aprs <--> trbo with [crossband] voice

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kb9mwr
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Joined: Tue Dec 03, 2013 10:59 am

Re: aprs <--> trbo with [crossband] voice

Post by kb9mwr » Mon Apr 27, 2015 11:30 pm

Tell me more about the radio USB cable, and what that all lets you export from the radio. I assume this is how you get the GPS data out of the mobile unit using the perl routine? I'd like to see the perl thing in action. (In person or maybe make a video?)

What your doing is what would interest me, same sort of thing I did with D-Star. Just talking is pretty much boring to me. Some sort of simplex node would be interesting. Something that gathers data from anyone on the channel and reports/keeps tabs when a radio was last heard.

Now that I think about it, one of the first experiments I did with D-Star was run a perl script that would poll the user radio ID's that my HT would hear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biFK80xg72I
That morphed into a simplex repeater node, using a node adapter. And later that got split between two radio's to make a repeater.

I am sure the DMR repeaters do all this, but if it's all plug and play, then there really isn't anything to learn and we are back to just talking on it, which is boring to me.

Nick gave a talk at the last club meeting. Do all DMR radios have an integrated GPS? What is the cheapest one with it?

kc9uhi
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Posts: 107
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Re: aprs <--> trbo with [crossband] voice

Post by kc9uhi » Tue Apr 28, 2015 8:44 pm

When a MotoTRBO radio is connected to a computer via USB, it creates a network interface on the computer, and assigns an IP via DHCP (typically 192.168.10.2, unless the radio IP is changed in its codeplug). Information received over-the-air by the radio is forwarded to the computer over said network connection on various UDP ports (ARS: 4005, TMS: 4007, GPS: 4001). Any program capable of monitoring a UDP socket can then receive the data, which is by no means human-readable; looks like a big pile of binary data.

There's two places to connect a USB cable to the radio -- through the front mic jack, or the rear accessory port. The front mic jack requires a cable with a 1-wire chip to tell the radio what kind of cable is attached, then the radio configures the port appropriately. The rear USB connection is a plain 4 wire pinout to wire a usb cable to, no special 1-wire chip needed.

Not all DMR radios have GPS chips. Most Motorola TRBO radios ending in '50' have GPS chips. XPR6350, 6550, 7000 series, 4350, 4550, 5000 series, all have GPS. As for GPS capability in other manufacturer's radios (Hytera, Connect Systems, etc.), you'll have to look that up.

kc9uhi
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Posts: 107
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2013 10:46 pm

Re: aprs <--> trbo with [crossband] voice

Post by kc9uhi » Tue Apr 28, 2015 8:50 pm

Project Update:

Apparently connecting the COR and PTT lines between Motorola/Icom radios doesn't work. Need to rig up a transistor circuit.

kc9uhi
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Posts: 107
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2013 10:46 pm

Re: aprs <--> trbo with [crossband] voice

Post by kc9uhi » Sun Jun 28, 2015 8:34 pm

Hooked things up in the vehicle. Had serial communication issues between the pi and tracker3.

New DMR repeater in GB caused major project shift. Programmed up for TimeSlot 2.

Now: XPR4300 interfaced to pi, connected to internet. Made some modifications to the TRBO-NET software to support some additional functionality --
-- custom aprs icon per radio
-- lookup last known location for any aprs station (uses reverse geocode script I wrote previously)
-- weather info in US units

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