PI In The Sky - keeps ignoring the PISKY.txt file

[gurlavie]

Hi,

Have this very troubling issue for the last couple of days. Spent many hours trying to figure this out.
It's my first PITS project, so maybe I am missing something basic.
-- The Stdout Log is here - https://www.dropbox.com/s/huwjwus9fq0je ... g.txt?dl=0
(failed to upload a file)

-- PITS fails to operate - RTTY and APRS.
-- I see a carrier in the 434.250 frequency but no side bands transmission.
-- Nothing on the 144.8 band

The most troubling thing, is that whenever I manually start the Tracker, I see that it completely ignores the Pisky.txt file.
-- It doesn't set the payload name
-- doesn't change frequency

Attaching a dump of the StdOutput. You can can see it seems only GPS is working in a loop.

Troubleshooting so far :
- re-installed the RPI
- re assembled the sub-boards
- checked the battery voltages
- Checked the receiver with a HabDuino board - seems to transmit fine.

- I ran some "printf" breakpoints in the tracker code.
- Until recently I used the RPI PDF manual.
- As I was troubleshooting, I found out the web page with the additional step of the serial port. - suggest to update the PDF asap.

Any help ?
thanks

[daveake]

OK, a few things to say here.

First, for PITS support please use the official support email address - that way all those involved get to see it. Although I check this forum periodically, Anthony doesn't, so you should get a better and faster response that way.

Second, the manual was updated weeks ago to include the Raspbian serial port changes. It does not include the specific information for Pi 3 which, although usable, is still not recommended as per the web site.

I see that you did separately send a support request last night. Her you omitted to mention that you originally installed on a Pi3 and then moved the SD card to another model. Assuming yuo followed the Pi3-specific instructions for the serial port, it's no surprise that those do not work on other Pi boards.

Specifically about your points above:

- If changes to pisky.txt are being ignored, then you edited the wrong one. The one to edit (as per instructions online and in the manual) is /boot/pisky.txt. Probably you edited the master copy instead, which is part of the git download.

- No RTTY modulation means that the serial port could not be opened (see my comments above).

Dave

[gurlavie]

Thanks Dave, your reply is much appreciated.

One post here, and an email to upuaut. What is the PI-in-the-sky official support email ?
(I emailed to upuaut initially on September 11 and again earlier today - but I guess this is not the right email)

The PITS manual, is amazing. The best manual one could ever ask for. Thanks for working hard in making it such a detailed and comprehensive. I guess I have the special talent to mess things.

- I am using a Raspberry Pi 1 A+ (no wired internet, for the setup I am using a USB hub for wifi and keyboard, but very quickly moving to putty over wifi)
- In my second round of troubleshooting, I reinstalled everything from scratch, so no RPI 3 in the loop at all. Still had the same problem.
-- When I re-installed on the PI 1 A+, I still initially used the "old" guide. Then discovered the new one, so I did the serial port tweak AFTER I compiled everything. Can this be a source of a problem ?

I also didn't have "console=serial0" I had "console=tty". so didn't remove it. Maybe I should ?

-- Is there a way to check from the command line if I can open the serial port ?

-- PISKY.TXT - YOU ARE RIGHT ! I am such such such and idiot. Sooooo embarrassed with myself.

Thanks for everything, the setup, boards and technology is amazing. I am running this for a class in a special school and everyone are so excited to get this going.
Gur

[DougieLawson]

Hi Dave,

Sorry to butt in, but perhaps you should get a sticky post on here that explains this.

Let folks discover what the Pi in the Sky software does, how to download the latest version, what's needed for the various Raspberries that run it and who to contact for support (whether that's forum, github or email). That way the folks who regularly follow this forum can point the random respondents in the right direction.

[daveake]

Yes use the upuaut email; anything software-related gets forwarded to me, but Anthony does the first-line support. He forwarded your email to me last night and I replied to him this morning, saying that I'd answered you here. I don't recall the earlier email.

If you think you have a special talent, then you haven't seen Anthony's rogue's gallery of upside-down or back-to-front PITS boards . That's why the board has "This way up" and "NOT this way up" labels ...

The only issues we've had for ages where users have followed the instructions but still had problems have been to do with Raspbian changes. The serial port had a few of those all prompted by the introduction of Pi 3, but that's all settled down now and Eben assured me that no further changes are planned for a few months at least. The other issues were on the APRS side - a software change to audio and a better way to map the audio to the GPIO pin (earlier method wasn't portable between Pi versions). We do test new Raspbian downloads as they come out, but even so sometimes interim versions (installed with apt-get upgrade) cause grief when users hit them before we do.

> I did the serial port tweak AFTER I compiled everything. Can this be a source of a problem ?

No, makes no difference.

> I also didn't have "console=serial0" I had "console=tty". so didn't remove it. Maybe I should ?

If you didn't have =serial0, then either you removed it before, or the serial port is disabled in raspi-config. I suspect the latter. This is the big change in Raspbian serial port support. We used to recommend disabling the serial port login, which left the port free for use. In the current Raspbian, disabling the login disables the port completely, which is in my opinion broken behaviour. That's why we now describe how to disable the login manually, leaving the port enabled.

> Is there a way to check from the command line if I can open the serial port ?
Yes, just look in /dev to see if ttyAMA0 is present.

> PISKY.TXT - YOU ARE RIGHT ! I am such such such and idiot. Sooooo embarrassed with myself.

We had that one once before, so you're not the first

Dave

[gurlavie]

Thanks Dave !

Having very hard time to concentrate at work would like to run and test this....
Will do it as soon as I can and will report back.

Gur

[dgordon42]

If you didn't have =serial0, then either you removed it before, or the serial port is disabled in raspi-config. I suspect the latter. This is the big change in Raspbian serial port support. We used to recommend disabling the serial port login, which left the port free for use. In the current Raspbian, disabling the login disables the port completely, which is in my opinion broken behaviour. That's why we now describe how to disable the login manually, leaving the port enabled.

+1 to this. I wish they would change the wording in raspi-config, it has caused a lot of problems.

> Is there a way to check from the command line if I can open the serial port ?
Yes, just look in /dev to see if ttyAMA0 is present.

On a Pi 3B you should be looking for 'ttyS0' in '/dev' and the soft link 'serial0' which should point to 'ttyS0'. 'ttyAMA0' is normally reserved for Bluetooth.

Dave.

[daveake]

On a Pi 3B you should be looking for 'ttyS0' in '/dev' and the soft link 'serial0' which should point to 'ttyS0'. 'ttyAMA0' is normally reserved for Bluetooth.

Dave.

Except that we need the proper serial port for PITS, hence (in the instructions) we load a devicemap to restore that port to the GPIO pins. So we still use ttyAMA0.

[dgordon42]

Ah, OK. I did not know you were using a dtoverlay to change UART's.

Thanks,
Dave.

[daveake]

Yeah, the other one doesn't work very well. Can't do low baud rates, for a start.

Bluetooth doesn't have a great deal of use in a HAB, so it was an easy decision.

Dave

[gurlavie]

Update:
- Almost everything works now ! thanks Dave !

-- The Pisky.txt => was an easy fix, just went to the right folder

-- For the RTTY - I ran again the raspi-config utility and re-did the advanced options
-- Then I re ran the serial port commands. This time I did have the console=serial0 sentence, which I removed.

And instantly got the RTTY side bands. Tuned SDR#, Tuned dl-fldigi, and waaaala, getting the stream decoded !
As wise man say - R.F.M.

Two more questions as I proceed with setting everything:
1. How do I parse the data into an image file ? (I read all the explanadion on connecting to habitat, but I guess image require a seperate process ?)

2. Where in the code can I change temporarly the APRS rate ?
I am trying to troubleshoot the direwolf APRS decoding and can't wait everytime a minute for a short burst. (Habduino worked for me, but with PITS, I see the signal but direwolf doesn't decode)

3. Any one had experience with SDR# crushing after few minutes of operation on win10 ? (win7 works perfect)

Thanks for everyone help !
Gur

[daveake]

> How do I parse the data into an image file ?

You don't; dl-fldigi does. It creates jpegs locally - check the settings dialog to enable - and if it's online it uploads to the habhub server which puts the images on ssdv.habhub.org.

> Where in the code can I change temporarly the APRS rate ?

aprs.c

> I am trying to troubleshoot the direwolf APRS decoding and can't wait everytime a minute for a short burst

Should be fine; Direwolf is one of the tools we use to test with.

Dave

[gurlavie]

Thanks !