[aprssig] OpenTracker news

[scott at opentrac.org]

> I'd be interested.. something 'all in one' but way less 
> pricey than the D700. Would it be possible that your proposed 
> board would/ could do KISS "right" with enough buffer to be useful?

The standard version has a few kilobytes of RAM and supports CTS/RTS flow
control, and I suspect it'll be usable for KISS as-is.  At any rate, I'll
make sure it doesn't lock up like the Tasco board when it overflows.  It
might not be enough for digi use, though.  I've already got pads on the
board for an SPI FRAM chip, so you could easily add another 32k of memory
for buffering.  I'm not planning to make it a standard feature, though,
because most users won't need it and it'll add several bucks to the cost.
I'll leave the pads unpopulated, and it's easy enough to hand solder an
8-pin SOIC if necessary.

> IE "normal":
>          Radio/your board/gps, feed posits as weighpoints.

Can anyone suggest a good dash mountable GPS for this?  I wonder if the
StreetPilot series will work.

> PC in vehicle:
>          Radio/your board/   tnc goes to laptop, gps goes to 
> laptop, put 
> tnc in KISS mode for max compatability with all the aprs apps.

Shouldn't be too tough.

> 3rd mode: Digi? Smart digi? Support widen-n by default, let 
> user add others for special events? But if I put it in DIGI 
> mode instant fill in digi and it works for all the trackers 
> runing wide2-2 ??

We'll have to wait and see about that.  For my full-size TNC, I'm using a
more powerful 32-bit ARM7 chip and I hope to adapt the Digi_Ned embedded
version to handle digipeating.  This unit won't be able to handle that - not
sure if I want to write anything that complicated myself, but handling basic
fill-in digi functions should be doable.

I'm going to have to see if there's a free pin on the connector for a 1-wire
data bus.  So far I've left that in.  I'm not sure what anyone would use it
for, but it only costs 1 I/O pin and a resistor, so what the heck.  You
could always hook it up to a 1-wire weather station mounted on your car, but
the readings might be a bit misleading.  =]

Scott
N1VG