Addendum to my last question Why no transmit?

What could prevent transmitting with DRAWS Hat running NWDR15 on Pi3 B+ ?
Addendum to my last question Why no transmit?

I just did a fresh install to confirm that the text in the "Getting
Started" Guide works consistently.

Thanks for the console output from all the commands. In the future you
can just run the showudrc.sh script which usually gives enough output to
solve problems.

First to answer how to debug transmit problems:

Start from a clean install. Editing any configuration files is
discouraged until you can confirm things are working. In your case
/etc/ax25/axports file has been manually edited and is misconfigured.
The /etc/direwolf.conf file may also be manually edited and misconfigured.

1. Check cable to radio. Is it a custom cable? In your case you should
be using the left hand mDin6 connector.
2. Radio turned on?
-When running scripts btest.sh or measure_deviate.sh
3. Does you radio indicate that it transmits when running either of the
above scripts?
4. Does the transmit led next to the mDin6 connector on the DRAWS card
come on when running either of the above scripts?
5. Tune an HT to the same frequency used by your radio attached to the
DRAWS card. When running the measure_deviate.sh script can you hear a
tone?

Until you get the above tests working I would not try to figure out why
your receive is not working either.

Things from your console output that require fixing:

Either start from a fresh install (recommended) or fix your /etc/ax25/axports file.
Mar 19 19:38:04 ASAwizard bash[564]: axconfig: duplicate callsign KO4BCZ-10 in line 6 of axports file
Mar 19 19:38:04 ASAwizard bash[564]: kissparms: invalid port name - udr1

You said that you did not see any console output from the listen command
yet your direwolf log file sees your beacon test output:

Mar 21 15:08:12 ASAwizard direwolf[479]: [0L]KO4BCZ-11>APUDR1,WIDE1-1::KO4BCZ :21 15:08:11 EDT KO4BCZ mesg_beacon test from host ASAwizard on udr0 Seq: 21

This indicates some ax.25 misconfiguration. Note that if you just follow
the "Getting Started" guide you should NOT have to edit any
configuration files.

Focus on your transmit problem first then look at receive.
Tune your radio to the national 1200 baud APRS frequency (144.390 MHZ),
turn audio up & squelch off. You should hear some/a lot of traffic and
you should see that traffic in your 'listen' console or 'tail -f
/var/log/direwolf/dirwolf.log' console.

Receive problems are usually due to cable mis-wired, incorrect ALSA
parameters or radio misconfigured (AFOUT/DISCriminator).

/Basil n7nix

Thanks Basil,

I will try a new clean install on a different DRAWS hat I have not touched.

However I am pretty certain I had not edited any files at least before I sent my info.

But I have had a disjointed effort lately but will start from scratch one more time I am getting pretty good at it.

Will advise.

Paul 
KO4BCZ

Basil,

I followed Getting Started to the letter No Joy please see the following outputs

Basil,
I was monitoring 144.390 MHz with second rcvr  and only heard a couple APRS transmissions.
which might also been when the alsa settings were from the IC7000 script.
 I copied and pasted every step in the attached txt file 

Paul

1. Edit /etc/ax25/axports
You are using the same call sign & SSID for both devices. That
happened when you configured the direwolf SSID to be 10. Change it to
something other than 10 like 1.

2. Why did you choose the IC-7000 alsa script? That script uses ALSA to
route the receive audio from the radio discriminator. Is that how
you've configured your Hyteria TM800-U?

3. Can you provide a pin out of the cable you are using to connect to
your radio to the DRAWS hat. Also which connector(s) are you using on
the Radio?

4. Your RPi throttled at some point due to over heating. Did you install
heat sinks?

5. Debug transmit then receive. Use measure_deviate
(https://github.com/nwdigitalradio/n7nix/tree/master/deviation) to
put a tone on pin 1 (transmit audio) of the mDin6 cable.

6. You very well may have a DRAWS hat that was stuffed with incorrect
components but you have a number of things that are mis-configured.

/Basil n7nix

Paul Noa <pauljnoa@gmail.com> writes:

Basil,

Start from a clean install.
# I started from scratch new, clean install and new out of the box Draws Hat

Editing any configuration files is
discouraged until you can confirm things are working. In your case
/etc/ax25/axports file has been manually edited and is misconfigured.

The /etc/direwolf.conf file may also be manually edited and misconfigured.
# No editing has been done to any files 

1. Check cable to radio. Is it a custom cable? In your case you should
be using the left hand mDin6 connector.

# I used the pin outs for the mini DIN 6 connector from this file https://nw-digital-radio.groups.io/g/udrc/files/DRAWSTech.pdf 

I wired my IC-F521 DB9 ACC input using the pinout above and I do recall the pin layout didn' match and that was my rookie mistake not investigating that!

However this seems like where I might have gone wrong, not  having any "HAM" experience my commercial radios don't use mini DIN connectors, so I checked online and found this:


Please confirm the later is correct.

2. Radio turned on?
-When running scripts btest.sh or measure_deviate.sh
# Of Course, But I understand the question

3. Does you radio indicate that it transmits when running either of the
above scripts?
#NO! it does however TX/RX when I use the mic input which I removed during testing

4. Does the transmit led next to the mDin6 connector on the DRAWS card
come on when running either of the above scripts?
#NO!

5. Tune an HT to the same frequency used by your radio attached to the
DRAWS card. When running the measure_deviate.sh script can you hear a
tone?
#HT?? can you use generic terminology and elaborate, I have not run Measure_deviate.sh

Either start from a fresh install (recommended) or fix your /etc/ax25/axports file.
Mar 19 19:38:04 ASAwizard bash[564]: axconfig: duplicate callsign KO4BCZ-10 in line 6 of axports file
Mar 19 19:38:04 ASAwizard bash[564]: kissparms: invalid port name - udr1
# I have a fresh install see below

You said that you did not see any console output from the listen command
yet your direwolf log file sees your beacon test output:

Mar 21 15:08:12 ASAwizard direwolf[479]: [0L]KO4BCZ-11>APUDR1,WIDE1-1::KO4BCZ :21 15:08:11 EDT KO4BCZ mesg_beacon test from host ASAwizard on udr0 Seq: 21

This indicates some ax.25 misconfiguration. Note that if you just follow
the "Getting Started" guide you should NOT have to edit any
configuration files
# with my fresh install i did see out with listen -at
#What indicates ax.25 is mis-configured in the lines above? 
# I did NOT and Have Not edited any config files;
#see my outputs from the fresh install:

Basil,
1. Edit /etc/ax25/axports
You are using the same call sign & SSID for both devices. That
happened when you configured the direwolf SSID to be 10. Change it to
something other than 10 like 1.
# I did not know what to put there yes I will try 1 rather than ten,
# do I need to start from scratch or can I run the config file again?

2. Why did you choose the IC-7000 alsa script? That script uses ALSA to
route the receive audio from the radio discriminator. Is that how
you've configured your Hyteria TM800-U?
# I am using the IC F-521 VHF now. I will use the TM800-U in the future which is UHF for my application which is not APRS. I am just trying to get the DRAWS Hat working so I can move on to my development application.

3. Can you provide a pin out of the cable you are using to connect to
your radio to the DRAWS hat. Also which connector(s) are you using on
the Radio?
#Please see my last message

4. Your RPi throttled at some point due to over heating. Did you install
heat sinks?
#No Heat sinks, but will do!

5. Debug transmit then receive. Use measure_deviate
(https://github.com/nwdigitalradio/n7nix/tree/master/deviation) to
put a tone on pin 1 (transmit audio) of the mDin6 cable.
#At work now will do that this afternoon

6. You very well may have a DRAWS hat that was stuffed with incorrect
components but you have a number of things that are mis-configured.
#Please see my latest outputs (Previous Message) from the clean fresh install if something is mis-configured
I do not understand where I am going wrong 

Thanks Basil,

I appreciate your Indulgence
I hope my perseverance can match it
Paul

Basil,
I edited axport file here is the current output from Showudrc

# From your console output I do not see the mis-configuration I saw
before. To confirm you could also provide console output from
~/n7nix/debug/ax25-showcfg.sh -d

# From the direwolf User-Guide.pdf doc to invert the gpio output pin
sense: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wb2osz/direwolf/master/doc/User-Guide.pdf

9.2.8.2 PTT with General Purpose I/O (GPIO)
On Linux you can use General Purpose I/O (GPIO) pins if available. This is mostly applicable to a
microprocessor board, such as a Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone, not a general purpose PC. Precede the pin
number with “-“ to invert the signal.
PTT GPIO [-]pin-number

# In directory ~/n7nix/bin there is a script to test just the PTT gpio
pins used by UDRC/DRAWS hat.

./ptt_ctrl.sh -h
Usage: ptt_ctrl.sh [-l][-r][-on][-off][-c][-h]
-l | --left Select left connector gpio
-r | --right Select right connector gpio
-on | on Turn selected gpio ON
-off | off Turn selected gpio OFF
-t | --toggle Toggle PTT state
-c | --check Check gpio state ie. read gpio
-d | --debug Turn debug on
-h display this message

# With just a quick look at the the IC-F21 Service manual I don't
believe it provides discriminator output so nothing will be connected
to mDin6 connector pin 4 and you should configure ALSA to not route on
IN1. You are currently doing this:

IN1 L:[10 kOhm]     R:[Off]
IN2 L:[Off]         R:[10 kOhm]


# The mDin6 data connector is somewhat of a standard used by Japanese
ham equipment manufacturers.
http://wa8lmf.net/miscinfo/MiniDIN6-Packet.pdf
For pin numbers look at a Kenwood TM-v71a manual page 83.

A brief look at the ICOM F521 manual indicates that it does NOT have
discriminator output so do NOT route IN1 ALSA control ie. your left
channel is currently configured to use discriminator out & it shouldn't be.
This assumes that you have a properly wired cable with discriminator out
on pin 4 & AFOUT on pin 5 referencing the mDin6 cable.

Paul Noa <pauljnoa@gmail.com> writes:

Thanks Basil,

I know I have not  changed to LN2 yet,  as I am troubleshooting NO XMIT.

I am using your handy script: ptt_ctrl, thank you. I see the  respective LEDs for L or R PTT come on and go off when I toggle them,

I see the respective GPIO pins ie io12 & io23 go high when I toggle them.

However I do not get an output on either MiniDin6 connector at anytime with the exception of SQL which is high all the time.

I suspect I might have killed Q1 when I was mis-wired but I have never touched the right connector before today (and only with a scope probe) and therefore would expect Q2 to still be good.

What say you?

Paul

However I do not get an output on either MiniDin6 connector at anytime
with the exception of SQL which is high all the time.

Make sure you are measuring the correct pin.
Also disconnect the cable from your radio in case it's loading that
signal.

http://www.wa8lmf.net/6-Pin-MiniDin-Data-Connector/index.htm

Basil,
really! I checked every pin on both connectors while toggling the PTT

really! I checked every pin on both connectors while toggling the PTT

I'm out of ideas. Please talk to Bryan.

Basil,

I am still waiting to here from back from Bryan, but in the mean time I checked my three units and they all have the wrong value components stuffed.

That is 6 each 100K ohm resistors and 2 each capacitors.  Does explain some of my problems?

Paul

Hi Basil,

Me again!  I have had seemingly gotten most everything straighten out. Bryan helped.

Attached is a text of my current situation.  What I know is:
1.) My GPS receiver is not picking up because it is too far from the window not an issue now.
2.) I have not yet set up transmit levels and suspect that is my next challenge
3.) Having no prior experience I am not sure about some of the results could you look at my file of outputs and give me your insights please?

I will be checking the transmit side in the meantime.
Thanks for your support in advance!
Paul KO4BCZ

2.) I have not yet set up transmit levels and suspect that is my next
challenge

Use measure_deviate.sh script
https://github.com/nwdigitalradio/n7nix/tree/master/deviation

Search groups.io messages for 'deviation'
https://nw-digital-radio.groups.io/g/udrc/search?q=deviation