[arm-allstar] Introducing myself and a few questions

[Doug Crompton]

Nate,

 For some reason your message bounced. I think it was the attached
signature. You might leave that off when you reply to this list. Anyhow
welcome to Allstar. I think you will really enjoy it.

The Pi4 with standard 1GB model is perfectly fine for use with Hamvoip.
Also a 16GB SD card is often used as this is about the smallest and
cheapest at the moment. I prefer the SanDisk brand. They run about $5-7.
You also should use heatsinks and possibly a fan possibly included in the
case. Here is a link for a nice simple and cheap case -

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T2CPC2H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Connecting to your existing controller can be done but also keep in mind
that the code was originally written to be a repeater controller and works
very well. This might be something for you to think about in the future
replacing your existing controller with Allstar. You connect the FOB's RX
audio and COS to the receiver and the FOB's TX audio and PTT to the
transmitter and set the mode to duplex and you have a repeater. Then you
can connect each repeater together via an Ethernet switch. See the
controller example in the howto hardware section of hamvoip.org. It shows
some of the other things you can add if you like to play hardware.

I will let others answer about the isolation and if it is necessary. It may
not be saving you the trouble of doing it.

Archlinux is just another variation of Linux and more things are the same
than different between it and Debian. It is systemd so if you are not used
to that it will be different.

There are a large group of users here and usually just about any question
gets answered. We are here to help. Have fun!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Greetings all.

Getting back into the world of repeaters somewhat I am opting to
interface a Pi 4 running hamvoip on the link port of a CAT-200B
controller.  At this point I just have the hamvoip image running on the
Pi 4 and connected to the home LAN.  I do have a node assignment from
AllStarLink.

A few questions.  The Pi 4 that I have is the 4 GB model that I
originally purchased for an SDR plaything.  I'd get another Pi 4 for
this project.  Is there an advantage to using the 4 GB model for
hamvoip?  The 1 and 2 GB models are slightly cheaper and at this point I
doubt I would ever have more than two radio interfaces (USB sound dongles,
most likely) and more than likely just one.

I am considering a CM108 caseless USB sound card and wiring it based on
the HOWTOs found on the site.  An idea I have is using opto isolators on
all connections between the CM108 and the CAT-200B.  I know this will be
easy enough for the COS and PTT lines but wondered about the audio.  I
found this page,
https://learnabout-electronics.org/Semiconductors/opto_53.php that gives
a circuit idea for using the 4N25 as an audio isolator.  It shows the
bandwidth to be about 7 kHz though the gain response curve looks like it
would not be flat audio.  Perhaps audio transformers would be a better
idea?

As for COS and PTT, I figure that with opto isolators that it will be a
snap to wire the CM108 PTT output to the CAT-200B COS input and vice
versa to imitate a radio link.

As for Linux, well, I think I'm a rather old hand at it.  :-)  I'm not
all that familiar with Arch although I ran it for a time maybe ten years
ago (I also did Linux From Scratch around that time frame--highly
recommended to do it at least once).  I'm a long time Debian user and
started with Slackware back in the mid '90s, so other than getting a bit
of a primer on pacman, things are reasonably familiar.

Thanks for the work to support Allstar on the newer Pis.

73, Nate