[Aaron, N3MBH]

Hello Gene,
did you check the /sys/class/gpio directory to see if “gpio12” is registered? Here is a good little tutorial on how you can check: https://sites.google.com/site/semilleroadt/raspberry-pi-tutorials/gpio
You can also manually toggle the gpio hi and lo by writing a value to the pin.

1) check to see that the pin is automatically registered here after boot. This should be done by the ORP scripts.
2) If not, you can try registering it yourself.
3) you can use the above tutorial to toggle the pin state and check voltage.

If this doesn’t work there is alway a chance you have a bad/fried gpio pin.

Hope that helps.

73,
Aaron – N3MBH / WRFV871

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[Aaron, N3MBH]

Hello Gene,
After you set the pin be sure to make sure that you 1) save and rebuild the configuration. 2) you will need to restart the system. The reason for this is there is also a script that has to register the GPIOs with the system upon starting the system. Once this is set this should be good. I think this is what your problem is.

If not check that the GPIOs are registered with the system by going to /sys/class/gpio via SSH and seeing if a directory exists for the GPIO(s) that you wish to use.

We are currently working on the next beta which should be a little more intuitive.

Hope this helps.
73,
Aaron
N3MBH

73,
Aaron – N3MBH / WRFV871

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[Aaron, N3MBH]

Thanks for the feedback and showing it to the guys. We are working on some improvements for the next beta. Yes you are correct that we are trying to keep the image light weight. Richard is working on some other os improvements and he is building a menu to allow to configure/add some more common features like wireless. I am working on some GUI and usability improvements as well. Ultimately we would like the OS to become more transparent to the average user as we add things into the Web GUI. The goal is to make it like setting up a Router.

Stay tuned for updates and if you haven’t joined the mailing list or one of the social networks be sure to do so.

73,
Aaron
N3MBH

73,
Aaron – N3MBH / WRFV871

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[Aaron, N3MBH]

Not a problem. Yes the audio devices under ports is something I am working on in the next beta. It seems to vary from device to device and the configuration is confusing some. I am working on a background process that detects the connected devices and presents them in a dropdown menu for easy selection. We are working to try to make things more seamless. Thanks and good luck.

73,
Aaron
N3MBH

73,
Aaron – N3MBH / WRFV871

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[Aaron, N3MBH]

Greetings Gene,
Thanks for trying out the beta of the project. There are a couple different models of the easy digi. You shouldn’t be using one that relies on using the vox within the radio. It is too unreliable as audio will go up and down and there will be breaks in between words with voice communication. VOX is more geared towards digital modes like PSK where you have a consistently peaking signal to keep it open. You should be using an Easy Digi that has an optocoupler on the board and wired up to a GPIO as shown here: https://openrepeater.com/getting-started/hardware.

If yours doesn’t have one, you can simply build an external circuit for the PTT control. The schematics for the easy digits are available online and you can just build that part of the circuit and use what you have for audio isolation. You might want to do that and include an optocoupler for COS control as well.

As for the audio level, it should be fairly low as it will need to be around mic level which is about 1000x less than line level. You don’t want to overdrive the mic circuit on the transmitter. You can try to run it into a powered speaker for testing purposes.

On a side note, we are working on the next beta, so hope to have some things smoothed out in that. Hope this helps.

73,
Aaron – N3MBH / WRFV871

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[Aaron, N3MBH]

I am not sure exactly what you are asking. If you are asking if OpenRepeater can act as network router or bridge, then no.

If you are asking if you can connect separate 5Ghz network hardware (i.e. long range wifi or HSMM) to provided internet connectivity to the OpenRepeater Controller, then yes. So long as you make a standard network connection (i.e. Ethernet) from your SBC to your wireless hardware then it should be entirely possible. As far is OpenRepeater is concerned, it is just looking for a network so long as you have your routing set up.

Hope that helps. Best of luck to you.

73,
Aaron – N3MBH / WRFV871

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[Aaron, N3MBH]

The simple COS circuit would be external to the pre-made Easy Digi board. Probably could just assemble it on a perf board. We are working on our own board design so stay tuned. It would be geared more towards the Raspberry Pi form factor, but could be adapted to connect to a BBB. Let us know if you have any other questions. Thanks.

73,
Aaron – N3MBH / WRFV871

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[Aaron, N3MBH]

Greetings,
Thanks for trying out the project and your valuable feedback. Well it sounds like there might be an issue with Beta 2 if you are getting the Beaglebone 101 page. That service should have been disabled during the build. For the BBB I don’t believe there is any fundamental change in functionality between Beta 1 and Beta 2. Perhaps stick with Beta 1 for now unless you want to disable the BBB 101 services so that they don’t conflict with the ORP web server. We are working on the next Beta that will add some more functionality. I am also trying to make sure that the team test things more thoroughly before we push out a public release.

As for the RX and TX and GPIO pins, the instructions are geared more toward the RPI2 version since this is the more popular board at the moment. I would also recommend adding the COS circuit (shown on hardware page) and not use the software VOX mode. In that case you would be using 4 pins on the GPIO header: Ground, 3.3v (for pull up resister), Input GPIO for RX/COS curcuit, and Output GPIO for TX/PTT.

For my BBB I use GPIO 7 for TX/PTT and GPIO 30 for RX/COS. Make sure that you set the RX mode to COS. It also won’t start up unless you have your sound card configured properly. This might be a good form thread to read regarding that: https://openrepeater.com/forums/topic/errors-help

It would either be alsa:plughw:1 or alsa:plughw:0. Just use “lsusb -l” to determine what it would be. i.e. if your card shows up as “Card 1” then it will be alsa:plughw:1. We are working to make it more of an “auto detect” process and remove some of the complication factors of SVXLink. Hope that helps.

73,
Aaron – N3MBH / WRFV871

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[Aaron, N3MBH]

Greetings and welcome to the forums. I would assume that you’d be using one Yaesu FT-2900R as your receive and one as your transmit. If that is so, then you are fine with one Easy Digi. You may need to add some inline attenuation resistors if needed. I would also recommend trying to pull a COS line off the receive radio, or you may need to modify it to get a COS line. Then build a simple COS circuit to active the RX GPIO pin. This is much more reliable then using the software vox. Hope this is of help.

73,
Aaron – N3MBH / WRFV871

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[Aaron, N3MBH]

No problem Joe. Yes number starts at 0 usually. I have seen that vary on two different boards (BBB and RPI2). I am working on an “auto detect” script that will query the system to see what is available and populate a dropdown list. This should make it a little more user friendly.

73,
Aaron – N3MBH / WRFV871

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