diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/networking/baycom.txt')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/networking/baycom.txt | 158 |
1 files changed, 158 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/baycom.txt b/Documentation/networking/baycom.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..4e68849d5639 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/networking/baycom.txt | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,158 @@ | |||
1 | LINUX DRIVERS FOR BAYCOM MODEMS | ||
2 | |||
3 | Thomas M. Sailer, HB9JNX/AE4WA, <sailer@ife.ee.ethz.ch> | ||
4 | |||
5 | !!NEW!! (04/98) The drivers for the baycom modems have been split into | ||
6 | separate drivers as they did not share any code, and the driver | ||
7 | and device names have changed. | ||
8 | |||
9 | This document describes the Linux Kernel Drivers for simple Baycom style | ||
10 | amateur radio modems. | ||
11 | |||
12 | The following drivers are available: | ||
13 | |||
14 | baycom_ser_fdx: | ||
15 | This driver supports the SER12 modems either full or half duplex. | ||
16 | Its baud rate may be changed via the `baud' module parameter, | ||
17 | therefore it supports just about every bit bang modem on a | ||
18 | serial port. Its devices are called bcsf0 through bcsf3. | ||
19 | This is the recommended driver for SER12 type modems, | ||
20 | however if you have a broken UART clone that does not have working | ||
21 | delta status bits, you may try baycom_ser_hdx. | ||
22 | |||
23 | baycom_ser_hdx: | ||
24 | This is an alternative driver for SER12 type modems. | ||
25 | It only supports half duplex, and only 1200 baud. Its devices | ||
26 | are called bcsh0 through bcsh3. Use this driver only if baycom_ser_fdx | ||
27 | does not work with your UART. | ||
28 | |||
29 | baycom_par: | ||
30 | This driver supports the par96 and picpar modems. | ||
31 | Its devices are called bcp0 through bcp3. | ||
32 | |||
33 | baycom_epp: | ||
34 | This driver supports the EPP modem. | ||
35 | Its devices are called bce0 through bce3. | ||
36 | This driver is work-in-progress. | ||
37 | |||
38 | The following modems are supported: | ||
39 | |||
40 | ser12: This is a very simple 1200 baud AFSK modem. The modem consists only | ||
41 | of a modulator/demodulator chip, usually a TI TCM3105. The computer | ||
42 | is responsible for regenerating the receiver bit clock, as well as | ||
43 | for handling the HDLC protocol. The modem connects to a serial port, | ||
44 | hence the name. Since the serial port is not used as an async serial | ||
45 | port, the kernel driver for serial ports cannot be used, and this | ||
46 | driver only supports standard serial hardware (8250, 16450, 16550) | ||
47 | |||
48 | par96: This is a modem for 9600 baud FSK compatible to the G3RUH standard. | ||
49 | The modem does all the filtering and regenerates the receiver clock. | ||
50 | Data is transferred from and to the PC via a shift register. | ||
51 | The shift register is filled with 16 bits and an interrupt is signalled. | ||
52 | The PC then empties the shift register in a burst. This modem connects | ||
53 | to the parallel port, hence the name. The modem leaves the | ||
54 | implementation of the HDLC protocol and the scrambler polynomial to | ||
55 | the PC. | ||
56 | |||
57 | picpar: This is a redesign of the par96 modem by Henning Rech, DF9IC. The modem | ||
58 | is protocol compatible to par96, but uses only three low power ICs | ||
59 | and can therefore be fed from the parallel port and does not require | ||
60 | an additional power supply. Furthermore, it incorporates a carrier | ||
61 | detect circuitry. | ||
62 | |||
63 | EPP: This is a high-speed modem adaptor that connects to an enhanced parallel port. | ||
64 | Its target audience is users working over a high speed hub (76.8kbit/s). | ||
65 | |||
66 | eppfpga: This is a redesign of the EPP adaptor. | ||
67 | |||
68 | |||
69 | |||
70 | All of the above modems only support half duplex communications. However, | ||
71 | the driver supports the KISS (see below) fullduplex command. It then simply | ||
72 | starts to send as soon as there's a packet to transmit and does not care | ||
73 | about DCD, i.e. it starts to send even if there's someone else on the channel. | ||
74 | This command is required by some implementations of the DAMA channel | ||
75 | access protocol. | ||
76 | |||
77 | |||
78 | The Interface of the drivers | ||
79 | |||
80 | Unlike previous drivers, these drivers are no longer character devices, | ||
81 | but they are now true kernel network interfaces. Installation is therefore | ||
82 | simple. Once installed, four interfaces named bc{sf,sh,p,e}[0-3] are available. | ||
83 | sethdlc from the ax25 utilities may be used to set driver states etc. | ||
84 | Users of userland AX.25 stacks may use the net2kiss utility (also available | ||
85 | in the ax25 utilities package) to convert packets of a network interface | ||
86 | to a KISS stream on a pseudo tty. There's also a patch available from | ||
87 | me for WAMPES which allows attaching a kernel network interface directly. | ||
88 | |||
89 | |||
90 | Configuring the driver | ||
91 | |||
92 | Every time a driver is inserted into the kernel, it has to know which | ||
93 | modems it should access at which ports. This can be done with the setbaycom | ||
94 | utility. If you are only using one modem, you can also configure the | ||
95 | driver from the insmod command line (or by means of an option line in | ||
96 | /etc/modprobe.conf). | ||
97 | |||
98 | Examples: | ||
99 | modprobe baycom_ser_fdx mode="ser12*" iobase=0x3f8 irq=4 | ||
100 | sethdlc -i bcsf0 -p mode "ser12*" io 0x3f8 irq 4 | ||
101 | |||
102 | Both lines configure the first port to drive a ser12 modem at the first | ||
103 | serial port (COM1 under DOS). The * in the mode parameter instructs the driver to use | ||
104 | the software DCD algorithm (see below). | ||
105 | |||
106 | insmod baycom_par mode="picpar" iobase=0x378 | ||
107 | sethdlc -i bcp0 -p mode "picpar" io 0x378 | ||
108 | |||
109 | Both lines configure the first port to drive a picpar modem at the | ||
110 | first parallel port (LPT1 under DOS). (Note: picpar implies | ||
111 | hardware DCD, par96 implies software DCD). | ||
112 | |||
113 | The channel access parameters can be set with sethdlc -a or kissparms. | ||
114 | Note that both utilities interpret the values slightly differently. | ||
115 | |||
116 | |||
117 | Hardware DCD versus Software DCD | ||
118 | |||
119 | To avoid collisions on the air, the driver must know when the channel is | ||
120 | busy. This is the task of the DCD circuitry/software. The driver may either | ||
121 | utilise a software DCD algorithm (options=1) or use a DCD signal from | ||
122 | the hardware (options=0). | ||
123 | |||
124 | ser12: if software DCD is utilised, the radio's squelch should always be | ||
125 | open. It is highly recommended to use the software DCD algorithm, | ||
126 | as it is much faster than most hardware squelch circuitry. The | ||
127 | disadvantage is a slightly higher load on the system. | ||
128 | |||
129 | par96: the software DCD algorithm for this type of modem is rather poor. | ||
130 | The modem simply does not provide enough information to implement | ||
131 | a reasonable DCD algorithm in software. Therefore, if your radio | ||
132 | feeds the DCD input of the PAR96 modem, the use of the hardware | ||
133 | DCD circuitry is recommended. | ||
134 | |||
135 | picpar: the picpar modem features a builtin DCD hardware, which is highly | ||
136 | recommended. | ||
137 | |||
138 | |||
139 | |||
140 | Compatibility with the rest of the Linux kernel | ||
141 | |||
142 | The serial driver and the baycom serial drivers compete | ||
143 | for the same hardware resources. Of course only one driver can access a given | ||
144 | interface at a time. The serial driver grabs all interfaces it can find at | ||
145 | startup time. Therefore the baycom drivers subsequently won't be able to | ||
146 | access a serial port. You might therefore find it necessary to release | ||
147 | a port owned by the serial driver with 'setserial /dev/ttyS# uart none', where | ||
148 | # is the number of the interface. The baycom drivers do not reserve any | ||
149 | ports at startup, unless one is specified on the 'insmod' command line. Another | ||
150 | method to solve the problem is to compile all drivers as modules and | ||
151 | leave it to kmod to load the correct driver depending on the application. | ||
152 | |||
153 | The parallel port drivers (baycom_par, baycom_epp) now use the parport subsystem | ||
154 | to arbitrate the ports between different client drivers. | ||
155 | |||
156 | vy 73s de | ||
157 | Tom Sailer, sailer@ife.ee.ethz.ch | ||
158 | hb9jnx @ hb9w.ampr.org | ||