[Allstar Digital] Bridge errors (lessons learned)

[Robert Newberry]

I wanted to detail some woes I was having with getting my bridge running
with the "test master" in FL. (stand by for old buzzard transmission)

First off let me explain my setup for the benefit of others. I have a
XPR8300 at my house on low power and dummy loads. I am using a HT
programmed for that local repeater and the talkgroups I want to monitor.

I then setup dmrlink.cfg with two entries one for Steve's master in FL
which I called N4IRS_PEER since I am peered to him. I then setup a second
entry N1XBM_MASTER since all of my repeater equipment will peer to that as
my master.

I then configured bridge_rules.py for two entries N4IRS_PEER and
N1XBM_MASTER this have to be entered exactly as they are in dmrlink.cfg or
things will not work! I then added the talkgroups I wanted to monitor for
each entry. Think of this like Mable's switch board from the old timey days.

Example DMR-MARC North America is talkgroup 3, time slot 1. So under
N4IRS_PEER
SRC_TS': 1, 'SRC_GROUP': 3, 'DST_NET': 'N1XBM_MASTER', 'DST_TS': 1, '
DST_GROUP': 3},

Under N1XBM_MASTER
SRC_TS': 1, 'SRC_GROUP': 3, 'DST_NET': 'N4IRS_PEER', 'DST_TS': 1, 'DST_GROUP
': 3},

This sends it in both directions.

So mistake number 1 I highlighted N4IRS_PEER in red because I accidently
called it N4IRS_MASTER. I was getting this error when I would try to TX.

File "bridge.py", line 163, in group_voice
    _status = networks[_target].IPSC_STATUS # Shorthand to reduce length
and make it easier to read
exceptions.KeyError: 'N4IRS_MASTER'

That was my clue, what ever you designate in dmrlink.cfg must exactly match
in bridge_rules.py.

Mistake number 2 was a really tricky one and I had help to figure this out.
When I was testing playback, it just wasn't playing back. There were no
errors being generated, which made it extremely tough to troubleshoot. When
setting up the repeater I put the channel as mixed mode just to play with
the analog side to. Even though it shouldn't work my repeater was
registering with my master. It wasn't until I said maybe I should change
this to straight digital channel, that playback started working.

The last thing was purely a misunderstanding on my part. I misunderstood
Steve, and thought I was going to be able to hear myself on ASL 2100. I was
banging my head against the wall not understanding why it wasn't working.
How ever if someone from this group was on at the same time as me on the
same TS/TG we could talk to ourselves.

I hope this helps anyone coming after me attempting to do this.

Now I gotta order a DV3000!

Bob/N1XBM
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