[OZAPRS] Tiny trak 4 help please

[Paul Mullins]

OK,
have been informed of the required voltage input for these devices ( I 
am trying to be nice about them).

One of the major things missing from the manual is this 1 volt p-p, you 
still have to play Russian roulette to make the units work with a radio, 
I have the rxamp set to  12, cdlevel 20. cdmode pin2.
The  ONLY radio that has fully worked with successful decodes is my Icom 
IC821h on the ACC port on the rear with the unit switched to 9600bpx 
mode ( this changes the decode point to discrim out and the output 
voltage is higher than the other point,)
9600 setting gives me 1.2 volts p-p on average (icom specs are 1.0 p-p 
to a max of 1.6 p-p or 0.35v rms - 0.56v)
1200 setting on the radio gives a much lower signal of 0.1v rms to 0.3 v 
rms (I normally use this setting for EME)

Having the icom just sitting at home decoding is a waste of a radio I 
would like to talk on from time to time , EME and satellites.

I have spent countless hours changing the rxamp value, luck for me guns 
where banded!! (trying to cheer up now a joke)

All the other radios and I have a good collection to play with where 
used but Telstra at one point for the radios life to pass data and 
normally 2400 - 9600.

Radios that I would like to use for the project are
phillips fm900 heaps of these floating around ( mine dont have vco 
problems or noisy audio)good one 45 watts
Tait T700 two VHF radio ex Telstra with data decode points on back (25 
ping connector) 30watts max
Tait T500 one VHF this would be the preferred as the stand by current is 
like half of the other radios and puts out a higher burst wattage.

All of these I can make encode very well if you know where to put the 
encode wire, using the mic socket, I just dont get that, slack is the 
only word.

Normally the best place for a pick point for decode would be the fm 
output of the discrim for me before any filtering, this proves to me 
that voltages here are not enough. Might have to go to the speaker like 
every body else, but I bet that might work might not as well.

I have Two TinyTrak4 units (luckly for me you say, I say luck for the 
person with one), thats another dig.
One is running alpha firmware, same sort of problems getting this one 
working but the good side is I dont need a computer to program it and 
can see is its working on the next set of data bursts.
Problems with it, without a gps on it setting the location point for a 
static number will not happen it defaults to 1234.456n and 12345.678w 
the standard default numbers, put a gps in it wait a tick or two, then 
you can enter
location 3445.1062S 13837.0135E and then it works. remove gps throw it 
in the corner. static position set. Found after about 10 -20 reboots of 
the TT4 that it WILL NOT READ the gps strings using alpha.
The default values for the B port are set for the gps to reside on B 
port at a speed of 4800, 99% are this stock.
Just does not read it, in the end this is going to be the unit in the 
car, and having to use my ic706 for data is not an option.

Now if you use the Tracker firmware other silly things happen and you 
wish that you never hard wired that gps to the TT4.
It decides that the GPS needs to be on the A port aswell as the 
programming pc, this makes it very hard.
I have tried talking to it via hyperterm at different speeds and yelling 
at it, both dont work, last one makes you fell a little better. Another dig.
However it does read the GPS sentence and txs' the packets, checking to 
see if its decoding is impossible as the gps is on the pc port, in the 
carefully written documents it states the GPS for TRACKER is on B port, 
is it dont think so. Have yet worked out a way to over come this.

In the end I would like two working units I dont care how, one for the 
car with the LCD and keyboard  tracking the car location with a working 
gps reading.
One at home reading whats out there and the option to send messages, 
receive two.
The use of an old TNC2 (mfj1270) could be used for home.

I have though of saving up for a alinco 2 meter rig just for the car but 
its seams a waste when I have heaps of commercial radios that work 
perfect on 2 meters.

My 2 cents worth less  superannuation nothing at the end.

Cheers all

Paul