Linux box / repeater project

Linux box / repeater project

[Christian Reynolds]

Hello,

A Milwaukee, Wisconsin repeater presently has IRLP working on a 
RedHat linux 7.3 box.  That part is working fine -- what I would like 
to do is utilize the computer's other ports to do administrative work 
with the repeater's controller, so that performance reports may be 
generated from the repeater's voter shelf and the repeater's 
controller.  The repeater sports a Motorola voter with several 
receiver radios located at the transmitter site, and the IRLP 
computer is within several feet of the communications hardware.

I have 3 ports available to me for this project: 2 standard 9 pin 
serial ports, and the Game / Joystick port.  I cannot use the 
parallel port, as it is supporting IRLP.

Our goals:

1) Be able to program the ACC controller from the IRLP box (easy)
2) Be able to tell the IRLP computer what receive site voted (hard)
3) Upload that data to a website so that system administrators may 
use it (easy).

What I need to do is design the physical input system so that the 
communications equipment can report to a port on the IRLP box, and 
then I need to write some software to read the data and make sense of 
it.  I have some C and C++ programming experience...

Thinking aloud, I am wondering if I can use linux to read the game / 
joystick port.  Let's say that each receiver has a wire that carries 
a + voltage when the receiver is active (a COS signal).  Can I assign 
the pins on the Joystick port so that

Pin 1 = Receive 1
Pin 2 = Receive 2
Pin 3 = Receive 3
Pin 4 = Receive 4
Pin 5 = Ground

and then write code telling me if the hardware detects a signal on 
that pin?  If so, how?  I assume that I can then write out the result 
to a simple text file, or perhaps pipe it to a different process that 
will tabulate the data.  I am wondering if /dev/joystick is possible 
so that I can reference it in scripts.

I think I need to find hardware documentation on the Intel mother 
board that is in there (BX class, 440 chipset) and I need to find out 
how linux handles the joystick port.  Is there a buffer in there that 
I need to write code to extract an answer?  How often can I poll the 
hardware... I am thinking once each 1/2 second should be 
reasonable... I do not need to bog down the machine looking at the 
state in real time, nor want to look at a log file that is 800K per 
day.

As for the IRLP box controlling the controller, I think that a simple 
shell with kermit running, and going out of /dev/ttyS0 will do the 
trick.  Hardwire the serial port from the controller (it goes to a 
modem right now) and I should be able to run a terminal session like 
that.

Uploading the results will be done via normal bash / expect 
scripting.  We already do this with our IRLP logs to the website so 
that members can see just how busy our IRLP setup is, and can see 
where we have connected to.

My degree is in computer science, and I am a network administrator by 
trade.  I'll admit to weak digital / chipset understanding.  I can 
solder and use a VOM meter, but cannot visualize logic circuts in my 
head.  Any and all help is appreciated, and once the process is 
developed, I am open to publishing on the internet for others to 
implement.

Thank you,

Christian Reynolds
KC0ARF
-- 

Christian Reynolds
creyn@wi.rr.com

Re: Linux box / repeater project

[Robert L Cochran]

I'm interested in the answer to this one also. I have a suggestion:
check the O'Reilly book Linux Device Drivers to see what it has to say. 
I think it just came out in a new edition and may be useful. The Linux
kernel book may similarly useful. This does not mean I know what I'm
talking about. I don't.

Can you keep me up to date on the answers you learn?

Thanks

Bob


On Sat, 2003-04-26 at 16:26, Christian Reynolds wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> A Milwaukee, Wisconsin repeater presently has IRLP working on a 
> RedHat linux 7.3 box.  That part is working fine -- what I would like 
> to do is utilize the computer's other ports to do administrative work 
> with the repeater's controller, so that performance reports may be 
> generated from the repeater's voter shelf and the repeater's 
> controller.  The repeater sports a Motorola voter with several 
> receiver radios located at the transmitter site, and the IRLP 
> computer is within several feet of the communications hardware.
> 
> I have 3 ports available to me for this project: 2 standard 9 pin 
> serial ports, and the Game / Joystick port.  I cannot use the 
> parallel port, as it is supporting IRLP.
> 
> Our goals:
> 
> 1) Be able to program the ACC controller from the IRLP box (easy)
> 2) Be able to tell the IRLP computer what receive site voted (hard)
> 3) Upload that data to a website so that system administrators may 
> use it (easy).
> 
> What I need to do is design the physical input system so that the 
> communications equipment can report to a port on the IRLP box, and 
> then I need to write some software to read the data and make sense of 
> it.  I have some C and C++ programming experience...
> 
> Thinking aloud, I am wondering if I can use linux to read the game / 
> joystick port.  Let's say that each receiver has a wire that carries 
> a + voltage when the receiver is active (a COS signal).  Can I assign 
> the pins on the Joystick port so that
> 
> Pin 1 = Receive 1
> Pin 2 = Receive 2
> Pin 3 = Receive 3
> Pin 4 = Receive 4
> Pin 5 = Ground
> 
> and then write code telling me if the hardware detects a signal on 
> that pin?  If so, how?  I assume that I can then write out the result 
> to a simple text file, or perhaps pipe it to a different process that 
> will tabulate the data.  I am wondering if /dev/joystick is possible 
> so that I can reference it in scripts.
> 
> I think I need to find hardware documentation on the Intel mother 
> board that is in there (BX class, 440 chipset) and I need to find out 
> how linux handles the joystick port.  Is there a buffer in there that 
> I need to write code to extract an answer?  How often can I poll the 
> hardware... I am thinking once each 1/2 second should be 
> reasonable... I do not need to bog down the machine looking at the 
> state in real time, nor want to look at a log file that is 800K per 
> day.
> 
> As for the IRLP box controlling the controller, I think that a simple 
> shell with kermit running, and going out of /dev/ttyS0 will do the 
> trick.  Hardwire the serial port from the controller (it goes to a 
> modem right now) and I should be able to run a terminal session like 
> that.
> 
> Uploading the results will be done via normal bash / expect 
> scripting.  We already do this with our IRLP logs to the website so 
> that members can see just how busy our IRLP setup is, and can see 
> where we have connected to.
> 
> My degree is in computer science, and I am a network administrator by 
> trade.  I'll admit to weak digital / chipset understanding.  I can 
> solder and use a VOM meter, but cannot visualize logic circuts in my 
> head.  Any and all help is appreciated, and once the process is 
> developed, I am open to publishing on the internet for others to 
> implement.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Christian Reynolds
> KC0ARF
-- 
Bob Cochran
Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Re: Linux box / repeater project

[Niall Parker]

Christian Reynolds wrote:
> 
> 
> Thinking aloud, I am wondering if I can use linux to read the game / 
> joystick port.  Let's say that each receiver has a wire that carries a + 
> voltage when the receiver is active (a COS signal).  Can I assign the 
> pins on the Joystick port so that
> 
> Pin 1 = Receive 1
> Pin 2 = Receive 2
> Pin 3 = Receive 3
> Pin 4 = Receive 4
> Pin 5 = Ground

If it is a standard joystick port then reassigning the pins isn't 
possible, but fortunately there are already 4 inputs intended for button 
inputs you can use, and you could also use switches + resistors on the 
analog inputs for another 4 input bits if needed. I'm sure you can find 
the pinouts somewhere on the web faster than I can dig out my docs.

I've used the button inputs to do a soft boot on a headless terminal 
before, just hacking some code together that polled the pins. This was a 
while back and I understand the Linux kernel may have restrictions on 
direct port access, but I expect using the joystick module in the 
standard would work fine (only gotcha may be setting a fixed resistor on 
one of the analog inputs so the module doesn't complain about no 
joystick present)


						... Niall (VE7HEX)

Re: Linux box / repeater project

[Robert L Cochran]

Oh, and I'd like to make one more suggestion for what it is worth. The
Red Hat 7.3 OS comes to the end of it's life cycle in December. You may
want to upgrade it to Red Hat 9.0 even though 9.0 is based on UTF-8
locales which are currently causing a lot of pain with various packages
such as Perl. 

Of course you don't need to bother with Red Hat 9 to start with. 

You don't mention hardware details except that the motherboard has the
Intel 440BX chipset. That suggests it is quite old. That suggests that
Red Hat 9 might not run that fast on the existing board unless the
processor or the motherboard or both get upgraded. 

But this idea might sidetrack you with more hardware bother than you
want or need.

If you do mess with Red Hat 9.0 be sure to apply all of Red Hat's
updates to it. Maybe they'll even fix Perl some day.

Bob Cochran

 
On Sat, 2003-04-26 at 17:38, Robert L Cochran wrote:
> I'm interested in the answer to this one also. I have a suggestion:
> check the O'Reilly book Linux Device Drivers to see what it has to say. 
> I think it just came out in a new edition and may be useful. The Linux
> kernel book may similarly useful. This does not mean I know what I'm
> talking about. I don't.
> 
> Can you keep me up to date on the answers you learn?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Bob
> 
> 
> On Sat, 2003-04-26 at 16:26, Christian Reynolds wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > A Milwaukee, Wisconsin repeater presently has IRLP working on a 
> > RedHat linux 7.3 box.  That part is working fine -- what I would like 
> > to do is utilize the computer's other ports to do administrative work 
> > with the repeater's controller, so that performance reports may be 
> > generated from the repeater's voter shelf and the repeater's 
> > controller.  The repeater sports a Motorola voter with several 
> > receiver radios located at the transmitter site, and the IRLP 
> > computer is within several feet of the communications hardware.
> > 
> > I have 3 ports available to me for this project: 2 standard 9 pin 
> > serial ports, and the Game / Joystick port.  I cannot use the 
> > parallel port, as it is supporting IRLP.
> > 
> > Our goals:
> > 
> > 1) Be able to program the ACC controller from the IRLP box (easy)
> > 2) Be able to tell the IRLP computer what receive site voted (hard)
> > 3) Upload that data to a website so that system administrators may 
> > use it (easy).
> > 
> > What I need to do is design the physical input system so that the 
> > communications equipment can report to a port on the IRLP box, and 
> > then I need to write some software to read the data and make sense of 
> > it.  I have some C and C++ programming experience...
> > 
> > Thinking aloud, I am wondering if I can use linux to read the game / 
> > joystick port.  Let's say that each receiver has a wire that carries 
> > a + voltage when the receiver is active (a COS signal).  Can I assign 
> > the pins on the Joystick port so that
> > 
> > Pin 1 = Receive 1
> > Pin 2 = Receive 2
> > Pin 3 = Receive 3
> > Pin 4 = Receive 4
> > Pin 5 = Ground
> > 
> > and then write code telling me if the hardware detects a signal on 
> > that pin?  If so, how?  I assume that I can then write out the result 
> > to a simple text file, or perhaps pipe it to a different process that 
> > will tabulate the data.  I am wondering if /dev/joystick is possible 
> > so that I can reference it in scripts.
> > 
> > I think I need to find hardware documentation on the Intel mother 
> > board that is in there (BX class, 440 chipset) and I need to find out 
> > how linux handles the joystick port.  Is there a buffer in there that 
> > I need to write code to extract an answer?  How often can I poll the 
> > hardware... I am thinking once each 1/2 second should be 
> > reasonable... I do not need to bog down the machine looking at the 
> > state in real time, nor want to look at a log file that is 800K per 
> > day.
> > 
> > As for the IRLP box controlling the controller, I think that a simple 
> > shell with kermit running, and going out of /dev/ttyS0 will do the 
> > trick.  Hardwire the serial port from the controller (it goes to a 
> > modem right now) and I should be able to run a terminal session like 
> > that.
> > 
> > Uploading the results will be done via normal bash / expect 
> > scripting.  We already do this with our IRLP logs to the website so 
> > that members can see just how busy our IRLP setup is, and can see 
> > where we have connected to.
> > 
> > My degree is in computer science, and I am a network administrator by 
> > trade.  I'll admit to weak digital / chipset understanding.  I can 
> > solder and use a VOM meter, but cannot visualize logic circuts in my 
> > head.  Any and all help is appreciated, and once the process is 
> > developed, I am open to publishing on the internet for others to 
> > implement.
> > 
> > Thank you,
> > 
> > Christian Reynolds
> > KC0ARF
-- 
Bob Cochran
Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html