APRS-Beacon

This is a starter project for aprs-beaconing predominantly on a DVMega hotspot's running on a Raspberry PI. It never any sense to me why I could not beacon my location from my hotspot. So I finally decided to go do some poking around and found some starter code on github that was over a year old. I sat down and changed a few things (to the best of my abilities, I'm NOT a programmer by any means) and this is what I came up with. Please try not to beat me too hard as I'm still learning, but I'm sure with time I'll get better.

Getting Started

These instructions will get you a copy of the project up and running on your local machine for development and testing purposes.

Prerequisites

• Python 2.x installed
• PySerial (for connecting to the GPS)
• python-gps
• git
• screen
• GPS Unit - Tested with Stratux Uk-162 -> (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EROIUEW)

Always make sure your pi is up-to-date!!

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade

Install some of those pesky prerequisites...

sudo apt-get install git screen python-gps

Installing

The installation is pretty simple, just change to the /opt directory and clone the project. Everything should be installed into a folder named aprs-beacon.

1. Clone the aprs-beacon project onto your system

$ cd /opt
$ sudo git clone https://github.com/ke6yjc/aprs-beacon

2. Make sure beacon.py is executable

$ sudo chmod +x /opt/aprs-beacon/beacon.py

Yup it's that simple...

Updating the script so it will start

I build in failsafe's so that if the default config is used the script will just blow quit(). All changes are made directly to the script. I will be breaking this apart in the future, but for now you just have to edit the entire script.

$ sudo nano /opt/aprs-beacon/beacon.py

Mandatory Settings

1. Update your callsign

## Callsign of beacon <== CHANGE THIS
CALLSIGN = 'CHANGE ME'

2. Update your iGate password

## APRS Password <== CHANGE THIS
PASSWORD = "123456"

Optional Settings

Update the Beacon Rate

One of the features I added was the dynamic beacon feature. This will allow your beacon interval to change based on speed. If your speed is below BEACON_SPEED_1 the system will use the BEACON_PERIOD value which defaults to 30 minutes. If your speed goes over BEACON_SPEED_1 then BEACON_RATE_1 will be used for as your next beacon interval. If your speed => BEACON_SPEED_2 then BEACON_RATE_2 will be used. COMMENT_PERIOD is how often your COMMENT will be sent. You will probably also want to update this to personalize it.

NOTE: If the DYNAMIC_BEACON = False (default) the system will use BEACON_PERIOD for it's beacon interval

## Beacon Interval - Control Beacon rate on speed
DYNAMIC_BEACON = False

# If speed is above BEACON_SPEED_1 then adjust the beacon interval to BEACON_RATE_1 in minutes
BEACON_SPEED_1 = 10
BEACON_RATE_1 = 2

# If speed is above BEACON_SPEED_2 then adjust the beacon interval to BEACON_RATE_2 in minutes
BEACON_SPEED_2 = 40
BEACON_RATE_2 = 1

# Default beacon rate
COMMENT_PERIOD = 15 # Period of sending comment in minutes

BEACON_PERIOD = 1 # Period of sending position beacon in minutes

GPS Settings

## GPS Port <== You might need to change this too should work though
GPS_PORT = "/dev/ttyACM0"

## GPS Port Speed
GPS_PORT_SPEED = 9600

Misc. Stuff

If you want this to run as a service I've included pre-configured script files in the /service folder for you. If you did not use the default install directory you might need to tweak them a bit

Setup aprs-beacon as a service

1. Copy aprs-beacon files to /lib/systemd/system

$ sudo cp /opt/aprs-beacon/service/aprs-beacon.service /lib/systemd/system
$ sudo cp /opt/aprs-beacon/service/aprs-beacon.timer /lib/systemd/system

2. Enable the aprs-beacon service

$ sudo systemctl enable aprs-beacon.timer

3. Start the aprs-beacon service

$ sudo systemctl start aprs-beacon

See what's going on

The aprs-beacon service runs under a "virtual" screen in the background. This way you can see what is going on at any time. Use the command below to re-attach to the session. Remember

Command to attach to aprs-beacon service:

sudo screen -r gps

Command to detatch from the aprs-beacon service:

• Remember to DETATCH from the service, DO NOT PRESS CTRL+C or the service will stop!!!!

Press CTRL+a, then press the letter 'd' to detatch

This will leave the service running in the background

Authors

• Ted G. Freitas / KE6YJC - Updated work - ke6yjc
• Phil Crump / M0DNY - Initial work - philcrump

License

This project is licensed under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE - see the LICENSE.md file for details