[arm-allstar] Repeater key down lockup question

[Tom Whiteside]

Thanks Doug,

Some comments embedded below"
<snip>
>When a large group of nodes are connected together any one can hang the
system if it issues an RXKEY and then no RXUNKEY. So it is very important to
monitor the logs for these kind of problems. I run a hub here and I have
>written scripts to monitor the logs. A snippet of the log looks like this -
>07/25/2016 10:54:13 RXKEY 40865   WD9EQD  147.435 Simplex 88.5  Bill -
Smithville, NJ    

That is very interesting.    I'll work on learning more about those logs..
<snip>

>As you can see every RXKEY has an associated RXUNKEY. The only thing you
can do in a situation where a hang occurs from outside it to disconnect the
offending node.
>
>In your situation it is not clear if something hung in your system or
elsewhere. What you could do if this happens again is pull the the USB cable
from the offending sound FOB to the Pi. This connection can be hot plugged.
So pull it out and then plug it back in. It should restart with the green
light blinking.  
>
Pulling the FOB is not possible for me - this is a remote site...  
>
>I guess another question is what FOB are you using? A DMK-URI, modified
FOB, etc.?
DMK-URI
>
>Monitoring the asterisk log in the client would also be helpful.  'asterisk
-rvvv' in a ssh window to the Pi.
Ok.
>
>It is not beyond possibility that Echolink is causing the problem. People
on Echolink often forget to unkey when they have a key setup to toggle TX. I
always run echolink on a separate Allstar node so it can easily be
disconnected and isolated from the rest of the nodes. So you would setup
another Allstar >node on your server not connected to any radio in pseudo
mode. Configure Echolink to use this Allstar node number. Then connect this
node to any other node you want to offer Echolink to. If there is a problem
on Echolink just disconnect that node and it is isolated. 
Another symptom to report:   When this happened, we could hear no audio at
all.   When I've experienced someone keying Echolink and leaving it keyed,
you can hear any audio from that Echolink station as well as any other
audio.   Not like an FM double...  In this case, it was just no audio at
all!
But I do like the idea of isolating things.   Should I consider setting up
Echolink on an entirely different Pi just to reduce the load on the repeater
Pi or just another node on the existing one as you suggested?   I have no
idea how much the load increases with the number of Echolink users...
>
>Also RF and power spikes can cause things like this. Make sure you use good
practices in that regard.
Agreed.   We think we are very clean on both counts but you can never say
for certain...
>
>Finally V1.0 is very old now and while it is considered a stable release
there have been many improvement in the current 1.02 image. We are also
going to have another interim release working up to our V2.0 shortly. If you
continue to have problems you might try an update. Always keep your old
image >though just in case you want to go back to it. 

Will do.   I have an image with 1.02 on a Pi3 that could be dropped in...

Thanks Doug!

73 Tom N5TW