ars-e on gb dmr repeater

[kb9mwr]

So what is the secret to get these trbo radios to s*** out some gps coordinates?

The only time I saw myself on aprs.fi was field day night.

[kc9uhi]

ARS-E daemon status page (program behind the TRBO interface) -- http://qth.kc9uhi.net:14680/

The Gen1 TRBO radios, in my experience, don't have the best GPS sensitivity. Way worse than the byonics GPS that works under a metal pot in my basement. Sitting on a window ledge typically results in a GPS fix in a couple minutes. Occasionally it'll work on my desk next to an outside wall. Outside only takes about a minute. HOWEVER, there isn't a built-in GPS antenna. It piggy-backs on the radio antenna. Look around the base of the antenna - one side will say UHF and the other will be GPS, if you've got a GPS antenna. I've got a GPS and non-GPS antenna, and I can't see any exterior physical difference other than the markings. The GPS antenna did pick up a fix in about a minute, while the non-GPS antenna is still sitting there doing nothing (update: after about 6 minutes of sitting on the window ledge, the non-GPS antenna got a fix).

GPS antenna http://shopwiscomm.com/PMAE4024B-PMAE40 ... 73124.aspx

[kc9uhi]

The ARS / GPS reporting stuff seems to work while scanning -- set the channel selector to an ARS channel, then hit scan. Monitor everything in the scanlist whilst maintaining GPS reporting.

[kc9uhi]

ARS-E 'Last update' status descriptors:
hello: radio checked into ARS server (radio turned on/switched to ARS channel)
pong: radio is responding to 'ping' (checking if radio is still present if not heard for awhile)
loc: position received
leave: radio signed out of ARS server (radio turned off)
timeout: ARS server hasn't been able to contact radio for some time, assumed out of range or off.
tms: text message received from radio

When radio is turned on/switched to ARS channel, it sends 'hello' to the ARS server. The ARS server requests the radio to send GPS packets every 2 minutes after initial loc. Unless heard (loc, tms), the radio will be pinged every 5 (resulting in pong if the radio is alive, or a loc if it has GPS fix). If nothing is heard from radio in 15 minutes, the radio is marked 'timeout' (can't get ahold of it). If radio is on ARS channel when turned off, it will send 'leave' packet to ARS server (this is why radio seems to take a long time to turn off - it's transmitting and making no indication of doing so).

[kb9mwr]

Bob and I were flapping our gums on DMR this evening. And we were wondering if any level of over the air programming can be done? That would sure seem slick for ham radio purposes, where a new guy picks up a DMR CB and everyones radio needs an alias added, etc.

Also Bob is looking to meet up with you, do you can make his DMR radio cool like everyone elses.

[kc9uhi]

Over the air programming can be done with the gen2 trbo radios (xpr7..., xpr5..., sl series). Nothing fancy available for the first gen radios.

[kc9uhi]

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

-Send a text message to 3155055 (the digital private contact you created above) with one of the following commands:
[aprs,a] <callsign> <message> --- send an aprs message
[who,w] <callsign> --- get the last known location of a station
noaa <location> --- get the weather for location
last <callsign> --- get current status of and last time station was heard by ars-e

7/28 added station aprs symbol display on status page. working on sending sms text message from radio

[kc9uhi]

I keep adding things. Follow the changelog -- http://qth.kc9uhi.net:14680/changelog.txt

[kc9uhi]

ars-e system moved to the 431.6 repeater.

[kc9uhi]

Whipped up a crude 'api' to send txt messages to trbo radios via other programs.

Added another UDP port listener; send it the destination DMR ID and message, then the ars-e program sends the txt to the radio.