RemoteTRX

RemoteTRX is a set of software which allows to connect and control an ICOM IC-705 (or similar) radio amateur transceiver via a Raspberry Pi remotely.

• The Raspi acts as a kind of "router".
• talKKonnect is a Mumble client with some extensions to control it through software/hardware.
• CI-V Bridge is a piece of software which handles the data communication between ICOM transceiver, Web UI and talKKonnect.
• The remote device can either be a smartphone/tablet or a PC.
• The control interface is based on web technology, therefore platform independent.
• The connection is secured via a VPN connection, however could be replaced by anything else to your desire.

Schema:

Web UI:

Installation

The guide below should give an overview of how to setup the system, however might be incomplete/inaccurate. Also, please be aware that parts might have changed meanwhile due to its natural ongoing development.

Prerequisites

Install a current Raspbian system, configure it using raspi-configto your desire.

WiFi / Network

vi /etc/dhcpd.conf
interface wlan0
static ip_address=10.0.0.123/24
static routers=10.0.0.1
static domain_name_servers=10.0.0.1 8.8.8.8

OpenVPN

Optional, but strongly recommended when connecting to the internet. OpenVPN is offering a point-to-point service, however any other provider may be suitable, too. A service only offering "secure internet connection" or similar is NOT what needed in this case.

apt-get install openvpn

Get .ovpn file from OpenVPN management website.

Copy file to Raspi via WinSCP:

cp raspi.ovpn /etc/openvpn/client.conf

Then issue a reboot.

Mumble Server

Optional if some external Mumble server is being used (e.g. in Hamnet,...).

apt-get install mumble-server
dpkg-reconfigure mumble-server
vi /etc/mumble-server.ini

Modify parameters welcometext and registerName to your desire.

talKKonnect

Mumble client with some extra features to handle PTT, etc. operations.

see: https://github.com/talkkonnect/talkkonnect for build, installation and configuration instructions.

Start talKKonnect for testing (with su): /home/talkkonnect/bin/talkkonnect

• Apply custom configuration of talkkonnect.xml accordingly.

Install talKKonnect as a service:

cp talkkonnect.service /etc/systemd/system/
chown root:root /etc/systemd/system/talkkonnect.service
chmod 755 /etc/systemd/system/talkkonnect.service
systemctl enable talkkonnect.service
systemctl start talkkonnect.service

nginx (Webserver)

Provides the web interface and routes websocket data to CIVBridge.

apt-get install nginx
vi /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

• Apply custom configuration of nginx.conf.patch accordingly (adds reverse proxy for websocket connection).
• Copy web files to /var/www/html
• Reload configuration: nginx -s reload

CIVBridge

Interconnects between web UI, talkkonnect and transceiver.

Cross compile Qt5 source

• Get toolchain:

apt-get install git build-essential g++-arm-linux-gnueabihf

• Get sources:

git clone https://code.qt.io/qt/qt5.git
cd qt5
git branch
git checkout 5.15.2

• Get Qt submodules (a list of submodules can be found in .gitmodules):

perl init-repository --module-subset=qtbase,qtserialport,qtwebsockets -f 

• Cleanup configuration (e.g. in case of an earlier build):

make distclean
git submodule foreach --recursive "git clean -dfx" && git clean -dfx

• Configure build (a list of options can be found in ./configure -h)

./configure -opensource -nomake examples -nomake tests -confirm-license -device-option CROSS_COMPILE=/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabihf- -device linux-rasp-pi-g++ -no-accessibility -no-feature-cssparser -no-feature-evdev -no-feature-freetype -no-feature-gif -no-feature-gui -no-feature-harfbuzz -no-feature-ico -no-feature-linuxfb -no-feature-sql -no-feature-vnc -no-feature-vulkan -no-feature-xml -no-libjpeg -no-libpng -no-sql-sqlite -no-widgets -static -static-runtime

• Actual build:

make -j4
make install

Cross compile CIVBridge source

On your Linux host machine (e.g. Debian, Ubuntu,...)

git clone https://github.com/pe-jot/QtCIV.git
cd QtCIV/libCIV
/usr/local/Qt-5.15.2/bin/qmake libCIV.pro
make
cd ../CIVBridge
/usr/local/Qt-5.15.2/bin/qmake CIVBridge.pro
make

• Copy CIVBridge binary to /home/pi/CIVBridge (or anywhere else suitable)
• Make CIVBridge binary executable (chmod a+x CIVBridge)

Install CIVBridge as a service:

cp civbridge.service /etc/systemd/system/
chown root:root /etc/systemd/system/civbridge.service
chmod 755 /etc/systemd/system/civbridge.service
systemctl enable civbridge.service
systemctl start civbridge.service

IC-705

Configure USB SEND key to USB (A) RTS CI-V Address must be A4h (= default)

Launch

(with PC / Smartphone)

• Establish a VPN connection (optional)
• Connect with a Mumble client to your Raspi, either by knowing its IP address or by using hostname.local
• Load the webpage, either by knowing Raspi's IP address or by using hostname.local