[App_rpt-users] usbfobs

[Steve Wright]

On 07/07/16 01:10, app_rpt-users-request at ohnosec.org wrote:
> There are a lot of us out here that prefer to run hardened 
> server-grade hardware at remote tower sites rather than Pi's or other 
> small SBC's. --- Jeff 

That's a generalisation - that the RPI3 are unreliable.  It'd be nice to 
throw high-end hardware at everything, but if you had a very large 
system to build - I don't think you would be doing that.  And we do have 
a very large system to build...

Lists aren't about one person building one machine, lists are about 
system-builders assembling a nation - and that process being doable with 
quality dividends, so it is easy for one person to announce costs being 
minimal for one system, but if that single device were implemented 
globally, that would be six or seven figures.  That'd be nice for those 
who supplied that device, but I don't think they'll get it.

I mean to say, app_rpt can, and should, be on every transmit and receive 
interface on every mountaintop.  Be honest - conversion of all systems 
is our goal, not because we might, but because of the immense 
flexibility it would forward, without really any effort at all.  So how 
to actually get that?  Using a $300 box for every TX and RX?  No, it's 
not going to happen.  Using a <$100 box with four TX and four RX 
interfaces?  Just maybe..


> I suggest finding a way to replace the I/O lines with something else 
> because ANY dsp should work fine for the audio. I think the PI itself 
> has them. Just have to write the code to replace it OR use "ON-EVENT" 
> programming to read/write to them to follow ptt/cos. 

The Pi is already good to go, and some of the channel drivers will 
already use the onboard I/O.

There just isn't a driver that does ALSA audio, DSP, generic GPIO, and 
voting.  If there was, we'd never be having this discussion ever again.  
Also, it'd be dead trivial to write a config script to set the whole 
thing up.


> drivers? hardware? integration with existing codebase? takes time and 
> (unpaid) effort. -- Bryan

All the really great ideas get implemented at some stage.  The person 
who WANTS to do it, notes it and puts it on the back burner - to be 
implemented NEXT.  All visionaries implement the BEST idea, not their 
own idea.  Discussions like this only pave the way, or is it 'a' way..

Or maybe, digital is better...



S