[Allstar Digital] Bridge errors (lessons learned)

[Steve Zingman]

When I logged in to Roberts Pi as he said, he had a few problems. One of 
the first thing you should do is run the dmrlink.py in the same 
directory of the app that you are working on. Setup the logging to go to 
the console and debug so you see everything. When I ran the dmrlink.py 
in playback, it reported that there was a problem connecting to N4IRS. 
Huh, why would the playback app need to connect to Roberts "upstream" 
master? Turns out both a peer to his master and a connection to mine 
were enabled. I disabled to connection to mine. No more errors. I 
checked the config for playback and it looked OK. When Robert tried to 
transmit on the playback TG, nothing, but no errors. Huh? Robert told me 
that he had the repeater configured for mixed analog / digital mode. Ah, 
Motorola in it's infinite wisdom decided that you can't have both mixed 
mode and and IPSC. Even though the repeater registered with the master 
(I learned something here) it would not send traffic to the Master. Once 
Robert reconfigured the repeater and playback worked like a champ.

When it comes to reading error messages from dmrlink, It can get very 
detailed. Though all the information is important, Sometimes you can't 
see the forest from the trees. The example Robert posted below was much 
larger. When he asked what the error could be, I replied with just the 
KeyError: 'N4IRS_MASTER' That's what he needed to find his typo. Again, 
run the dmrlink.py in the directory with the app, that will tell you 
dmrlink.cfg is probably OK. Then when you run the app and get a error 
you will know it must be the config file for the app.

This can be both frustrating and fun, if you like troubleshooting.

73, Steve N4IRS

On 12/28/2015 10:00 AM, Robert Newberry wrote:
> 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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-- 
"Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about."
1st Law of Logic

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