Hello John,
Thank you for the details.? Very interesting and the link
is an interesting read.
Guess I should chime in since much of the reasoning
for WinRPR and TeensyTNC existing is due in part to my plea to
SCS to not have Robust Packet die on the vine after the demise
of the most excellent Tracker TNC DSP.? Word leaked out after a
productive summer 2020 effort from SCS folks with some of us
testing their beta releases leading to this post.
Considering that this VAPN web page still mentions that the WinRPR
software is essentially a proprietary SCS product (of sorts), I bet
that kills any hope to add any support into Direwolf.
One thing the existence?of WinRPR does reveal is the DSP techniques used in the encoding and decoding of Robust Packet mode don't require a dedicated DSP that was the case for quite some time.? Following are references to tests performed seven years ago to see it more in action...
Apparently the sudden appearance of WinRPR caused West Mountain to opine a couple weeks ago...
I haven't had time to watch this one yet, but it's on my playlist.
The existence of WinRPR gives hope that the modem
portion can be segregated in such a way to port into something
like DireWolf in time. This would be quite spectacular.
I disagree.? Until SCS releases some form of a specification
documents with clear license that's compatible with say GPL, Apache,
etc. with releasing any liability to any developer, I doubt any
support will ever happen.
Poor wording on my part.? I was referring more to the technical possibility (portability of DSP routines) rather than legality.? As for the latter, there may well be a time soon when Robust Packet (RP or RPR) is given away as it may not be an important part of the regular SCS products goals (Pactor, etc.) given they stopped production of the DSP Tracker DSP TNC that prominently features Robust Packet.
Note both WinRPR and TeensyTNC are basically the same thing
under the hood to include...
- HF Packet Modem (300 AFSK)
- Robust Packet 300
- Robust Packet 600
- 1200 AFSK
- 9600 FSK
- Full AX.25 stack in the form of the WA8DED "TheFirmware"
- really nice to access any TNC command via Escape
sequence.
WinRPR adds?graphical displays to the mix.? Teensy is
just a virtual serial port to the basic TNC.
This last line is confusing to me.? As I understand say the G8BPQ
Teensy TNC project supporting classic packet as well as ARDOP is a
*complete* TNC.? That effort in the TNC is not "just a virtual
serial port".? Is this WinRPR + Teensy components BOTH required for
a working RPR solution?
Moniker collision.? TeensyTNC in the current context refers to porting the routines that's in the hardware product "SCS Tracker DPS TNC" into a Teensy Microcontroller with Analog IO daughter board.? This won't be the last Teensy TNC project to come along I'm sure as the Teensy system works remarkably well for this.? Since I'm driving the nomenclature, I may well change the name of the Teensy thing to something else... Perhaps TeensyRPRTNC, but that detracts from all the other traditional modes it can do.? I'll fix this in time.
?
WinRPR has become quite popular in the small RPR community
and provides a free way for third party monitoring a
proprietary mode... solving one legal issue.
Is this a receive only solution today or can it also transmit?
WinRPR is a full "soft" TNC that can transmit and receive.
?
? I do
know of the SCS PMON Raspberry Pi image to do monitoring only for
Pactor traffic but it doesn't seem to support RPR:
??
I knew of the Windows version, but didn't realize they released the R-Pi version.? As for Pactor stuff... yeah, boy oh boy.? I was part of that kerfuffle as well...
?
Anyway, that's enough for now, but wanted to explain what
is really going on in the RPR world.
Seems very interesting to me as I love everything packet yet I'm
surprised I never heard of this WinRPR effort.
It was an unpublished?work in progress over the 2020 summer (post the demise of the Tracker TNC hardware product)... alpha testing a gaga.? ?It would have remained that way if one of the beta testers didn't leak the news last fall.? So no surprise you didn't hear about it.
?
Maybe the reason for
that is that I don't do Windows anything whenever possible.? I guess
I'll need to add myself to the discussion to see what's
really going on
The robust-packet is the most logical place.? Most folks do APRS with RPR, but many of us use it with connected mode for our BBS ops.
?
but I still don't see why WB2OSZ would want to try
adding RPR support into Direwolf when this is still seemingly
proprietary and probably patented.
Fair enough.? When I first encouraged not letting RPR die on the vine, DireWolf was my exemplar of modem/TNC software.? No cumbersome windows, just a good, solid logging display of what's happening. I use DireWolf quite a bit and especially enjoy the error mitigation therein.? So... The DSP Tracker DSP TNC equiv. was what I hoped for, however the SCS programmer's allure of windows overtook my simplistic desires so most of the effort went into the GUI of what you see in WinRPR complete with spectrum display, console and MHEARD?windows... all nice, but fluff.? SCS really really really loves spectrum displays.? Oh well.? It works and does seem to be easy for folks to get up and running quick.
The version for the Teensy microcontroller is much more my style with minimalist approach that gives the traditional WA8DED prompt of a hardware TNC.? Note both WinRPR and the Teensy are two functional things: modem code and TheFirmware AX.25 code.
We may well find Robust Packet open source at some point and be able to shoehorn it into other things like DireWolf with its own AX.25 stack.? That's my dream as Robust Packet is very much a modern logical replacement for HF Packet given it's AX.25 style, FEC, 8 subtones and tailored design for HF radio circuits.
Time will tell.
73
John, kx4o
