Direwolf transmit with CAT Issue

snacey0103 · January 18

Okay, this seems to be a popular issue on the web.

I have a Flex 6400 running firmware 3.5.9, Windows 10 SmartSDR v3.5.9.

I am trying to set up the direwolf v1.7.0 SDR packet modem using both DAX and CAT for use with APRS. I am using a UR3LMZ transverter on 144.390 for APRS.

DAX works fine. I can receive APRS beacons etc.. I can also see my transmit audio trying to go out.

CAT is the issue. Here is what I have done/checked so far.

I have checked and set the TX Band Settings to use RCA TX1 (and the PTT cable is connected)
I have ensured that the XVTR is set to transmit in the Radio settings XVTR tab.
I have proven that the transverter config can work by keying the transverter using the MOX key (the radio goes into transmit and can be heard on another radio on 2M) as well as creating a second pan adaptor set to the transverter IF frequency and seeing signal there when MOX is pressed.
I can see direwolf connected to the COM4 CAT port.
I can go into the CAT LOG for COM4 when direwolf is connected and issue a Kenwood "TX" CAT command via the test capability and the transmitter keys. So CAT can, indeed, work.

With all this said. When I bring up direwolf with a proper COM port configuration in the direwolf.conf file as follows:

PTT COM4 RTS

Direwolf will start up, claim that it has a valid COM port at startup (the nice, green success message saying it is connected), will appear as connected in CAT, I then start a direwolf APRS client (PinPointAPRS), connect to the direwolf KISS modem, issue a beacon command and... I see the beacon command in direwolf as having been sent, but CAT/COM is never triggered, there is no transmit.

I have also tried both setting up another CAT/COM port and connecting direwolf as well as creating a CAT/PTT port. Neither of those work either.

I have successfully used direwolf on another radio via a hardware CAT connection with a digirig and that works. So I know I can set up CAT successfully.

This seems like a problem between direwolf's PTT setup and Flex's CAT.

Do I need to recompile direwolf to include and use hamlib to get CAT functionality? I have not seen others on this community explicitly needing to do that to get direwolf working...

Can anyone offer more suggestions? What am I doing wrong? I see that others on this community of used UR3LMZ transverters with success.

snacey0103 · January 18

To add a little bit more. I have also successfully used DAX/CAT for Winlink/VARA and VarAC/VARA on HF bands, so this feels like a problem with transverter use.

My VARA HF setup does all that you would expect with CAT controlling frequency, mode, RX/RX and DAX audio. All no issue.

Charlie N5WE · January 19

> @snacey0103 said:
> To add a little bit more. I have also successfully used DAX/CAT for Winlink/VARA and VarAC/VARA on HF bands, so this feels like a problem with transverter use.
> My VARA HF setup does all that you would expect with CAT controlling frequency, mode, RX/RX and DAX audio. All no issue.

I'm not using a transverter, but I do use Direwolf running 300 baud HF packet along with UZ7HO's Terminal program and it is working fine. I'm simply using RTS on Com 19 (PTT COM19 RTS). So it seems to work out of the box at least in this setup.

Charlie
N5WE

snacey0103 · January 19

@N5WE Thanks Charlie. That is interesting. I am wondering if there is something unique about a transverter CAT/DAX configuration?

Scott, KK6IK

snacey0103 · January 19

Hmm. Another hint tonight. I just configured VARA Chat /VARA FM on 2 meters through CAT/DAX using the UR3LMZ transverter - and all works fine.

CAT/DAX settings used were the same as the ones I used for direwolf.

There is something about direwolf and CAT that does not work using SmartSDR transverter settings. Weird.

Charlie N5WE · January 19

> @snacey0103 said:
> Hmm. Another hint tonight. I just configured VARA Chat /VARA FM on 2 meters through CAT/DAX using the UR3LMZ transverter - and all works fine.
> CAT/DAX settings used were the same as the ones I used for direwolf.
> There is something about direwolf and CAT that does not work using SmartSDR transverter settings. Weird.

Scott,

I'll admit I've never had a transverter connected, but where does the transverter obtain its ptt from? So, if Direwolf is configured to talk to the CAT port, thats pretty straight forward. That will key the Flex radio itself. Then I assume that the transverter obtains its PTT from one of the key lines on the back of the flex, in the same manner that an amplifier would?

If so, Direwolf would only be tasked with keying the radio, then radio itself is in turn tasked with keying the transverter. Remember that in SmartSDR you can choose different keylines on different bands, does the transverter show up as a different band and maybe you haven't selected a keyline at all? Or is there a separate setting that controls keylines when you add the transverter?

Just asking, since I don't own one.

Good luck!

Charlie
N5WE

snacey0103 · January 19

@N5WE Charlie, Again thanks for helping out.

The transverter obtains PTT from an RCA Port (RAC PORT 1) on the back of the 6400. That port is enabled in SmartSDR through the "TX Band Settings" screen. As I stated in my point #1 in my original message, I have both the RCA PORT 1 connected to the Transverter and also the correct setting in the TX Band Settings screen.

Yes, if the direwolf client & direwolf config was working, it should use the virtual COM port (COM4 in my case) defined via CAT, to key the 6400 - and then the 6400 keys & drives the transverter. In my case direwolf does not communicate to the virtual COM port.

Clearly there is either a direwolf configuration issue or direwolf itself has a bug... hard to believe, bit maybe.

Still a mystery at this time. There is always tomorrow to figure it out!

73 de KK6IK

Mike-VA3MW · January 19

Have you watched the LOG part of SmartSDR CAT to see what commands are being sent on COM4?

snacey0103 · January 19

@Mike-VA3MW Yes, no commands are getting to CAT. So this leads me to believe I have a direwolf problem. I'll read up on and play with direwolf configuration options today. I'll post a message on the direwolf Groups.IO page today too... and see if they have ideas. When I searched that Groups.IO there is no reference to Flexradio there - so I'll be the first perhaps!

Ken Wells · January 20

Is your COM4 configures as a CAT port or as a PTT port?

If you have it configured as a PTT port, it will not ALSO send and receive DATA with the modem.

snacey0103 · January 21

@ken, I have tried both virstual PTT and COM port's. It is currently set to be a virtual COM port.

To all, I have gotten guidance on the direwolf Groups.IO that Flex radios need direwolf to be compiled with hamlib included. This is not the standard download version of direwolf. Here is the message from the direwolf Groups.IO:

-------------------

Hi Scott,

I don't have the full answer, but the direwolf.conf statement "PTT COM4 RTS" means that the COM4 serial port is being used to toggle the RTS signal in order to cause the radio to transmit (PTT).

In order to use CAT to control your radio I believe you need to use the syntax "PTT RIG <model> COM4 [<rate>]" where "model" is the type of radio and "rate" is an option to override the default serial port speed. This requires that DireWolf is built with hamlib for rig control.

73,

Thomas, KK6FPP

-----------------

I also have a message on that Groups.IO that states differently. I will try recompiling direwolf to include hamlib and try KK6FPP's suggestion and say if it works once I do.

Scott, KK6IK

snacey0103 · January 22

Ok. Here is the answer I arrived at - direwolf works with Flex CAT once you compile in hamlib and then use a Flex virtual CAT TCP Port. I could not get hamlib to recognize a Flex virtual COM or PTT port. (This sounds similar to a WSJT-x problem with virtual COM ports in another area of the Flex Radio Community.)

Since direwolf's standard Windows binaries don't include hamlib, you must follow these instructions.

The instructions are VERY accurate, but difficult to follow. Follow them to a "T" or the build won't work. Ignore the build warnings that you will see in the "make -j4" step in Section 4.6 in the Direwolf User Guide. I never did get the last step - "make test" - to work probably due to a bug in the makefile, but that didn't matter - the resulting binaries work.

Once you have completed the build to add the hamlib option to direwolf, use the following line in the PTT section of the direwolf.conf file:

"PTT RIG 236 127.0.0.1:60000" or "PTT RIG 236 localhost:60000"

This configuration equates to:

PTT RIG ==> Tells direwolf to look to hamlib for PTT (as far as I can tell without reading the code)

236 ==> This is the model designator for FlexRadio 6xxx radios. You may be able to use "FlexRadio" too. Be careful though, there are hamlib documents that say FlexRadio 6xxx are "model" 2036. Only trust the model number that comes out of the hamlib "rigctl --list" command.

127.0.0.1 or localhost ==> This is the IP address of the local Win 10 PC (in this case)

60000 ==> This seems to be the default network port that Flex CAT chooses, you may choose differently

Direwolf and Hamlib behave very differently from other packet radio apps like VARA and VARA FM and their related clients Winlink/VARA, VARA Chat as well as VarAC. The VARA family of applications work cleanly with virtual COM ports.

Very painful, but an entertaining debugging experience overall.

Mike-VA3MW · January 22

Can you try using a serial port and telling Direwolf it is a TS-2000? It is the same command set.

snacey0103 · January 22

@Mike-VA3MW Mike, thanks for the "as usual" great suggestion - its like you know something about Flex products 😁.

I added the following line to the direwolf.conf file this morning:

PTT RIG 214 COM4

Virtual COM4 on my SmartSDR installation is a virtual CAT port, 214 is the model designator for Kenwood TS-2000 according to "rigctl --init" for my hamlib installation.

In short. It works too.

Charlie N5WE · January 26

Scott, I've fallen behind here and glad to see you have it working. In my original questions, I failed to mention that I was currently running Direwolf 1.6 from a basic windows download. I hadn't compiled anything special into it. I have been running HF 300b packet with my Flex for some time, and all I did was create a CAT PTT port and configured Direwolf to use the port and RTS for PTT.

Perhaps something deprecating snuck its way into 1.7, but basic PTT worked fine for me on 1.6.

Glad you got it working anyway.

Charlie

N5WE

Direwolf transmit with CAT Issue

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