Terminal Node Controller In A Router

[Andrew] used a DSL router to make his own Terminal Node Controller. This will become part of an APRS-IS network, an Internet-based network built by amateur radio operators. The router used here is a Dlink DSL-502T with an AVR based TNC module attached to the serial port header. The phone line connector and its accompanying hardware have been removed to make room for the TNC module, which is supplied with 12V via that red wire. When the router boots up it sends data to the serial port header so the firmware on the TNC needed some tweaking to accommodate this (yay for open source).

Want some more APRS goodness? Check out this AVR APRS tracker.

17 thoughts on “Terminal Node Controller In A Router

  1. Think of APRS as twitter without wires. It the network gets built out sufficiently it could be a real asset for both amateur radio and for the community when emergency communications are needed.

    It also can act as an automatic position reporting system and that is what lots of hams use it for but it was not the intent of the guy who invented it.

  2. Agree there is nothing really new here but for those who have access to DSL-502T’s and want to build IGates all the detail on other blog including how to build the OpenWRT images might be useful.

  3. Nice to see that the hams are still at it.
    I remember using RTTY back in the 80’s.
    RTTY was a way computers could communicate using a serial interface using amateur radio . Wireless networking years before the internet. Sending text messages back and forth over a distance of 5000 miles was pretty awesome then and still is now.

  4. This is awesome. Amateur radio is such a wonderful tool for experimentation. I hope that posts like this will bring more people to the hobby.

    Amateur radio provides such a vast area for experimentation and hacking that it is suprising that I don’t see more of us taking advantage. It really is sad.

    Good job guys.

    73 KJ4KNW

  5. @Leigh — I found a “Homer” to help me out. The 1st thing I’m going to do is set up an inbound i-Gate. Looks like I won’t need the TNC, since I’ve found several pieces of code that use the soundcard as a decent substitute. The setup will go well with my already-running 10M propagation beacon.

    Looks like this will be a good complement to my CWOP, just as soon as I can get my weather station fixed and calibrated again.

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