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Software-User-Manual

1. The TNC3 memory is organised like a disc drive r With the terminal program RS other drives of the local PC may be accessed as well With the current drive is defined cd TNC3 memory NTNC3Nsoftware directory of PC cd disc etc cp copy cp filename1 filename2 copy file With cp you may copy programs text files etc from PC to TNC3 RAM or vice versa c NTNC3Ndipl scr r dipl scr copys a which was created ion the PC into TNC3 cp usr copys all files with suffix usr on a disc etc flash flash Shows type and available space of flash memory flash r same as flash followed by reset flash e asks ready to erase any key to continue q aborts If you press any key the flash is erased Cancel with the Q key The operating system is not erased with flash e flash eq as flash e the question any key to continue is omitted q quiet flash a file appends the given file into flash without erasing other files Display 1 29F010 detected Free Flash memory 4652 Bytes If there is not sufficient space Flash full is displayed TNC3 G Software S Y M E K Page 15 After successful programming the file name and length is displayed flash a may take some time to transfer the data to TNC3 flash a file file file allgiven files are stored in flash flash ae the flash is erased all files from the current directory are stored in flash This is
2. sss aa nnne is 20 AUTOPARAME TER 2 7 2 teet imr dor ps t ero e E Da aM le 28 INTELLIGENT DIGIPEATING CROSSDIGIPEATING nnne nnne 28 INTELLIGENT GONNEGT rir erc x Eee Rr Fare YR E evades 29 FRAME COLLECT MEME 29 USING TNC3S AS A PERSONAL MAILBOX 30 WHAT ISTHE ENG93BOX eee opcm tere nian ae 30 How TOSTART INGSBOX nr kek edad hades band e e prev ee 30 HOW TO CONNECT TO THE BOX ann 31 How DOES THE TNC3BOX 11 2 31 CONNECT DISCONNECT PRESENT DAY INFO AND 31 TING3SBOXOGOMMANDS 5 22 tes Eee ee dae Ae el eiue Alex 32 32 2 5 Y M E K TNC3 G Software TNC3BOX Data Security Concept eese esent nenne tenete 35 TNC3BOX Sysop Commoandis eerte 36 SPECIAL FEATURES dd Id nu RIEN REALI NEIN a 38 Backup of TNC3BOX vccsecsssesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssscssscsssssssssssecsssssssscssscsuscsssssssessuecsssssssscssecssecessssss
3. Starting a Program directly from Disk Starting RS with non Default Settings eee 11 PC SOFTWARE FOR TNCS3 12 GENERAL HINTS ON HOSTMODE SOFTWARE 12 HINISEORSP ESKAY 3 dee ee ae 13 OPERATING SYSTEM OF 35 14 WHAT HAPPENS ATPOWER ON se cec duces cessat Puce coda Geils code cedere dt eode nennen 14 OPERATING SYSTEM 8 eene nnnnnn nnn nnn nn nennen 15 OPERATION WITH TNC3 TURBO FIRMWARE enne 18 START OF TURBOFIRMWARE een nen enne 18 MEANING OF THE LEDs CON AND 2 2 4 4 014 2 21 2 0444449 18 RE a 18 DIRECT PORT SELECTION WHEN CONNECTING emen nnn nnne nennen nnn nnn 19 SETTING THE DEFAULT PORT 1 eene nnne nnn nennen nnne a nnne nennen 19 THE TURBO FIRMWARE 20 VERSIONS OF THE TNC3 een nennen ener renean 20 COMMAND nennen nenne
4. So the TNC3S behaves similar to TNC31 Page 14 5 Y M E K TNC3 G Software 2 The TNC checks if a file with the name DIPxx scr is available in flash EPROM or RAM If found it is executed xx means the setting of the DIP switches 4 8 If there is no matching script file the file DIPxx apl is searched and executed 3 If there are no matching files the operation system displays Error 17 Programm nicht gefunden You may now start a program manually Preset with TNC31 is the file DIP1 scr cd r rsconf 19200 1 no TNC3boxd This script sets the search path of TNC3 to internal TNC RAM ROM interface set to 19200 Baud 1 stop bit no parity finally the application TNC3BOXD APL is started Operating System Commands As the TNC3 normally starts a application program automatically at power on you have to leave this programs and return to the operating system with e g the Esc QUIT command Some commands of TNC3 operating system which refers to the file system of the PC can be executed only if the special terminal program RS is used cd cp 11 1s more rm the operating system commands are similar to the unix language The commands are executed when the operating system prompt r gt appears on the screen Filenames are given as used with MS dos directory names are written with the backslash or alterna tively by slashes With some commands wildcards or are allowed cd change directory cd path
5. 2 60 mitter remains keyed after a data packet has been sent Before transmitting a next packet the transmitter needs not to be keyed up again and the waiting tx delay is omitted The function is available also with the RSKISS TRKISS and HSKISS mode el 0 128 30 I poll The i poll is a additional improvement of the AX 25 protocol The default value 30 needs not to be changed K KISS mode Set the TNC to KISS mode The KISS program in EPROM RSKISS APL will be run More information about KISS see opera tion of TNC3 with KISS P 0 255 240 Set protocol id for this channel For 25 packet radio the normal PID is 240 FO Other PID are used only for special communication modes e g PACSAT frames together with specific terminal programs as DP Note The PID defined with the P command is not stored in RAM and will be reset to 240 at power on S Channel status Shows the link status of a AX 25 connect T2 0 4000 ap T2 timer Unit milliseconds ms If autoparameter AP is enabled the T2 timer is set automatically to the average length of a I frame depends on modem baudrate T2 defines the time between reception of a frame and transmitting the acknowledge packet T2 can be read out but not changed T3 0 200000 180000 T3 timer Unit milliseconds ms The T3 or link activity timer is used to check within regular time intervals if a connection still exists To reduce channel traffic T3
6. ARP address resolution protocol translates different IP addresses of two linked networks e g amateur radio calls to IP addresses and vice versa How Does a PC Communicate with TNC Using TCP IP The hardware has not to be changed the TNC3 remains connected to the COM port of PC data is exchanged serial via RS232 But there is a protocol for TCP IP corresponding to the usual hostmode or KISS which is called SLIP serial link transfer protocol The PC has to run a program which enables the PC to exchange data with the TNC in SLIP format Such programs are widespread Everybody who has an internet access has the possibility to exchange data in SLIP format using his internet communication program The SLIP programs are known as Trumpet Winsock and will normally run as a windows application Of cause there exists such programs for other operating systems and other hardware plat forms especially for UNIX based systems TCP IP drivers as KA9Q internet package for KISS WAMPES NOS etc are well known Start of a TCP IP Connection When starting the TNC with a Turbo Firmware including the SLIP command the TNC reacts as usual With the ESCAPE key the callsign and other parameters may be set and a TCP IP node may be con nected The monitor function should be disabled with ESCAPE M N As soon as the connect is estab lished you have to switch the TNC to SLIP mode and start your Trumpet Winsock or similar program on the PC The command SL
7. xon xoff flow control 28 Page 50 S Y M E TNC3 G Software Ideal for High Speed Packet Radio SYMEK Data transceiver TRX4S 1200 Baud to 153 kBaud FSK and AFSK less than 1 ms TX Delay 25 Watt HF 430 440 MHz fully programmable Suited for reception of high speed satellites UO 12 38 kBaud Software users manual TNC3 TNC31 Issue 11 7 1999 T3SOFT G Production distribution SYMEK Datensysteme u Elektronik GmbH U Kumm DK9SJ Address D 70597 Stuttgart Sonnenberg Johannes Kr mer Stra e 34 Phone 49 711 76 78 923 Fax 49 711 76 78 924 Hotline 49 711 76 54 911 http symek com e mail info symek com
8. 31 1 If the script file of TNC31 configures the RS232 with a wrong baudrate press the internal reset button while connecting the power The TNC will start now with 19200 Baud and you may edit DIP1 scr now If the file remains unchanged the TNC will start after next reset with the old settings The TNC3S can be totally reset by setting all 5 DIP switches 4 to 8 up When applying power all data in RAM is erased 2 If the flash EPROM contains wrong data or programs you may erase it with the flash er com mand see operating system commands You can restore now all required programs and files from PC 3 If you have programmed wrong settings within the Turbo Firmware or TNC3BOX you may erase these with the TF command ESC QRES completely Do not forget to restore your callsign and TX delay later When parameter X transmit enable is set to 0 the TNC cannot transmit For normal operation X has to be set to 1 4 If problems with the mailbox occur you may erase single or all related files from RAM You can do this from the operating system level or when logged in from the mailbox sysop command level 5 Some extreme errors can be fixed only by totally erasing the RAM Remove the RAM chip from the Socket wait a minute and re insert it again Now absolutely all information is erased 6 If the boot sector containing the operating system of TNC3 had been affected the TNC may not respond any more In this case the flash EPROM has to
9. Binary file for TNC31 EPROM The file may be programmed to an EEPROM by an EPROM programmer into a AM 29F040 and used in a TNC3 later 8 Bit boot EPROM The EPROM will contain ONLY the operating system Newer OS releases and the appli cation files has to be appended later The file is only used for creating new boot EEPROMSs Only block 0 is used 64 Kbytes Binary file for TNC3 EPROM Lower The file may be programmed to an EEPROM by an EPROM programmer into a AM 29F010 and used together with the corresponding Upper EPROM in a TNC3 later 16 Bit boot EPROM The EPROM will contain ONLY the oper ating system Only block 0 is used 16 Kbytes Binary file for TNC3 EPROM Upper like 101 To be used only together with the match ing file 10L in TNC3S There are two different apl files The more important relocatable apl files can be stored in flash with the flash a xxx apl The file created by this process in EPROM is no more relocatable and belongs now to the other type of apl files which can be only copied to RAM or disc with the cp command Those apl s can be executed by typing the filename This file absolute contains the complete contents of a flash EPROM and can be copied into flash Use update of the operating system There are abs files on the disc containing only the operating system Script file executes operating system commands Special file dipl scr is executed automatically after power on reset of TNC31 ot
10. Ing B ro Kumm Stuttgart The content of this manual may be published and spread as long as there is a indication of the source It is our aim to give a fresh impetus to packet radio and to inspire as many radio amateurs on this fascinat ing subject as possible We refuse any liability any damage or loss caused by use of our products Every user has to be aware that any kind of malfunction caused by hardware or software failure is possible Page 48 S Y M E K TNC3 G Software mailbox erase 38 INDEX modem port define default 22 monitor 26 monitor mode 9 3 Net 48 multi port messages 22 6 pack 47 mycall 25 attach TCP IP 40 Netscape 42 autoparameter 21 28 Node Software 48 Autoparameter 21 operating system see OS 15 backup of TNC3BOX 38 OS cd change dir 15 baudrates 17 OS cp copy file 15 beeper enable 21 OS flash 15 bit error test 42 OS help 16 callsign check 24 OS Il and Is list 16 callsign definition 25 OS more 16 channel selection 27 OS path 16 channels maximum 28 OS rdir 16 channels number 18 cold start command 16 CON LED 18 connect 24 connect text 27 connect first 7 connection to Computer 5 Copyright 48 cross digipeating 27 CTEXT txt 32 DAMA 18 dama digipeating 29 data transceiver fast 21 datagram 42 digipeating 27 digipeating intelligent 28 disconnect 9 24 duo baud enable 21 duplex 23 enable transmitter 27 EPROM s new 47 erase of TNC3BOX 38 OS reset 16 OS rm remove fi
11. as the login script 9 restart Win95 to activate the new settings 10 With a double click to the new icon in the workbench remote network folder the TCPIP connection with the digipeater is established Now you may start any TCPIP applications Netscape FTP etc Page 44 S Y M E TNC3 G Software SCRIPT FILES Basics If the TNC3 is in operating system mode you may type system commands which are executed immedi ately But it is also possible as with other operating systems to create scripts batch files containing some operating system commands which are executed by calling the script A script with a special name dip1 scr is always started after power on or other reset commands Within this script the RS232 configuration is defined and the application program is started cd r path r rsconf 19200 1 no TNC3boxd This is the normal script file dip1 scr After reset the RS232 is configured and the TNC3 mailbox is started With TNCS the rsconf should be omitted to allow the setting of the baudrate with the DIP Switches With TNC31 no switches the rsconf is necessary to define RS232 settings at power on To change the configuration you create a new script file and stores it with the name dipl scr EEPROM With every change writing some few bytes of EEPROM memory space is lost until the total EEPROM is erased with flash ea and the EEPROM is completely re written with all user files A file which has b
12. further attach lines have to be added ATTACH KISS parent channel label parent is the physical interface initialised previously with attach channel is the channel number which is to be used by the TNC 0 is for the first Modem 1 for the second Example ATTACH KISS tnc1 1 ax1 makes the second channel available as ax1 Page 40 S Y M E K TNC3 G Software SYSTEM AND MODEM TEST PROGRAM The system and modem test program is suited for testing the TNC3 main board and the attached mo dems For using SYSTEST you need any terminal program on your PC e g RS EXE When starting SYSTEST from the operating system you get the screen Systemtest fuer TNC3 System 5 Speicher u Uhr RTC p Prozessor 1 Modem 1 2 Modem 2 3 Modem 3 1 LED amp Sound watchdog a lle Tests D auertest R x Modem Test q Tests beenden the menu is self explaining and could be operated without problems SzSpeichertest memory test The RAM is tested continuously memory size is displayed Quit by pressing any key UzUhr testen und stellen test and set real time clock Date and time is displayed continuously day of the week month date time year With S set the time and date may be set Enter the valid time in the format DD MM YY HH MM SS with blanks as delimit ers Quit the clock set program with Q quit L LED test The four LED light one after the other until any key is pressed Note The C
13. needs some seconds writing the block needs about the same time The TNC3 operating system occupies approx 32 Kbytes memory space in flash EPROM With TNC3 two Flash EPROM s with 8x 16 Kbytes blocks each the operating system is written to block 0 of both flashs The TNC31S with one 128 Kbytes 8 blocks 16 Kbytes each uses block 0 and 1 of the flash TNC31SX with 512 Kbytes 8 blocks 64 k each uses only block 0 of flash EPROM The memory blocks in which the operating system is stored can be erased only by a special command When you write unsuitable data into flash the operating system will be not affected So it is make sure that the TNC always responds and that you can attempt to load the programs again TNC3 G Software S Y M E K Page 5 If the operating system has to be updated it is necessary to erase block 0 and block 1 of TNC31 and re store the new operating system immediately If this procedure fails you will have to pull the flash EPROM s and reprogram them in a EPROM programmer New unprogrammed flash EPROM have to be pre programmed with a TNC3 operation system in a suitable EPROM programmer before use in TNC3 31 Contents of the Flash EPROM The available memory space in flash is 96 Kbytes TNC31S 224 Kbytes TNC3S or 448 Kbytes TNC31SX in the blocks 1 to 7 You may program any files into this memory space The small EPROM of TNC31S offers space for only one packet firmware e g TF or TNC3BOX with typical 70 80 Kb
14. of the box shows all users currently logged on Sysops are marked with a asterisk U DE1XYZ z NE shows more info about the user DL1XYZ Up lists all users ever logged on TNC3BOX Data Security Concept To become sysop you have to execute the XSYS command If a user is allowed to become sysop de pends on the setting of the security levels Security Level 0 every user who executes the XSYS command is sysop Security Level 1 XSYS asks for a password each user who answers the pass word correctly becomes sysop The password is not requested when the user connects the box via pseudo port 0 local RS232 Security Level 2 sysop authorisation only for local users connecting via pseudo port 0 RS232 No password check required As the passwords can be monitored by everybody via radio a special password method as usual with NetNode had been selected The password string is defined by the sysop and has a length of 10 characters minimum The string must not contain blanks spaces We use the string PASSWORTZEICHENKETTE as example XSYS asks now by random for five characters of the string Example XSYS prints 731212 TNC3 G Software S Y M E K Page 35 Fe EESTI Ea Es a a E E OR REEF The user who wants to become sysop answers with a string which is composed of characters out of
15. sense when the tx delay is set to 0 avail able from firmware 1 80 Help returns a list of the available TNC commands Low power mode The default setting is low power mode i e the CPU is switched off when there is no data to be processed to save power A useful side effect the radiated noise of the TNC is reduced significantly For high speed applications gt 38 kBaud the low power mode should be disabled TNC3 G Software SYMEK Page 21 mpm port ps slip ver B Page 22 0 1 0 2 Multi port messages 0 normal messages as used by the 2 TNC two 1 output of port number with every message 1 or 2 The TNC3 is recognised as a multiport TNC by GP graphics packet PC program only if mpm is on With some programs e g SP 6 the port numbers cause confusion mpm should be off 0 X Net works proper with SP when mpm is set to 0 Define default modem port For each TNC channel a separate modem port may be defined Connects are tried via this port if a the port was not given explicitly with the connect command see connect and b if the called station does not occur in the heard list of the TNC see intelligent digipeating and intelligent connect Port 0 is a pseudo port which is used for connecting the internal TNC3 mailbox Port 0 Mailbox Port 1 Modem 1 Port 2 Modem 2 Process status for test only SLIP mode not available with EPROM 5 9 9 With slip 1 the serial in
16. the file If drive r is active from the TNC3 memory rm c tnc abc doc erases the file from the PC drive C Em i nL pede erases all files with suffix hpl from TNC3 memory rm r dip scr removes all files starting with dip from TNC3 memory Remarks you may erase files apparently from EPROM These files will not really removed from EPROM but only from a temporary file table After a reset the files re appear again status SLat sae oreet shows system parameter System Status Value System variables 2F0h Address RAM 524288 Bytes Stack 8192 Bytes Program start 800h Address Free memory 513796 Bytes DIP switch 1 Clock frequency 14 745 MHz program name When typing a program file name the TNC3 operating systems searches starting with the defined path for a file with the ending scr or apl and executes that file Example Sysbestu cs neri executes the program SYSTEST APL If xyz apl is not found TNC Error 17 Program not found is displayed rsconf SCONE GN XX RS 232 configuration setting of baudrate stop bits and parity Allowed baudrates 75 150 300 600 1200 2400 4800 9600 19200 38400 57600 115200 Baud stop bits 1 or 2 parity no even odd Example rsconf 9600 1 no sets RS232 to 9600 Baud 1 stop bit no parity The new configuration is set immediately sometimes before the command is acknowledged So the last characters of the answer are sent using the new set
17. the monitor channel and no connect is possible Let s use channel 1 by typing lt ESC gt S 1 set channel to 1 CHANNEL NOT CONNECTED This message means that channel 1 is not busy So we can start a connect here c 1 DBOXYZ CONNECTED to 1 DBOXYZ Instead of 1 DBOXYZ you should enter the call of the packet station you want to connect If some sec onds later the message CONNECTED to 1 DBOXYZ appears you succeeded in establishing your first packet radio connect with TNC3S Suppose following Murphy s law this message is not displayed Instead you read c 1 DBOXYZ 1 LINK FAILURE with 1 DBOXYZ Now lets start trouble shooting First the monitor mode is enabled again m usic and we try the connect again c 1 DBOXYZ 1 fm DL1XYZ to DBOXYZ ctl SABM All AX 25 packets which are transmitted or received are shown on the screen The first call should be yours the second the one of the station called If both calls are correct your inputs have been correct Now check if the PTT led of the correct modem lights when executing the connect command Check if the radio goes on air as long as the PTT led lights Is the frequency correct Do you have to use a shift for a duplex digipeater If the frequency is busy and the monitor mode is enabled and there are no pack ets to read on the screen maybe there is a receiver problem Before fighting these problems too long it is better to ask a experienced operato
18. their size XSYS KON Sio do apply for becoming sysop If the security level is set to 1 the user is asked for a password See above XSYS returns no message if the password authorisation fails So a foreign listener cannot decide if the previous given password was correct or intentionally false If the XSYS command procedure was successful it can be tested by the U users command Sysops are marked with a asterisk in the list XTP Extended TNC Paclen TNC3 G Software S Y M E K Page 37 Means the maximum packet length for packets transmitted by the box Set XTP 256 with Flexnet part ners set XTP to 236 when linking to NetNode digipeaters hence ENSE URS show packet length used by the box DA EPA TE Set packet length to 236 Bytes Special Features If a user does not input any data to the box for more than 1 hour the box assumes he forgot to log out The box outputs TIMEOUT and disconnects the user Both red LEDs STA on the TNCS will blink if a mail for the sysop arrived The blinking does not stop until the message has been read or deleted For the names of the boards some rules have to be observed They should contain only alphanumeric characters and must not exceed a length of 8 characters If the names contain special characters or graphic symbols the warning Mail can t be stored is returned Problems occur when using the hyphen Such boards can be created but not read out Every mail which is ad
19. with all common hostmode programs But some special points should be observed notevery PC and not every program can run terminal baudrates more than 19200 Baud in many cases TxDelay T and persistence P is set by the configuration table of the programs Make sure to give these values in milliseconds ms e g it may be necessary to change INI T 30 to INI T 300 The persistence should be NOT set this parameter will better be calculated by the auto matic evaluation of the optimum persistence when using the TNC3BOX we recommend you de initialise Y to 0 before switching off the computer So any incoming connect is routed to the TNC3BOX as the parameters are stored in the battery backup RAM of TNCS they are still present after power off So it is not necessary to set them afresh with every start of the PC You should set only those parameters by the PC which are really necessary to be changed and leave the others unchanged There are many free hostmode programs available in the Internet e g WinGT X Packet TOP paxon WINPR easypacket etc Find out which software suits best to your requirements Hints for SP ESKAY SP is a well known program for packet radio For that reason there exist some different versions of SP From version SP 9 0 the TNC3 features are supported The TNC3 may be used with elder SP versions as well but you should switch the multiport messages off see Turbo Firmware command mpm Pag
20. 1 80 The subsequent packets which had been received correctly are already stored in the receiving TNC and need not to be repeated So the receiving TNC collects the good packets unnecessary repeating of correct received packets is avoided TNC3 G Software S Y M E K Page 29 USING TNC3S AS A PERSONAL MAILBOX SYSTEM The TNC3BOX turns the TNC3 into an effective mailbox system which runs without an attached PC It is almost not as powerful as a big mailbox The programs TNC3BOXD apl and TNC3BOX apl contain the same commands as the TF Turbofirm ware described above In addition these programs offer powerful mailbox functions in English TNC3BOX or German TNC3BOXD language runs parallel to normal TNC operation multi user capability public and private boards check and list output compatible with standard mailboxes automatic news function for present day news output of sign on and sign off text files when connecting disconnecting pass connect when being connected to the box requires at least 256 Kbytes RAM Power on message of the TNC3BOX e g ckckckck kk kk HighSpeedTNC3 ckckckck kck kk Multi Modem Firmware Emulation TNC3BOX Version 1 34 932199 by Jimy DL1GJI 20 channel for Firmware ki 10 1 for ck ck ck ck ck Sk kk kk kk ke ke KKK KKK Modem 1 1200 Baud What is the TNC3BOX The TNC3BOX is a TNC3 firmware with integrated mailb
21. 1 for Firmware x 10 1 for TNC3BOX KKK KKK KKK Modem 1 9600 Baud If not check the connection of TNC and PC If only strange characters appear the baudrate parity or word length 7 8 bit might be wrong Some terminal programs show German Umlaute instead of the brackets Most terminal programs can be configured to avoid this Commands are entered by typing the escape lt ESC gt key The TNC3 prompts with a single when this asterisk is at the beginning of a line the TNC expects a command string Let s have a QSO on channel 1 First we define our callsign lt ESC gt I DK4SE enter the callsign Where DK4SE represents YOUR callsign to be stored in the TNC To check just type lt ESC gt I check the callsign the previous set call will be displayed DK4SE Page 8 S K TNC3 G Software If your radio is connected properly you could try to receive packet signals Enable monitor mode lt ESC gt M USIC set monitor display all received packets From now all AX 25 packets are displayed on the screen Before starting our first connect we shall switch the monitor mode off again the other users on the same frequency may disturb you if the monitor mode is still active Let s switch the monitor mode off lt ESC gt MN monitor off Before entering the connect command we have to select a channel first When starting channel 0 is selected but this is
22. 8 2 D Cm 49 TNC3 G Software S Y M E K Page 3 PREFACE The expression packet radio appeared first in 1982 From the first experiments a world wide data net for amateur radio has been developed Meanwhile packet radio has become one of the most important operating modes The reason therefore is that packet radio is not only used by amateurs with a special interest on digital operating modes but also by a increasing number of amateurs who prefer packet radio as a very useful tool for information inter change and spreading all kinds of news regarding all fields of the hobby To be up to date as a radio amateur it is important to read the mailboxes occasionally To write a short memo to a friend there is nothing better as to write a mail via packet radio While lying in wait for a rare short wave dx station it is necessary to have access to a packet dx cluster With the TNC3S or TNC31S you own a device which represents the top of today s packet radio technol ogy It is suited for operating a user s standard packet station as well as for special applications as digipeater mailbox tnc high speed controller etc The manual will help you to use the software of TNC3 31 in a optimal way About connecting the radio please refer to the manuals supplied with the modems for information on the hardware please use the hardware manual supplied with the TNC If there are problems to set up and operate the TNC3 please read this manual carefully
23. I Y 0 Y 0 makes automatic connect to box TNC3 G Software SYMEK Page 13 Hints on GP GP runs quite well with the TNC3 Note GP cannot be used with computers faster than Pentium 100 It offers some special options for multiport TNCs We shall not describe these options as they are covered by the GP manual The following explains the basic settings of the CONFIG GP file If you want not to use the multiport TNC options you can disable the multiport messages with mpm lt ESC gt mpm 0 The TNC is not recognised as a multiport TNC by GP but like a TNC2 INC Initialisation TNCINI QVO TNCINI H2 TNCINI Hl TNCINI Kl callsign check off heard list clear heard liste enable time display off At TNC deinitialisation you have to decide if Turbo Firmware or TNC3BOX is to be used For Turbo Firmware without box reconnect with Q is enabled TNC deinitialisation TNCDEI U2 PC is off pse msg in box INCDEI K2 display time on For Turbo Firmware with box TNC3BOX the automatic box connect is enabled INC deinitialisation TNCDEI Ul PC off you are connected to the box TNCDEI YO INCDEI K2 display time on OPERATING SYSTEM OF TNC3S The operating system of the TNCS packet controller is a program which controls the execution of the application programs like hostmode KISS TF24 mailbox NetNode etc which are stored in the EPROM or RAM memory At power on the operating system is started first a
24. IP can be compared with the OK command which causes the TNC to switch to KISS mode or AT for Hayes mode All SLIP IP packets which will be sent from the host PC to the TNC will be transmitted via the existing connection to the connected IP node using the PID CC All received packets containing the PID CC are sent to the host computer After SLIP 1 has been set you start the communication program Trumpet Winsock on the PC Im portant MTU has to be set to 236 MSS to 512 The baudrate corresponds to the setting of the DIP TNC3 G Software S Y M E K Page 43 switches on the TNC3 main board With the PING command you can verify the connection PC TNC If the TNC transmits data packets via radio when executing PING but no answer is returned the remote station has to be configured by adding the correct ARP and route entries Switching the TNC to SLIP mode can be initiated by a dialup scrip of Trumpet Winsock in the TCPMAN window of Trumpet this login may be executed manually This window may also be used to have a normal AX 25 QSO Unfortunately this window does not accept the escape character For that reason the TNC3 accepts the TAB character instead of escape as soon as SLIP 1 is set TCP IP routing is not supported by this standard software For node applications TheNet FlexNet and TCP IP Routing the ThreeNet software for TNC3 is available Remote Data Network with TNC3 and Windows95 you need a new version of Windows 95 or W
25. If your problem cannot be solved with the manual ask your dealer for help The TNC3 was developed by Roland Alber DG8GAD and Joachim Scherer DL1GJI in the years 1991 1993 The first prototypes of TNC3 have been operating since 1992 as user TNC or even as digipeater From time to time there are new software releases available You may download these versions from internet http symek com or order an update which comes with a disc and new software manual The hardware of TNC3S and TNC31 differs significantly However the software is identical So this manual is valid for TNC3 and TNC31 as well The hardware manual supplied with your TNC remains valid even when the software has been changed So keep it and replace only the software manual when updating the programs in Flash EPROM TNC3 in this manual represents the whole family TNC3S TNC31S TNC31SX etc The translation was done by Ulf Kumm DK9SJ Any comments about this manual and its translation are welcome The table of contents will be found at the beginning of this manual The index at the end of the booklet will be useful to find the desired information We hope you enjoy the use of your TNC IMPORTANT This manual describes the TNC3S with the printed circuit board revision K The former TNC3S boards have different technical data 13 07 99 Ulf Kumm DK9SJ ap DKS Page 4 SYMERK TNC3 G Software CONNECTION TO THE COMPUTER See the hardware manual wh
26. ON and STA LEDs of chan nel 0 are not present P Processor Test The 68302 processor is tested and system data is displayed until any key is pressed W Watchdog Test Display Watchdog Test durchf hren j n do really watchdog test j yes n no When pressing j this test is started After a 1 5 sec delay the watchdog circuit generates a reset of the tnc3 If the tnc3 s programs run properly a regular watchdog trigger pulse is present avoiding the tnc to be resetted by the watchdog hardware The test program stops this trigger pulse intentionally causing the watchdog to bite This causes the system reset the TNC3 shows the sign on message as if the power had been cycled A watchdog test causes a intentional system crash which ends the system test program too 1 Test of Modem 1 The modem test evaluates the baudrate of the built in modem by counting the transmit clock cycles for a fixed time interval The baudrates are rounded to the nearest usual baudrate Don t care If the baudrate found by the modem test program is not exactly the real modem baud rate The baudrate shown is only for your information and has no meaning of general effect TNC3 G Software SYMEK Page 41 F send flags PTT is keyed and flags are sent continuously until any key is pressed Note After some seconds of continuous transmitting the modem s watchdog will interrupt the transmission The number of transmitted flags is set to the maximum value After having tran
27. XYZ has to be logged on of course MSG is used to send a message to other users currently logged on If the user is not logged on MSG is changed to SEND and the message will be stored in his private board For test purposes you may send a message to yourself NAME The NAME command stores your name with your call The name will be used with later login and logout texts for listing the users and for sending messages NAME sets the user name to Joe NAME cniin encre terne returns the stored name NEWS NEWS shows the contents of the file NEWS TXT This file is stored by the box sysop NEWS ae lists the current news PS is a special command for the TNC3BOX all processes currently running in the TNC are shown The command is intended for debugging PS lists all processes currently active QUIT With QUIT you may leave the box The box will send the goodbye message DTEXT TXT and disconnect QUIT leave the box The box sends the text DTEXT TXT and disconnects READ READ is the counterpart to SEND With READ messages are retrieved from the box anand read all messages of the selected board fead message no 3 of the selected board PE read messages no 3 to 6 of the selected board Gra d XXV read all messages to DL1XYZ Page 34 S Y M E K TNC3 G Software read messages no 1 to 3 for DL1XYZ read message no 3 board ALL read a
28. am number 0 or quit the running application with esc quit or start the TNC31 with the reset key pressed start RS EXE on your PC The r gt prompt will appear Hint the baudrate and the COM interface of the PC have to be set correctly default COM2 and 19200 Baud RS232 The RS options are shown when typing rs Now copy the TNC3 application program which is stored on your PC disc into the TNC3 RAM cp b tf apl r cp b dipl2 apl r Now run the new application by typing e g t from the operating system prompt Or you change the autostart script dipl scr to start the desired software automatically at power on With TNC3 other dip scripts dip1 to dip30 may be defined for starting a selectable autostart batch file With the cp command the application program is copied to the TNC3 ram disc and stored permanently Verify by typing 11 when the RS terminal program is running and the prompt r gt is displayed If there is another prompt set the drive to TNC3 RAM by typing ed r first If you use not COM or not 19200 Baud you have to add the RS options The commands which should be executed when running RS may be defined immediately when calling RS e g rs b 57600 c 1 cp b apl tf apl r tf apl The TNC3 operating system does not always support file names with wildcards in the same way as the PC dos operating system It is necessary to type the filenames in a more detailed way The files shown when executing 11 reside ge
29. ards are not allowed with XERAS the filename has to be given completely XPW Extended Password XPW makes it possible to define the password which will be used by the sysop authorisation with the command XSYS depending on setting of security level XP Wire uum e ben Ud eb Returns the current password Via radio for safety reasons only the length of the password will be shown XPW TNCSMAILBOX The password is defined to TNC3MAILBOX A minimum length of 6 characters gt 15 recommended is required blank spaces are not allowed but special characters are Important If there is no password defined or if the password length is less than 7 characters the XSYS and password question is disabled XREAD Extended Read makes it possible to read any files from the TNC3 ramdisc It could be used for example to check the content of the files CTEXT TXT or NEWS TXT XREAD CTEXT TXT read the file CTEXT TXT XSLV Extended Security Level defines the security level of the box it defines how difficult it is to become sysop no security everybody entering XSYS becomes sysop password check is necessary Sysop only via rs232 not possible via radio XST Extended Statistics shows useful statistical information for the sysop REP da ea lee shows how much memory is used for mails boards etc and how much memory is free XOT oos a An ot shows all files and
30. be erased and reprogrammed with a suited EPROM programmer Sixpack Software 6pack For node operation you may connect some TNC3 and TNC2 in a token ring configuration The system is controlled by a PC which is part of the ring with the Flex Packet software All data and control informa tion are transferred in a special protocol via the serial interface through the ring To use a TNC3 31 within such a ring the 6pack apl software is required More information on 6pack is supplied together with the 6 pack documentation Net Node Software for TNC31 X Net There exists an excellent software for TNC3 and TNC31 which makes perfect and powerful node opera tion possible with one or more TNC3 The X Net Software can be downloaded free all functions are clearly described in a thick manual Address http www qsl net dl1gji or links from http symek com TNC3 G Software SYMEK Page 47 There are different versions of X Net available for TNC3 and TNC31 512 Kbytes RAM or more is rec ommended for Net Node operation The X Net copyright is owned by the X Net programmers SYMEK cannot give any support related to X Net X Net is not a SYMEK product COPYRIGHT ON TNC HARD AND SOFTWARE The basis for all programs running on the TNC3 is the TNC3 Betriebssystem operating system For those programs there exists copyright to Joachim Scherer DL1Gul all other rights especially for the board layout and the schematics belong to SYMEK GmbH or to
31. can be used only with the TNC3S with two modems For use of the intelligent digipeating option the heard list has to be enabled lt ESC gt h 1 see H command If a packet is to be digpeated via the TNC3 there are two ports possible to retransmit the packet It can be passed to the port where it had been received from normal digipeating or it can be forwarded to the other port cross digipeat In practice both modes of digipeating are used even simulta neously With the information of the AX 25 packets and the heard list the TNC3 may decide independ ently which port is to be used for forwarding the received frame If a packet is addressed to callsign DBOXYZ and this call was heard on port 1 the TNC3 will retransmit it to that port and doesn t care where it had been received from When cross digipeating R 2 is selected the packets are transmitted always on the other port in each case If a packet is to be digipeated and the destination call is not found in the heard list it will be retransmitted on the port where it has been received Nodes working as DAMA master expect a immediate answer from the polled stations If the remote station is not connected directly but via any AX 25 digipeater DAMA does not work and eventually the DAMA timing master gets totally confused This fact has to be considered when extending the range of a node by using a TNC3 crossdigipeater Remedy the users within the range of the TNC3 crossdigipeater con
32. ct All packets containing TCP IP datagrams are marked with the PID protocol identifier CC The TCP IP programs of TNCS will exchange the datagrams ONLY if a ax 25 L2 connect had been established before virtual circuit When monitoring packet radio communication TCP IP packets are unreadable in most cases they contain control characters which confuse most of the terminal programs Most TNCs will suppress all packets with unknown pid as CC and will avoid such problems like that What is TCP IP good for TCP IP supports some different TCP services to which certain ports are assigned in the node servers These are e g FTP file transfer protocol for transfer of files TELNET is used for remote login on distant computers SMTP simple mail transfer protocol exchanges e mail FINGER lists the stations logged on and supplies more information about the system NNTP network news transfer protocol is used for forwarding of news messages The PING function causes a station to transmit immediately an answer packet for confirming the connect and for measuring the round trip time of the connection Further expressions IP internet protocol means the routing protocol which controls the forwarding and routing of the information within the net TCP transfer control protocol guarantees like AX 25 a con nection oriented connect which is protected against errors UDP user datagram protocol manages procedures for error protection of datagrams
33. d The command flash The operating system contains a command flash to erase and program the flash memory The complete syntax of flash is described later in the chapter TNC3 operating system Step 1 Which data do you want to transfer into flash EPROM of TNC3 The TNC3 disc contains Some programs and accessory files for TNCS other files may be downloaded from Internet http symek com or via packet radio We recommend that you create a directory on your hard disc where you collect all files which will be transferred into TNC3 later With a PC the commands would be mkdir CATNC3SOFT or when using the Windows 95 Explorer you click C and execute file new directory Now copy all required files into the new directory copy from file c TNC3SOFT or use drag amp draw with the Explorer Create a complete collection of files to be copied into TNC3 and take check if they will fit all in the available space keep the directory you may exchange files later and repro gram the TNC again Start with the bigger files and append the smaller files last Step 2 Connect the TNC3 to your computer as usual and start the RS program Step 3 If the TNC3 is not in the operating system mode exit the running application e g with the ESC QUIT command The prompt r gt must appear on the screen Step 4 Now execute the flash command and copy the whole directory C TNC3SOFT into flash The command line should read flas
34. dressed to a user who is not known to the box is treated as public mail As soon as the user logs on first the public board is converted in a private one With the commands r 1 call m uisc call 4c call and XCON call some mailbox functions may be allowed or locked for certain calls The lists of the calls are stored in files with the suffix LST on the TNC3 ramdisc and can be read or edited there The TNC3BOX is able in connection with terminal programs as GP SP to store binary files The men tioned programs contain utilities autobin for sending and retrieving binary data Backup of TNC3BOX The program BOXBACK APL can be found on the TNC3 accessory disc and executed using the RS terminal program It stores all mailbox related data to a PC drive and vice versa The program is self explaining The complete box may be backed up to disc e g A manually 1 run RS EXE 2 to operating system mode ESC quit The TNC3 operating system prompt appears r 3 to save the complete TNC3BOX contents to the disc type cp CFG BOX URB BRB USR HLP LST a 4 to restore the TNC3BOX from disc type in the same way cd a cp CFG BOX URB BRB USR HLP LST r cd r Resetting the TNC3BOX erasing Box 1 run RS EXE or RS TOS 2 go to operating system mode ESC quit The TNC3 operating system prompt appears r 3 the command line rm BOX CFG BOX URB BRB USR HLP LST wi
35. e For TNC3BOX operation at least 256 Kbytes RAM are required If there are no apl programs or large data files stored in RAM the working space for mailbox data is 155 kb approximately With 1 MByte the storage space is over 940 Kbytes with 2 Mbytes the space is almost 2000 Kbytes After starting the mailbox some parameters are set as usual First define i MYCALL to avoid transmit ting without a valid callsign Further it is important to set autoparameter on ap 1 and eventually low power mode off faster 0 With the TNC command 0 which is used with the de initialisation of TNC all connect requests are connected to the TNC3BOX automatically if the computer is not connected or off How to Connect to the Box The box is connected via radio with the SSID 8 e g c DK9SJ 8 if you set YO the command c dk9sj will do the same To have a look into your own box the connect is possible only via the pseudo port 0 Port 1 and 2 are the real radio ports c 0 DK9SJ 8 HELP will now show the available commands which look like the usual mailbox commands With QUIT you may abort the mailbox program and return to the TNC3 operating system With the Is Il or more command you may see which files have been added to the ramdisc How Does the TNC3BOX Work When starting the software there 30 AX 25 channels allocated 20 channels are used for the firm ware and the other 10 channels are reser
36. e 12 S Y M E K TNC3 G Software With the new versions of SP there are some things to note the installation program does not accept the terminal baudrates 115200 and 57600 Baud Maximum baudrate between TNC and PC is 38400 Baud By changing the line CFG BAUD0 38400 in the file CONFIG SP to CFG BAUD0 115200 you can take advantage of the maximum speed of TNC3 The TNC initialisation part of CONFIG SP has to be revised as well Modifications for TNC3 are printed in bold letters below The lines starting with a hash character are comments only they may be omitted as well TNC Initialisation INI Z 0 INI M UISC INI I DL1XYZ INI U 0 INI Y 4 INI H 2 INI H 0 INI H 1 Heard Liste for intelligent digipeating INI K 1 INI C ORM INI F 5 INI N 20 INI O 2 INI P 40 not necessary INI W 15 INI W 1 100 W f r Port 1 ms INI W 2 100 W fiir Port 2 ms INI T 30 Achtung Wird beim TNC3 in Millisekunden angegeben INI T 1 300 T fiir Port 1 ms INI T 2 300 T fiir Port 2 ms At de initialisation you have to decide if Turbo Firmware or TNC3BOX is to be used For Turbo Firmware without box reconnect with Q is enabled De initialisation DEI M N DEI U 2 please QRX or put message in the box DEI K 1 DEI Y 4 For the Turbo Firmware with box TNC3BOX the automatic box connect is enabled TNC De initialisation DEI M N DEI U 1 PC off you will be connected to the TNC3BOX DEI K 1 DE
37. e box with CON All others receive the message can t route XCON DL1ABC DF3TAA only these users are NOT allowed to connect out of the box with CON they receive the message can t route DB Extended delete Board is used to delete public boards from the mailbox Deletion of user directories is possible as well XDB TNO2 etie eee deletes the board TNC2 including all related files contents XDB DL1XYZ deletes the user directory of DL1XYZ with all stored mails XDIR Extended Directory With XDIR the contents of the TNC3 ramdisk may be listed Similar to the ms dos command DIR you may use wildcards these are the characters and shows all files on the TNC3 ramdisk XDIR STXT tee shows all files with the suffix TXT XEDIT Extended Edit With this command text files could be created and stored on the TNC3 ramdisc With XEDIT you cannot really edit the file it can be only created or overwritten XEDIT Writes creates the file CTEXT TXT Page 36 S Y M E TNC3 G Software Files which could be created by the sysop with XEDIT are CTEXT TXT DTEXT TXT NEWS TXT and all help texts HLP XERAS Extended Erase for erasure of any files on the TNC3 ramdisc XERA NEWS TXT Erases the file NEWS TXT For safety reasons wildc
38. e desired callsign C 1 DBOXYZ to connect DBOXYZ via port 1 C 2 DBOXYZ to connect DBOXYZ via port 2 C O MYCALL 8 to connect the own mailbox TNC3BOX via pseudo port 0 If the port identifier is omitted the call is looked up in the MH list If there exists a entry the connect is tried via the port where the desired station was heard last To establish a connection via another packet station via connect the digipeater list up to 7 in a row are added after the call of the station to be connected The via may be omitted C DBOXYZ via DBOXXX DBOYYY Disconnect ending a AX 25 connection The AX 25 connect is closed regularly If there is still data in the transmit buffer it will be transferred before executing the disconnect When two consecutive disconnect commands are entered the re maining data is discarded and the disconnect takes place immedi ately Three consecutive disconnect commands turn the TNC into the disconnect state without transmitting remaining data and without waiting for the acknowledge of the connected station Frack Timer T1 Timer Unit milliseconds ms Frame Acknowledge Timer If there is no acknowledge after an info packet has been sent within the frack time the packet is treated as lost and repeated F is set automatically to an optimal value Get The g command is only used by the hostmode programs SP GP etc Get is not suitable for normal users see chapter firmware hostmode sp
39. ecasecsseeesvees 38 Resetting the TNC3BOX erasing Box esee eese teet tnter nenne nenne nennen iia 36 OPERATION OF TNC3 WITH 5 65 39 OPERATING TNC3 IN KISS MODE 2 40 SYSTEM AND MODEM TEST 1 41 TCP IP WITH TNCS AND SUIP 28 5er 42 WHAT IS TGPAPa 2 202 chatted E cett E ot eed LE 42 WHAT IS LGP IP GOOB FOR 2 2 ne 43 How Does A PC COMMUNICATE WITH TNC USING 43 START OF A TGP IP GONNEGTION 255 ee Gave cepe eec 43 REMOTE DATA NETWORK WITH TNC3 AND 595 44 SGBIPT FILEES nn ee e EA ewan 45 BASIGSz 45 56 A a ae 46 FIRE NAMES Ss TET 46 GONTENTS OF THE TNC DISO nee else 46 UPDATES NEW SOFTWARE Adana anak ee 47 RESET WITH TINGS 9 1c 2822222 e teet etel ele ete ose eor eoe o 47 SIXPACK SOFTWARE GPACK nassnnnssnnnsnnnnsnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnrnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnennn nennen nennen 47 NET NODE SOFTWARE FOR TNC31 2200000000 eene nnne 48 COPYRIGHT TNC HARD AND 5 4
40. ecification S Y M E K TNC3 G Software l CALL NOCALL JHOST 0 2 0 K 0 2 0 L z M UISCN UIS UISC Call call call call Heard list With the h command the heard list of the TNC listing of all stations heard is displayed The parameters have the following meaning h 0 disable heard list h 1 enable heard list h 2n defines maximum length number of entries of heard list to n Note intelligent digipeating and intelligent connect is only possible with the heard list enabled Define own callsign The i command defines the callsign for the selected channel If no channel channel 0 monitor is selected all channels are set to this call except those which are connected Jump to hostmode The hostmode software uses this command to enter hostmode It is not suitable for normal user operation JHOST 1 normal hostmode polling mode JHOST 2 turbo hostmode event controlled Timestamp display date and time K 0 disable timestamp K 1 timestamp with connect and disconnect K 2 timestamp with connect and disconnect and after every frame shown on the monitor screen K is also used for setting the internal real time clock K hh mm ss sets TNC time K dd mm yy sets TNC date The TNC3 displays the correct date for dates from 1980 to 2037 Link status The link status of all channels is displayed Link Status Monitor Defines which types of frame are displayed on the monitor screen M U show only Ul
41. ed in TNC3 RAM or if they aren t changed later stored in EEPROM TNC3 G Software S Y M E K Page 31 Within the file CTEXT txt you may use some different makros like with SP or GP this are variables within the sign on message which will be replaced by actual texts when the message is sent If the CTEXT txt contains the line Hello dear N 1 the N is replaced by information stored in the mailbox System N is the name e g James resulting in the text Hello dear James The following macro variables are available C user call without SSID c user call with SSID Y box call without SSID y box call with SSID P port number D date T time V version number N user name F filename calls for listing another recursive textfile Present day texts are handled by the TNC3BOX in a special way This text is stored on the TNC3 ramdisc as file NEWS TXT Each user who connects the box receives this file in addition to the CTEXT TXT If the user connects again later the news is not displayed again the message would be not new for him He receives only the short message news from 08 08 96 23 04 Read with NE ws The date displayed is the time when the file NEWS TXT was modified last The message disappears as soon as the file NEWS TXT will be erased again The box command INFO shows general information about the TNC3BOX but the sysop may define a individual information Just store a file INFO TXT with the text on the ramdisc Fo
42. een TNC and PC The KISS mode of TNC3 supports both modems simultaneously If the TNC should start in KISS mode at power on define a DIP script which autostarts RSKISS at power on If RSKISS is not included in your EEPROM you should store it there using the flash command If there is not enough memory space available e g with the TNC31S you will have to remove SYSTEST or other programs to make space for the additional RSKISS program in flash or you copy it to RAM When KISS is started from the TNC3 operating system level the following sign on message appears r rskiss TNC3 KISS Mode Version 1 05 Sep 02 1994 C DL1GJI incl SMACK DL5UE FrameLen 2122 Bytes Buffers 100 SMACK Stuttgarts Modified Amateur Checksum KISS is a enhancement of the standard KISS mode with added checksum With this transmission errors on the serial RS232 link between TNC and PC may be avoided The TNC3 KISS mode contains the SMACK enhancements As the KISS mode in most cases is used in conjunction with NOS here are examples for addressing the two modem ports The TNC3 will fetch the required port number from the upper nibble of the KISS type Bytes of KISS protocol To enable this feature proceed as follows The interface to the TNC is enabled as usual by the attach command line attach asy or attach COM With the defined parameters the channel number 0 is used which corresponds to port 1 first modem For use of channel numbers 1 15
43. een copied into RAM with the cp command will be overwritten by a file with the same name in flash EEPROM after resetting the TNC So you cannot store the start file dip1 scr in RAM after every reset the original dip1 scr stored in flash appears again There is a simple trick how to use a start script stored in RAM which can be changed anytime without wasting memory space First replace dip1 scr in flash by a file containing e g only the word start At power on the TNC executes this script and searches for a script start scr This file in RAM can be edited and stored in RAM with cp andis called after every reset If the TNC3 finds no dip1 scr after reset or if the reset button is pressed in TNC31 at power on the RS232 configuration is 19200 Baud 1 stop bit no parity This may be important if you have forgotten which parameters are set by dip1 scr TNC3 G Software S Y M E K Page 45 THE TNC3 Disc File names The following suffixes are used to determine the file types file 108 file 408 file 101 File 10U File ap1 File abs File scr File h1p Binary file for TNC31 EPROM The file may be programmed to an EEPROM by an EPROM programmer into a AM 29F010 and used in a TNC3 later 8 Bit boot EPROM The EPROM will contain ONLY the operating system Newer OS releases and the appli cation files has to be appended later The file is only used for creating new boot EEPROMs Only blocks 0 and 1 are used 32 Kbytes
44. frames broadcasts unnumbered frames M I show only I frames information frames M S show only control frames connect disconnect etc M C monitor enabled even when connected terminal mode only M USIC show all decoded packets on the screen Show only those packets which contain one of the mentioned calls Show all packets except those which contain one of the mentioned calls TNC3 G Software S Y M E K Page 25 N 1 200 10 1227 5 1 255 ap QRES QUIT R 0 2 1 1 call call 1 call call S 0 MAXK 0 T 0 10000 250 Page 26 Retry counter Defines the maximum count of tries before the connection is as sumed broken When the tries exceed n the message Link Failure is displayed N is defined for each channel individually Window size O defines the maximum number of info frames in one transmission For bad links O should be set to 3 O is set for each channel indi vidually Persistence Probability that a packet is sent after the frequency became clear N 1 255 Default is 64 This value is adapted automatically if auto parameter is enabled P 1 32 sets the persistence of port 1 to 32 P 2 128 sets the persistence of port 2 to 128 If the persistence for a certain port is defined explicitly this value will be used and automatic adaptation is disabled For maximum through put set AP to 0 and P to 255 Parameter and TNC reset All parameters are reset to the default values Mai
45. h ae C TNC3SOFT Page 6 S Y M E K TNC3 G Software This command will erase the flash of TNC3 first and copies later all files of C TNC3SOFT into TNC3 This may take some minutes depending on the RS232 baudrate settings When finished the TNC3 prompts r gt Now all old files are erased and replaced by the files in C TNC3SOFT If you want to append only a single file refer to Page 15 TNC3 operating system how to use the com mand FLASH Updating the TNC3 operating system When updating the TNC3 software the operation system is not affected If there is a new version of TNC3 operating system available you may replace the old OS with a special command Prepare the file containing the new OS with the suffix abs and execute the command flash eo filename The file filename MUST be a valid operating system otherwise the TNC cannot start again Copying new Programs into RAM Assume you want to try a TNC3 file or program before storing it into flash EPROM Here it makes sense to copy the file into RAM first From here it can be erased or copied into flash Start the RS program as usual and copy with the cp command e g C TNC3SOFT TF3 apl r TF3 apl With 11 List Long you may check if the file has been stored in RAM of TNC3 The file may be used until you remove it Note the file occupies a part of the available RAM memory IMPORTANT There exists two versions of program files with suffix apl The other ve
46. her dipxx scr are called at power on by the TNCS with the corresponding switch settings Help files If the help command is called from the mailbox the corresponding n1p file is listed Contents of the TNC3 Disc The disc contains all programs and files which are necessary for TNC3 operation The directory of the disc can be found in the text file INHALT txt Here the typical files TF apl Turbo Firmware Version 1 82 TNC3BOXD apl Turbo Firmware 1 82 with Mailbox 1 34 deutsch TNCS3BOX apl Turbo Firmware 1 82 with Mailbox 1 34 English SYSTEST apl System test program for TNC3 31 HSKISS apl High Speed KISS Mode Program TRKISS apl TR KISS Mode Page 46 S Y M E K TNC3 G Software RSKISS apl KISS SMACK Mode for RS232 6pack apl Sixpack Software BOXBACK apl Backup restore of mailbox files DIP1 scr Standard Script 19200 Baud TNC3BOXD and some other text files and the terminal programme TERM exe RS32 exe RS exe and RS for Linux The TNC3 directory contains files which make only sense to be used with TNC3 but not with TNC31 DIPxx scr files for the DIP switches and a OS update for old pre OS3 versions of TNC3 Updates new Software A TNC3 update consists of a software manual and a disc Keep the hardware manual with your TNC the information contained herein remains valid and important even when the software changes See our pages http symek com for information and downloads about SYMEK TNC Reset with TNC3
47. ich describes how to connect the TNC3 to your computer There are differ ent cables necessary for TNC3 and TNC31 but they use all the RS232 interface of your computer Default settings When starting with a new TNC3 31 the following settings are valid N off off 1 18 BEE DIP Switch TNC3S DIP1 RS232 Configuration DIP1 scr 19200 1 no Autostart Software DIP1 scr TNC3BOXD apl How to set these parameters at the PC depends on the software which runs on the PC In most cases the parameters are defined in a configuration file and set automatically when the program starts The TNC3S has three DIP switches on the rear where you may set the RS232 baudrate See the informa tion in the hardware manuals of TNC3 and TNC31 INSTALLING A NEW UPDATE Here we explain how new programs are installed on TNC3 Copying new Programs into Flash EPROM The operating system 3 0 or later is required If your operating system is before 3 0 you have to update it first If the TNC does not start in operating system mode because e g with TNC31 a packet radio program is started automatically at power on you have to stop this program firs e g by executing ESC QUIT Basics The operating system of TNC3 is stored in a flash EPROM The flash EPROM s can be used exactly as the known UV EPROM s but the difference is that they can be erased electrically You can erase only complete blocks The memory is subdivided in 8 blocks The erase process
48. indows 98 With the first releases of Windows 95 the drivers are not included The software modules remote network have to be installed All related files can be found on the TNC3 disc in the directory A SLIP TCPIP with TNC3 can be used without the external Trumpet Winsock without problems The following steps are necessary Win 95 1 call system control hardware Do not search for new hardware but click manual modem select 2 When the modem installation is running select disc and directory A SLIP 3 Select the driver Symek TNC3S The installation is now complete 4 Check the baudrate PC TNC In the system control system menu find the entry Modem TNC3 Change the default value 115200 Baud if necessary The TNC3 has to be recognised as a valid mo dem 5 The own callsign has to be edited in the tnc3 tcp scp file Further edit the TCP IP digipeater and other parameters e g TX Delay 6 Click to establish new connection workbench remote network Select Symek TNC3S If a tele phone number is requested type 1 as a dummy Do not use a prefix number 7 Click to the new icon in remote network with the right mouse button You may give the icon the name of your digipeater Configure the type of the remote server as slip unix connect With TCPIP settings you have to edit your own TCP IP address you may define a DNS server normally not used with ama teur radio 8 As script you set TNC3 TCP SCP
49. ipts and other files which can be stored in Flash EPROM Command Description The TNC3 comprises a great variety of options parameters and commands For normal operation you will need only few of them Most parameters need only to be programmed once when installing The factory set defaults are chosen so that for most applications the TNC3S can be operated immediately without changing most of the parameter values In the following chapter we explain all commands of the Turbo Firmware with their options As mentioned all parameters are set by typing lt ESC gt command parameter e g lt ESC gt T 300 When typing the command without a parameter value the TNC3 answers in most cases with the actual setting e g lt 5 gt T Display 300 9 not applicable with all TNC3 models can be used only with TNC3S 2 modems com Valuerange Deafult Description mand setting Zap 0 1 1 1 autoparameter optimum parameters are evaluated and set auto matically 0 manual setting possible fat Change from Terminal mode to Hayes Mode If the firmware os started with the parameter AT e g TF AT instead of TF only this command is executed immediately TF starts in Hayes mode Back to TF with the Hayes command AT amp Q Page 20 S Y M E TNC3 G Software baud beep NCRM CRM call call call call db 0 1 0 lags 0 16 0 help 0 1 1 Show radio baudrate With baud with
50. l for data exchange between PC and TNC3 With the copy command cp c tnc3 kiss apl r a TNC3 application program may be copied from the computers disc to the TNC3 RAM disc Verify the result ll and see if the copied program exists in the TNC3 s directory TNC3 application programs which are stored on a floppy disc or hard disc drive but not in the TNC3 s ram may be executed directly from those drives by typing e g b kiss If this application program shall be stored permanently on the TNC3 ramdisc and be executed auto matically by using the autostart dip switch you have to put a copy of the program into the battery buff ered ramdisc of the TNC3 and set the DIP switches or autostart script accordingly The terminal program RS is ended by pressing alt x on PC or by ctl q key RS32 to run RS with other baudrates or COM ports add the correspondent parameters e g rs b 9600 c 1 i 5 a 2F8 for 9600 Baud at the COM port 1 IRQ 5 and address 2F8 More information is shown typing rs Software Download transfer of programs from PC to TNC3 The newest developments of TNC3 software are sometimes published via the amateur mailbox net or via Internet If you received such a new TNC3 software it is possible to download it into the TNC3 RAM and use it like any other TNC3 software which is present in the EPROM Page 10 S Y M E K TNC3 G Software set the TNC3 in operating system mode start TNC3 with DIP switch progr
51. l try to connect DF1TL via the modem 2 The same syntax is used for setting the MAC parameter as txdelay slottime etc P W These values may be set at any time for each of the modem ports e g T 1 100 sets txdelay of modem 1 to 100 ms Don t care which port is actually used Setting the Default Port To each of the 10 50 200 channels a default modem port may be assigned This is the port number which the TNC will use if there is no other port number used with the connect command like 1 or 2 and if the destination call is not found in the heard list For example you may use the channels 1 to 5 with modem 1 and channels 6 to 10 with modem 2 Select the corresponding channel and execute the PORT command 54 select channel 4 PORT 2 default port 2 for channel 4 All connects on channel 4 are now made via modem 2 also the MAC commands as txdelay etc If you have once started a connection on channel 4 with the preceding 1 it is valid for this connection only The setting of the MAC parameter while this connect is active affects the actual modem port here port 1 The same command e g T 100 after the disconnect will affect the default port here 2 again Some special terminal programs GP etc may have an effect on these commands See the appropriate manual of the software used see the expression Multiport TNC The Turbo Firmware Commands All that is typed in will be sent as a data
52. le 17 OS rsconf RS 232 config 17 OS status 17 OS time 17 OS version number 17 parameter summary command 22 parity 17 persistence 26 PID protocol id 23 Poll Bit Ul Frame 24 preface 4 protocol identifier 43 protocol id 23 radio baud show 21 remarks comments 17 reset 26 Reset 16 26 47 restore TNC3BOX 38 retry counter 26 RS 232 configuration 17 RS232 5 17 setting internal clock 25 flags 21 settings RS232 17 Flash command 15 2 FlexPacket 47 lip modus 22 flow control 28 S p slottime 27 frame collect 29 ftp file transfer protocol 43 handshake 28 Hayes commands 39 Hayes Mode 21 heard list 25 smtp simple mail 43 software download 10 software handshake 28 SP hints 13 SP and mpm 22 i STA LED 18 help TF fi 21 ee i start B Turbo Firmware 18 intelligent connect 29 stop bits interface rs232 17 sysop commands Box 36 KA9Q 43 system parameter 17 TCP IP 42 KISS 40 kiss mode 23 2 43 leds CON and STA 18 er en 39 linefeed auto 24 te net M link status 25 termina program RS 10 time slot 27 lowercase 20 low power mode 22 mailbox 30 timestamp 25 TNC3BOX commands 32 transparent mode 39 TNC3S G Software SYMEK Page 49 Trumpet Winsock 43 turbo firmware commands 20 tx delay 27 Update 47 uppercase 20 version 22 Version command 27 version number 17 versions of TNC3 firmware 20 virtual circuit 43 WAMPES 43 window size 26 Winsock 43 X Net 48
53. ll erase all TNC3BOX data from the ramdisk Page 38 S Y M E K TNC3 G Software OPERATION OF TNC3 WITH HAYES COMMANDS The TF and the related TNC3BOX contain the command AT which switches the TNC3 to Hayes Mode With the DIP switches set to 11 the TNC3 will start in Hayes Mode at power on When calling TF AT the Turbofirmware will start immediately in Hayes mode Hayes commands are common with telephone modems and are not optimal for use with packet radio But if a telephone modem link is to be replaced by a radio link with TNC3 the normal communication programs may be used without changes You have to remember that the response time of a radio link is much longer maybe some seconds compared with a full duplex telephone link which has almost zero delay Every Hayes command received correctly is acknowledged by OK As soon as a connection is estab lished the TNC changes to transparent mode i e all data is transferred binary With the TNC exits transparent mode as usual with Hayes modems The TNC will transmit the buffered data only if the maximum packet length set by paclen is exceeded OR if the maximum time since the last character has expired pactime AT DP call viacall1 viacall2 establish connection to call via digicall1 answer CONNECT optional 2 call connect via Port 2 AT DT call viacall1 viacall2 same as AT DP ATO change from command to transparent mode allowed only if connected ATH disco
54. ll messages of board TNC3 starting with no 4 REPLY Similar to SEND see next command but here a destination call is not necessary The mail is sent to the sender of the message which had been read last SEND SEND is the most important command of a mailbox With SEND mails can be put into a mailbox There are different ways to use SEND S DLIXYZ S DL1XYZ TESTING message to DL1XYZ the subject is prompted automatically message to DL1XYZ with subject TESTING message to be stored in the directory board AMSAT S SOLAR message for the SOLAR board Title CONDX After typing SEND as described above the actual mail may be input To exit this mail input type CONTROL Z key Ctl and key Z pressed at the same time and then lt gt As this is not sup ported by all terminals the mail input may be quit by typing END RETURN in a single line If it happens that the receiver of such a mail is currently logged on in the box he will get a short message mail arrived If the mail was sent to ALLE all logged on box users are informed As the TNC3BOX does not support store and forward automatic forwarding of mail it is possible to add the callsign of a destination mailbox The character destination box and the lifetime are not supported USER USER in some boxes called USAGE could be used to get information about the users
55. ls in the TNC3BOX or other information stored on the TNC3 RAMdisc remain un changed The program selected by the DIP switches or DIP1 scr is started same as power on Parameter and TNC Reset End Exit Turbo Firmware and return to TNC3 operating system Digipeating R 0 digipeating disabled R 1 enable intelligent digipeating R 2 enable cross digipeating Receive and transmit ports are reversed Layer 2 AX 25 digipeating Digipeating for the calls in the list is suspended Digipeating is only possible for the mentioned calls Channel selection With the S command the logical channels may be selected in termi nal mode Tx delay Unit milliseconds ms Delay between keying the transmitter and starting to send packet data Value depends on the time the transmitter needs to produce a stable signal T 1 250 sets tx delay for port 1 to 250 ms T 2 150 sets tx delay for port 2 to 150 ms S Y M E K TNC3 G Software Y TNC3 G Software 0 2 0 1 30000 100 0 1 1 0 0 4 0 3 0 Connect text With U the connect text is defined This text is sent to a station which connects the TNC If U is set to 2 the TNC executes a disconnect link reset when receiving the characters q in one line U 0 send no connect text U 1 welcome at Jimmy enable and define connect text U 2 welcome at Jimmy enable and define connect text reconnect on Version shows software version Identical with ver Slotti
56. me time slot Unit ms The TNC can start transmitting only at discrete moments The time interval between two consecutive moments is the slottime Typically the time slots are spaced in 100 ms intervals W 1 100 sets slottime for port 1 to 100 ms W 2 50 sets slottime for port 2 to 50 ms The parameter W should be set according to the data speed for best throughput Appropriate are values of 100 000 Baudrate e g 10 ms for 9600 Baud and 1 or 2 for 76k 153k and above Enable transmitter keying disable The transmitter of a packet station may be totally disabled when setting X to 0 With X set to 0 packet operation digipeating is NOT possible only monitoring Max active channels The Y command limits the number of connections Example If Y is Set to 4 and 3 connections are already active only one more station may connect If a 5th station tries to connect the connect request is refused busy The number of available channels for the TNC3 user himself is not limited by Y he may start further connects even when Y connects from other stations are already active The maximum num ber of Y depends on the ram size 10 50 or 200 channels Software handshake In terminal mode the XON XOFF handshake may be enabled for flow control Z 0 no handshake Z 1 XON XOFF handshake PC gt TNC Z 3 XON XOFF handshake PC gt TNC and gt for hostmode Z has no meaning Hardware handshake via RS232 is not su
57. n a windows DOS Box With the rsconf command inside a autostart script you may configure other baudrates e g 75 Baud But it is not possible to run zs with such baudrates So it may be a problem to reset the proper communica tion between TNC and RS See Hardware Reset in the hardware manual of your TNC3 31 PC SOFTWARE FOR TNC3 There are different protocols for the TNC3 available e Terminal mode to be used with any terminal program as TELIX TERM RS Terminal Hyperterm etc included in TF TNC3BOX e Hayes mode is known from telephone modems Not common for amateur applications but very useful if the TNC3 31 should replace a dialled telephone connection included in TF TNC3BOX SLIP mode the TNC3 31 behaves like a TCP IP modem Ideally suited for TCP IP applications included in TF and TNC3BOX e Hostmode known as WA8DED the standard protocol for PC TNC communication included in TF and TNC3BOX KISS mode sends all received data unchanged to PC Useful for special applications satellite can be accessed via TF or TNC3BOX but also available as RSKISS 6pack is similar to KISS but used with Flax Packet programs for TCP IP applications separate firmware 6PACK apl e TAPR command mode is not supported by TNC3 31 General Hints on Hostmode Software The TNC8 utilises the so called WA8DED hostmode This hostmode is the quasi standard for communi cation between PC and TNC So far the TNC3 is compatible
58. nd for storing in flash EPROM with flash a The flashable programs contain additional allocation tables and are somewhat longer compared to the ex ecutable files Trying to program a file from ram apl into flash file not relocatable is displayed In a similar way flashable apl files cannot be executed help hel SIM shows the commands of TNC3 operating system and Is list long list short a ER shows the files in the current directory same as DOS command dir Example Tel diese c ten shows the directory of the diskette 11 ENING N inna shows the files in c TNC3 11 shows all file information size date at the beginning of a line marks the file as directory 1s shows only the filenames more more file lists a text file Other files may cause unexpected reactions of the terminal path path path defines a path where the TNCS will search first for a given command Example path TNC3 the directory a TNC3 is searched first rdir POLE in morir lists the files in RAM and EPROM of TNC3 similar to 11 reset Page 16 S Y M E K TNC3 G Software reset executes a reset same effect as cycling power The reset LED will flash and the script DIP1 scr TNC31 or DIPxx scr TNC3 is executed rm filename Ett fll oes erases the given file from the current directory Examples rm erases
59. nd it executes the applica tion programs The operating system is always running Its main task is to assign the system resources like ramdisc real time clock interfaces etc For normal packet radio operation it is not necessary to know anything about the TNC3 operating sys tem But for some applications it may be helpful and interesting to know what s going on inside the TNC box The operating system makes downloading of application programs possible i e to transfer program code from e g a PC computer into the TNC3 RAM and execute these programs without programming the EPROM The programs can be loaded in the internal ramdisc and as the RAM is supplied with the backup battery remain there until they are erased again If such downloaded programs are used fre quently it is possible to assign a DIP switch number So it is possible to start a downloaded application program automatically after reset autostart After a RESET the TNC operating system is always started first It lists the available application pro grams and batch scripts in RAM and EPROM and decides which of these programs will be started first Autostart What happens at power on The TNC3 performs the following steps 1 The TNC3 checks if a DIP switch is available with TNC3S or not TNC31 If a switch is found the setting DIP 0 to DIP 31 is read If there is no switch found a switch set to 1 is assumed The default switch setting of TNC3S is
60. nect the TNC3BOX first and from there the DAMA node using the box command CONNECT The box will work correct as a DAMA slave Intelligent Connect With the TNC3 a connect can be started via one of two possible ports because of this the port identifier may be added to the callsign of the station which is to be connected By using the heard list information the TNC may select the appropriate port independently If e g an AX 25 connection to DBOXYZ has to be set up with lt ESC gt C DBOXYZ and DBOXYZ has been heard on port 2 last the TNC3 uses port 2 for the connect automatically The TNC3 decides which port is to be used for a connect only if the port has not been given explicitly Example lt 5 gt C 1 DBOXYZ establishes a connection always via port 1 Page 28 S Y M E K TNC3 G Software lt ESC gt C DBOXYZ uses the port where DBOXYZ had been heard last If DBOXYZ had not been heard not found in the heard list the default port defined with the port command is used As the TNC31 has only one modem port so the automatic port selection is not applicable Frame collect If the window size parameter O is set to a value greater than 1 the TNC3 will send more than 1 packets coherent without releasing the ptt or waiting for an acknowledge This increases the throughput signifi cantly If an bit error occurs within such a combined packet the specific faulty packet can be requested for retransmission from version TF
61. nerally in TNC3 EPROM With rm it is possible to remove them apparently from the directory but they appear again when executing reset It is impossible to change EPROM contents without the flash e option Starting a Program directly from Disk It is possible as well to start a TNC3 application program directly from a PC disc drive The program is not copied to the ramdisk and is no more present when leaving the application program To start a TNC3 application program proceed as follows watch the RS options as explained start RS EXE the TNC3 operating system prompt will appear e g r gt type the name AND path of the application program e g b tf apl The program is executed directly from the disc but you are still running the RS terminal program Remark Only MC68302 programs are executable on the TNC3 system To download the RS program has to be used remote procedure calls a standard terminal program will not do this job Files for use with flash a cannot run on TNC3 Starting RS with non Default Settings If RS is to be used with other than default settings the interface parameters may be given as follows rs shows the description of RS rs b baudrate Set 1200 2400 4800 9600 19200 38400 57600 115200 Baud rs i n am set interrupt IRQ n and I O address m rs c y set COM Port y 1 to 4 standard IRQ and addresses TNC3 G Software SYMEK Page 11 When setting IRQ7 or IRQ15 RS cannot run i
62. nnect allowed only if connected answer after disconnect NO CARRIER AT VO answers of TNC in figures AT V1 answers of TNC in text verbose OK 0 follows every valid command CONNECT 1 when DP was successful OR if a remote station connects NO CARRIER 3 on end of connection ERROR 4 parse error wrong command syntax BUSY 7 remote station is busy DM or already connected NO ANSWER 8 remote station does not answer to connect request AT EO AT E1 echo off echo on Show with AT E AT amp MO AT amp M1 monitor mode off on AT amp Q exit Hayes mode Reset ATZ dummy command answer OK 11 show modem baudrate Answer e g 1200 of the modem which was addressed last AT I3 show firmware version Answer e g Version 168 OK AT 14 show hardware identification Answer e g TNC3 OK AT S20 or AT S20 show e g S20 registers paclen AT 50 TNC accepts remote connects yes x 1 no x 0 AT S21 x Set pactime x 1 2000 ms default 500 ms AT S22 x set window size x 1 7 default 5 AT S25 x max retries x 1 255 x 0 means e AT S30 call set own callsign default NOCALL AT S31 x change to SLIP mode x 1 default off x20 some normal Turbo Firmware settings to be defined with the ESCAPE command are also valid in Hayes mode TNC3 G Software SYMEK Page 39 OPERATING TNC3 IN KISS MODE The TNC3 contains the so called KISS mode KISS mode is like the WA8DED hostmode a communi cation protocol betw
63. ograms may be started automatically by the entry in the script file DIP1 scr or it is started by executing the command from the keyboard with the terminal program When the Turbo Firmware is started the modem s are checked and the baudrates are evaluated The monitor screen shows the sign on message and the attached modems with their baudrates With non standard baudrate modems the baudrate value is rounded to the next standard baudrate This has no significant effect on the proper operation The displayed baudrate is only used for the automatic parame ter calculation differences from the real value are not critical Ports with no modem connected are recognised and displayed as well Meaning of the LEDs CON and STA CON LED green You are connected to a remote station on the currently selected channel connected STA LED ret There is data in the incoming buffer which had not been transferred to the PC With mailbox software STA blinks if there is a unread message for the sysop in the box Description of the other LEDs PWR ERR PTT DCD is found in the hardware manuals of TNC or modem PTT transmitter is keyed on air DCD data carrier detect data is received PWR power sup ply ERR reset or TNC system error The Ports of TNC3 The expressions channel and port are very important for understanding the TNC3 and its commands Channel a channel is used to set up a logical connect more precise a level 2 connect The numbe
64. out parameters the current modem baudrate may be interrogated When entering baud 1 you will get the modem baudrate of porti with baud 2 the modem baudrate of Port2 The modem baudrates are evaluated automatically when starting the turbo firmware Enable beeper When the TNC3 is equipped with a piezo beeper you may select when the beeper will sound N Beeper off R Rx click clicking sound when receiving an info frame C Connect disconnect sound Buzzing at connect and disconnect M only with TNC3BOX Endless clicking when a mail for the sysop arrived In addition to the blinking red leds Some options may be combined e g beep CRM Ignore the connect requests of the mentioned calls Ignore all connect requests except those from the mentioned calls Enable duo baud To operate the TNC3S with two different baudrates or modulation modes on a single frequency the transmitters PTT of the two differ ent modems may be locked mutually when setting 1 The same function may be achieved in a more expensive way by or wiring the PTT DCD lines of the modems by hardware Send flag preamble before data packets For very fast date transceivers you may use a flag preamble instead of a tx delay to fill the delay between keying the transmitter and start ing the data transmission Up to 16 flag characters 8 bit each can be selected This corresponds to a delay of 13 ms at 9600 bit s data rate The command makes
65. ox This means that the mailbox task runs in parallel with the firmware as a background task The foreground firmware is the same as Turbo Firmware The TNC3BOX can be run only with memory options of 256 kByte or more The TNC3BOX offers 20 standard packet channels In addition up to 10 users can use the mailbox simultaneously as used with other mailboxes The keywords are the same as is usual with most other mailbox programs dir erase help list name quit read send user The mailbox is ideal when messages are to be stored without having a computer running with the TNC As the TNC3BOX is intended as a personal mailbox store amp forward is not supported The TNC3BOX is most useful if the computer is switched off or if the computer is used for other purposes Anybody may put his mail into the TNC3BOX and read his mails All TNC3BOX data is stored on the battery backed ramdisk of TNCS even when power off A auxiliary script for backing up the mailbox on hard disc is available on the TNC3 disc How to start TNC3BOX Start from the command system level r gt with the tnc3box command or set the DIP switch of TNC3 to a number which points to a script starting TNC3BOX If TNC3BOX is not available on flash EPROM it must be copied there from the TNC3 disk To start the box automatically after power on the call TNC3BOX or TNC3BOXD has to be found in the script which is executed after power on Page 30 S Y M E K TNC3 G Softwar
66. packet after return If the line begins with escape ESC 1B upper row left most key on the pc keyboard character the TNC will ask for a valid command Note before each of the following commands you have to type lt ESC gt first After that the appears and you TNC3 G Software S Y M E K Page 19 have to type the command You may omit the space between the command character and the parameter if you wish Entering the commands in lowercase or uppercase letters makes no difference Some commands are globally valid for the TNC others which have to be defined for each channel indi vidually are printed slant characters Default values as found after power on are underlined All parameter settings are stored in the TNC RAM immediately They remain valid even after a reset To restore the default values the command QRES is used Important With TNC3 all timing values are given in milliseconds ms Versions of the TNC3 Firmware Different versions of TNC3 firmware exist Some preliminary versions are spread via the amateur radio mailbox system the official releases are available from the manufacturer in form of disks or as downloads from our internet page http symek com The disk supplied with the TNC3 31 contains a file INHALT txt where the programs are listed There three binary files for programming new flash EPROM s 29F010 and 29F040 for TNC3 and TNC31 the operating system OSxxx abs and some programs scr
67. pported SYMEK Page 27 Autoparameter The optimal setting of TNC parameters depends on a lot of things some changing even while being connected There exist general values for the parameters to be used with special baudrates but these values may differ from the optimum significantly The autoparameter option of Turbo Firmware guarantees an automatic and permanent optimisation and tracking of the parameters The following values are taken as inputs for the evaluation Channel loading radio baudrate slottime W tx delay duplex DAMA mode hop to hop digipeating These values result partly from calculations of the TNC partly they are defined by the user If one of the input values is changed the output values are re evaluated So all parameters are set to an optimum at every moment The calculation tries to optimise the total data throughput of all packet radio users on this frequency but not for one certain station At low activity on a radio channel the persistence may rise to e g 160 but when the channel is busy it may drop to e g 20 When the channel load is low the pa rameters become more aggressive when the channel is busy the TNC becomes unobtrusive With the new versions the autoparameter option can not totally disabled So it is made sure that all stations use similar and optimised parameters Intelligent Digipeating Crossdigipeating The crossdigipeating intelligent digipeating and intelligent connect
68. r each command there may be defined separate help texts Create a textfile on the ramdisc and use lt command gt HLP as the filename Example HELP HLP SEND HLP CHECK HLP CON HLP The user can interrogate the message by typing h command e g send As help messages do not change frequently they should be copied into flash EPROM CTEXT TXT DTEXT TXT NEWS TXT HELP TXT and the helpfiles HLP may be entered with the XEDIT command or copied via the RS program from a PC file system see next pages TNC3BOX Commands As usual with mailboxes it is not necessary to type the full command name but the first significant let ter s To get a command summary you may type for example just h as well as he hel or the complete command help With some mailbox reading terminal programs the mailbox commands are preceded by two slashes So h has the same effect as h without slashes The input of more than just one com mand in a single line is allowed the commands are separated by semicolons Limitation the complete command line must fit into a single AX 25 packet and must not exceed the length of 80 characters TNC3BOX User Commands For reasons of user friendliness the user commands of TNC3 are very similar to those of other mailbox Systems Experienced packet users are familiar with these commands But there exist some extensions and limitations CHECK The CHECK command is useful to check what s new in the box
69. r for help In most cases there are very simple points to be observed and the problems may be eliminated within some seconds By the way the disconnect command will be used to end the connection lt ESC gt D disconnect DISCONNECTED fm 1 DBOXYZ TNC3 G Software S Y M E K Page 9 THE TERMINAL PROGRAM RS A floppy disc is supplied with the TNC3S The disc contains the RS terminal program in a version for PC IBM compatible and for Linux When starting RS the program does not differ from any other terminal emulator program You call it with the command rs or rs32 from the MS DOS prompt and you may now execute the operating system commands of the TNC3S or start a application program and have a packet radio QSO which is possible with any other terminal program as well Without additional parameters RS will use 19200 Baud at COM2 serial interface IRQS address 2F8 rs32 starts with 115 kBaud Typing ALT X exits RS typing Ctl Q exits RS32 Operation with other baudrates addresses or IRQs see below In addition to a standard terminal program RS connects the mass storage disc and floppy drives of your PC with the TNC3 memory When running the operating system of the TNCS the prompt r will appear at the beginning of the line The TNC3 memory behaves as another disc drive of your PC You may change the drive by typing e g cd c and display the contents of one s PC disc with the 11 com mand This is especially usefu
70. r of available channels determines how many simultaneous connects to remote stations are possible Port A port has the task to transmit and receive information you may connect a modem to every port and a radio to every modem for multibaud operation you may connect two modems to a single radio Page 18 S Y M E K TNC3 G Software The TNC2 have a single modem port and are capable of handling 10 to 32 channels simultaneous connects The modems 19200 baud maximum are fixed and cannot be changed The TNC3S has two modem ports there are up to 200 channels available The plug in modems are available in various baudrate options from 1200 Baud AFSK to over 1 Mbit s FSK With the connect you may decide which one of the two ports is to be used The TNC31 has only one modem slot but the same variety of modems as with TNC3 can be used As the software of TNC31 is the same as TNC3 the port select commands are available as well but cannot be used in the same way The TNC3S supports dual port operation with two modems The modem slots are called port 1 and port2 The TNC31 has one slot port 1 only thus the commands explained below are not applicable port 2 does not exist a error message is displayed when attempting to access port 2 The same is valid for a TNC3 with only one modem at port 1 and an empty slot at port 2 Direct Port Selection when Connecting Don t care how the is configured if you type C 2 DFITL the TNC3 wil
71. rsion is made for being copied into RAM on the disc in the directory ram apl and for storing in flash EPROM by use of the command flash a The flashable programs contain additional tables are some percent longer than the apl for RAM If you try to flash a file from vam apl the error file not relocatable will occur Files intended for flashing can be copied into RAM but will not run THE FIRST CONNECT WITH TNC3S To run the TNC3 with a computer a terminal program is required Configure the terminal emulating program like this example terminal for Windows German TNC3 G Software S Y M E K Page 7 Dateniibertragung bertragungsrate Baud O10 300 600 1200 2400 4800 9600 Datenbits Stoppbits Os Ores 1 015 O2 Paritat Protokoll AnschluB Keine Xon Xoff Kon Ungerade Hardware COM Gerade Kein Markierung O Leerzeichen Paritatspr fung o Tragersignal entdecken e select the COM port that the TNC3 is connected to e the baudrate between TNC and PC here 19200 has nothing to do with the radio baudrate which is used for the radio signal When applying power to the TNC the following sign on message will appear baud rate 19200 1 start 1 stop parity no ckckckckckck KKK HighSpeedTNC3 ckckckckck ck kk Multi Modem Firmware Emulation DAMA Firmware Version 1 82 TNC3BOX Version 1 34 C 93 99 by Jim DLIGJI 20
72. s the name of the board and the number of mails stored Example DIP all public boards are listed DIR USER lists the directory of the user boards ERASE ERASE is used to delete mails stored previously in the box The command can be given in different ways Example ED een erases all messages to the own call or the messages in the current board directory E DETXYZ i erases all messages which have been sent to DL1XYZ EDLIXYZ4A een erases message no 4 sent to DL1XYZ E DL1XYZ 4 erases all messages to DL1XYZ starting from message no 4 E DETXYZ Q9 otn erases all messages to DL1XYZ up to and including no 3 E DLIXYZ 9 5 een erases the messages no 3 to 5 E AUE 4 55 ime a a erases the own messages no 4 to 5 in the public board ALL A user is only authorised to erase a mail if a he is sysop or b he wrote the mail or c he is the receiver of the mail HELP HELP returns a list of the available TNC3BOX commands Adding the name of a command as parame ter a stored help text if available see above is listed El cns eite tct P tta lists all available commands EUER eet lists the file HELP HLP if available When HELP is executed by the sysop many more commands are shown Some commands are reserved for use by the sysop are invisible by the normal user If the file HELP TXT was not s
73. should not be set to values less than 60 000 1 minute The default value 180 000 means a check every 3 minutes With some DAMA digipeaters the setting 200 000 instead of 180 000 is recommended QU 0 1 0 Unproto Poll Set When transmitting unproto frames the poll bit is normally not set U 0 For special experiments this bit may set U 1 UI Then unproto packets are acknowledged too UA TNC3 G Software S Y M E K Page 23 V 0 1 0 A 0 1 1 B 5 5 CALL via CALL D auto G 2 Page 24 Callsign check dummy command The accepts any callsigns without checking To keep compati bility with some terminal programs you may set V 1 or O but this has absolutely no effect Automatic linefeed Depending on the terminal type a linefeed LF has to be added after every carriage return CR Linefeed add is enabled by setting A 1 This command does not affect the data format using hostmode terminal programs DAMA display With the B command you may check if the selected channel uses DAMA mode 0 DAMA inactive 1 DAMA active DAMA is activated automatically There is no need for the user to take any actions or to set special Connect Initiating a connection The connect command establishes a AX 25 connection between two stations The TNC3 supports connects via two or three modem ports To start a connect via a specific port the user may add the port identifier before th
74. since the last CHECK You may search for headwords as well with the wildcard character the whole contents of the box are checked Exam ples M display all new entries since last CHECK display all mails even the old ones of the box a a E display all mails containing the string TNC3 in the title line Check relates only to public mails Mails which are addressed to a specific user are never displayed with the check command CON CON is a special TNC3BOX command it makes possible to connect another station out of the box in common with a digipeater node Example CON 1 2 set up an AX 25 connect to DL1XYZ Page 32 S Y M E K TNC3 G Software CON 2 DL1XYZ DBOXYZ set up an AX 25 connect to DL1XYZ via port2 via DBOXYZ If no port identifier is given the connect is routed to the port defined by the intelligent search in the heard list H has to be enabled There may be a maximum of 5 external connects at the same time When digipeating is disabled R 0 the CON command is disabled as well This command may be suspended to certain users or allowed for only certain users see command XCON Connecting out of the box is also possible to nodes running as DAMA masters in contrast to simple digipeaters With TNC3 the port may be selected by a preceding 1 or 2 DIR DIR is usually used to list the boards of a mailbox The TNCBOX display
75. smitted all flag characters takes some seconds depending on baudrate the transmission ends automatically O transmit zeroes 0 HDLC data packet about 1000 Bytes with continuous zero condition 0x00 is transmitted PTT is keyed up and released after transmission May take a relatively long time and cannot be aborted 1 transmit ones same as 0 but with continuous one condition Q quits the modem test program 2 Test of Modem 2 same as 1 If there is no modem present a message is displayed 3zTest of Modem 3 same as 1 For special applications the RS232 port may be used as third port in TNC3 RzModem receive test shows statistics of the received packets of both modems Modem 1 Modem 2 OK ERR ABT DIS OK ERR ABT DIS 211 41 2 01 23 6 156 01 meaning of the counters OK number of correct received frames ax 25 packets ERR number of frames with wrong checksum CRC errors ABT number of aborted frames abort sequence DIS number of lost discarded frames B Software Bit Error Test Option b Bit Error Test is ideal for adjusting TNC3 9k6 modems assuming two sets of TNC3 partici pate the test One station transmits a bit error test signal by pressing b which keys the transmitter and starts the test signal generation The other starts SYSTEST as well and presses r see above Now optimize deviation or the G3RUH filter until the bit errors ERR und ABT are minimum Q Quit End of sy
76. stem test program return to TNC3 operating system TCP IP WITH TNC3 AND SLIP SLIP is available from EPROM Version 6 6 6 and later What is TCP IP Since it is in to have a internet access and feed oneself with the wide selection of information the terms TCP IP WWW FTP Winsock Netscape etc are the talk of the town You connect via a telephone modem a remote computer which provides the internet services The protocol which is used for the transport of data through the internet is called transmission control protocol internet protocol short TCP IP TCP IP was developed for communication of different computers within a network The data packed in TCP IP protocol datagrams which are not protected against errors are packed into AX 25 packets for transmission via radio and digipeaters as usual As the TCP IP datagrams contain already the IP Page 42 5 Y M E K TNC3 G Software address of originator and destination it would be not necessary to add these addresses to the AX 25 headers too For transparency reasons it is usual to transmit at least the sender s call along with the AX 25 packet for amateur radio transmissions the callsigns must be added For TCP IP traffic an AX 25 connect is not imperative the datagrams can be exchanged unproto with out destination callsigns as well Ul Frames Alternatively you establish a AX 25 L2 connect first The third method is to exchange the TCP IP datagrams within a NetROM conne
77. terface is configured for SLIP mode opera tion All packets are transmitted using the PID protocol identifier CC TCP IP only TCP IP packets with PID CC are received Set slip 0 for normal operation Version ver shows the software version of the Turbo Firmware The same information is displayed when starting the firmware The command may be used for identification of the installed TNC software by a hostmode terminal program The TNC shows e g TURBO FIRMWARE 170 i e first the name of the firmware followed by the version number without separation points Parameter summary This command lists all important parameters the list will be displayed in the monitor window RISC controller statistics Display of the statistic counters of the MC68302 RISC controller After executing the command all counters are set to zero Number of free buffers This command is used by most hostmode terminal programs to check the amount of available memory in the TNC S Y M E K TNC3 G Software D 0 1 0 Duplex Sets the radio port to duplex mode Duplex means that data may be transmitted and received simultaneously 1 0 sets port 1 to simplex mode D 2 1 sets port 2 to duplex mode D 1 sets duplex mode for the current port Important Do not enable duplex mode when using duplex digipeaters which can transmit and receive at the same time Set OD 0 Parameters with values greater than 1 indicate how long the trans
78. the password The characters are taken from the password at the position which is indicated by the numbers sent by the box i e the seventh third twelfth first and second position The correct answer to the request 7 3 12 1 2 is here RSCPA After sending this text to the box the user receives sysop authorisation Hint when after every login the correct password answer is returned it could be possible for a unauthor ised listener to reconstruct the whole password string But when you sometimes answer intentionally wrong the password cannot be reconstructed in this simple way For safety reasons the box does NOT confirm if the entered password has been correct or not As mentioned above passwords are used only when the security level is set to 1 The commands which are allowed to the authorised sysop only will be discussed later TNC3BOX Sysop Commands The sysop has many more commands than his disposal as the normal user He can erase any mail create or delete boards change helpfiles connect and disonnect texts etc All such commands which are only accessible to the sysop start with a letter X X extended XAB Extended add Board is used to create public boards in the box XAB creates a board directory TNC3BOX XCON Extended connect allow determines which users may may not execute the CON command XCON DL1ABC DF3TAA only these can connect out of th
79. tings time hob wel A E shows the time Eimer 79 asks for input of time Format time DD MM YY HH MM SS time 24 12 02 20 15 00 sets the clock to 24 December 2002 20 15 version show version number of operating system version shows version of operating system and hardware options comments anytext lines starting with and a blank are ignored For writing comments in scripts TNC3 G Software SYMEK Page 17 OPERATION WITH TNC3 TURBO FIRMWARE For there is a very powerful software available which is called Turbofirmware TF A enhanced version of TF contains a mailbox This version of Turbofirmware is called TNC3BOX English or TNC3BOXD German The qualities of this firmware are 10 to 200 channels for connects depends on memory TF 20 channels for external connects TNC3BOX 10 simultaneous connect to the internal mailbox TNC3BOXD suited for very high baudrates up to 1 6 Mbaud TNC3BOX contains a very powerful 3 party mailbox supports DAMA mode The following description assumes that the TNC3 is operated using a simple terminal program RS EXE TELIX windows terminal TERM or similar More comfortable programs suited especially for amateur packet radio e g TOP SP WINPR GP are used in a slightly different way NOTE A firmware compatible with the TAPR command set of TNC2 is NOT available for TNC3S Start of Turbofirmware At power on one of the TF pr
80. tored on the ramdisc by the sysop the text of the EPROM is used INFO INFO shows some information about the TNC3BOX If a file INFO TXT is available on the TNC3 ram disk it is listed LIST LIST is used to show the contents of a bulletin board titles of the mails Example I DUTXYZ uci lists all messages to DL1XYZ L DETXYZ 9 Hassan lists all messages to DL1XYZ up to and including No 3 24 2022422 lists message no 4 to DL1XYZ TNC3 G Software S Y M E K Page 33 En lists from message no 4 all msgs to DL1XYZ L DL1XYZ 3 5 lists messages no 3 to 5 to DL1XYZ lists all new INFOs of the board ALL lists infos no 4 to 5 of the board ALL lists info no 5 of the currently selected board HO O M lists all infos of the currently selected board MHEARD MHEARD is again a special TNC3BOX command You may request which AX 25 stations have been received by the box The heard list is only listed if Heard is enabled see Turbo Firmware c h MED S iine UR RAE lists all callsigns received by the box The list contains the callsigns time number of bytes and the modem port of the received packets MSG MSG is used to send a single line message to a user who is connected to this box MSG ALLE Huhu sends the text to all users currently logged on MSG DL1XYZ I am here sends the text am here to the box user DL1XYZ DL1
81. ved for the internal mailbox On the first 20 channels you may establish your packet radio connects as usual The 10 mailbox channels are not visible AX 25 connects SABM are allocated to the first Y channels see Y command of firmware first If call and SSID match a connection will be established as normal If only the call matches there will be a connection to the TNC3BOX be established Via which port the connect occurs does not matter Note that the autoparameter should be set on ap 1 to make sure that the parameters are set to the optimal values at the different radio baudrates The turbo firmware consists of two processes running asynchronously One process is for AX 25 communication the other for the terminal mode With TNC3BOX there is one more process established in parallel for every logged in user As the processing power of TNC3 is very high everything works simultaneously without speed problems Connect Disconnect Present Day Info and Help texts When connecting a mailbox the user gets a welcome message as well as the goodbye message upon disconnecting the box The texts are set at will by the sysop When connecting the TNC3BOX the file CTEXT TXT is transmitted when disconnecting the file DTEXT TXT respectively These files may have any length In addition the text which is defined with U 1 is sent Better to set U 0 to avoid sending both texts The text files are created with any editor and stor
82. very useful to transfer all files from PC to TNC3 by a single command flash a hlp allfiles with the suffix n1p are stored flash aeqr file the flash is erased e without further request q the file is appended a and finally a reset r is executed and the TNC is re started flash o file the given file is stored into operating system area of TNC3 previous operating systems are erased first The file must be a valid operating system abs file otherwise the TNCS will not restart again If the programming fails due to a power disruption the command has to be repeated completely If the TNC3 cannot be started in operating system mode press the reset button inside TNC31 If this doesn t help the flash EPROM has to be pulled out and reprogrammed with a suited EPROM programmer The necessary binary files can be found on the TNC3 disc Hint if there is enough space available on the TNC3 RAM disc you may copy the files there first with cp and after that you program them from RAM to EPROM within the TNC This is the only way to up load new files for updating remote nodes without RS232 access Use the parameter r to make sure that the TNC resets after updating Otherwise the TNC remains in operating system mode and further communication via the radio link is not possible IMPORTANT There exists two types of apl files one type can be copied into RAM and executed from any valid drive find them on the directory vam apl a
83. ytes the system test program and some other accessory and configuration files When shipped the smallest EPROM of TNC31 contains the packet software TNC3BOXD the system test program SYSTEST and the autostart script DIP1 scr The bigger memories of TNC3S or TNC31SX contain other programs TF RSKISS 6pack etc If you prefer to use a program which is NOT in the TNC3 EPROM you may add files as follows There exists three ways 1 If there is enough memory space remaining in flash EPROM just append the file program by exe cuting the command flash a filename If there exists already a file with that name in flash this file is removed from the file table but the old file still occupies wastes memory space in flash 2 The program can be copied with cp from file to file into RAM memory of TNCS This may be done again and again the memory space will be released when erasing the file Programs in RAM occupy memory space which could be used for e g the mailbox otherwise The RAM is buffered by a lithium battery With the erase command the files may be removed from the RAM 3 If the flash EPROM is full you have to erase it first command flash e and program all required files again command flash a file After erasing the flash EPROM is completely empty except the hidden operating system in block 0 and ALL required files have to be written again after that the flash EPROM contains only the desired files no space is waste
84. zu K Datensysteme und Elektronik GmbH Software User Manual for the 16 bit High Speed Packet Radio Controller TNC3S TNC31S Issue 11 7 1999 T3SOFT G Production and distribution SYMEK Datensysteme und Elektronik GmbH Ulf Kumm DK9SJ Address D 70597 Stuttgart Sonnenberg Johannes Kramer StraBe 34 Phone 49 711 76 78 923 Fax 49 711 76 78 924 Hotline 49 711 76 54 911 http symek com e mail info symek com Table of contents 7 E 4 CONNECTION TO THE COMPUTER 5 DEFAULT 1 11 EE AA ATA 5 INSTALLING NEW 4 2 4 4 2 5 COPYING NEW PROGRAMS INTO 1 0 eene nnne 5 Contents of the Flash EPROM The command FLASH UPDATING THE TNC3 OPERATING 5 5 7 COPYING NEW PROGRAMS INTO em nennen nnne renean nnne 7 THE FIRST CONNECT WITH 6 7 THE TERMINAL PROGRAM 5 2 7 10 Software Download RRR

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