Skylark V1.0 - new Outernet Firmware!

We need to find a local reseller; that’s just ridiculous. Please reach out to your favorite local ham radio shop and ask them to drop us a line.

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Thanks @CRCasey I do understand all of that :wink: I was close to midnight and I was having a bit of a tired “rant”
I have gone to great pains to stop moisture ( this IS England after all, and I am used to it!)
I have done a LOT of testing this morning, and with my Helix antenna (looking at the signals in HDSDR) I am getting all sorts of “mixed” results with the RTD-SDR.com (supplied) and the LNA, sitting at the RX end. . I have found it to “come & go” really badly, and not give consistent signals… With the same antenna and cable using the “barefoot” SDRplay (which has an LNA at the RX end) I can get constant signals ( and can decode aero no problems) .

I downloaded Outernet in a box, hoping to see what SNR it gave for the signal with the SDRPlay, but it is looking for an RTL device… The RTL-SDR started giving about 4db on that ( which was a lot more than I was seeing with CHIP earlier!

So I plugged the helix with the LNA inside and the RTL-SDR back into CHIP and it is now giving a consistent 4db

Personally I suspect that the LNA has gone a bit dodgy… Note that I DO have other transmitters here including my HF transceiver (which is only 100Watt, but was running 20watts on 40 Meters yesterday) , so it may have cooked its FET :frowning:

@Syed Yes, I will do!
believe it or not, Ham shops are not common in the UK! Not like in Australia or the US!
The message above was a bit of an “I need sleep, and I am fiddling with this at Midnight” type of rant… sorry!
You guys are doing a GREAT job!

I just got the same fedex letter

bummer!!!

I wonder if someone like coolcomponents.co.uk would be a reseller the DIY kit

@Abhishek

noticed a bit of strange behavior this morning.
Chip became unresponsive through the UI, as in it would just sit and spin. I could
ssh into it however and was able to issue a reboot. After the reboot I let it run for about 10 minutes and then tried again.
It took about 5 minutes before it showed me a login prompt. typed in credentials and received the following:
(btw its not the normal login screen that shows up.
{“results”:null,“error”:“Internal Server Error (HTTP 500): SyntaxError: Unexpected token L in JSON at position 0”}

This is a server side error and not that of the client. physically unplugged the system and powered it back up and at this point I am still not able to access the UI. Wrote a quick python script to check snr, rssi and packet count and it connects just fine.

(EDIT) after about 2 minutes even the TunerStatus results freeze.

Well, it appears that a lot of wifi sources near my house on channel 6, BUT all attempts to make any changes to network settings of the CHIP using the Skylark controls result in wifi of the CHIP not working any more. I don’t just mean the SSID not showing up, but no more signal. I have an Oscium wifi spectrum analyzer.

The only thing I can do at that point is re-flash the CHIP.

I just ran into this same issue. Confirmed with spectrum analyzer that there is no longer a wifi signal when changing the channel from 6 to 11.

My Outernet is reciving with good SNR . The weather is showing today after 24 hr showing No data. As you can see is the weather abit windy now here in the north of Norway.

Unless you just really want to put it outside, 6dB+ is plenty. You really won’t gain anything by going outside.

Not sure if you have this but the Aprs messages are listing in reverse date order. ie oldest at top.

Hi K5ted,
Ah thank you for the advice, I might just put it in a box and leave it there!

I’ll let it run for 24 hrs and I have Weather maps, APRS, News, Wiki…

It is running good for now… it just need a “Guess” access without login to be available to regular users…

Now if you need to let someone else test it, you have to give them full access…

Keep up the good work!

73

Upgraded successfully on my c.h.i.p. Alpha. I only got two Problems. I can’t setup a wifi password. If i do, the Wireless Network can’t be found from any device. Second Problem is: i can’t open the interface with my phone anymore. I need to connect with my phone because im not home under the week and here i have no pc.

Is there a way to downgrade back to librarian?

I have had the same problem with setting a wifi password, seems like a bug.

Hi,
I only change the “Chanel” to a less busy one and after reboot, well; no more wifi signal…
After many tries to reboot, I had to re-flash and it is working fine…

Hope that help!

Keep the great work you do!! :sunglasses:

73

Yea i had to re-flash it to. But this is not so good when i can’t set a wifi Password or even change the username or password… Thats not so good these days.

I noticed that. Much better. Saves a lot of scrolling. Hope the news goes that way too.

Yes, though there is now VM flasher. You’ll need to flash from a Linux box.
https://archive.outernet.is/images/rxOS-CHIP/3.1-201610122246/

Replying to myself here, but…
Just for the record… I fiddled around like CRAZY over the last 2 days to get a SNR of JUST over 3db , and that was with precise pointing of my Helical. ( see my rant above!)
This morning ( Sunday 8th Jan at 09:25 GMT) I have changed NOTHING since yesterday and the SNR is around 7db!!
the rssi dbm has been around -115 the whole time too…
The weather is still wet, & overcast Cloud right to the ground… (this is England after all!) and I changed nothing at all!!
I can’t even say that the Sun caused it ( pretty well flatline Kp index) and the rssi dbm number is not telling me that there was a loud local noise that has stopped… Any theories???

Oh the antenna is outside and the LNA is inside via a 5mtr low loss coax ( I brought the LNA inside to the “wrong” end of the coax whilst I was fiddling) … I see NO signal at all through the coated double glazed windows here , so it has to be outside :frowning:

(EDIT) as I typed the SNR went down to 1db BUT the rssi dbm has jumped to --122 !!! that seemed to happen right at 0930 GMT… so There IS some local noise!!! ( or the satellite turned down its power at 0930! and the AGC in the SDR raises the noise floor!!