[Tlf-devel] Re: USB, success!

[Wilbert Knol]

Hi Rein,

> Can you explain what is additionally needed   to make it work (drivers,
> hardware)?

Well...there isn't much to it. I have this little black box that connects
to the USB port on the laptop. It has 4 serial ports, which become
available as /dev/ttyUSB[0-3]. The unit is a Keyspan USA-49W. It runs the
rig CI-V interface, it keys the radio (cwdaemon) and I run a KISS TNC off
it for kernel-AX25.

The device driver shows up as 'keyspan' in the modules list. In addition,
a generic 'usbserial' driver is needed, as is 'usbcore'. Also, a driver is 
needed
for the USB host controller in the laptop. I use 'usb-ohci'. The laptop is
a 4 year-old Toshiba, specified to USB 1.1.

My PC at work is a bit more modern, has USB 2, and needs an additional
'enhanced host controller' driver (usb-ehci, from memory).

In any case: all the drivers are automatically loaded  by the hotplug
agent. I am using SuSE 8.1 with a home-baked 2.4.22 kernel.

> Would  this also be possible for the LPT (CWdaemon)?

Yes.  "cwdaemon -d ttyUSB2" .. does the trick for me. I modified the
parallel port keying lead to be serial.

> For tlf-0.9.3 I  have done the same for the TNC port, that will also work with
> TNCPORT=/dev/ttyUSBx.
> Would appreciate if you could test that also some time next week...

OK..no worries. Glad I can make myself useful.

> P.S.: The transceive mode CT uses was the cause of several network crashes
> during our cqww-cw at CT9L last year. Every time an op spun the dial of the
> FT1000MP the network was flooded with freq. update packets, and the DOS
> systems crashed. Once all 3 at the same time :-) This meant rebooting the
> computers...

Great story, Rein! Sounds like the Contest from Hell..."Don't touch the
dial, you're all run stations". You should have whipped the knobs off
the radios. And allowed one to be passed around in a token ring :-)

I wasn't aware Yeasu radios used 'transceive' mode. At ZL6QH, we have
used 3 MPs, all networked, without hassles. Maybe it's a menu option.

But I guess you are right: if you have a rig that is capable of
broadcasting frequency updates rapidly, and you put 4 or 5 of those on a
network, and people start spinning the dial, then it wouldn't take much to
collapse the network.


Wilbert, ZL2BSJ