Download the PDF file that contains the manual/guide HERE
How
to install/setup:
Raspberry PI OS –
Bullseye
SVXLink
USB Sound Card
Alsamixer
GPIO
Radio Interface
This guide will show
you how to setup SVXLink on a Raspberry Pi computer. This guide
assumes that you have limited knowledge of the Linux based Raspberry
Pi OS. (Click on images for larger view.)
We will install the
Debian operating system to the Raspberry Pi and then the SVXLink
firmware. Yes I know there are hundreds of videos and examples of
how to install and setup a PI and SVXLink. I am going to explain
what worked for me that resulted in a successful installation and
working setup.
Please note this
setup resulted in a fully working node running on a Raspberry Pi 3
(b) with Debian version: 11. (Bullseye)
To write the OS to
an SD Card for the Raspberry Pi, I used a very nice and versatile
piece of software called Raspberry Pi Imager. Using the
imager is a simple way to image your microSD card with Raspbian, the
official Raspberry Pi operating system, and other operating systems.
Note: You will need
to be connected to the Internet the first time for the Raspberry Pi
Imager to download the OS that you choose.
Download
and install Raspberry Pi Imager to a computer with an SD card
reader. Put the SD card you'll use with your Raspberry Pi into the
reader and run Raspberry Pi Imager. Watch this 45-second
video to learn how to install an operating system using Raspberry
Pi Imager. Take note that I changed the settings of Pi Imager to
include the following:
Image
customization options - to always use
Enable SSH (Use
Password authentication)
Set username
and password - Username: pi Password: xxxxxx (you choose)
Set locale
settings – Time Zone: You choose Keyboard Layout: You choose
Note: I did not
configure wireless LAN as I use the Ethernet connection.
Persistant
Settings
All selected.
Click Save
You are now ready to
write the image to the SDCard. Ensure that you selected the correct
storage (SDCard) as choosing the wrong drive will erase everthing on
the drive you choose. Click on write. The image will now be written
to the selected SDCard. After writing it will verified the firmware
and then you will get a message that the write is completed and you
can remove the SDCard.
Before continuing
install the following two programs to your windows computer:
I take a shortcut
route and do not install a keyboard, mouse or HDMI screen to the
Raspberry Pi. Insert the Ethernet cable to the Ethernet port.
You can now insert
the SDCard into the slot of the Raspberry Pi. Bootup the Pi and wait
till its finished. Ensure that your Windows computer is on the same
Router as the Raspberry Pi. Open the Advanced Port Scanner program
and set the correct IP scanning range just below the Scan button.
Leave other settings as is. Click the Scan Button. The scanning
will start. Wait till the program stops scanning. Now look for the
columns Manufacturer and MAC Address. Under the Manufacturer column
you will see Raspberry Pi Foundation and the MAC Address next to it.
To the left in the IP column will be your raspberry pi’s IP
address. Write it down as you will need the address for PuTTY to
access the Pi headless.
Now open PuTTY and
enter the IP address in the slot named Host Name or IP Address.
Leave the port setting 22 and click Open. You will be greated with a
new screen asking for your Login as: and Password: Enter the
Username and Password that you set in settings of the Raspberry Pi
Image. Once you logged in we can now change a few settings for the
Raspberry Pi. At the command prompt type:
sudo
raspi-config
enter
The configuration
menu will open. I only make changes to two headings. You can always
later access the config menu again and make changes. The two
headings are Interfaces and Localisation. I selected the following
settings:
Interfaces
Select VNC
Remote GPIO or
Serial depending on how you going to interface your radio.
Localisation
Change -
Set Locale
Set Timezone
Set Keyboard
Set WLAN
Country
The above settings
is straight forward and I am not going to go into detail here.
Click OK and the
menu will close.
Now open a terminal
and type:
sudo
reboot
enter
This will reboot the
Raspberry Pi.
It is now time to
access the Pi via Real VNC client from your Windows computer.
I use “VNC
Connect” by Real VNC. Once installed open the program and a VNC
viewer screen will appear. Right click and select New Connection.
A new window will open. Just add your Raspberry Pi IP address in the
VNC Server column. Leave the other setting as is. Click OK. A new
window will open asking for your Raspberry Pi Username and Password.
This is the same username and password that you used in PuTTY.
Click OK. Another screen either Red or Yellow will open just click
OK and you will see your Raspberry Pi main screen on you Windows
Computer.
But the resolution
and screen size of the Pi might not be correct. Lets fix this
quickly.
Set VNC
resolution for the Raspberry Pi
Step 1:
sudo
nano /boot/config.txt
enter
as this file needs
root permission to edit we use the command sudo. Nano is used for
editing.
To run the Pi
headless using VNC, I changed this in the boot config file.
#
uncomment to force a console size. By default it will be display's
size minus
#
overscan.
framebuffer_width=1900
framebuffer_height=1024
Step 2:
With the frame
buffer set comment the following line out:
#dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d
Commenting out and
rebooting got me full resolution via VNC. Use “ctrl+x” “y”
“enter” to exit nano and save your changes. Now reboot the Pi.
sudo
reboot
enter
Once rebooted it is
not a bad time to set a static IP- address for the Pi, if you so
wish. I did not setup a Static IP Address.
Set Static
IP-Address (Optional)
Open a new Terminal
window. We will setup a static IP- address by editing the
dhcpcd.conf file. See the example near the bottom of the file. You
can use "nano" editor. To save and exit the editor, press
ctrl-x and answer Y to save:
sudo
nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf
enter
#
Example static IP configuration:
interface
eth0
static
ip_address=192.168.0.10/24
#static
ip6_address=fd51:42f8:caae:d92e::ff/64
static
routers=192.168.0.1
static
domain_name_servers=192.168.0.1 8.8.8.8
Enter the IP address
allocated to the PI by your router under {static ip address=}
Enter your routers
IP address under {static routers =}
Enter you routers IP
address under {static domain_name_servers=}
Now is a good time
to reboot your Raspberry.
sudo
reboot
enter
Your Raspberry Pi is
now ready to use once the reboot has been completed.
However it is always
a good thing to keep your OS up to date. On the top right side of
you Pi screen an icon will show up from time to time to inform you
that there are updates for your Pi. Click on the icon and install
the updates. However you can also use a terminal.
sudo
apt-get update
sudo
apt-get upgrade ;( Optional - You going to need a big cup of coffee
for this one to finish.)
enter
Updates / Upgrades
will start. Reboot once finished.
sudo
reboot
enter
Congratulations you
should now have a working Raspberry Pi with Bullseye (32 bit) OS installed!!
We can now install
SVXLink. Open a Terminal Window. First we need to update apt and
then install the SVXLink packages and server. Lets get cracking!!
Load Packages
sudo
apt update
sudo
apt install g++ cmake make libsigc++-2.0-dev libgsm1-dev libpopt-dev
tcl-dev libgcrypt20-dev libspeex-dev libasound2-dev libopus-dev
librtlsdr-dev doxygen groff alsa-utils vorbis-tools curl
libcurl4-openssl-dev git rtl-sdr libcurl4-openssl-dev cmake
libjsoncpp-dev
Create SVXLink
user and add to groups
sudo useradd -rG audio,plugdev,gpio,dialout svxlink
Download the software from Github and compile ( Note: Takes 30 - 45 min to compile)
git clone http://github.com/sm0svx/svxlink.git
mkdir svxlink/src/build
cd svxlink/src/build
cmake -DUSE_QT=OFF -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DSYSCONF_INSTALL_DIR=/etc -DLOCAL_STATE_DIR=/var -DWITH_SYSTEMD=ON ..
make -j4
make doc
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
Download
Sounds files and install
Change to directory:
cd
/usr/share/svxlink/sounds/
Enter
sudo
curl -LO
https://github.com/sm0svx/svxlink-sounds-en_US-heather/releases/download/18.03.1/svxlink-sounds-en_US-heather-16k-18.03.1.tar.bz2
Enter
sudo
tar xvjf svxlink-sounds-en_US-heather-16k-18.03.1.tar.bz2
Enter
sudo
ln -s en_US-heather-16k en_US
Note: I used 18.03.1 as the version 19.09.99.1 would not tar with tar.bz2. Important: Ensure that the download using curl downloads the sound files. It takes a least 50 seconds. If it ends after just 10 seconds you will get and error. If this happens go to cd /usr/share/svxlink/sounds/ and delete the file in the folder with sudo rm svxlink-sounds-en_US-heather-16k-18.03.1.tar.bz2 Once deleted go back to using the sudo curl -LO................... command and try the download again. I was successful on the second attempt.
That’s it you have
SVXLink installed as well as the sound files.
Time now for some blacklisting:
Open
a new terminal
Create
a file using nano or any text editor and save in /etc/modprobe.d
cd
/etc/modprobe.d
sudo
nano alsa-blacklist.conf
enter
Enter
the following line
blacklist
snd_bcm2835
Save
the file
Shutdown the machine
sudo shutdown now
enter
Switch everything OFF. It is now time to connect your USB
Soundcard dongle to one of the USB ports of the Raspberry Pi. We
need to set it as the default audio device. First we need to
configure the Raspberry Pi NOT to load Broadcom’s
Sound Chip (BCM2835)
It is now time to
set the USB Sound Card as the default audio device. First we need to
find the USB Sound Card device ID. Then we will edit the alsa.conf
file.
Start your Raspberry Pi. with the new USB Souncard dongle fitted.
Once the Pi has booted, open a new terminal
sudo
arecord -l
enter
The output in
the terminal window should be:
****
List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card
0: Device [USB PnP Sound Device], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices:
0/1
Subdevice
#0: subdevice #0
open nano and edit
the alsa.conf
I use nano to edit
the alsa.conf file:
sudo
nano /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf
enter
Edit the lines
defaults.ctl.card and defaults.pcm.card. In my case I had to
change the number at the end of the line from “0” to “1” as
arecord listed my sound card as Card 1, Device 0 and changed it when
I removed the BCM2835 sound chip setting explained supra. Depending on the sound card you use you might not have to change anything.
default1.ctl.card 1
default.pcm.card 1
Use “ctrl + x” |
“y” | “enter” to exit nano and save your changes.
Now reboot the Pi
sudo
reboot
enter
After the reboot,
head back to terminal and run alsamixer, verify the USB Audio device
is set as the default playback/recording device. You can connect
speaker/headphones to the USB Sound card and played an audio file in
Chronium to verify that the audio output is working.
sudo
alsamixer
enter
Once alsamixer opens press F5 to show all the volume controls. I set the Speaker / Mic / Mic (Capture slides to 19 and ensure that all three slides reflect 00. If it shows MM then just click on MM and it will go to 00. The Auto Gain Contol must be turned off (MM) muted. In my case I experienced a distortion error with the Auto Gain Control on. (00)
Now press F6 to bring up Sound Card listing and select 0 or 1 USB Audio Device depending on your card number. Mine was 1 but yours might be 0. Move to 1 or 0 and press enter to select your card.
Once selected press Esc to exit the mixer.
Now it is time
to save the alsamixer settings
sudo
alsactl store
enter
Next we’ll edit
the svxlink.conf file for the initial setup. It is always a good idea
to make a copy of the svxlink.conf as backup in case you want to
revert back later to the unedited file. This is optional. I did not make a backup.
sudo
nano /etc/svxlink/svxlink.conf
enter
Under
the [GLOBAL] section:
uncomment:
“CARD_CHANNELS=1”
Under
the [SimplexLogic] section:
RX=NONE
(this is temporary)
CALLSIGN=YOUR
CALLSIGN
DEFAULT_LANG=en_US
Under
the [Rx] section:
AUDIO_DEV=also:plugw:0
;(recall our USB Sound card was Card 0)
Under
the [Tx] section:
AUDIO_DEV=also:plugw:0
;(recall our USB Sound card was Card 0)
Save your changes
and exit nano Using“ctrl + x” | “y” | “enter”
Next we need to edit
the ModuleEchoLink.conf file once again using nano. It is always a good idea
to make a copy of the ModuleEchoLink.conf as backup in case you want to
revert back later to the unedited file. This is optional. I did not make a backup.
sudo
nano /etc/svxlink/svxlink.d/ModuleEchoLink.conf
enter
Make
the following changes to the ModuleEchoLink.conf file
Uncomment
line 5 “Allow_IP=192.168.1.0/24“
;You may
need to adjust the IP for your network subnet as
used by your router
CALLSIGN=CALLSIGN
PASSWORD=ECHOLINK PASS WORD
SYSOPNAME=CALLSIGN
LOCATION=CITY,
STATE
Lastly
uncomment the line “DEAFULT_LANG=en_US” to
set the language to English
We
also need to change the SERVERS setting.
SERVERS=europe.echolink.org
;(IMPORTANT:
SVXLink will not connect or allow other stations so connect with
servers.echolink.org. Change the address to europe.echolink.org or
an
Echolink
server closest to your location)
Other changes in
this file relates to you station information. You can change this to
suite your needs.
Save your changes
and exit nano Using“ctrl + x” | “y” | “enter”
sudo
reboot
enter
Next on the list is
to configure the ports on your router for your router/firewall for
the Raspberry Pi. Due to the wide variety of Routers I will not go
into detail on how to configure the ports and firewall. You need to
consult your owners manual for you specific router as well as the
Echolink manual. Echolink relies on the following ports:
5198 UDP, 5199 UDP,
5200 TCP
Check open
Ports
sudo
lsof -i -P -n
enter
More info on the
opening of ports can be found further down in this manual.
We are now ready to
connect everything together to do some basic tests of the SVXLink
installation.
The USB Sound
Card should already be connected
Connect Power
Cables to the Raspberry Pi and the Radio if you have one connected
to he Pi
Optional:
Connect your interface board between the radio and the Raspberry Pi
if you have installed an interface board
Optional:
Connect the Radio Cable from the Interface board to the radio
Open up a new Terminal window. We are going to
provisionally start SVXLink with the following command. The command
hereunder will only be used to test start SVXLink.
Enter in a
terminal window
sudo
-u svxlink svxlink
enter
If all went well you
should get a message “event handler script successfully loaded”
and SVXLink should be waiting for input or a connection. Go ahead and
tune a second transceiver if an interface and radio is connected, to
the same simplex frequency the SVXLink radio is set to. If no
interface or radio is connected you can use a set of earphones that
is plugged into the speaker socket of the USB Sound Card dongle. In
SVXLink use this command to have the server ID itself (*#). Note the command *# at this stage will not work via the radio as we must still setup the GPIO pins. You will see Tx1 Turning the transmitter On and after a few seconds Tx1 Turning the transmitter off.
*#
enter
SVXLink should key
up the SVXLink Radio and you should hear the identification
transmission on your second monitoring transceiver. If using
headphones you should hear the ID on the phones. You may need to go
back and adjust the speaker level using alsamixer. For me setting the
speakers to approx 55% seems to work well.
Do the test below
only if you have and interface and radio installed. If it does not work just go ahead to the setting up the receive Rx.
Now open Echolink on
your cell phone using a proxy and connect to your Echolink station.
If all went well you should hear the Echolink ID the incoming
connection on your monitoring transceiver. Additionally, you should
be able to key up Echolink on your cell phone, transmit, and hear the
transmission on your monitoring transceiver.
You now have SVXLink
with the Echolink module setup and working on the transmit (TX) side
of SVXLink. We still need to setup the receive (RX) side of SVXLink.
Setting up SVXLink
is not difficult. Your need to be accurate in executing commands
and not be in a hurry.
Now onto setting up
the receiver (RX) side of SVXLink but first a few handy commands to use.
Remember that we
always start and stop SVXLink the correct way.
Start and Stop
SVXLink and Start and Shutdown the Raspberry PI
sudo
systemctl start svxlink
sudo
systemctl stop svxlink
Now I am sure you will get tired of starting svxlink manually every time. Lets fix this to allow svxlink to start automatically
always after rebooting the Pi. Once you entered this command you
must not start svxlink with the command: sudo -u svxlink svxlink
anymore!
Select a new
terminal and enter the command underneath at the command prompt
sudo systemctl enable --now svxlink
enter
sudo
reboot
enter
The pi will reboot and svxlink will automatically startup after the
Pi has finished rebooted.
Now let’s
look at how to shutdown the Pi
Once you stopped
SVXLink and you want to switch off the raspberry pi you need to shut
down the Pi as prescribed. Never just pull the plug!! You have been
warned.
Here is the correct
way to shut-down your Raspberry Pi in a terminal window.
When using the
command line or a terminal window, you can enter the following to do
a clean shutdown:
sudo
shutdown -h now
enter
or
sudo
halt
enter
or
sudo
poweroff
enter
If you use the GIU
option click on the Pi emblem (left top corner) Click on Shutdown.
New window will open. Click on Shutdown. The Pi will now shutdown.
Now lets shut-down
SVXLink and then reboot the Raspberry Pi.
Were you successful
in shutting down SVXLink and rebooting the Pi. If not, try again.
Setup the
final receive (RX) side of SVXLink
We need to go back
to svxlink.conf and enable RX under die Simplex section. Remember we
put in None when we first edited the svxlink.conf
file. We need to change the none now to Rx1.
sudo
nano /etc/svxlink/svxlink.conf
enter
Under [Simplex]:
Rx=Rx1
Save the changes and
exit nano using“ctrl + x” | “y” | “enter”
Go ahead and reboot
the Pi
sudo
reboot
enter
Once the Raspberry
Pi reboot open a terminal and start svxlink as we have done before
sudo
-u svxlink svxlink
enter
You might receive
the following error:
Starting logic:
SimplexLogic
Loading RX: Rx1
*** ERROR: Open
capture audio device failed: Device or resource busy
*** ERROR: Could not
open audio device for receiver “Rx1”
*** ERROR: Could not
initialize RX “Rx1”
*** ERROR: Could not
initialize Logic object “SimplexLogic”. Skipping…
*** ERROR: No logics
available. Bailing out…
Why do you receive
this error? Svxlink.service was starting when the Pi booted and
already opened the Mic port on the USB Sound Card. Issuing the “sudo
-u svxlink svxlink” command was starting a second svxlink
processes. That’s why I earlier indicated that you must not use
the “sudo -u svxlink svxlink” command once SVXLink auto starts
from boot. Lets reboot the Pi.
sudo
reboot
enter
Open a terminal
window and lets check the svxlink service. The service should be
listed as “active” in green. Here is the command to check the
service.
sudo
systemctl status svxlink
enter
Once you confirm
that the service is “active” press “q” to quit when you are
done reviewing the service status.
Now lets “tail”
the svxlink log and see if the service is running and the Echolink
Module is loaded.
tail
-f /var/log/svxlink
enter
Use “ctrl + c”
to stop the tail process.
If you’re lucky
you will see the EchoLink Module load and connect to the EchoLink
server:
Tue Nov 29 15:37:38
2022: SimplexLogic: Loading module "ModuleTclVoiceMail"
Tue Nov 29 15:37:38
2022: Found /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/svxlink/ModuleTcl.so
Tue Nov 29 15:37:38
2022: Module Tcl v1.0.1 starting...
Tue Nov 29 15:37:38
2022: SimplexLogic: Event handler script successfully loaded.
Tue Nov 29 15:37:39
2022: EchoLink directory status changed to ON
Tue Nov 29 15:37:40
2022: --- EchoLink directory server message: ---
Tue Nov 29 15:37:40
2022: EchoLink Server v2.6.105
Tue Nov 29 15:37:40
2022:
Tue Nov 29 15:37:40
2022: ECHO4: Frankfurt, Germany
Tue Nov 29 15:37:40
2022:
Now you might find
that you have a lot of errors relating to DNS and failed lookups for
the EchoLink servers. The log would show the Pi eventually connecting
to EchoLink and then disconnecting. Lets see if we can fix it by
editing the svxlink.service file and adding a ‘sleep’ delay of 30
seconds resolved the issues. This will allow the Pi to complete the
boot process before starting the svxlink service. Now lets stop the
svxlink service.
sudo
systemctl stop svxlink
enter
Now edit the
svxlink.service file. Important: Change/add the BOLD lines as below. Be sure you
add the ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 30 BEFORE THE OTHER ExecStartPre
lines. Else the sleep delay won’t be effective.
sudo
nano /lib/systemd/system/svxlink.service
enter
[Unit]
Description=SvxLink
repeater control software
Documentation=man:svxlink(1)
Requires=svxlink_gpio_setup.service
After=network.online.target
remote-fs.target time.target
After=svxlink_gpio_setup.service
[Service]
EnvironmentFile=/etc/default/svxlink
PIDFile=/run/svxlink.pid
ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep
30
ExecStartPre=-/bin/touch
/var/log/svxlink
ExecStartPre=-/bin/chown
$RUNASUSER /var/log/svxlink
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c
‘/usr/bin/svxlink –logfile=/var/log/svxlink –config=$CFG$
ExecReload=/bin/kill
-s HUP $MAINPID
Restart=on-failure
TimeoutStartSec=60
#WatchdogSec=
#NotifyAccess=main
LimitCORE=infinity
WorkingDirectory=/etc/svxlink
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Save the changes to
the file and exit nano using“ctrl + x” | “y” | “enter”.
Now reload the
systemctl daemon, start the svxlink service, and reboot the Pi.
sudo
systemctl daemon-reload
enter
sudo
systemctl start svxlink (Might take a while to execute)
enter
sudo systemctl status svxlink (To check if svxlink is loaded)
enter
To exit use Ctrl Z
sudo
reboot
enter
After the Pi
reboots. Open up the terminal again and tail the svxlink log. It
should have successfully connected to EchoLink.
tail
-f /var/log/svxlink
enter
pi@raspberrypi:~ $
tail -f /var/log/svxlink
Tue Nov 29 15:49:30
2022: SimplexLogic: Loading module "ModuleTclVoiceMail"
Tue Nov 29 15:49:30
2022: Found /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/svxlink/ModuleTcl.so
Tue Nov 29 15:49:30
2022: Module Tcl v1.0.1 starting...
Tue Nov 29 15:49:30
2022: SimplexLogic: Event handler script successfully loaded.
Tue Nov 29 15:49:31
2022: EchoLink directory status changed to ON
Tue Nov 29 15:49:32
2022: --- EchoLink directory server message: ---
Tue Nov 29 15:49:32
2022: EchoLink Server v2.6.105
Tue Nov 29 15:49:32
2022:
Tue Nov 29 15:49:32
2022: ECHO4: Frankfurt, Germany
Tue Nov 29 15:49:32
2022:
Tue Nov 29 16:00:00
2022: SimplexLogic: Sending long identification...
Tue Nov 29 16:00:00
2022: Playing Long voice ID
Tue Nov 29 16:00:00
2022: Tx1: Turning the transmitter ON
Tue Nov 29 16:00:06
2022: Tx1: Turning the transmitter OFF
Tue Nov 29 16:18:47
2022:
Fine tuning
Alsamixer to get the best RX and TX Audio
00 = Unmuted MM = Muted
Go ahead and make
some test transmissions. Make small adjustments to the speaker and
mic volume level on the Pi using “alsamixer”.
I found that I got
an error stating that I was over modulating - ect ect.
I had to change the
settings in alsamixer. Well this did not solve anything until I
noticed that the automatic gain control in alsamixer was on.
Lets fix this!
alsamixer
enter
Press F6: Select
Sound Card, and choose yours from the list, the bcm2835 ALSA we
disabled and should not be present. I use a USB Device and this was
listed as:
USB PnP Sound Device
Select and press enter
You can play around
with the settings but the main culprit was the on audio gain control.
The Auto Gain Control wants to be off, select the gain control and
press M (or click on 00) to toggle so it displays [MM] for mute. Press Esc to exit and
save the settings with:
sudo
alsactl store
enter
This will store your
settings until the next time you changed them.
As always when you
make changes to files or the alsamixer it is a good practise to
reboot the raspberry Pi.
sudo
reboot
enter
After rebooting the
error was no more and the audio quality both incoming and outgoing
was good.
Congratulations!
You have successfully installed SVXLink!
Now the fun begins.
You will need to configure SVXLink to match the interface you use
between the node and the radio. That’s if you going to connect an
interface and radio to your node. This could be either via serial
port or GPIO via the Raspberry Pi.
Raspberry Pi
GPIO Configuration for Radio Interfacing using SVXLink Software
GPIO (General
Purpose IO) is used to access hardware pins that are made available
for example on and embedded system. Before starting to use a pin in
SVXLink some setup need to be done in the operating system. With the
standard distribution of SVXLink there is a pair of scripts that help
with setting up and talking down the GPIO pins. The scripts are
named svxlink_gpio_up and svxlink_gpio_down. The configuration
file, which can be found among the other SVXLink configuration files
(typically in etc/svxlink ),
is called gpio.conf.
We
have successfully installed the OS (Bullseye) and SVXLink and
SVXLink Sounds. It is now
time to setup the GPIO
connection pins.
Ensure
that you have the following hardware
equipment connected:
Reliable
Internet Connection (I use an Ethernet Connection)
Raspberry Pi 3 b
Compatible USB Sound Card
Interface between the Raspberry Pi and Radio
Some circuitry to interface PTT from 3V TTL GPIO on the Pi for your
specific radio.
Preferably some “carrier-detect” (COS) output from the radio,
and a 3V level shifter circuit to tell the Pi when a signal is
received. (VOX type detection is possible but less reliable and not
a good option if you going to connect this node to a Hub Network.)
First we need
permission to access the gpio file
sudo
gpasswd -a svxlink gpio
enter
Now let’s edit
the gpio file
Before you make
changes to the gpio.conf file, you must stop svxlink and stop the
gpio setup.
sudo
systemctl stop svxlink
enter
sudo
systemctl stop svxlink_gpio_setup
enter
Below is an example
how to configure gpio17 for PTT and gpio10 for COS in:
sudo
nano /etc/svxlink/gpio.conf
enter
###############################################################################
#
# Configuration file
for the SvxLink server GPIO Pins
#
###############################################################################
# GPIO system pin
path
#
RPi/odroid/nanopi/pine64 = /sys/class/gpio, orangpi =
/sys/class/gpio_sw
GPIO_PATH=/sys/class/gpio
# Space separated
list of GPIO pins that point IN and have an
# Active HIGH state
(3.3v = ON, 0v = OFF)
#GPIO_IN_HIGH=""
# Space separated
list of GPIO pins that point IN and have an
# Active LOW state
(0v = ON, 3.3v = OFF)
# COS SETUP
INTERFACE BOARD:
GPIO_IN_LOW="gpio10"
# Space separated
list of GPIO pins that point OUT and have an
# Active HIGH state
(3.3v = ON, 0v = OFF)
# PTT SETUP
INTERFACE BOARD:
GPIO_OUT_HIGH="gpio17"
# Space separated
list of GPIO pins that point OUT and have an
# Active LOW state
(0v = ON, 3.3v = OFF)
#GPIO_OUT_LOW=""
# User that should
own the GPIO device files
#GPIO_USER="svxlink"
# Group for the GPIO
device files
#GPIO_GROUP="svxlink"
# File access mode
for the GPIO device files
#GPIO_MODE="0664"
Important Note: Take specific note of the # sign in front of statements. If there are open (no #) in front of statements. You will receive errors and Svxlink will not start.
Save the gpio.conf
file.
Save the changes to
the file and exit nano using“ctrl + x” | “y” | “enter”.
Another file that
needs to be configured for GPIO is the svxlink.conf file. Below is
an example how to configure GPIO in [Tx1] and [Rx1]in:
sudo
nano /etc/svxlink/svxlink.conf
enter
[Tx1]
TYPE=Local
TX_ID=T
AUDIO_DEV=alsa:plughw:1
AUDIO_CHANNEL=0
#AUDIO_DEV_KEEP_OPEN=0
LIMITER_THRESH=-6
PTT_TYPE=GPIO
PTT_PORT=/dev/ttyS0
PTT_PIN=gpio17
[Rx1]
TYPE=Local
#RX_ID=?
AUDIO_DEV=alsa:plughw:1
AUDIO_CHANNEL=0
#AUDIO_DEV_KEEP_OPEN=0
LIMITER_THRESH=-6
SQL_DET=GPIO
GPIO_SQL_PIN=gpio10
SQL_START_DELAY=100
Save the
svxlink.conf file.
Save the changes to
the file and exit nano using“ctrl + x” | “y” | “enter”.
Reboot svxlink (the
svxlink_gpio_setup will be started automatically).
sudo
reboot
enter
Ensure that SVXLink
has started:
sudo
systemctl status svxlink
enter
If SVXLink has not
started start it with the following command:
sudo
systemctl start svxlink
enter
The PTT and COS will
now be active and the relevant LED’s on the interface board will be
active in TX and RX.
FUNCTION RASPI
PIN GPIO
PTT = 11 (real pin) 17
COS = 19
(real pin) 10
Basic SVXLink
Commands
The following
comments have been used supra.
How to
start and stop SvxLink in Raspbian
sudo
systemctl start svxlink
enter
sudo
systemctl stop svxlink
enter
Monitor the
system via the svxlink log
tail -f /var/log/svxlink
enter
Check the
Status of SVXLink
sudo
systemctl status svxlink
enter
Ctrl Z (to exit)
Useful Commands:
Start and Stop
SVXLink now and always after reboot
Note: This has been
set. If not then you can use these commands to enable and disable
SVXlink after reboot to automatically enable and disable SVXLink
Only use these commands if they have never been set.
Enable
sudo
systemctl enable - - now svxlink
enter
Disable
sudo
systemctl disable - - now svxlink
enter
Save Alsamixer
Settings
sudo
alsactl store
enter
Check open Ports
sudo
lsof -i -P -n
enter
The options used here are:
-i: If no IP address is specified,
this option selects the listing of all network files
-P: inhibits the conversion of
port numbers to port names for network files
-n: inhibits the conversion of network numbers to host names
for network files
This way, it will list open ports in the Linux terminal:
But, this also shows
us a lot of extra ports that the computer does not actually listen
to.
You can list the
listening ports by piping this output to the grep command and
matching the pattern "LISTEN", like this:
sudo
lsof -i -P -n | grep LISTEN
enter
This will only show
the ports our computer is actively listening to and which service is
using said open port.
Congratulations!!
You have now installed and setup the following:
The basic
installation to run SVXLink on a Raspberry Pi is now done.
The SvxLink Server is a general purpose voice services system,
which when connected to a transceiver, can act as both an advanced
repeater system and can also operate on a simplex channel. One could
call it a radio operating system since it sits between the hardware
(transceiver) and the applications (modules) and handle basic system
services as well as input and output.
SvxLink is very extensible and modular. Voice services are
implemented as modules which are isolated from each other. Modules
can be implemented in either C++ or TCL. Examples of modules are:
Help – A help system
Parrot – Play back everything
that is received
EchoLink – Connect to other
EchoLink stations
DtmfRepeater – Repeater received
DTMF digits
TclVoiceMail – Send voice mail
to other local users
PropagationMonitor – Announce
propagation warnings from dxmaps.com
SelCall – Send selective calling sequences by entering DTMF
codes
Hope to hear you soon via SvxLink.
Enjoy SvxLink!!
PS/
There might be future post updates related to SVXLink. Feel free to
return to the GRHub
Network Blog to view them.
Recognition
and References:
Contents for this
manual comes from several web-sites that assisted me in getting the
SVXLink Server up and running. It worked for me!
I would like to
mention the following people/websites:
Raspberry Pi
Site
PuTTY Site
Advanced Port
Scanner Site
Real VNC Site
PacHams.com
SVXLink GitHub
Tobias Blomberg
SM0SVX
Justin Wilson
NP2WJ
Peter Lindquist
SM5GXQ
John
Pumford-Green GM4SLV
linuxhandbook.com
Curtis ZS6CMO
Pakistan
Amateur Radio Society
g7smy.co.uk
Thys ZS1TBP
Various Forums
– to many to mention here.
Please visit the
GRHub Network Blog by clicking HERE
Compiled by Johan
ZS1I
Mossel Bay
South Africa
8 February 2024
