Project Updates #33

End of Year (2021) Update

This project started in September of 2020. I wanted a way to decode GPS locations from a radio and send them to APRS. It took close several months to create this APRS gateway (now referred to as the data gateway). After tinkering with that, the need for "enhanced" private call routing became a priority. The gateway dashboard came along after this, then the rather primitive, yet functional SMS generation.

Spring of this year, I started to work on the web service, the "web GUI / admin interface / content management system" or what ever you want to call it. This was initially for a user authentication system, similar to BM or TGIF, but turned into a more featured web application over the year. I have been combining all of the components of the project into a single branch and project as they were split up. This has taken a lot of time and effort.

I am really close to an "initial release", but still have some work to do, mainly documentation and some code to finish. It will likely be a month or two as I have multiple jobs and a family, so spare time is often a rare commodity.

Current Status

At the time of this writing, the web service has the data gateway (APRS, etc.) dashboard built in. I am working on a few different modes for the web service that will turn it into a dashboard only, so the data gateway dashboard can be used with FreeDMR or HBLink. This "dashboard only" mode will hide/disable certain functions that pertain to the HBNet core (hbnet.py). There will also be a "DMR only" mode that hides all the stuff related to the data gateway.

The code for generating a set up script for Pi-Star needs to be rewritten. It sort of functions now, but is in desperate need of modification.

The docker-compose.yml file is still under active development (as well as a how to guide). I still have to push updated docker containers to the Docker Hub.

This year has been significantly busier than I anticipated, which has unfortunately cut down on the time that I can dedicate to this project. Things are starting less busy now, so there should be some upcoming improvements. HBNet will undergo a partial rewrite in the upcoming months for the following reasons:

1. At present, setup of HBNet is too complicated. I have heard from several people. It needs to be simpler to setup and run. I'll be attempting to strike a balance between the complex flexibility currently, and simplifying everything from setup to configuring. The simplest way will more than likely be a docker container.

2. Some of the code in the data gateway is too bloated and feature rich. I'll be removing some of these features and turning them into external extensions.

Stay tuned for these changes!

Greetings
Is there anyway possible you can send a install procedure. Would really like to give your system a try. Email me at jcradio237@comcast.net
Many Thanks
Joe N2MRH