GPS support

[khusmann]

I wanted to start a discussion here to form a strategy for asking BTech to add a feature to the firmware to request GPS location from the radio.

As previously discussed here, as far as we can tell it is not possible to request a GPS location update from the radio. This is unfortunate, because when operating with a laptop (or raspberry pi, etc), it'd be really nice to use the radio's GPS. (Note that HT_STATUS_CHANGED events and GET_HT_STATUS messages return a boolean indicating if the GPS is locked, but no GPS measurements).

In the past, BTech has been really responsive to community requests (for example, there was a lot of requests for KISS support, which they added). So I think if we can get the community to ask for this feature, there is some chance BTech will listen and get it added to the firmware. Time is of the essence, because who knows how long they will continue making firmware updates...

The challenge with this request to BTech is that it's really a developer rather than a user-facing feature... Not to mention a feature in their internal API... So I haven't tried reaching out myself yet because I'm a little worried what the response will be.

The other reason I've hesitated is because I figured it'd be a drop in the bucket without the community mobilized around it, as we did with KISS. But with @Ylianst shiny new HTCommander we now have a more user-facing app that we can use to make the argument that this feature is needed.

What are y'alls thoughts on how we can get some momentum behind this request to BTech? @TheCommsChannel do you think this would be of any interest to your audience? @na7q any thoughts?

Also tagging @georges because of his work getting the CAT control code extensions supported by their KISS implementation: https://github.com/islandmagic/kiss-tnc-hw-cmd

Perhaps we could ask for another KISS extended control code to get the radio's position? This would prob be easier conversation to have than to ask for than for them to add something to the internal API...

Thoughts?

[Ylianst]

Hi @khusmann. I am glad you started this, I certainly on board with this and may just go ahead and try to reach out to BTech/VGC and see. My current wish currently is as follows:

• Read GPS Position thru the Bluetooth interface.
• Read GPS time thru the Bluetooth interface.
• Have FX.25 built-into the radio (if not already present, I imagine it's not) or...
• Alternatively allow receive/send FX.25 frames (AX.25 with forward error correction) thru Bluetooth.
• Faster data speeds, 4800 or 9600 baud data rates.

The GPS location may have some privacy implications and so, it's possible an optional opt-in on the radio would be needed, not sure. Getting GPS time is because I intend to put a message authentication protocol in HT Commander and need to HMAC the message with somewhat accurate time. For FX.25, I am not asking the radio to support it, but with a small change to the firmware, the radio would send/receive these frames and the PC would perform Reed Solomon so the radio would not have to. This would improve the reliability of the packets by a lot. Direwolf supports it.

In general, I think this is the future. This Bluetooth protocol is a game changer for usability and I hope other vendors follow along. This radio brings the hobby into the modern times. We could ask for a KISS extension, but I just love to much being able to see and control the radio fully, it's so nice.

[TheCommsChannel]

Thank you for starting this discussion. Being able to get the GPS location from the radio would be great and is possible with a number of other radios. Getting the time would be great too, especially for JS8CALL while off-grid. I'm in contact with the firmware developer and can reach out. They may be slow to respond due to the holiday, however.

[georges]

Good thread. FWIW, I think expanding on KISS hardware command is not the right path. The QSY command is kind of a hack which makes sense in the context of TNC but not much more. Cramming other unrelated things feels wrong.

Ideally we'd have an interface similar to https://github.com/LA3QMA/TH-D74-Kenwood that exposes all the radio functionality and a way to get in/out of KISS mode.

[khusmann]

@georges I agree KISS extension is not the way to go - just including it here as a success story of BTech responding to community input. (so maybe a direction they'd consider again)

Re: Exposing all radio functionality... That is mostly solved, actually! I've reverse engineered a good portion of the native BLE / RFComm protocol, and it's all documented with a nice async python interface in this repo (benlink) You get full control over the radio, and I have full audio support coming soon. Also be sure to check out @Ylianst's C# implementation in HTCommander

So yeah, all BTech needs to do is add it to their firmware, we've got the rest covered. The question is, how do we go about asking for an upgrade to their internal API? I'm wondering how they'll react... Should we just go for it?

@Ylianst Nice list there -- @na7q has been keeping one as well (please post it here when you have the chance!). I've been thinking for a while it'd be nice to start a community wish list so we can rank them and present somewhat of a unified front in asking for these features... is that something y'all would support?

In general, I think this is the future. This Bluetooth protocol is a game changer for usability and I hope other vendors follow along. This radio brings the hobby into the modern times.

I agree!