Some minor features and fixing a handful of bugs …

• AllStar Setup option to disable DTMF commands
• The ClearNode mobile apps now give more frequent and clearer warnings that your node has out of date software
• Private Nodes configs creation first removes all previous configs before applying new ones
• SA-818 RSSI polling no longer interferes with Updating Radio Frequency and Codes

73 … Gerry.

Tackling some often requested features in this release, and fixing a few bugs.

• Nodes that have the 818 Radio Transceiver can now be instructed to send the Receive RSS Level back to the ClearNode mobile app – it will be displayed in the Radio section at the top of the Node Details screen. You must first turn on the “Poll Radio RSSI” setting in “Your Nodes > Settings”
• We have deployed custom voice announcements for connections, disconnections and banned connections. You can enable and control this feature in “Node Details > AllStar Setup > Telemetry > Alt voice telemetry” – it is disabled by default. You are advised to turn off the standard “Voice telemetry” if you enable this option
• We have added various voice announcements to the internet startup process when your node boots up and fails to reach our servers over the internet. Voice announcements have also been added to help you use the WiFiByLight functionality.
• When selecting “Monitor only” in the “ADD CONNECTION” screen, you are prompted for confirmation if you are turning this option on. There have been a lot of cases where folks have turned this option on unwittingly and then been left to wonder why they can’t transmit to the connected node
• We have deprecated the Transmit Timer function on the Node Details screen
• Deployed some bug fixes in the Timed Events screens, particularly for the Android version.

73 … Gerry.

The saytime.pl and say24time.pl scripts that you can call via a DTMF command have developed issues. That is to say the target APIs at accuweather.com have changed or are not responding as expected.

The good folks over at HamVoIP.org are aware of the issue and are working on a fix. As soon as that becomes available we’ll add a post here on how to get the fix installed.

73 … Gerry.

More configuration options for SkywarnPlus – now you can choose your SkyDescribe language and voice. The two options are linked – so be careful to select the language first … then select the voice. The Voice options available are determined by the Language selection.

73 … Gerry.

This is a small release for the node software only – fixes the reported issue with courtesy tones where the configuration item “remotetx” was missing for some users causing incorrect tone selections.

Recommended for all users …

73 … Gerry.

Another release to improve the configurability of SkywarnPlus – the following features have been added:

• Add multiple NWS County Codes by editing AllStar Setup > Weather options > NWS County Code. Add multiple codes separated by commas (no spaces). If you are still using AutoSky, which only ever uses one county code, make sure the county code you wish to use is the first in the list.
• You can now configure your own list of Alert Types that are enabled for Courtesy Tones and Sky Describe Alerts. AllStar Setup > SkywarnPlus Options > Select NWS Alert Types. Tap on this row and make your selections in the following screen. Don’t forget when you return from the selection screen that you need to tap Save in the top right corner to send your changed configuration to the node.

Some other fixes in this release:

• If you attempt to configure Private Nodes and no applicable configuration is found, the system will now delete the /etc/asterisk/custom/my_private_nodes.conf file on each node. This is to prevent old configurations that are not valid lying around interrupting your ability to connect to those nodes now they are no longer private.
• At some point the WiFi Management screen in Android version got broken – SSID names were not displaying – that is now fixed.

Have fun !

73 … Gerry.

Some of you have noticed that the default values for “AllStar Setup” > “Weather Options” > “Play Wx every (ms)” and “Play Wx after busy delay (ms)” are incorrect – they have an extra zero on the end. The correct values are “180000” and “60000” ms respectively (3 mins and 1 min). Of course you may put any value you wish in those fields, these are the suggested values for most installations.

Thanks for the report … keep ’em coming !

73 … Gerry.

Website search …

You can search the entire Node-Ventures website – including the “What’s New” blog posts !

Keeping the documentation up to date is never ending task – by its very nature ! But finding what you need can be a challenge as well. Try the search function – Red Search Box underneath the “What’s New” column. We just added the search engine this weekend. Give it a try !

73 … Gerry.

This is the second follow up release for SkywarnPlus and SkyDescribe. We’ve implemented the various DTMF commands to control the SkywarnPlus installation in real time, and to allow you to manually call for repeat announcements of the SkyDescribe interpretation of the current Wx advisories. We’ve also provided the option that allows SkywarnPlus to control and automate your courtesy tones.

See this page on Github for a detailed description of SkywarnPlus, how it is configured and what DTMF commands are available.

Be aware that SkyDescribe has to reach out to VoiceRSS.org to convert the text to speech – if that text is long it may take a couple of minutes to complete. Therefore the actual voice transmission may take a couple of minutes before it plays.

For SkyDescribe and Automatic Courtesy Tones, the configuration defines a subset of the complete list of Advisory types for which those processes will be triggered – here’s the list as currently defined:

• Ashfall Warning
• Avalanche Warning
• Blizzard Warning
• Blowing Dust Warning
• Civil Danger Warning
• Civil Emergency Message
• Coastal Flood Warning
• Dust Storm Warning
• Earthquake Warning
• Evacuation – Immediate
• Extreme Wind Warning
• Fire Warning
• Flood Watch
• Flood Advisory
• Gale Warning
• Gale Watch
• Hazardous Materials Warning
• Hurricane Force Wind Warning
• Hurricane Warning
• Ice Storm Warning
• Law Enforcement Warning
• Local Area Emergency
• Nuclear Power Plant Warning
• Radiological Hazard Warning
• Severe Thunderstorm Warning
• Shelter In Place Warning
• Storm Surge Warning
• Tornado Warning
• Tornado Watch
• Tropical Storm Warning
• Tsunami Warning
• Typhoon Warning
• Volcano Warning
• Winter Storm Warning

We could expand that list if there is a desire for specific types that aren’t currently defined – let us know.

NOTE: If you are using the ClearNode mobile app to configure SkywarnPlus, you MUST have “Generate Configuration File” turned ON. The only reason to turn this option off is because you have elected to edit the configuration file yourself using SSH and a command line editor like “nano”, and you don’t want your edits overwritten by the ClearNode configuration process. If you turn this off – your “SkywarnPlus Options” will be ignored.

NOTE: If you turn ON “Enable Automatic Courtesy Tones” – you are handing over control of your courtesy tones to SkywarnPlus. Whatever tones you have selected in the Telemetry section of AllStar Setup will be ignored.

NOTE: You should NOT have “Enable Test Mode” turned on. If you turn it on, all it will do is announce 3 random alerts just to test that SkywarnPlus is working end to end. It will not poll the the NOAA for Advisories.

As always – let me know if you’ve got ideas or you are missing some other configuration option.

73 … Gerry.

This is a follow up release for SkywarnPlus – fixed a couple of bugs and several new configuration options, including enabling SkyDescribe.

To use SkyDescribe you will need an API Key from https://www.voicerss.org. Once you have it, enter into Node Details > AllStar Setup > SkywarnPlus Options > “VoiceRSS API Key” and Save. You can’t activate SkyDescribe without having an API Key.

Don’t Enable Test Mode – unless you know why you are doing it.

Don’t forget to enable the corresponding Timed Event which should have been automatically installed during the update.

Note that you cannot have AutoSky and SkywarnPlus enabled at the same time – they would stomp on each other’s “tailmessage”.

Likely the defaults for “Play Wx every (ms)” and “Play Wx after busy delay (ms)” are incorrect in your default AllStar Setup – set them to 180000 and 60000 respectively. (Looks like they both had an extra zero in the default setup.)

Big Thank You to the folks that contributed knowledge to this update – you know who you are – Cheers !

73 … Gerry.