B.S.A.R.C. Allstar Node

In late 2015/ early 2016 I decided to build a Rhaspberry Pi based Allstar node for the BSARC (Big Sandy Amateur Radio Club) primary repeater at Genoa, CO. It is the KD0TOS node and can be found on the usual sites. I had already constrcuted a node the previous year but never deployed it due to power consumption fears. The repeater is entirely solar powered and I was not comfortable deploying a node that would consume 50-60W continuously with only (at the time) 160 W of solar panels to keep the batteries charged. The new node interfaces with our new Yaesu DR-1X repeater without any modification to the repeater and consumes less than 12W. It follows the recipe found at Asterisk Allstar pretty closely. I obtained a Raspberry Pi 2 and loaded the distribution linked there, and modified a CT-108 USB sound dongle. We are using a USB Wifi dongle as well for a network conenction to a nearby seed plant which has internet connectivity and is owned by a club member who agreed to share his bandwidth (Thanks to K0RTS). Here are some photos and schematics, contrary to other information found on the internet it is entierly possible to interface teh Allstar node directly to the DR-1X without modification, and obtain perfectly satisfactory results.

Un-modified sound FOB

fob wire attachment detail 1

fob wire attachment detail 2

Assembled interface

DR-1X interface cable

Interface partial schematic

Fully assembled node

As you can see I elected to remove the audio jacks and the USB connector, but I have a hotair rework station which makes it easy, if you only have a soldering iron available you should leave them on. if you do remove the jacks, pay particular attention to the mic jack - the pads which are useful (i.e. connected to the chip) are near the center of the board - the ones on the edge are just connected to each other. Whith the jack in place it doesn't matter which ones you use - inside and outside are connected by the jack itself. For the DR-1X the COR and CTCSS polarities are inverted, PTT is not. Audio levels of 850 for Rx and 950 for Tx worked for me.