Tadd's FlexNET page
This page is under construction. Last changed:
Wednesday, January 20, 1999 07:47 AM
The purpose of this page is to give access to materials and literature necessary to
construct a few common flavors of FlexNET installation. Part of that process will be
to construct a user manual which will cover all aspects of owning/operating and accessing
a FlexNET node.
Please check back often and help me make sure this page is correct. If you have
suggestions or have a question that is not answered, feel free to send me email at [email protected]. I will add to this
page until people stop asking about it.
For more links to other people's FlexNET pages, go to my Packet Links page. Also here is the official Flexnet page
in Germany.
http://ife.ethz.ch/~sailer/ham/ham.html
FlexNet Group Darmstadt
**** eMail [email protected] ****
(Please use only THIS eMail address)
HTML http//dl0td.afthd.tu-darmstadt.de/~flexnet/
FTP ftp//dl0td.afthd.tu-darmstadt.de/pub/flexnet/
Notes for later:
 | cover 6pack rom window with red electrical tape. |
| TAPR has the speed kits for 1270B |
| look for op-amp replacement in neda literature to make the 19.2K work in a 1270. |
| Need 16550s. Get from digikey |
| Need quad RS-232 cards. K2BJG knows where to get them for $35 for 2 port or upgrade to 4
port. |
Creating a 4-port FlexNET Node
This section will lead you through creating a 4 port FlexNET node supporting four 1200
baud radio ports and a console terminal.
Starting parts:
| Intel-based-PC
 | 5MB or bigger hard disk, or solid state hard disk |
| working video |
| method of getting executable code onto the hard drive (floppy?). |
| one serial port |
| keyboard |
| 640K or more of RAM |
| Intel 8088, 80286, 80386, 80486 or some variety of Pentium. |
|
| Four TNC 2 compatible TNCs:
| TNCs must be capable of using 27265 EPROMs |
| RS232 baud rate must be 9600 or better (all of them are) - Using the 6pack interface to
the TNCs the TNCs must all be set to the same RS-232 baud rate. This baud rate must be
twice the total baud rates of all of the RF ports. That means that with a 4-port node
running 1200 baud on all ports, the RS232 baud rate must be set to 9600 baud. That's
pretty easy. However, if you were running three ports at 1200 and one at 9600, the baud
rate would have to be at least 13200 baud (i.e. 19,200 baud) and that's not possible with
some of the older TNC2 compatibles. |
|
| 6pack loop cable supporting 4 TNCs
| The loop cable consists of five connectors, one for the PC, one-each for the TNCs.
|
| The wiring is such that the Ground wire runs through all 5 connectors. The TxData
from the PC goes to the RxData for the first TNC. The TxData from the first TNC goes
to the Rxdata of the 2nd TNC and so on until the 4th TNC's TxData goes the RxData on the
PC. |
|
| Software and startup batch files
|
| EPROMs for the TNCs
| 27C256 |
Software for the PC
Get FLEXDIGI.EXE via e-mail
|
You need to aquire the following FlexNET components.
Step 1: Get the flexdigi package
via e-mail.
Step 2. Get the 6-pack ROM image here.
Step 2: Get the
Startup Batch file
A simple FlexNET node setup doesn't need any entries in config.sys. The
autoexec.bat file doesn't need anything either except for the stuff to start FlexNET.
Since most people will end up tailoring their systems regardless of
"need", I'll skip over those two files. Basically I'm creating an
autoexec.bat file that does what you want and then finally calls start.bat. So.
My CONFIG.SYS file has no lines in it, and my AUTOEXEC.BAT file has one line:
| START.BAT |
|
| The START.BAT file is where the excitement comes. First I'll show
you the file, then I'll explain it. |
|
rem Installs 6PACK on COM1 with 2 channels (0 and 1) at
9600 baud
rem and a KISS RS-232 interface on COM2flex
/u
flexnet 120
if errorlevel 1 goto error
6pack 1 /b=9600 /c=1
if errorlevel 1 goto error
kiss 2
if errorlevel 1 goto error
flexdigi
if errorlevel 1 goto error
flex
sysnum 1111
echo SUCCESS!! System started
goto exit
:error
echo FAILURE!!!!! Unloading FlexNET
:exit
rem Unloads everything
flex /u |
|
The first command, flex /u, tells the system to unload all things flexnet. This
makes your system ready to start over, in case you already had stuff loaded.
The second command, flexnet 120, starts
up the flexnet kernil with 120K of working memory. The number is something you can
specify. Any memory you use here is memory you don't have left for applications
after the system is fully started. This number is the amount that Gunter (DK7WJ)
says should be enough for an 8 port node with a BBS running in the foreground.
Following the flexnet command is a conditional branch based on an error report.
The flexnet module can fail if some resource which is needed is not found. The
conditional branches around the rest of the initialization to a point that will put an
error message on the computer screen and will unload flexnet. If this is run
unsupervised you can have the computer reboot itself at the end of the start batch file
and hope that whatever the failure was is a transient condition.
The third command, 6pack 1 /b=9600 /c=2,
includes the 6pack driver that talks to TNCs. This command asks for 6pack to use
COM1 to communicate at 9600 baud to the TNCs, and to handle two TNCs.
The fourth command, kiss 2, includes the
kiss driver on COM2. The kiss driver can communicate with another FlexNET station
via a 3 wire RS232 cable. This is very useful for debugging your first FlexNET node.
The fifth command, flexdigi, includes the
router. Without this option, you will not be able to route traffic through
your FlexNET node.
Finally, the system is activated with the flex
command. This loads all of the previously included drivers (you cannot specify new
drivers after this command) and starts the system running.
After the flex command activates the system you can send commands to the system to
pre-initialize it. It is important to note that if you have already run your flexnet
node on this computer, the node will have created configuration files that end in the
extention .FPR. If you send the node commands after the node has created the .FPR
files, these commands can overwrite the .FPR information. The flexnet node will
dutifully put the new information into the .FPR files for immediate and future use.
If the system were to be reset for any reason, the data that is initialized in your
start.bat file will be reinitialized. This might be to your dismay if the node site
is 100 miles away on top of a snow covered mountain and you have to keep manually changing
whatever it is that the start.bat file is screwing up!
For my test I am setting the password to something simple. I use the command sysnum 1111
Watching it go
FlexNET using int 60
Allocating memory...
Waiting for activation...
FlexNet 6PACK driver V0.0d for DOS and WIN95
(C)1996-1997 G.Jost (D)K7WJ
Port=2f8, Irq=3, Baudrate=9600
Installing driver.. Channels 0-1
FlexNet KISS driver V1.3a (C)1994 G.Jost DK7WJ
Port=3f8, Irq-4
Installing driver.. Channel 2
Reading configuration
Reading heard list...
Also waiting for activation....
Starting FlexNet
Active channels: 0=6PACK 1=6PACK 2=KISS 15=SHELL
Remove with "FLEX /U"
PC/FlexNet V3.3e (C)1990-1995 G.Jost DK7WJ/AC5FC
Nur fur nichtkommerzielle Anwendungen in Ameteurfunk lizenziert
Only for usage in noncommercial applications for amateur radio
Seulement pour des applications non-commercial radioamateurs
>>> Siehe/see/voir FLEXDIGI.DOC <<<
|
Setting new number... OK
C:\>
Testing and configuring
Now that your flexnet node is running in the background, you can start a foreground
application to talk to it. Use the TNC.EXE application to start a console.
C:\>tnc
FlexNet-TNC V1.0g (C)1995 G.Jost DK7WJ
Usage: TNC <call sign> [<streams> [<buffer size>]]
oops
C:\>tnc ka2dew-12 This starts the TNC with my callsign
(please use your own).
FlexNet-TNC V1.0g (C)1995 G.Jost DK7WJ
Callsign: "KA2DEW-12"
FlexNet version: 3.3e
Streams: 4 Buffer/Stream: 10000
Now connect to the node. The commands of interest right now are Esc C and Esc D
for connect and disconnect.
> c
*** Connected to ??????
PC/FlexNet V3.3e
=>
The first thing to do is to set the callsign of the node.
my ka2dew 0 9
This tells the node that it can use all SSIDs of my callsign from 0 thru 9. These
SSIDs may be used by a user to connect to your node multiple times from the same TNC on
one of your user ports. It is important that you give the users multiple SSIDs to
fool with.
****TO BE CONTINUED****
Creating a MSWIndows 98 FlexNET user station with sound blaster as modem
Text here
Creating a MSDOS machine based FlexNET user station with TNC.
Text here |
