APRS beacon testers needed

[KJ7PVO]

Just tried this on my RT3S. Works great. Thanks for all the hard work on this project. Opengd77 makes my cheap Chinese radio work like a $300 name brand radio.

[i5ekx]

--quote--
Also. Options -> General options ->GPS now has an additional value of "Log" (after NMEA in the list of values)

Selecting Log, causes the GPS position data to be logged into the Flash memory of the radio.

Each time the Log is turned on it creates a new entry, and when log is turned off it closes that entry
The CPS has a new feature to read the NMEA data from the radio and save the data has been recorded in the radio.
--end--

What is stated above is not clear to me: to record GPS data the function to be set is "NMEA", is the "LOG" function only used to open and close the recording? In practice, to record the track must it be kept on NMEA? 73 de I5EKX Alex.

[F1RMB]

To record the NMEA log into the transceiver, GPS options has to be set to "Log" (options are: Off, On, NMEA, Log).
When "Log" is selected, it still outputs the NMEA sentences to the USB port.

[i5ekx]

Thanks Daniel, but what then is the function of the "NMEA" option?

[VK3KYY]

Thanks Daniel, but what then is the function of the "NMEA" option?

NMEA output is so that the radio can be used as a GPS for other applications e.g by connecting it to a PC running some GPS software.

The reason that logging is not enabled in the NMEA output option, is that it has to write a large amount of data to the limited memory in the radio, and this will eventually wear out the Flash memory in the radio.
i.e Flash memory in these radios is very small, and the chip does not to wear levelling. The firmware can't do wear levelling because there is no spare memory to be used by any form of levelling.

Typically the Flash memory has a life of around 100k write cycles, however if leave NMEA logging turned on for an extended period constantly, then the Flash memory would eventually wear out and your radio would be unusable.

[KJ7PVO]

Will APRS beaconing ever be supported on the RD-5R, even though it does not have built in GPS?

[F1RMB]

It's already supported. Only GPS positioning isn't supported.

[KJ7PVO]

Thanks, it looks like i have not updated the firmware and cps for a while on my RD-5R. Got everything working last night. I really enjoy this software. keep up the awesome work!