[drats_users] D-Rats Project

[Dan Smith]

Hi Dennis!

> I was one of the Dstar Users during Hurricane Gustav using D-Rats 
> v0.2.3 at first with other users using various versions. A real mix
> of versions

Okay, in general there should be no real problem between versions (of
the same lineage; 0.1.x isn't compatible with 0.2.x).  However, 0.2.4 
added pipelined transfers, which aren't supported by the previous 
versions.  So, newer features like that certainly won't work with older 
versions, but the basics usually don't present a problem.  Either way, 
being on the same version is certainly easier :)

> and D*Chat v???. So, Evan, KD4EFM and others all were having various
> problems with text messaging coming through with extra characters
> and/or the last few characters from the text message send through the
> SEND message line.

It's not a "bug", but it may be a "problem".  D-RATS 0.2.x packetizes
everything, including chat messages.  This provides all kinds of
benefits such as checksum calculation and the ability to multiplex the
channel with chat traffic during a transfer.  The extra characters
you're seeing are the block header and trailer.  The dChat author has
expressed interest in a compatible encoding scheme at some point, but it 
would be a little overkill considering the goal and current scope of 
dChat (IMHO).

> We all upgraded to v0.2.4 and all above issues were resolved. Next we
> tried to send a small file of the bulletin via SEND Text file.

Hmm, the "send text file" option is just a way to bulk-send text data as
a chat message.  Perhaps the sender was using the real "send file"
option?  Only that does the error-free transport.

> It had errors so that finally the transfer failed due to hitting the
> retry count. We also tried sending a FORM filled out and same problem
> occurred with transfer failed.

Well, as I mentioned elsewhere, the sessions are broken in 0.2.4.  It's
a really silly error in calculating a display value that caused the
whole thing to tank.  It only happens on Windows because of the way the
GUI refreshes itself.  I'm really sorry about that, as it was really 
stupid.  Almost a week after I posted it, I found an open browser window 
with a yet-to-be-submitted wiki update warning of this bug that I never 
finished :( ..

I'll be posting 0.2.5 in a short while here, which will have a fix for
this and several other new features.

> This transfer is through a gateway via a reflector hooked up to
> multiple users.

Well, I think we've established that I'm going to have to add some
things to make everything work through the gateway properly.  I may
actually be able to get my local repeater and gateway setup this
weekend.  Depending on how quickly I can be included in the party, I may
be able to start doing some of that testing before too long.

> Next, Evan, KD4EFM tried a neat trick to get us the bulletins by 
> sending them through CUT/PASTE into the SEND field of D-Rats, then 
> hitting SEND button to send the text. This method worked flawlessly.
> However, as all of us D-Rats Users would like to see the FORMS, SEND
> FILES, and other modes work.

Okay, File->Send Text File should be equivalent to this action.  I'll go
take a look and see if something has regressed.  With something other
than 0.2.4, you should be able to use the forms and file sending on
simplex (and a local repeater).  We do it here a lot and run into very
few problems.

Another thing you might be interested in, is the QST file stuff.  You
can specify a QST to read from a file, so that every time the QST is
sent, it reads the contents of a text file and dumps that out the radio.
This lets you just keep a file up-to-date and have D-RATS send it out
periodically (as chat data).

Thanks!

-- 
Dan Smith
dsmith#danplanet.com, s/#/@/
www.danplanet.com
KK7DS