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Summary of Contents for Coastal TNC-Pi
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TNC-Pi Assembly Instructions & Operating Tips By John Hansen, W2FS Portions by John Wiseman, G8BPQ – Linux configuration Jim Whiteside, M0HPJ – Xastir Paul Fischer, KC9RGZ – Headless iGate Document editing support by Ed Slingland, N2WD Website http://tnc-x.com/TNCPi.htm TNC-Pi User Guide...
Get and set parameters ....................19 Running Applications other than LinBPQ with TNC-Pi in I2C mode....... 20 Steps to create an APRS receive-only igate using the Raspberry Pi and TNC-Pi ..... 21 Equipment needed ......................21 Instructions ........................22...
Introduction Thank you for purchasing a TNC-Pi: TNC-X for Raspberry Pi or TNC-Pi 2. Figure 1: Two TNC-Pi’s stacked on one Raspberry Pi Figure 2: TNC-Pi mounted on a Raspberry Pi Figure 3: TNC-Pi 2 mounted on a Raspberry Pi 2.
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One 16-pin, one 18-pin and two 8-pin sockets JP3, JP4 2-pin header Combined into one 2x2 Not included in newer pin header kits 2 x 13 extra long header 2 x 20 in TNC-Pi 2 TNC-Pi User Guide 6/25/2017...
Note that all of the components except for the 26 ( or 40 in TNC-Pi 2) pin header are installed on the side of the board with the silk screen.
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Connecting the Radio, for more information. Solder in the 2 x13 header. With the TNC-Pi 2 kit this is a 2 x 20 header. This part is somewhat tricky. It is the only part that is installed through the bottom of the board.
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USB connector just to be on the safe side. You can then solder the pins that come through the top of the board. These pins will allow you to stack a second TNC-Pi on top of the first one if you choose to do so.
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ICSP marked Note: As of late June of 2017 my supplier of the 40 pin header for the TNC-Pi is out of stock. Fortunately I have a work around that will allow me to continue to supply TNC-Pi’s. During this time period I will supply two headers that are significantly shorter than the usual one supplied with this kit.
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Schematic Diagram (see next page for parts layout diagram) TNC-Pi User Guide -10- 6/25/2017...
Parts Layout (for TNC-Pi 2) Connecting the Radio You can either wire up a 9 pin D-Sub plug to mate with the one on the TNC-Pi, or, if you’d prefer, you can use the four holes below labeled to hard wire a radio Radio connection.
One way to set this is to use two radios, one to monitor the transmitted signal and the other connected to the TNC-Pi. 1. Key the radio connected to the TNC-Pi manually by pushing the PTT button on 2. On the other radio you will hear a continuous tone (even though no data is being transmitted…...
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In order to use the TNC-Pi with the Raspberry Pi serial port, you will need to make a couple of changes to the Pi configuration. Edit the /boot/cmdline.txt file in the boot directory and make the following change:...
The serial rate must be at , because that is the only baud rate support by 19200 TNC-Pi. The next two values ( in the above example) are the values for . Don’t leave any blank lines in this file.
Support If you have any questions about your TNC-Pi or are having hardware issues with it, please contact John Hansen, W2FS at john@coastalchip.com. Software issues, particularly with regard to the Linux version of BPQ are best addressed to the author, John Wiseman, G8BPQ.
For example, if the process number is 2335, issue kill the command: sudo kill 2335 At this point it may be a good idea to rerun the command to be certain that the process was successfully killed. kissattach TNC-Pi User Guide -17- 6/25/2017...
Xastir you’ll be asked to put in your station parameters. Then you’ll need to specify the port that the TNC-Pi is on. Click on Interface and then Interface Control. Click “Add” and pick “Serial KISS TNC” off the list. Push Add and it will bring up a properties list.
I2C device on that bus. TNC-Pi is shipped with both of these parameters set to 0. An I2C device number of 0 means the TNC is using the serial port rather than the I2C port.
John Wiseman, G8BPQ, sends along the following information about running other applications using I2C: The TNC-Pi can be used with applications that use the Linux ax.25 stack, or applications that expect to see a KISS TNC on a serial port. Program I2ckiss converts the I2C protocol to a standard KISS presentation on a virtual serial (pty) port.
One copy is run for each TNC-Pi. The first two parameters to I2ckiss are I2C bus, I2C device. If using the kernel ax.25 code, then specify the port number (from axports) and the ip address. To use with other software, specify symlink and a symbolic name - I suggest com1 - com255 For example, to use with the Linux ax.25 stack:...
6. Login with login “ ” and password “ ” raspberry 7. Upgrade to root privileges “ ” sudo su 8. If the monitor doesn’t display well (mine didn’t), edit the file /boot/config.txt and uncomment the line: overscan_left=16 TNC-Pi User Guide -22- 6/25/2017...
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Then issue the wget command for that file instead of the one referenced above. tar xvf aprx-2.05.svn485.tar.gz cd aprx-2.05.svn485/ ./configure make make install mkdir /var/log/aprx Save a copy of the original aprx configuration file cp /etc/aprx.conf /etc/aprx.conf.orig TNC-Pi User Guide -23- 6/25/2017...
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Reboot shutdown –r now Log back in and verify the processes are running ps aux|grep aprx Connect the radio and ensure you are gating data to the aprs network (check the files in /var/log/aprx Enjoy! TNC-Pi User Guide -24- 6/25/2017...
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Use a file type of “Raw image (dd image) (*.img)”. Hit Continue, then Start. 3. Restore is done by reversing the source and destination (use the file as the source and the SD card as the destination). TNC-Pi User Guide -25- 6/25/2017...
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Do you have a question about the TNC-Pi and is the answer not in the manual?
Questions and answers