From: Christian Reynolds (txyyasf.edscyxndh@foresight.co.jp)
Date: Sat Apr 26 2003 - 23:26:44 EEST
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 bqztjm@omneuk.co.uk - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-hams" in the body of a message to blzzlza@gwz.de More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
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