scott/ArgentData to come up with new firmware which has LCD/keyboard support.

10 meter related links ..

Feel bored today, so .. arming with google search, found the following informative websites related to 10 meter band (in no particular order):

1. 10 meter beacon list (pretty up-to-date list)

2. Wikipedia entry on 10 meter

3. 10 and 6 meters club (US)

4. 10-10 International (US)

Calling frequencies on 10 meter (by no mean standard worldwide, based on http://www.ac6v.com/callfreq.htm - use as a guide):

28.025 CW Rare DX & DXpeditions Frequently Operate Here – Split 


28.060 QRP CW Calling frequency


28.080 RTTY Rare DX & DXpeditions Frequently Operate Here -- Split 


28.080 to 28.100 Primary Range for RTTY


28.1010 10/10 Intl CW Calling Frequency


28.110 QRP Novice/Tech Calling FREQ


28.190-28.225 Beacons 
 


28.200 NCDXF/IARU beacons (STAY OFF OF THIS FREQUENCY) Many Hams rely on these beacons for propagation determination. For Details - see NCDXF/IARU International Beacon Network



28.380 10/10 SSB Intl Calling Frequency 


28.385 QRP SSB Calling frequency 


28.425 10/10 SSB Intl Calling Frequency – Another is 28.400 


28.495 SSB Rare DX & DXpeditions Frequently Operate Here -- Split 


28.600 Old General Callin Frequency - Still used by Old Timers 


28.675~28.685 SSTV Operating Frequency -- IARU Region 1 


28.680 SSTV Operations USA/Canada 


28.825 10-10 Backskatter Net - Paper Chasers Net 


28.885 6M DX Liaison Frequency -- Listen here for 6 Meter DX opening announcements and discussions. 


28.945 FAX Operating Frequency 


29.000-29.200 AM Operations 


29.300-29.510 Satellite Downlinks 


29.520-29.580 Repeater Inputs 


29.600 FM Simplex - Calling Frequency

And found here that might interest us in Malaysia, taken from http://please.name.my/177/10-meter-band-ham-radio-calling-frequency-in-malaysia.html

28.480 MHz USB

28.485 MHz USB

28.490 MHz USB

28.495 MHz USB

28.500 MHZ USB

NOTE: All the above are recommended calling and simplex frequencies but are NOT OFFICIALLY sanctioned by any standard bodies. I was told once that 28.490 was the standard calling frequency used worldwide but I could not find any information to back this one up. It seems that many DXers are fond to be at that frequency calling CQ.

6 meter anyone? ;-)

What is next in line?

My dear friend 9W2RUT is really testing me out .. he just bought two LCD 20x4 displays from Jalan Pasar .. that is enough to generate an interest to venture into new project for me. The Tracker2 and TinyTrak4 are both capable of displaying messages on 20x4 LCD. There are quite a number of LCD sellers on ebay, I'm aiming for the white-over-blue with backlight display.. RM42/pc sent from China .. not bad for the price since it cost more from Jalan Pasar. Probably will order it tomorrow :)

Info on how to get the LCD display working on Tracker2 could be found here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tracker2/message/5694. Photo posted by Scott:

And here is where all the information on how to get this thing working for TinyTrack4 (we need to have at least v0.51 firmware):

http://www.vk7hse.hobby-site.org/wiki/index.php/LCD_&_Keyboard

My hands are itchy now.

TinyTrak4 as fill-in digipeater

I was thinking, why do I need to power on my PC when someone already gated the packets out to the net. What I want to do is to escalate/repeat packets sent by APRS stations from "Bermuda" area of Sg Buloh to the digipeater-to-be somewhere at Genting. Since I've Argendata Tracker2 already, I was thinking, why not try the Byonic TinyTrack4 and have it run in standalone mode and acts as a digipeater. So, ordered mine through 9W2PD (bulk order) and received it early of the week.

The hardest part for me is to set the TT4 to recognise incoming packets. When I received the TT4, I could not get it to recognise any packet, so put off by it .. I didn't touch it for few days (+ the busy days debugging BSP/ABAP Object/middleware and stuff related to work that it). To get it working with my FT-60R HT, I need to set the SQL all the way counterclock wise (off), set the volume to 25%, RXAMP and CDCODE and CDLEVEL as the configuration shown below.

My configuration is: Tinytrack4 + Yaesu FT-60R, configuration as I put into the software (Alpha 0.51 firmware), the important fields to get the digipeater working are in bold:

300 is FALSE
TXTDISP is FALSE
NODISP is FALSE
PPATHING is FALSE
DMSDISP is FALSE
MICETMV is FALSE
ENTS is FALSE
TELHIRES is FALSE
TELVOLT is TRUE
TELTEMP is TRUE
PREEMPT is FALSE
DIGIID is TRUE
TOSV is FALSE
TALT is TRUE
TIMESTAMP is TRUE
TIMEHMS is TRUE
SBEN is FALSE
TSWPT is TRUE
AMODE is TEXT
BMODE is TEXT
ABAUD is 19200
BBAUD is 4800
SSIDROUTE is 0
ALTNET is APTT4
MYCALL is 9W2TPT-4
DIGI1 is WIDE1-1
DIGI2 is WIDE2-1
DIGI3 is
PPATH1ST is
PPATH2ND is
TSTATUS is Digipeater SgBuloh
BTEXT is >Digipeater SgBuloh
BPERIOD is 900
TXD is 60
PERSIST is 65
SLOTTIME is 15
QUIET is 10
CDMODE is TONES
CDLEVEL is 12
TXLEVEL is 128
TXTWIST is 50
RXAMP is 13
GWAYLEN is 9
GWAYMODE is NMEA
LOCATION is 0312.8666N 10133.4500E
GALT is 1000
TSYMCODE is #
TSYMTABLE is S
STATUSRATE is 1
PPERIOD is 600
SBSSPEED is 5
SBFSPEED is 60
SBSPERIOD is 1800
SBFPERIOD is 90
SBTANGLE is 27
SBTSLOPE is 255
SBTTIME is 5
MICEMESSAGE is 0
TSOFFSET is 17
TDAO is 2
TPROTOCOL is APRS
TPERIOD is 1200
ALIAS1 is WIDE1-1
ALIAS2 is
ALIAS3 is
DUPETIME is 15
FILTERCALL is

Update: aprs.fi doesn't like the beacon text w/o '>', so, added it manually to the beacon text line.. don't see this with Tracker2 though.

Update 2: According to Byon, the only required parameter to enable the digipeater is the ALIAS1. The rest are just supporting parameters.