Mobile iGate

Photo Courtesy Manuel Lausmann, DO3MLA

Mobiles LoRa APRS Igate by Manuel Lausmann DO3MLA ©Manuel Lausmann YouTube Channel (German) Website

Translated into English by Konrad Roeder WA4OSH

Hardware / Software needed

(iGate Firmware von Peter Buchegger OE5BPA) (Hardware: TTGO T-Beam V1 or V1,1)

Why a mobile LoRa APRS iGate?

A mobile LoRa APRS iGate can provide iGate functionality anywhere there's a WiFi connection. For example, take your iGate on your next SOTA hill climb, vacation, camping etc. with multiple stops.

Configuration

Install the iGate firmware on the TTGO T-Beam, following the instructions from a video or a PDF. Then before flashing, make the recommended changes below. Recommendation: Before starting the installation, perform a GPS Reset on the TTGO T-Beam in order to prevent problems.

Allow multiple AP's

It's recommended that a mobile LoRa APRS iGate is configure for several Wifi access points such as the Wi-Fi hotspot from the smartphone, mobile router, etc., so that you can avoid editing the configuration over and over again. You can pre-load up to three SSID and password combinations onto the TTGO T-Beam.

Edit DATA > is-cfg.json and insert the SSID and password combinations for multiple APs into the code as shown in the figure below:

Important! When editing the JSON file, pay attention to each comma, bracket, curly bracket and other characters as well as the spacing.

Photo Courtesy Manuel Lausmann, DO3MLA

Set the lat-lon source to come from the GPS

Edit DATA > is-cfg.json and set "use_gps" to true. See the figure below:

Photo Courtesy Manuel Lausmann, DO3MLA

That's it, that's all there is to do.

The first run of the TTGO it can take up to 10min until the GPS has obtained a fix.

Important! Go outside to get good GPS reception. The red LED next to the UBlox GPS chip should be blinking. When all this is done, the current GPS position will be used to report the iGate location for every beacon transmission sent to the APRS server.

Important! The lat-lon position can appear to jump around a bit while jumping or hiking as well as during a standstill. See the figure below:

Photo Courtesy Manuel Lausmann, DO3MLA

The mobile iGate location does not track as quickly as a tracker, but it's fully able to update its location using the GPS.