Setting up APRS for Wheeling n' Stuff

[DaveInDenver]

Being within 100 feet of each other inside your truck is definitely well within the expected margin of error for stuff like that. If you let them both sit averaging your position with unobstructed view of the sky from horizon to horizon for like half an hour they should converge.

If you want to know the whys and what-fors there's maths behind the geometry. Dilution of precision, probability errors and all of it are interesting but knowing exact latitude, longitude and elevation and reducing it to mean sea level, datums, blah, blah removes some of the mystery.

I think that's what Leclerc would want you to think about. OK, so you have a device that can tell you where you are with some figure of merit.

Does that information matter in the moment? No GPS, photo or map can tell you within an inch where the edge of a crevice is or see the world in 360° for real. Only your own two eyes and brain can know and interpret that. Is there a risk to actually being? You know there is. But I bet when we meet Leclerc again he'll tell ya he'd take that step again if it means he also gets the million others he took before it.

I do carry a GPS and trace tracks where I think things should be but most of the time I prefer to navigate by map and compass. I see so many people walking trails with a receiver in hand looking down just following a line on a digital map. So what have you achieved when you're done?

 

[nakman]

Did you see the movie, Dave? Wasn't as good as Free Solo, imo. but I liked it better than 14 peaks.

 

[Mendocino]

I found this video helpful for my set up (Kenwood TM-D710GA and Android tablet).

 

[rover67]

I haven't had any issues with my 710 pushing the data. Pretty much transmits with every turn.

I wanted to see what was available for a good value and performance tablet to run aprs and general multimedia stuff. Seems like the fire tablet 10 plus was the best I could find. Really responsive now that I've unlocked it and turned it into a standard android tablet without all the Amazon crap. Works great with my 710. Pretty good $120 spent.

lost my Galaxy Tab A, need another one for all this. Was unlocking and wiping the fire tablet a no brainer? should I just get one of those?

 

[satchel]

The unlocking and wiping was pretty straightforward yeah. The main drawback for me is no internal gps and i had to get a wireless charger to stick on the back to charge it. The lack of gps is a pain sometimes for sure.

 

[rover67]

Did not realize it had no GPS, thanks for the info!

 

[nakman]

elmer nerds... couple questions. So I have APRS kickin' on the FTM-400, thanks in large part to @CardinalFJ60 for a geek sesh a few weeks back. I also have the aprs.fi app installed on my phone and iPad, and with service I can watch myself drive around more or less in real time, as well as see the icons for all the other stations out there broadcasting an APRS beacon. big step forward.

First question, is there any iPad/iPhone APRS app that you know of that will show mapping without a data service? When I flip to airplane mode, I pretty much lose everything on aprs.fi, other than a blue dot showing my location using the phone's magic built-in GPS, I presume. I don't necessarily need to overlay the beacons to Avenza or Google earth or anything like that, but it would be cool to at least have some map in the background when I'm outside cell service.

Second question is does anyone know the ideal filter setting, for screening some of the incoming beacons? These are my options..

I'm guessing "mobile" is the way to go? So I'd see any/all mobile rigs, regardless of them displaying a frequency, or being digital, etc. Currently I must be set to ALL as I get beacons from all sorts of home stations and weather stations.

 

[DaveInDenver]

First question. There is unfortunately no iOS app that allows offline maps. Even with Android it's basically only APRSdroid and even that's a little work upfront.

Second question. Mobile is fine but it might or might not get you an exact filter. It could be based on the SSID you put on your callsign, e.g. the dash part of K0NAK-9. There's 16 core SSIDs and a ton of extended ones. But what they mean isn't universal.

For example the standard for APRS identified the main 16 as this. The only undefined was dash-zero, which is the assumed default (e.g. no SSID means -0) and that represents a home station usually. It was intended so the APRS client knew what icon to assign to a station.



However for every rule there's an exception.





So my point would only be to say that if you filter on mobile you may or may not miss packets. It'll probably include -9 and -7 but would almost certainly exclude -0 or no SSID, which I see a lot of 4WD hams use. That's probably just a lack of deeper understanding of the APRS conventions.

You will probably also miss non-standard using hams. I think a legitimate option is -13 for RV and Yaesu might exclude that if they follow the standard that says this is a WX station.

Basically you'll have to experiment and you might find all is the only safe option unless you know how every one in your party is configured.

It may use other parts of the packet, such as data type (e.g position verses weather, message, etc) or software information in the address field. I'm honestly not sure how Yaesu handles it.

 

[satchel]

On a related note, does anyone know of a tablet that has gps and either 2 usb ports or 1 port with wireless charging? Using the d710 I have to run a usb cable to the tablet for it to get the signal which means I can't charge at the same time. I tried running a usb hub and putting the power and cable from the d710 into that first, but that didn't work either.

 

[DaveInDenver]

You may look into one of the USB OTG 'Y' cables. OTG = On The Go, which if you're not familiar is a way for a device like a phone to act like a host (e.g. be the computer master rather than the slave device). Phones can't supply power to the USB device that you're trying to use like a real host, usually a USB thumb drive, so they have to use the 'Y' do it.

This isn't an APRS device but it's showing a radio (the PLUTO is an experimenting RF gadget) with a phone and a battery. I think you could do something like this with an APRS station.



There's also connecting to the APRS modem via Bluetooth. I've had luck using a serial-to-BT adapter on a couple of APRS TNCs. There's been a few hams who've gotten their TM-D710 connected via BT but I've not done it personally so I could only suggest web searching.

 

[Stuckinthe80s]

On a related note, does anyone know of a tablet that has gps and either 2 usb ports or 1 port with wireless charging? Using the d710 I have to run a usb cable to the tablet for it to get the signal which means I can't charge at the same time. I tried running a usb hub and putting the power and cable from the d710 into that first, but that didn't work either.

When you figure something out, could you post up? I have a d710 I'll be using when I get everything put back together.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Hmmm I need to look into this more. I'm about to tackle a project where I do a head unit relocation and was planning on going with an android auto head unit but I suppose I wouldn't be able to pull off a system like this unless I had a standalone android head unit correct? I also need to get my ham license at some point.

 

[nakman]

Hmmm I need to look into this more. I'm about to tackle a project where I do a head unit relocation and was planning on going with an android auto head unit but I suppose I wouldn't be able to pull off a system like this unless I had a standalone android head unit correct? I also need to get my ham license at some point.

Do the last thing first.


and thanks Dave for the explanation, makes sense for the most part. I will flip the filter to "mobile" and see what happens. If anyone wants to watch me drive later I should be on the road again from 15:00-17:00 or thereabouts, would be cool to receive an inbound message if you find me.

 

[rover67]

I think you'd need mobilinkd and an APRS app to do what you are talking about. Is there a way to get data from the FTM-400 to your "i" device without any extra hardware? Does a FTM-400 have bluetooth that can send data?:

mobilinkd@groups.io | Yaesu FTM-400 and Mobilinkd

groups.io

 

[nakman]

Hey thanks for that link, Marco! looks like it can be do, if I want to buy more stuff. I can already see other stations' general location on the radio, and I can already send/receive messages through APRS on the radio, so really all I'm missing is seeing us on a map with map data below. I'll have to think if I need to buy more stuff for that. I think I'm going to run what I have for now, then decide if I need the other stuff.

The reality is, as soon as I hit cell range then it's back on with aprs.fi.. and shoot you can get Verizon at the Doll House right?

 

[DaveInDenver]

The FTM-400 can parrot heard packets to the external serial port. The basic intention is to display them externally. Yaesu does not expose the internal TNC like Kenwood so there's no reason to use a Mobilinkd or other APRS TNC/modem since 90% of the functionality can't be used with a FTM-400.

But the alternative will take some hacking unfortunately since there's not really a commercial solution to do this. There used to be a device on eBay called the R3-FT400 that would take the serial output and translate it to Bluetooth so that you could use APRSdroid (or maybe aprs.fi app, not sure) to display maps but it seems only Alibaba probably at this point.

FWIW, I have an ancient Android phone for mobile APRS just for APRSdroid. It's IMO less headache for how we use it than dealing with an iPhone.

R3-FTM400 Radio Car Bluetooth Converter Box For FTM-400D FTM400XDR FTM-100D - Free Shipping - ThanksBuyer

www.thanksbuyer.com

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TerxrVD2FEg



View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAJFnWm_ikY


I wonder if a USB-serial adapter with the OTG 'Y' *might* work.

 

[nakman]

thanks for the videos, that helps a lot!

 

[satchel]

I ordered a new cheap tablet that has gps (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08YJYC4WN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and an OTG cable (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Y6VQN99?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details). Unfortunately, no dice. When plugging it all together I do get power but no longer get the serial connection.

Geez, why can't I find a tablet with gps, wireless charging, and a usb port or gps with two usb ports.

You may look into one of the USB OTG 'Y' cables. OTG = On The Go, which if you're not familiar is a way for a device like a phone to act like a host (e.g. be the computer master rather than the slave device). Phones can't supply power to the USB device that you're trying to use like a real host, usually a USB thumb drive, so they have to use the 'Y' do it.

This isn't an APRS device but it's showing a radio (the PLUTO is an experimenting RF gadget) with a phone and a battery. I think you could do something like this with an APRS station.

View attachment 113587

There's also connecting to the APRS modem via Bluetooth. I've had luck using a serial-to-BT adapter on a couple of APRS TNCs. There's been a few hams who've gotten their TM-D710 connected via BT but I've not done it personally so I could only suggest web searching.

When you figure something out, could you post up? I have a d710 I'll be using when I get everything put back together.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I ordered a new cheap tablet that has gps (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08YJYC4WN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and an OTG cable (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Y6VQN99?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details). Unfortunately, no dice. When plugging it all together I do get power but no longer get the serial connection.

Geez, why can't I find a tablet with gps, wireless charging, and a usb port or gps with two usb ports.

Just to confirm, it does work with a single USB cable despite being unable to charge? I see mention of Kenwood and OTG issues with APRSdroid, although it's not it's own issue as near as I can tell.

USB serial TNC support · Issue #105 · ge0rg/aprsdroid

It would be awesome to support USB TNCS. This would even allow users to build their own TNC with an arduino, a few passive components, and the mobilinkd code. This library does USB serial without r...

github.com

You can install plain terminals on Android, so if you were interested in messing around you could test if the phone is seeing the TNC and it's an APRSdroid issue.

 

[satchel]

Correct, everything works fine with the serial usb plugged into the tablet other than that it can't charge. I'll probably just keep looking out for an android tablet that has gps and wireless charging should they ever make one.