¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

Direwolf APRS I-Gate over Cellular


Jared Yates
 

Has anyone successfully used a Raspberry Pi and Direwolf to run an I-gate over the cellular data network? I have a remote location that doesn't have internet service but does have good cell coverage. I'm curious about the specific combination of hardware that would work, and what kind of data usage it would involve. The sim card is t-mobile compatible.


Bryan Campbell
 

Raspberry Pi 3 with Direwolf I-Gating to a local installed copy of
APRSC talking over the Internet over GSM or 4G LTE mobile Wifi
hotspot. Using APRSDroid to talk to Direwolf over Wifi. Have it
working now. Works great. And, if you connect a radio via
Tigertronics Signalink USB soundcard to the Pi 3 it allows you to
I-Gate for other RF APRS sources. Personally used it in this manner
and it works great.

But, make sure you filter heavily so that you don't inadvertently
I-Gate for anyone else while you are moving . . . APRS police get
their nickers in a twist over that kind of thing.

KD0GYL


Bryan Campbell
 

Oh, and it doesn't use much data at all . . . if you are worried about
that kind of thing.

On Thu, Feb 23, 2017 at 10:44 PM, Bryan Campbell <bbc@...> wrote:
Raspberry Pi 3 with Direwolf I-Gating to a local installed copy of
APRSC talking over the Internet over GSM or 4G LTE mobile Wifi
hotspot. Using APRSDroid to talk to Direwolf over Wifi. Have it
working now. Works great. And, if you connect a radio via
Tigertronics Signalink USB soundcard to the Pi 3 it allows you to
I-Gate for other RF APRS sources. Personally used it in this manner
and it works great.

But, make sure you filter heavily so that you don't inadvertently
I-Gate for anyone else while you are moving . . . APRS police get
their nickers in a twist over that kind of thing.

KD0GYL


Jared Yates
 

Thanks for the help. In this application the pi will be stationary. So you are using the pi's wifi to talk to a hotspot, and have your sim card in the hotspot? Are you using APRS Droid to work with the pi when you need to, or is the droid there all the time?? And by not much data, do you mean something like 10mb, 100mb, 1gb, etc?

On Thu, Feb 23, 2017 at 11:44 PM, Bryan Campbell bbc@... [direwolf_packet] <direwolf_packet@...> wrote:
?

Raspberry Pi 3 with Direwolf I-Gating to a local installed copy of
APRSC talking over the Internet over GSM or 4G LTE mobile Wifi
hotspot. Using APRSDroid to talk to Direwolf over Wifi. Have it
working now. Works great. And, if you connect a radio via
Tigertronics Signalink USB soundcard to the Pi 3 it allows you to
I-Gate for other RF APRS sources. Personally used it in this manner
and it works great.

But, make sure you filter heavily so that you don't inadvertently
I-Gate for anyone else while you are moving . . . APRS police get
their nickers in a twist over that kind of thing.

KD0GYL



Bryan Campbell
 

¿ªÔÆÌåÓý


Initially used it in a mobile application using the APRSDroid for the GPS tracker function.? APRSDroid can also send short, text like, messages.

APRSDroid talks to Direwolf.? Direwolf talks to APRSDroid via AGWPE port or TCP connection.? Have used both.? Other software can also.

But, as an I-Gate or Digi, it was left sitting still for weeks without any issues.? Direwolf AGWPE port will shut down if not used regularly/often (documented intended behavior).

As for bandwidth, usual and customary bandwidth for AX.25 is 1200-9600 baud or 13-104 MBytes per day for a full link.? That is 389-3111 MBytes per month for a full link.

Depending upon where you live, and the number of APRS devices transmitting over RF that you can hear and for which Direwolf/APRSC will determine it should I-Gate, you might have 10-20% duty cycle at peak.? So, at the very worst, I would expect that you would see less than half a GB per month.? But, you can control that directly by having Direwolf use APRSC locally installed and just tell APRSC to ignore traffic outside a 1,5,10,20 mile radius.? You can also tell APRSC to just ignore inbound from the Internet.?

Lots of options.? And, yes, using a T-Mobile GSM SIM in a Wifi hotspot is the least expensive option for this application.? There are add on boards for the Pi that allow a radio/SIM to be added to the Pi directly.? But, they are much more expensive and are not as extensible a solution.? A GSM Wifi hotspot could service many devices simultaneously.?? For example, APRSDroid can talk directly to APRS-IS over the GSM Wifi link.? So, you could augment your cell data coverage with the Wifi hotspot.

For Advanced Users . . . Also, you can insert a router with queuing between the Wifi hotspot and all your devices that would allow you to control your bandwidth.? I recommend the Mikrotik hAP Lite.? It is inexpensive, small, USB powered and has a ton of features . . . including queuing.? Also, if you want to get a little more complicated with your setup, you can add a cellular connection directly to a little more expensive Mikrotik hAP (non Lite) router.? But, this is outside the scope of this list.

.

KD0GYL

.
On 2/24/17 6:37 AM, Jared Yates junk@... [direwolf_packet] wrote:

?
Thanks for the help. In this application the pi will be stationary. So you are using the pi's wifi to talk to a hotspot, and have your sim card in the hotspot? Are you using APRS Droid to work with the pi when you need to, or is the droid there all the time?? And by not much data, do you mean something like 10mb, 100mb, 1gb, etc?

On Thu, Feb 23, 2017 at 11:44 PM, Bryan Campbell bbc@... [direwolf_packet] <direwolf_packet@...> wrote:
?

Raspberry Pi 3 with Direwolf I-Gating to a local installed copy of
APRSC talking over the Internet over GSM or 4G LTE mobile Wifi
hotspot. Using APRSDroid to talk to Direwolf over Wifi. Have it
working now. Works great. And, if you connect a radio via
Tigertronics Signalink USB soundcard to the Pi 3 it allows you to
I-Gate for other RF APRS sources. Personally used it in this manner
and it works great.

But, make sure you filter heavily so that you don't inadvertently
I-Gate for anyone else while you are moving . . . APRS police get
their nickers in a twist over that kind of thing.

KD0GYL




Jared Yates
 

Thanks for the info. I'd like to see if I can get it to work with a Project Fi data-only sim card, which costs a penny per megabyte, with no ongoing monthly charge. It's cheap enough to try it for a little while and tinker with the filters if necessary.

For the hotspot hardware, did you find any special needs from the direwolf or pi perspective, or should I be able to use anything that works with the sim card?

On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 10:13 AM, Bryan Campbell bbc@... [direwolf_packet] <direwolf_packet@...> wrote:
?


Initially used it in a mobile application using the APRSDroid for the GPS tracker function.? APRSDroid can also send short, text like, messages.

APRSDroid talks to Direwolf.? Direwolf talks to APRSDroid via AGWPE port or TCP connection.? Have used both.? Other software can also.

But, as an I-Gate or Digi, it was left sitting still for weeks without any issues.? Direwolf AGWPE port will shut down if not used regularly/often (documented intended behavior).

As for bandwidth, usual and customary bandwidth for AX.25 is 1200-9600 baud or 13-104 MBytes per day for a full link.? That is 389-3111 MBytes per month for a full link.

Depending upon where you live, and the number of APRS devices transmitting over RF that you can hear and for which Direwolf/APRSC will determine it should I-Gate, you might have 10-20% duty cycle at peak.? So, at the very worst, I would expect that you would see less than half a GB per month.? But, you can control that directly by having Direwolf use APRSC locally installed and just tell APRSC to ignore traffic outside a 1,5,10,20 mile radius.? You can also tell APRSC to just ignore inbound from the Internet.?

Lots of options.? And, yes, using a T-Mobile GSM SIM in a Wifi hotspot is the least expensive option for this application.? There are add on boards for the Pi that allow a radio/SIM to be added to the Pi directly.? But, they are much more expensive and are not as extensible a solution.? A GSM Wifi hotspot could service many devices simultaneously.?? For example, APRSDroid can talk directly to APRS-IS over the GSM Wifi link.? So, you could augment your cell data coverage with the Wifi hotspot.

For Advanced Users . . . Also, you can insert a router with queuing between the Wifi hotspot and all your devices that would allow you to control your bandwidth.? I recommend the Mikrotik hAP Lite.? It is inexpensive, small, USB powered and has a ton of features . . . including queuing.? Also, if you want to get a little more complicated with your setup, you can add a cellular connection directly to a little more expensive Mikrotik hAP (non Lite) router.? But, this is outside the scope of this list.

.

KD0GYL

.
On 2/24/17 6:37 AM, Jared Yates junk@... [direwolf_packet] wrote:
?
Thanks for the help. In this application the pi will be stationary. So you are using the pi's wifi to talk to a hotspot, and have your sim card in the hotspot? Are you using APRS Droid to work with the pi when you need to, or is the droid there all the time?? And by not much data, do you mean something like 10mb, 100mb, 1gb, etc?

On Thu, Feb 23, 2017 at 11:44 PM, Bryan Campbell bbc@... [direwolf_packet] <direwolf_packet@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
?

Raspberry Pi 3 with Direwolf I-Gating to a local installed copy of
APRSC talking over the Internet over GSM or 4G LTE mobile Wifi
hotspot. Using APRSDroid to talk to Direwolf over Wifi. Have it
working now. Works great. And, if you connect a radio via
Tigertronics Signalink USB soundcard to the Pi 3 it allows you to
I-Gate for other RF APRS sources. Personally used it in this manner
and it works great.

But, make sure you filter heavily so that you don't inadvertently
I-Gate for anyone else while you are moving . . . APRS police get
their nickers in a twist over that kind of thing.

KD0GYL





 

Check out freedompop on sprint, aka cdma. Free 500 megs each month and easy to root and hotspot most devices.?