[arm-allstar] dtmf macros for repeater control

[David McGough]

Hi Everyone,

Ah. DTMF propagation. Hum. Well, there are a some areas of AllStar that   
are weak in performance when compared to typical analog controllers, and 
IMO, this is one of them.  I agree with Willem's and Rob's comments about 
propagate_dtmf and related functionality--I've had less than satisfactory 
results as well, for several reasons (that I won't elaborate on just now).

My solution has been to add several hacks to the app_rpt source code, but,
even this still has rough edges, partly due to imperfect muting of the
source DTMF signaling.

Another possibility might be to add DTMF generation macros in the dialplan 
(extensions.conf file).

I'll investigate this further. It has been been on my to-do list a long 
time.  I've got an SCOM 7330 and Link-Comm club sitting on the shelf I can 
experiment with--both of these controllers got replaced by AllStar 
controllers and honestly, I've never looked back!


73, David KB4FXC





On Sun, 27 Dec 2015, Doug Crompton wrote:

> I asked Dave to comment on this as he has many repeaters and he 
probably has an answer. 
> 
> I might add though that Allsar makes an excellent repeater controller 
and migrating to using it rather than the expensive dedicated controllers 
might be something to look at. 
> 
> Many controllers have limited ports and when you run out you either 
have to add more if you can or live with it. With Allstar you have 
unlimited ports. They are called nodes! Say you had 5 repeaters at one 
location plus echolink and maybe IRLP, etc.  Each repeater would be a 
node and in the case of the Pi's probably a separate server or board. The 
series of boards would be connected via a local Ethernet (LAN). There 
would be no need for an Internet connection although it would be 
desirable to have one if possible. Each board would control the repeater 
it was connected to and if you wanted to interconnect you would do that 
by connecting nodes. Redundancy would be good as you would not have one 
computer or controller running multiple repeaters. Many group use a 
single computer (PC) controlling multiple repeaters but this is a poor 
idea from a redundancy standpoint.
> 
> Doing it this also makes it very easy to control either via radio or a 
remote link via the Internet.
> 
> Just a thought. It is a lot cheaper to do it with Pi's than an 
expensive controller. Allstar will do everything the expensive controller 
will do and then some.
> 73 Doug
> WA3DSP
> http://www.crompton.com/hamradio
> 
> 
> > Date: Sun, 27 Dec 2015 11:52:55 -0700
> > From: willem at prinmath.com
> > To: arm-allstar at hamvoip.org
> > Subject: Re: [arm-allstar] dtmf macros for repeater control
> > 
> > Doug I have a similar situation that I was never able to solve.  I have an 
> > SCOM controller on the far side of an AllStar link.  The only way to 
> > program the SCOM is to send it DTMF tones.  What I would like to do is key 
> > in the tones over RF, transmit them along the allstar link, and have the 
> > remote node put them out to the SCOM which is connected to the URIx.  I 
> > fooled with propagate_dtmf but never could make it work.  Is there a way 
> > to just pass the tones all the way through?
> > 
> > ================================================================
> > Dr. Willem A. Schreuder,  President,  Principia Mathematica
> > Address:  445 Union Blvd, Suite 230,  Lakewood, CO  80228, USA
> > Tel: (303) 716-3573   Fax: (303) 716-3575
> > WWW: www.prinmath.com   Email: Willem.Schreuder at prinmath.com
> > _______________________________________________
> > 
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>