[aprssig] D72/Bluetooth (was: Android can do analog APRS on 144.39)

[Tom Hayward]

On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 9:20 AM, Lynn W. Deffenbaugh (Mr)
<ldeffenb at homeside.to> wrote:
> The NMEA stream doesn't provide the full APRS packets, simply a waypoint to
> put a station on a map.

I was responding regarding Herb's request. He just asked for a way to
show stations on the map. This, I think is possible with off-the-shelf
Bluetooth hardware and APRSDroid's experimental NMEA support.

> I want access to the internal TNC, just as I get on the D700/D710, so that a
> fully functional APRS client program can be connected to do messaging,
> telemetry, AND put fully-described APRS stations on the map (symbol,
> comment, application/hardware type and version, ...).

Unfortunately not all of this is supported over NMEA, but doesn't
Kenwood's NMEA extension provide symbol?

> Isn't there a microcontroller out there that has built-in USB host support
> to which a cheap Bluetooth adapater could be mated and very thin firmware
> provided to bridge the serial data stream between the USB and the Bluetooth?
> Of course, this will need to be in a pocketable form factor, possibly even
> sleeve-able to the D72 and maybe even draw power from there?

With a USB-host microcontroller, you would still need to implement a
cp210x driver in the microcontroller to convert USB to UART or
whatever the Bluetooth module expects. You have two options here: port
the Linux driver to your microcontoller, or just use Linux (with an
RPi or similar small SoC). Due to the cost of all the pieces,
development time, and limited potential production quantities, I would
just use Linux to provide the USB to Bluetooth translation.

Tom KD7LXL