I agree that you *must* have a reliable way to control the hardware remotely--internal watchdogs are helpful, but not foolproof; I'm speaking from hard learned experience here with Ubiquiti radios, various SBC's and even one occasionally cantankerous Kenwood repeater I manage. ...Of course, this is an FCC requirement, too. Otherwise, the RPi3 can make a nifty, inexpensive stand-alone controller. If you're able to use duplex=3 mode, there is zero audio delay thru the sound FOB/URI/RIM, etc. On a final note for now, make sure the turn the TX power WAY down on those DR-1X repeaters and keep them cool. I understand they are prone to heat issues from ham conversations, which are almost always high-duty-cycle, particularly in a full-time linked system. 73, David KB4FXC On Fri, 26 Aug 2016, Stephen - K1LNX wrote:
what you need to do is put the repeater in external mode (shorting a pin to ground) and then use the flat audio in and out on the db-15 connector in the back.
there are pins for ptt and cos.
A nice little RPI and a URI-X and you have yourself a first class controler for that repeater
I have considered this... but we have one site that has no internet access and a linking radio is the only option we have. I am also worried about potential lockups of the repeater as these will be running in AMS mode. I think this has gotten corrected in the recent firmware release, but we do have one that has an older release and didn't want to take a chance on that. I do agree though, this is the optimal way to go. The only caveat I see with that is the potential for the digital hash to be fed into the USB interface and propagated across the network when the repeater is in C4FM mode.
73 Stephen K1LNX
On Fri, Aug 26, 2016 at 12:04 PM, Tom Hayward <tom@tomh.us> wrote:
On Fri, Aug 26, 2016 at 5:18 AM, David McGough <kb4fxc@inttek.net> wrote:
possibility would be to have a Repeater transmitted PL tone directly follow the Repeater COS....Then, the simplex link radios would look for that PL tone. If the Repeater's RX COS isn't active, no PL tone transmitted, and no ping-pong.
I picked this quote out because it's really the most important point in this thread and was dismissed due to not having the right controllers. This can be solved!
As Pete said:
what you need to do is put the repeater in external mode (shorting a pin to ground) and then use the flat audio in and out on the db-15 connector in the back. there are pins for ptt and cos. A nice little RPI and a URI-X and you have yourself a first class controler for that repeater
And my recommendation is to not only use this for the controller, but to use it for the link. I've deployed a ton of 5 GHz wireless ethernet links with Ubiquiti and Mikrotik equipment. It works great between high repeater sites with line of sight between them. This is almost always cheaper than link radio + isolator + filters + hardline + antenna and will give you a full-duplex link with out-of-band control.
Tom KD7LXL _______________________________________________ App_rpt-users mailing list App_rpt-users@ohnosec.org http://ohnosec.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/app_rpt-users
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