[drats_users] How to remember the RatFlector?

[Dan Smith]

Hi Andy,

> I've been experimenting with D-Rats and both my IC-92 and the
> Ratflector.  At the moment I have a problem in that when I do things
> with D-Rats and the radio, it never seems to transmit so I've been
> trying to switch between the two devices (radio and Ratflector).
>
> Is there any way to either (a) get D-Rats to remember the Ratflector
> setting in its drop-down for the serial port (in Config -> Radio)
> like it does for the serial port or (b) have two pre-configured
> configurations with a way to switch between them?  It would seem to
> me to be a useful thing for EMCOMM so maybe it's there and I'm not
> using it properly.

It is not currently there, and yes, it would be very nice.  The reason
I've been punting on the easy fix to this is that I have something
else planned.  I guess I'll go ahead and reveal it here and maybe stir
up some discussion :)

The plan is to do away with the single serial port and baudrate
setting in favor of a list.  The list will not be just a set of
exclusive configurations, but rather a set of ports or data paths that
can be activated and deactivated.

This idea came out of a drill we did locally a few months ago.  We
realized that there is almost no need to communicate between (for
example) two fire stations.  Rather, all the peripheral nodes need to
send messages and data to a central point, the county EOC.  That
station also needs to get things out to the other nodes, which makes
the frequency that the EOC is on hotly contended.

So, the above plan will allow you to have (for example) a 2-meter
radio connected, a 70cm radio connected, and a ratflector connected.

One configuration would be that you tell all of your peripheral
stations that your incoming port is on 440 and if they have to send
you anything, do it there.  Otherwise, they stay on 2-meters and wait
for you to send things (or perhaps they have two radios as well).
This allows the EOC to receive traffic in the background while he's
processing and sending responses out of his primary radio.

Another configuration may be that east uses 2-meters and west uses
70cm to avoid the switching around.

The software components deep in the stack won't have a problem with
this at all, it's just a matter of drawing up the GUI to allow you to
configure it as such, and then of course, providing a way to allow you
to select which port a particular piece of traffic, ping, etc goes out
on.

This will address your concern by allowing you to configure a
ratflector path and a radio path and just enable/disable them when you
switch.  Make sense?

Any comments (from anyone) on the above?

> Secondly, anyone else connecting an IC-92 (using the RS-92 cable) and seeing
> problems getting the radio to Tx?

No problems here.  Is GPS turned off?  Is Auto Data TX turned on?  See
here for more on that:

  http://www.d-rats.com/wiki/FrequentlyAskedQuestions#notx

Thanks!

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