Converting Arduino project to PlatformIO

[jhgcreugers1]

Hi,

My private laptop recently crashed and has died (it was already 12 years old). This leaves me with my (restricted) work laptop. I tried installing Arduino IDE, but if slowed it way down, and I got firewall blocks, etc. This is not a route I want to take.

I already have Visual Studio Code installed with the PlatformIO extension, which I used for another LORA APRS project (the LORA_APRS_IGATE). That worked flawless and has prompted me to try migrating the esp32_loraprs project to C++ using this guide.

For esp32_loraprs.cpp that worked! But when building the project, I now run into 160 errors in loraprs_service.cpp. I tried declaring the ones that gave a 'was not declared in this scope'-error, but I keep getting different errors.

Has anyone converted this particular project to PlatformIO before? Any tips in doing this? Are there Alternatives out there I'm unaware of?

(I am fairly new to programming to be fair. Only some Python experience.)
build_LORAPRS_output_errors.txt
loraprs_service.cpp.txt

Thanks, best Regards.

[sh123]

Try from https://github.com/sh123/esp32_loraprs/tree/platformio, but run pio upgrade first.

Tried to compile and upload, works fine on my modem.

[jhgcreugers1]

Hi,

Not sure of myself here. I went to 'Comparing changes' and clicked on the latest Commit 'Moved to PlatformIO' from Dec 18,2022:

I then clicked 'browse files', Code, Download ZIP:

Looking at the loraprs_service.cpp file, indeed it seems fixed. radio_ is no longer referenced.

The pinouts seem to filled correctly from pins_arduino.h:

and

through config.h:

Since they seem to get the correct value I did not change them in config.h. (let me know if I still should!)

I did have to comment out RX and TX pin in order for it to build. (they are not used anyway in sx1276?)

Build & upload was now successful!

I enabled trace and I don't get an error anymore in the stream, yet I don't find my position gets uploaded to aprs.fi...

stream.txt

Does the stream look good to you? does it mean the position package is sent out on RF but I simply have a coverage issue? Or is there still an issue on my board?

Also, just to doublecheck; the OLED screen does not display anything; that is correct?

[sh123]

It works as ax.25 modem by default, lora-aprs project uses own format, see this line from the log:

printConfig : Using TNC KISS and AX.25 mode

if you are using lora-aprs based iGate then you need to set next config.h variables to true:

#define CFG_TEXT_PACKETS      true   // enable aprs TNC2 text packets instead of binary for interoperability with other projects (disables KISS + AX.25!)
#define CFG_TEXT_PACKETS_3    true   // true - enable aprs-lora 3 byte prefix '<', 0xff, 0x01

and use APRSDroid TNC2 mode.

Display should not display anything as it is headless modem, it is supposed to be used with phone/pc/raspberry pi, etc over Bluetooth/BLE/WiFi/TCPIP/USB.

[jhgcreugers1]

Thanks for your quick reply and continued support!

I did see 'CFG_TEXT_PACKETS' but thought it wasn't applicable because it was under the header APRS-IS gateway options (valid when CFG_IS_CLIENT_MODE = false). I now changed the mentioned settings to true and changed my APRSdroid setting to 'TNC2'. I think most IGates in my area are indeed LORA-APRS.

I now see my messages coming through, but not my positions (Last position 2022-11-03 16:03:34 CET (47d 51m ago). Strange because I do get a Packet rate warning (This station is transmitting packets at a high rate, which can cause congestion in the APRS network). My interval in APRdroid is set to Smartbeaconing 30S (for both high speeds and low speeds). Any ideas on how I can get my position reports to show up? (I realize we're slowly drifting out of scope of the original topic...)

[sh123]

You need to check if aprsis gets your packets, you can see them in raw log, if you see them then all good, if you see them in red then there is some error, usually, it says what kind of error, like, invalid packet or rate limited.

[jhgcreugers1]

Hi! The packets had in fact not gone out yet (they are not in the list of raw packets). The messages kept retrying 7 times because they were never acknowledged (all around me are only Igates, no digipeaters). Not sure why the position reports never came through. I changed the path from WIDE1-1,WIDE2-2 to WIDE1-1. I also moved to the same room as my IGate and... IT WORKS! 😁

Thank you so much for all your patience and time! 👏👏👏 Half the stuff I did wrong must've been pretty obvious for others but at least I learned a lot in the process.