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I'll help you if you want to stand up an iGate

Discovering this thread today...

...was like browsing an ad for a Black Friday blowout sale only to discover it was already the week after Thanksgiving... And then on the next to last page I get a reprieve: the Black Friday goodies are sold out but the Christmas Special looks even better :)

I've been a ham for 35 years and an RV owner for 20 (since the first crate arrived), and five years ago I drove myself to near madness trying to get AGWPE to work (never did). I live in a mountainous area where nobody is getting into a digi or igate without 50 watts to a colinear on their car, or by flying above 3000 MSL. An iGate at my home would really enhance the infrastructure around here, as a look at zip code 24422 on APRS.fi will attest.

My tracker died in flight last year (blown final on an MT8000) but Allen Lord has graciously helped get me back beaconing again, and my iGate death wish has returned along with it.

Glen, if you have any turnkey packages of either the old or SDR design in inventory, I'll sure take one. I'll even fly from my grass strip to yours to get hands-on coaching in set up. You "geek required" notation for the SDR is a little off-putting, but I will give iGate hosting one more try...

I have oodles of 2m receiving gear around here, so if skipping the SDR portion and still using your latest TNC hardware is a more robust and foolproof option, let's talk about that, too.

Thanks!

Bill B. N4DLN / N30YD
Hop Along Airfield (12VA)
 
APRS iGate from a Pi

Glen,

Sent you an email, but thought I would do it this way too.

I have a Pi, 2 SDR dongle's, one with and one without E4000, and a bunch of SD cards, and everything else needed.

I have followed Marco's step by step instructions with both dongles. It will recognize the SDR dongles all the way up to the startup script, where it then says noway hosay after it runs it. Stopping the script and it see the dongle again.

My callsign will show up on APRS.FI from the iGate, but not my tracker, so not receiving anything.

What different thing did you do with the script?

I would like to get a copy of the SD card image. I can send you a card to copy to. What size card do you need and I will send to you with a SASE for return?

If you have your steps written down and can email them to me, I will try that until you can pass the image to me. Email is [email protected]

Thanks for you time and help. I too have spent hours on this, but not as many as you. I am trying to put an iGate out at Stead for all of us race fans, oh, and so my wife can see me when I am flying my Rocket.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Brian
 
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I'll compress the 4GB SD card image and load it somewhere. Then I'll post the link back here. It will be a few days.

BTW: the RPi iGate doesn't need anything close to 4GB but that is the size I use for all my tests.
 
APRS

Glen,

Thanks. I will let you know what happens when I get mine working.

If that is to much a pain, I can always send you a 4Gig SD card and you can load it on and send it back. No cost to you.

Let me know what is easier for you.

Again, thanks.

Brian
 
Hardware source for E4000

Glen,

Care to share which EBay vendor you had success with in getting a genuine E4000 chipset in the SDR dongle?

I'd like to go ahead with the hardware purchases for this project.

Thanks,

Bill
 
Bill, I'd be happy to share my source if it were still valid. A month after I ordered the SDR that worked and only a week after I had received it, that source no longer had any. I purchased from another seller and received an appogy cancelation of my order two days later as they too were out and neither expected to be able to get them again.

You can probably find someone on eBay with them but there are a lot of confusing listings and very few actually are for the "real deal". Only two of these six frames are real E4000 based SDRs ...
wpid-Photo-Feb-16-2014-912-575x323.jpg


It's one of the reasons I couldn't offer to build any iGates based on the design.
 
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eBay

Yes, I saw those same listings last night. The ones that stipulate genuine E4000 are in the 70 dollar range or about triple the others.

I could take my chances and order one of them, or substitute a real receiver from the many I have on hand. But I'd need a lot of hand holding to do the build. Or have it done for me. I'm not a computer geek and especially not an MS-DOS kind of guy. Migrated from C-64 BASIC-A to Windows to "it just works" (Mac OS) and not sure I can go back very well.

If I secured the hardware could you try to walk me through the setup? Like I said, my death-wish to inflict AGWPE on myself has mysteriously returned and I cannot fight it off...

Bill
 
Yes, I saw those same listings last night. The ones that stipulate genuine E4000 are in the 70 dollar range or about triple the others.

I could take my chances and order one of them, or substitute a real receiver from the many I have on hand. But I'd need a lot of hand holding to do the build. Or have it done for me. I'm not a computer geek and especially not an MS-DOS kind of guy. Migrated from C-64 BASIC-A to Windows to "it just works" (Mac OS) and not sure I can go back very well.

If I secured the hardware could you try to walk me through the setup? Like I said, my death-wish to inflict AGWPE on myself has mysteriously returned and I cannot fight it off...

Bill

Bill, MS-DOS won't help you with the Raspberry, it's Linux. :)

Sorry to see the good receivers are becoming unobtanium, the Pi is a really cool system.
 
Point taken about the programming language

Not sure what my point was anyway except BTDT with the computer sound card and AGW packet engine, with nary a decoded APRS packet to show for it. Granted it was 2008, but I've never had the fortitude to try it again, figuring someone would come along with something new that made it simple to set up a working iGate. If they have, it is unknown to Google.

I just want a working iGate here at the airfield. Don't care if it uses SDR or a hardware receiver, or if it runs on a dedicated laptop or a Pi - or a hacked wireless router. It can stay connected to my fiber optic internet 24/7; but I'd prefer something that reboots easily after the occasional outage/crash.

Cost is not the real issue, here. Limited geekness is. That's why I'm askin' what's out there in the way of turnkey systems or help with the hair-pulling parts.

-Bill
 
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E4000 on eBay

You can clearly buy E4000 chipset USB SDRs on eBay, but it does take some looking. I haven't found any of the mini-USBs, but the normal sized ones are there:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/301118007986

It sure would be nice to be able to use the R820T chipset, since they're so much cheaper.

After I clear some other projects maybe I'll have to get my Pi working on the E4000, then see if I can figure out a way to make the R820T play the same game.
 
Kevin, I'll wish you luck with an RPi and the R802T. I've tried and tried but never got it to gate a single packet. If you are successful, it would make for a nice package. It seems the R820T needs just a little more horsepower. I had no problem making it work with the low power laptops from my original configuration. There is also an internet article using one with a Cubie board (about 2x of a RPi).

The "laptop+radio" iGates I settled on are as close a turnkey solution as I could get. They only tighter setup would be one with dedicated firmware. The missing piece for Bill is "auto reboot" on a power failure. The laptop battery covers power outages of a couple hours but not longer.

Bill - I still have two of the laptop+radio systems if you decide to go that route.
 
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Thanks, Glen

It's either that or this:

http://microsat.com.pl/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=62

I guess I can use my PC laptop from work to run config files that won't play on the MacBook. I think these run $150-180 from Poland.

All things considered, reboot capability is a minor issue compared to just getting it done. Set one of those puppies aside for me for a few days, if you please. I'll make a decision within the week.

Maybe I'll get one of each and set them up at work and home (a mountain range apart).

Bill
 
No worried Bill. Take your time deciding.

As for the Microstat, don forget you'd still need a radio but if you've got a spare 2 meter hanging around you'd just need to make the interface cable.
 
I'm proud of Glen's work and enjoy bragging about my OLPC.

I can report that for the month of March it appears it will end up having reported about 27,000 :eek: packets to the APRS Mothership.

The packet highlights for the month have been a ship in the Atlantic off Cumberland Island, Georgia and a ballon that set my iGate's altitude record of over 90,000 feet.

Glen often writes and talks, using words that I think are a form of technical English, over my head. His passion for cooking, dogs, RV's, and iGates is famous.

Every time I fly, I realize that one of his creations is going to "see" me during my flight.
 
Glen is da man

I want to toot Glen's horn a bit.

Today I received my coveted OLPC/Baofeng iGate package from the Salmon Farm. This thing is so straightforward, even I got it working first try.

Kudos to N1IEK for a great service to the APRS community. I'm thankful to have N4DLN-1 on duty. I tried this myself ten years or so back, with hardware from eBay and AGWPE, and had nothing but frustration. The joy of having it just work is wonderful. (It's almost like it was running on a Mac).

That Glen went to such trouble to get this system integrated, produce a tutorial video, preconfigure the boot drive, and offer it to others at cost is a testimony to his helpfulness and true ham spirit.

Thanks, Glen.

I hope to make it to the ESVA in early June to help you turn 50. :D

-Bill
 
Glad it you were able to set it up so quickly! Keep me informed of you adventures and you are welcome to "busy" there iGate at 53VG :)

... and yes, this "airport bum" is turning 50 the first week of June. I think there may be some airplanes here on the 7th :eek: (rain date is the 8th) I'll be looking for a head count and any bunking requests as the date nears.
 
For the bean counters out there, three more iGates have gone out to their new "forever homes" in the past 10 days.

One of those iGates will soon be capturing some really fast packets!

I can't wait to see the tracks around that iGate :)

PS: I still have access to enough parts for three more systems !
 
I can't wait to find out where our (humptybump mk:OLPC) iGates are located. Just curious about the VAF giving back to the APRS system. Here it is the 26th of April and my iGate is coming up on 29000 packets returned to the APRS system, with a couple of ships of the Georgia coast and a ballon this month that didn't quite make it to 80,000 feet.
 
Up until yesterday I had no idea what an igate was and always skipped over this post. After a day of reading I'm ready to get an APRS, and am scheduled to take my test in two weeks.

I have been reading about the potential problems Wide-use APRS in airplanes can cause and want to know if adding an igate in my congested area (Philadelphia) helps spread the load, or would it just add another station picking up the same signals? If it will help then sign me up!
 
Hi Keith,

Depending on the exact location for the iGate, I think you're location is pretty well covered. Sometimes, even well covered areas can benefit from another iGate. Unlike cell towers, adding another iGate does not "distribute" the load. However, geography such as mountains, valleys, etc can lead to dead spots.

If you are curious, scroll around on http://aprs.fi and center the map on your location. Then see what cars, trucks, people, airplanes, etc show up. If you hover a mouse over one of those 'things' it will often draw a line to the igate or digipeater that relayed its last beacon. You can do the same with the little dots that represent past beacons.
 
Someone asked where all the iGates were shipped to and how they are doing.

Here is a map and a few statistics ...

igates-201404281-575x336.jpg

12 iGates have been shipped
  • 3 have never been turned on
  • 4 were shipped in the last 15 days
  • 5 iGates have relayed 82,000 messages in the last 29 days (2 of those did 54,000)
 
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workin' on it ;)

Three days of forecast rainy WX that just rolled into town means I can devote some time that would normally be spent mowing the runway to troubleshooting the connectivity issues with my OLPC iGate. I'll be hitting your inbox again, soon, Glen - and I'm sure we'll get the wrinkles ironed out. Even if I have to buy a RTG from Byonics to rule out issues with my old MT-8000 as part of the equation.

-Bill
 
Three days of forecast rainy WX that just rolled into town means I can devote some time that would normally be spent mowing the runway to troubleshooting the connectivity issues with my OLPC iGate. I'll be hitting your inbox again, soon, Glen - and I'm sure we'll get the wrinkles ironed out. Even if I have to buy a RTG from Byonics to rule out issues with my old MT-8000 as part of the equation.

-Bill
Glen,
Do you have time for a quick tutorial on where and how to read the log files? I go to APRS.FI and type in my identifier and get info; but I cannot tell if they are airplanes, cars, trucks, or turtles.

Thx Marvin
 
Marvin - I just emailed you the details. Thus far you have relayed 6003 messages that came thru a near by digipeater. The other 2 messages were received directly from a law enforcement officer :eek:
 
I just shipped the 14th iGate! This group is awesome!

I hope to visit a few of these stations this year. They are is some pretty cool locations :cool:
 
Glen, are you going to be home tomorrow? We are thinking of heading to Williamsburg for the day. If we go I was going to stop by to check out your set-up. I thought I found your strip last time, but was not positive. Now that I have checked out your web page I know that it was the right place...
 
Glen, are you going to be home tomorrow? We are thinking of heading to Williamsburg for the day. If we go I was going to stop by to check out your set-up. I thought I found your strip last time, but was not positive. Now that I have checked out your web page I know that it was the right place...


Keith I am taking him on a mission :D
 
A quick update to let VAF'ers know that I've struck out getting more of the low cost laptops I've used for all of the iGates.

The Raspberry Pi solution has been temperamental and I really can not support it so I've not made a general offer of an iGate based on that computer.

I'm going to try and build one using a BeagleBone - which is a bit more powerful that an RPi. If I get something solid *and* can maintain or even lower the cost from the laptop version, I'll post back here.

I know at least two of you were hoping for iGates but supply&demand has not been kind to us for a while.
 
the $100 iGate is Back ! ... sort of

I have tried several architectures using BeagleBone's and Raspberry PI's. I've tried SDR's and concluded they are just not good enough receivers.

Over the past 2 weekends, I hit the books (aka Google search) once more and have completed a new iGate. The cost ? Drum roll please ..... $95 (or $105 with wifi).

So these are right back at the $100 price point - and these include the antenna adapter that everyone needed.


Since Everything is new and available from the FCC department of Amazon.com, I probably won't build these for people. The take a little bit of geek-ing since the configuration uses an SSH connection, but since configuration consists of plugging the parts together and editing three lines in a text file, It's likely within most VAF'ers skill set.

The write-up contains a complete set of links to the parts - ready to order.

I will make the SD Card image available.

BTW - for those curious how well it runs, it's the same architecture as the OLPC Laptop iGate. I will be swapping one of these "piGates" in as my permanent system at 53VG.

... now if we could just get a few of these deployed in Alaska !
 
I finished creating the compressed image of my piGate as well as the configuration video.

It's not my intention to go into production with this new design since it is all off-the-shelf parts. That said, I now have two piGates and one OLPC Laptop iGate available. I can ship these CONOS for $125 and $135 respectively. Please PM or email in interested.

For those wanting to "roll your own", I posted the shopping list in this article and you can read the article here.

The compressed image is attached at the end of the article and there is a video for setting up the piGate.

 
Finally tracked "The Vladman"

With Glens help, my IGATE's has been up and running for a few weeks now. Easy to forget hiding on a shelf in a cabinet, the unit runs quietly unseen but helps untold numbers of trackers to get their signals relayed to the web. Glen's package to me was one of the best values I have ever found and painless to set up. Last night doing a regular check of my unit from my I-pad, what do I see but an obvious track of an airplane going almost over my house yesterday. Not just any plane but our one and only super RV'er "Vlad". :D
The whole IGATE system installed was less than a couple hundred bucks. And to date no one has even noticed or mentioned the antenna . ;)
Did it initially to reassure my wife that she could track me anytime I flew but have since realized it's helping hundreds and hundreds of trackers.
Might be something to consider installing yourself. These are all voluntary units and we are only helping each other. :D
 
Tom - glad the iGate is humming along!

as for that "V"-track ... he is my unofficial, unpaid, and undercover iGate test engineer :D
 
Igate Factory service

Tom - glad the iGate is humming along!

as for that "V"-track ... he is my unofficial, unpaid, and undercover iGate test engineer :D

Oooooooooo so that's why he went over twice going both ways. :D Thanks for the factory field check! ;)
 
Hi everyone! It looks like this thread may have finally run it's course. No worries. It's been a good effort by everyone!

I have two XO-1 Laptop iGates available and three piGates available. The laptop designs are best for someone with little/no Linux experience and needing a WiFi system. The piGates are better for people wanting an ethernet wired connection and don't mind a little "command line" setup.

I've put a piGate at 53VG to stress test it and prove it has the same performance as the laptop system.

I'm also about to test the piGate as a "remote install" using PoE. Given the power requirements are less than 8W, this could be a good solution for some sites.
 
piGate in a box

Someone asked me the power requirements of a piGate because they were curious if it would run from solar. I didn't have any solar panels to test with but I had an idea.

Here is a piGate in a box. It uses a passive PoE setup and is fed with 12V at 1A.

All it has is Ethernet in and antenna out. It could be installed right near the antenna.

20140804-200218-72138173-575x560.jpg
 
Two more iGates coming on-line!

Two more VAF faithful are adding iGates to the network. Thanks guys!

I was a bit slow getting these out. They should arrive at their new forever homes in 2-3 days.

One is the XO-1 design and one is the new Raspberry Pi system. Both were tested before shipping so the new owners already have made their mark at APRS.FI :D
 
Replaced I-Gate

I had built my own I-gate several years ago from an old PC and Yeasu 2 meter radio. It worked well but was a boat anchor...big and clumsy. I had read a post where Glen had a couple of the little green laptops ready to go so I purchased the "Complete Package" from Glen.

Well I got the gear hooked it up in my hangar and it worked 100% right out of the box. I am gating a lot more traffic than I did with my old system, why I don't know, but it is.

But anyway...a big thanks to Glen for putting together these packages and his desire to fill holes in the APRS network.

So get off your butts and buy one of his I-Gates and contribute back to the APRS system by setting up an I gate.

One more happy camper.
 
Steve, I'm glad you are running smoothly!


There are also a couple of the PiGates starting to come on line.

Both designs use the same architecture and have the same performance ... which makes me happy :)
 
EAA IGate

Hi Glenn:

My EAA chapter (1158) will put up and sponsor an iGate at KETB - they have internet access and several computers in a nice hangar at the airport.

At this point, I am not sure who will buy the iGate, them or me.

What equipment is required for an iGate and how much do the iGates you create cost?

73
John
WB9JPH
 
....

My EAA chapter (1158) will put up and sponsor an iGate at KETB - they have internet access and several computers in a nice hangar at the airport.


....




73
John
WB9JPH



That's a great location John! Will give me extra courage on next crossing :)



 
iGate Teaser

There is a new Raspberry Pi 2 just released and it looks to be powerful enough to do the necessary number crunching to support the low cost RTL-SDR dongles.

As soon as I can get my hands on one of the new RPi's, I'll see if I can make it work. If so, it would result in a complete iGate below the $75 price point.

smileys-cz-223.gif
 
Glen, I just setup a PI ADS-B receiver. Pretty slick and simple.

Anybody have code for a I-gate PI version?
 
iGate in my area her...

How to track an airplane or a car, what must be installed in the aircraft or vehicle for tracking? Are there any "Dummies Guide" that shows everything you can use this for?

iGates.jpg
 
Hi Helge,

There are three components to the typical APRS environment:

  1. the "tracker" - transmits beacon messages
  2. the "digipeater" - these are optional ground stations which relay beacons to increase range and have special understanding of beacons to avoid repeating forever
  3. the 'iGate" - is the gateway between the radio network and the internet

There are a number of companies selling very small trackers. These are easy to install in an RV. Some people install it in the fuselage somewhere and have an external antenna that is very similar to a COMM antenna. Some chose to install it in the fiberglass wingtip with an internal antenna bonded to the inside surface of the wingtip.

Since the tracker is a transmitter operating on an amateur radio frequency, you are required to have an amateur radio (HAM) licence. In the USA, the lowest level licence is the Technician Class.

There are a number of very good "sticky" posts in this forum for getting started, equipment reviews, etc.
 
Just when you think an idea has run its course - you get an email!

I'm happy to announce a new iGate is headed to Illinois and should be on-line in a week or two.

Thanks again to everyone who contributes to the APRS network!
 
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