I’ve build a Digipeater. These are my notes.
Equpment
Using DigiPi, Digirig, and a handheld I had not used.
DigiPi runs on RaspberryPi. I’m using a Pi4 with a Geekworm for Raspberry Pi UPS - X729 for grater uptime and 12 Volt support.
DigiPi is a great progject developed my Craiger (KM6LYM. This project is using version 1.8.1. You can plug it into your radio’s USB interface, use a radio interface like DigiRig, or use a sound card with your radio in VOX mode, to run many digital modes.
DigiRig is a sound and rig control serial port interface in one. You can send sound data and control you rig’s PTT.
Direwolf and DigiRig configuration
Download the DigiPi image. You will need to give Craiger a dollar to get access to the image. Burn it to an SD Card and boot the Pi. Use your browser to connect and configure DigiPi. This is all documented on the DigiPi page.
The DigiPi will boot into Access Point mode. Connect to this network and browse to 10.0.0.5. You should start with “initialize” to add your Call Sign, Latatude, Longatude and Grid Square. You can then choise “Shell” menu option or SSH to login-in. The USER is pi and the PASSWORD is raspberry. Next run sudo remount and/or you may need to run sudo systemctl daemon-reload.
Use the menu option Wifi to configure Wifi and other Raspberry Pi settings.
Edit /etc/systemd/system/digipi-boot.service to change the default mode to DigiPeater. Change the ExecStart line to ExecStart=systemctl start digipeater then re-run sudo systemctl daemon-reload.
To find the USB name of the DigiRig use ls -l /dev/serial/by-id | grep CP2102. The name will be ttyUSB# at the end of the output.
To find the ADEVICE setting use arecord -l. Look for the “USB PnP Sound Device”. You’ll need its card #: and device #: to create ADVICE plughw:#:#.
Now edit /home/pi/direwolf.digipeater.conf and update these lines.
# DigiPi Digipeater configuration file template
# This configuration makes you a WIDE1-1 Digi
# and forwards text messages to nearby targets over RF
# APRS server we connect to
# Do not use T2QUEBEC nor DALLAS, often ignore filters
IGSERVER noam.aprs2.net
# Login for APRS server
IGLOGIN W5TSU-10 9604
# Our info
MYCALL W5TSU-10
# put us on aprs.fi map via internet
# change sendto=IG to sendto=RF to send beacons over RF
PBEACON sendto=IG compress=1 delay=00:10 every=30:00 symbol="digi" overlay=R lat=35.53333 long=-97.62111 comment=" contact mark@w5tsu.net "
# routing table
DIGIPEAT 0 0 ^WIDE[5-7]-[1-7]$ ^WIDE[1-4]-[1-4]$
# Digipath from Internet
IGTXVIA 0,WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1
# Don't digipeat our self - RF -> RF filter
FILTER 0 0 ! d/W5TUS-10 & ! b/W5TSU-10
# Internet -> RF filter - local filter
FILTER IG 0 ( t/m & ! g/BLN* )
# Internet -> RF filter - server-side filter
IGFILTER t/m/W5TSU-10/100
# Limit number of packets
IGTXLIMIT 20 80
# DigiRig serial interface
PTT /dev/ttyUSB0 RTS
MODEM 1200
DWAIT 0
TXDELAY 30
TXTAIL 10
AGWPORT 8000
KISSPORT 8001
# DigiRig USB card:
ADEVICE plughw:0,0
Reboot, connect your radio and test.