How to install an IRLP Experimental Reflector with TheLinkBox

=> https://kv4s.com/2020/08/28/how-to-install-an-irlp-experimental-reflector-with-thelinkbox/

2020-08-28 19:45 UTC, KV4S

This article explains how to build an IRLP experimental reflector with TheLinkbox. It also induces enabling codec trans-coding, Allstar connectivity, and installing a basic dashboard. There are a lot of brains behind this and I like to give credit where credit is due. I used the references below and I primarily worked with Fred W5MGM … [Continue reading "How to install an IRLP Experimental Reflector with TheLinkBox"]

=> https://kv4s.com/2020/08/28/how-to-install-an-irlp-experimental-reflector-with-thelinkbox/

		kv4s

This article explains how to build an IRLP experimental reflector with TheLinkbox. It also induces enabling codec trans-coding, Allstar connectivity, and installing a basic dashboard.

There are a lot of brains behind this and I like to give credit where credit is due. I used the references below and I primarily worked with Fred W5MGM getting the trans-coding and Allstar working and I’m hoping I documented it all correctly if I (or someone else) ever needed to replicate this in the future.

Reference:

[http://75.127.13.79/TheLinkBox]

=> http://75.127.13.79/TheLinkBox

[http://75.127.13.79/TheLinkBox/Notes_Fred_W5MGM]

=> http://75.127.13.79/TheLinkBox/Notes_Fred_W5MGM

I setup a server on [https://virmach.com/]

=> https://virmach.com/

that was Debian 10 64bit.

Install section:

These SSH Commands Will Install TheLinkBox

cd /homewget https://github.com/wd5m/misc/raw/master/thelinkbox-compiled-debian9.tgztar xvzf thelinkbox-compiled-debian9.tgzcd /home/thelinkboxwget http://75.127.13.79/TheLinkBox/tlb.conf

Go into the file /home/thelinkbox/tlb.conf

sudo nano /home/thelinkbox/tlb.conf

Put in your personal echolink callsign and password

Then start up the linkbox with the following command

linkbox/tlb -d -f tlb.conf

After the software is installed and working to your satisfaction

you can run it in the background with this script

sudo nano /root/start

once you are in editing the start file paste this in:

!/bin/bash

sleep 1

echo -n "Changing Present Working Directory PWD to home"

cd /home/thelinkbox

echo "Done!"

sleep 1

echo -n "Update the timezone to central time... "

sleep 1

TZ='America/Chicago'; export TZ

echo "Done!"

sleep 1

echo -n "here is the current time and date"

date

sleep 1

echo -n "Starting up the Link Box "

linkbox/tlb -d -f tlb.conf >&/dev/null 2>&1 &

echo "Done!"

sleep 1

echo -n "this is the end of this script - - - "

sleep 1

echo " good bye."

exit

Now start at an fresh ssh command window and type

/root/start

to start your LinkBox in the background on the server (if the server reboots you must do this again).

Transcoding section:

Create the following script

cd /home/thelinkbox/scripts; sudo nano tlbevent.sh

Paste in:

!/bin/bash

tlbEvent script

Set path to this script in tlb.conf as: EventScript = /home/tlb/scripts/tlbEvents

There are many other things you can do from this script baesd on tlb events.

See TLB documentation.

WD5M

TLBCMD="/usr/local/bin/tlbcmd" # path to "tlbcmd" executable

Logging - calls to this function have been commented out.

function log {

    local LOGFILE=/home/tlb/log/messages

    local MESSAGE="TLB: $@"

    echo "${0##*/}:$MESSAGE"

    if [ -n "$LOGFILE" ]; then

            echo "`date '+%b %d %Y %T %z'` $MESSAGE" >> $LOGFILE

    fi

}

function linkit {

# The linkit function loops through connected users and links new connection

# Be sure to set ConfEnable = 0 in tlb.conf

#

THISCALL="${1}"

var1=$(${TLBCMD} -s ..users)

IFS=$'\n'

for line in ${var1}

do

	unset IFS

	set ${line}

	if [[ "${1}" == *[0-9]. ]]; then  # --> user number

		if [[ "${3}" == *K* ]]||[[ "${3}" == *x* ]]; then   # Kicked

			#log "${THISCALL} allready kicked or inactive: ${line}"

			continue        # Already kicked or inactive"

		fi

		if [[ "${2}" == "${THISCALL}" ]]; then

			#log "${THISCALL} skip same node: ${line}"

			continue        # skip same node

		fi

		if [[ "${3}" == *R* ]]; then   # Monitor enabled

			if [[ ${MONITOR} -eq 1 ]]; then # unlink when both enable monitor

				#log "unlink ${THISCALL} ${line}"

				JUNK=$(${TLBCMD} -s "..unlink ${THISCALL} ${2}")

			else

				#log "${THISCALL} link -m node: ${line}"

				JUNK=$(${TLBCMD} -s "..link -m ${THISCALL} ${2}")

			fi

		else

			#log "linking ${THISCALL} to ${2}"

			JUNK=$(${TLBCMD} -s "..link ${THISCALL} ${2}")

		fi

	fi

done

} # end of linkit function

${1} = see SCRIPTING.txt in tlb source.

${2} = one of "echolink" "speakfreely" "rtp" "outbound"

${3} =

${4} =

if [ "${1}" = "connected" ]; then

linkit "${3}"     # link to other ports

fi

exit 0

Save the file and make it executable with this command:

cd /home/thelinkbox/scriptschmod +x tlbevent.sh

Go into /home/thelinkbox/tlbcmd.

I copied the tlbcmd file in this directory to /usr/local/bin

To test it out I typed in

/home/thelinkbox/scripts/tlbevent.sh

In /home/thelinbox/tlb.conf

On line 29 I added ConfEnable=0

On line 30 I added EventScript = /home/thelinkbox/scripts/tlbevent.sh

I changed the CompressionType on line 37 from 3 which =GSM to 5 which = ADPCM.

Rebooted the tlb machine, when it came back up started tlb connected through remote admin on my nano node using adpcm.

It transmits packets through echolink. Echolink transmits packets back through the nano node.

Verify everything is working as expected before continuing.

ASL Section :

Thsi assumes you have [ASL ]

=> http://allstarlink.org

running on another server somewhere already

Setting up Allstar (ASL not Hamvoip):

Open ports on ASL machine:

44966 as UDP

2074 as UDP

Configure your LinkBox tlb.conf like so:

Your personal settings ######################################

; Callsign MUST be UPPERCASE and either a link "-L" or repeater "-R"

ConferenceCall = redacted

ConferencePass = redacted

ConferenceQth = redacted

EmailAdr = redacted

Echolink - no need to change these settings #################

; EchoLinkEnable = 0

ConferenceID = The Linkbox TLB

Banner = Welcome to this Echolink/IRLP conference

Banner = TLB

; Banner = This is line 3 of the Banner

MaxConferenceClients = 99

WorkingDir = /home

EnableRemoteDTMF = 0

ShowStatusInInfo = 2

DirServerHost1 = server2.echolink.org

DirServerHost2 = server3.echolink.org

DirServerHost3 = server4.echolink.org

LoginInterval = 360

StationListInterval = 600

InactiveDirTimeout = 51000

LogFileRolloverType = 1

CmdPort = 5198

ChatPort = 5199

ConfEnable = 0

EventScript = /home/thelinkbox/scripts/tlbevent.sh

BlabOffTimer = 0

speakfreely/IRLP - no need to change these settings #########

SF_Enable = 1

RTP_Pass = -

RTP_Port = 44966

SF_Port = 2074

SF_ReplyPort = 2074

FullDuplex = 1

CompressionType = 0 ; 5=ADPCM 3=GSM 0=Uncompressed/uLaw

In /etc/asterisk/modules make sure you make the tlb channel load. It’s set to noload as default.

Then you’ll configure the /etc/asterisk/tlb.conf to connect to the machine you have the linkbox on via ip address.

Note the astnode can be your public node or private. I setup a private in case I needed to disconnect it.

[tlb0]

call=callsign-something ; Call of the app_rpt station

port=44966 ; Start of UDP port range (this port, port + 1)

astnode=1995 ; app_rpt node associated with this instance (for incoming connections)

context=radio-secure ; Asterisk context for incoming connections

codec=ULAW ; Default CODEC to be used

[nodes]

1001 = W6ABC,12.34.56.78,44966 ; This one is for W6ABC at ip 12.34.56.78:44966 default CODEC

1002 = W1XYZ,11.22.33.44,1234,G726 ; This one is for W1XYZ at ip 11.22.33.44:1234 with G726 CODEC

1001 example:

1001 = KV4S-R,555.555.555.555,44966 ; direct IP address not host name.

Next use your Allmon and connect node 1001 to your astnode you defined above.

make Linkbox show IRLP stations instead of IP addresses.

/home/thelinkbox/src/conference.c change line 3025 to

bFoundCallsign = TRUE;

[tlb]

=> https://kv4s.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/tlb.zip

[Download]

=> https://kv4s.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/tlb.zip

/home/thelinkbox/linkbox

take an attached tlb and replace the tlb file that’s in there with this one.

Make it executable.

chmod +x tlb

Reboot the linbox and then restart it.

/root/start

Irlp nodes will then show up as node numbers.

Install a very basic dashboard:

Instructions found here:

[https://github.com/Russell-KV4S/TheLinkBox-Dashboard]

=> https://github.com/Russell-KV4S/TheLinkBox-Dashboard

Here is a text version in case commands or scripts are problematic copying from wordpress:

[TheLinkBox]

=> https://kv4s.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/thelinkbox.zip

[Download]

=> https://kv4s.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/thelinkbox.zip

Lastly, we found the tlb.log fills up pretty fast at some point it will crash the linkbox. At this time I’m not sure what the threshold is but if you add this to a crontab schedule of your choosing it will truncate the file:

/home/tlb.log

That should have everything working (LinkBox, Transcoding, Duplex, Allstar, and a dashboard).

Have fun!

=> 1-3681508dc67178be420215ea55a127efbca6e10a7502f9dd533ccf034b9db174

=> ..