Sorry for the delay, my list subscrption settings may be wrong. I was not receiving the digest or any other e-mails to reply to, or know that anyone had responded. . . moving on:
That assumption isn't correct. It is E&M for zaptel configuration only (not in hardware). The card interface 4 wire audio even though only a single Zap channel is specified. In zaptel.conf you should specify:
e&m = 1 ....
And in zapata.conf you should specify:
signalling=em_txrx channel = 1 ....
And in rpt.conf you should specify only ONE zap channel:
[100] ; Name of First Repeater
rxchannel = Zap/1 ; Rx audio/signalling channel ...
Thank you Steve. We do have all of that setup or as you suggested. Went back and double checked after reading your post just to make sure.
Please elaborate on how you are trying to connect. When do you get the "Unable to create channel Zap" error? Was it when you tried to run Asterisk with app_rpt compiled in?
I'll try to ASCII out how we're connecting to our radio: Radio PCI Side Card Ext Spkr => 1 RXA CVC Sense => 2 COR --not used-- => 3 UIOA --not used-- => 4 Subtone PTT => 5 PTT --not used-- => 6 UIOB Ext Mic => 7 TXA RF Ground => 8 GND With that attached, just through an RJ-45 cable, we load up Asterisk. Then after connecting to Asterisk via a Softphone we try to dial the radio. Our extensions.conf file looks like this for dialing the Zap channel: exten => 205,1,Dial(Zap/1/1999) 1999 was the channel name we gave it. It is at this point, when we dial it, that the "Unable to create channel type Zap" error.
Your concern is true. It isn't true E&M at the hardware level. COR is a input which accepts voltages from 0 to 13.8V and PTT is an open drain output from a power MOSFET. See the quadradio_pci_installation.pdf file on app-rpt.qrvc.com for more information on how to interface to the board.
As stated above, It is E&M only at the software configuration level.
Hooking the signals of the Quad Radio Card to a real E&M interface could damage the board as -48V exceeds the component ratings of the parts in the input and output circuits. Hopefully you didn't do this?!
That makes a lot of sense. I knew something was up and the -48V thing wouldn't pan out. That's why I wanted to make 100% sure before actually hooking up the base station we had laying around. Thanks again Steve.