Re: Sound Card Packet & SBBS
By: Tim Wray to echicken on Mon Dec 08 2014 16:56:25

What's your thoughts on using sound card packet software with your AX.25 stuff for Synchronet? Is it possible? Or do I have to go buy a TNC to do

It's geared toward TNCs connected to serial ports. If your soundcard packet software presents itself as such, then it should work. (My understanding is that 'soundmodem' can be configured to work this way. I haven't used it, and every time I suggest it people get confused.)

However, the KISS-AX.25 library was written as something of a stack, so it should be possible to separate the AX.25 stuff from the KISS stuff, and make it talk to ... something else, in some other way. I'd have to look at specific soundcard packet applications to see how it would be done in each case. There's that hideous AGWPE thing for Windows which I believe runs as a server and barfs packets at you if you connect to it, so that could be a possibility.

I might put some work into the AX.25 stuff this winter, if I run out of other interesting things to do. Would be curious to know what you'd like to do with it and what you're expecting from it (everyone seems to have a different take.)

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echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com - 416-273-7230
■ Synchronet ■ electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com

interesting things to do. Would be curious to know what you'd like to

do wi

it and what you're expecting from it (everyone seems to have a different take.)

I'm in the midst of building myself a room in my garage/barn (which I have thus far called my "lair"), which is where I will get my ham shack set up, and I will be moving my bbs (bwrbbs.ddns.net) out there as well. From time to time, I'm looking for new things to do with the BBS, and adding it to
the local Packet BBS scene seemed like it might be fun. I've got a spare Icom IC-2100H I am thinking of building an interface for, as well as some early '80s Kenwood 2m HT's, but I'm up in the air on whether I want to get an old TNC somewhere, or rig it for soundcard.

I imagine I myself will be the only one who would ever connect to it much, although I do have at least one ham friend who also dabbles in the BBS
world at 20 miles out who we might make a go of it with a good quad or something up high on both ends.

I did get the AX.25 stuff configured per your instructions on the sync
wiki, that went well, but it became obvious that using AGWPE (which does
not present as a TNC) was going to be an issue. I'll likely buy a TNC, but I'm just planning ahead at this point, as the "lair" is only a floor frame presently. Ha!

I saw your youtube video where you demonstrated the functionality, that pushed me to begin seriously working on it (or at least getting the board configured, which is done.)

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Tim Wray, Sysop - Backwood Realm BBS
telnet: bwrbbs.ddns.net web:home.backwoodrealm.com

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■ Synchronet ■ The Backwood Realm BBS - bwrbbs.ddns.net - The heart of Southern Indiana

Re: Re: Sound Card Packet & SBBS
By: Tim Wray to echicken on Tue Dec 09 2014 08:54:44

I did get the AX.25 stuff configured per your instructions on the sync wiki, that went well, but it became obvious that using AGWPE (which does not present as a TNC) was going to be an issue. I'll likely buy a TNC, but I'm just planning ahead at this point, as the "lair" is only a floor frame presently. Ha!

I think it could be made to work with AGWPE, but that's something I would need to tinker with. At a glance I suspect it would be fairly straightforward. I might mess around with it at some point regardless, but if you end up needing such a thing let me know.

I saw your youtube video where you demonstrated the functionality, that pushed me to begin seriously working on it (or at least getting the board configured, which is done.)

Well, if you're okay with the way it works according to that video, then that's good. Bear in mind that it isn't interoperable with other packet BBS software (as far as exchanging mail and bulletins, etc.) My plan was to eventually make that happen by introducing a command shell that supported all of the typical commands that PBBSs, F6FBB, etc. use.

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echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com - 416-273-7230
■ Synchronet ■ electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com

Re: Re: Sound Card Packet & SBBS
By: echicken to Tim Wray on Tue Dec 09 2014 03:15 pm

that's good. Bear in mind that it isn't interoperable with other packet to eventually make that happen by introducing a command shell that supported all of the typical commands that PBBSs, F6FBB, etc. use.

That makes sense.
I've never operated other Packet BBS locally, there are a couple guys that are really into it...I'm mostly just interested in making my standard BBS accessible via AX.25. Pretty cool concept.

Good work on the stack.

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Tim Wray, Sysop - Backwood Realm BBS
telnet: bwrbbs.ddns.net web:home.backwoodrealm.com


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■ Synchronet ■ The Backwood Realm BBS - bwrbbs.ddns.net - The heart of Southern Indiana

Re: Re: Sound Card Packet & SBBS
By: Tim Wray to echicken on Wed Dec 10 2014 11:53:00

are really into it...I'm mostly just interested in making my standard BBS accessible via AX.25. Pretty cool concept.

That's what most people wanted at the time when I made this stuff, so I put compatibility with other packet BBS stuff on hold. Honestly most packet BBSs are pretty lousy anyway, so I don't think we're missing much by not hooking into them.

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echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com - 416-273-7230
■ Synchronet ■ electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com

Re: Re: Sound Card Packet & SBBS
By: echicken to Tim Wray on Wed Dec 10 2014 02:28 pm

put compatibility with other packet BBS stuff on hold. Honestly most packet BBSs are pretty lousy anyway, so I don't think we're missing much by not hooking into them.

Heh, exactly. Plain, basic, and dull.

We're certainly not going to find anything like the fearful Center of Awareness upon any of them. This is an unfortunate thing.

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Tim Wray, Sysop - Backwood Realm BBS
telnet: bwrbbs.ddns.net web:home.backwoodrealm.com


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■ Synchronet ■ The Backwood Realm BBS - bwrbbs.ddns.net - The heart of Southern Indiana

Re: Sound Card Packet & SBBS
By: Tim Wray to echicken on Mon Dec 08 2014 04:56 pm

Hey echicken,
What's your thoughts on using sound card packet software with your AX.25 stuff for Synchronet? Is it possible? Or do I have to go buy a TNC to do it right? Haha

-T

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Tim Wray, Sysop - Backwood Realm BBS
telnet: bwrbbs.ddns.net web:home.backwoodrealm.com

Just throwing this out there, I don't see why not. I use AGWPE as part of the AX.25 stack on my SBBS; and though I am using a real TNC (Kantronics KPC-4) I don't see why it shouldn't work with a soundcard TNC.
The reason I used AGWPE is because the KPC-4 is a dual-port TNC, and as I don't know if ax25tunnel.js supports dual ports I am using AGWPE to make the KPC-4 appear to be two TNCs. The way I accomplished this is by using a program called "AGW KISS-mode Serial Loopback Interface," which is available on SV2AGW's web site. The TNC talks to AGWPE at 9600 Baud, is decoded, sent through the TCP/IP loopback interface to the serial emulator, where each radio port is made to appear to be a seperate KISS-mode TNC on it's own (virtual) serial port.
I don't see any reason why this loopback interface could not be used with AGWPE's soundcard TNC, as the serial port emulation would be exactly the same. Though personally I would recommend Dire Wolf over AGWPE as a soft TNC as in my experiance it is a much more robust application and when I was using it as my APRS Digi/iGate it outperformed the hardware TNC I am using for that purpose now. It also will work with the serial emulator as it can also be interfaced with the AGW protocol. It is, however, somewhat more difficult to configure.

Just my two cents (more like two bucks!!!)
73
de KD8REV
Sysop, the Henry County SKYWARN BBS

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■ Synchronet ■ Henry County SKYWARN BBS - kd8rev.net

Re: Sound Card Packet & SBBS
By: Kd8rev to Tim Wray on Tue Jan 12 2016 01:54 am

Just throwing this out there, I don't see why not. I use AGWPE as part of the AX.25 stack on my SBBS; and though I am using a real TNC (Kantronics KPC-4) I don't see why it shouldn't work with a soundcard TNC.

This is actually something I've almost attempted to test, but have not yet. I agree, AGWPE should work if configured properly.

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Tim Wray, Sysop - Backwood Realm BBS
telnet: bwrbbs.ddns.net web:home.backwoodrealm.com


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■ Synchronet ■ The Backwood Realm BBS - bwrbbs.ddns.net - The heart of Southern Indiana

This is actually something I've almost attempted to test, but have not yet. I agree, AGWPE should work if configured properly.

I haven't touched AGWPE in years, but the "AGW KISS-mode Serial Loopback Interface," mentioned by KD8REV sounds very much like a KISS interface, so it ought to work with anything that wants a KISS interface. AGWPE also has some kind of server that you can connect to, presumably to receive raw AX.25 or KISS frames from; if/when I work on packet stuff for Sync again, it should be doable to optionally interface with said server instead of using some serial loopback thing.

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echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com - 416-273-7230
■ Synchronet ■ electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com

Re: Sound Card Packet & SBBS
By: echicken to Tim Wray on Fri Jan 29 2016 11:38 pm

This is actually something I've almost attempted to test, but have not yet agree, AGWPE should work if configured properly.

I haven't touched AGWPE in years, but the "AGW KISS-mode Serial Loopback Interface," mentioned by KD8REV sounds very much like a KISS interface, so i ought to work with anything that wants a KISS interface. AGWPE also has som kind of server that you can connect to, presumably to receive raw AX.25 or K frames from; if/when I work on packet stuff for Sync again, it should be doa to optionally interface with said server instead of using some serial loopba thing.

The big issue with interfacing with AGWPE directly is that it speaks it's own language. This language is well documented and the SDK is freely available, however I am no programmer and the Serial Loopback Interface (which DOES speak KISS) was perfect for my specific need: Making a 2-port TNC look like two TNCs to ax25tunnel.js. The Loopback interface consists of two components: the AGW client, which translates AGWPE to a KISS serial interface, and a virtual NULL MODEM driver, which is nessasary to make the virtual COM port available to the local PC (without acually using two precious serial ports, which are increasingly hard to find nowadays!).
As eChicken alluded to, there is no doubt a better way to get AGWPE to talk to ax25tunnel.js (in fact I'm pretty sure there's a Javascript client in the SDK), but as I also stated I don't know how to do this directly. In my limited testing ax25tunnel.js was properly seeing APRS packets, and was not attempting to connect to APRS packets even with a very similar address (in this case my digi, KD8REV-1, my BBS is KD8REV-2).
When I find some free time I plan on doing some on-the-air testing, even if it is at 50 feet range, to see if the system does truly work. As of now I can only prove that I can get ax25tunnel.js to "hear" the KPC-4, via AGWPE, but I have not had an oppertunity to actually connect yet.

73 de KD8REV.

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■ Synchronet ■ Henry County SKYWARN BBS - kd8rev.net

Re: Sound Card Packet & SBBS
By: echicken to Tim Wray on Fri Jan 29 2016 11:38 pm

This is actually something I've almost attempted to test, but have not yet agree, AGWPE should work if configured properly.

I haven't touched AGWPE in years, but the "AGW KISS-mode Serial Loopback Interface," mentioned by KD8REV sounds very much like a KISS interface, so i ought to work with anything that wants a KISS interface. AGWPE also has som kind of server that you can connect to, presumably to receive raw AX.25 or K frames from; if/when I work on packet stuff for Sync again, it should be doa to optionally interface with said server instead of using some serial loopba thing.

I just looked into the AGWPE SDK, and there is a JAVA application there to interface with AGWPE. I don't know what if anything is involved in translating Java to Javascript, but again as I said although AGWPE itself is closed-source, the client interface is open source and the SDK is available to developers.

73 de KD8REV

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■ Synchronet ■ Henry County SKYWARN BBS - kd8rev.net