---

PacComm PicoPacket APRS & GPS Setup

---

The PacComm PicoPacket is a very cool LITTLE box. I was very impressed with the construction, and in particular, the manual and instructions that came with it. They have even included a separate flyer specifically relating to APRS commands and use.

It is very small. It uses RJ45 (telephone 6 wire) connectors for serial and radio connections. I purchased it specifically to experiment with making a small stand alone tracker system. I was looking for a TNC smaller than a KPC 3, and looking to reduce the spider web of wires across my car seat.

I settled on a Tripmate to replace my Garmin GPSII, and the PICO to replace the KPC3. I could not find anyone who had put these two together however, so I had no idea if they would work. A call to PacComm was (I'm sorry to say) really no help. They specifically stated that I would need a dual port Pico (at a much higher price) to communicate with a GPS. So, thanks to the great folk at AES who let me look one over (and spend an hour with the manual), I felt a single port should work fine and purchased one ($150.00).

Minus the time on the bench to makeup the wiring harness, it took about 20 min to read over the manual and have it programmed (I was amazed) and WORKING (even more amazed).

Here are the basic setup parameters I use with my PacComm PicoPacket in tracker mode.

Enter GPS, and connect the TNC's serial port to the GPS.

To gain control again, hook the TNC up to the computer and type a backslash "\".

_______________________________________________________________________________

UPDATE:

After a month or more of use, it's still working fine.... except that it has lost it's memory, all of the programming, a couple of times for no apparent reason. I have the entire tracker system (GPS, TNC, HT) on a single power cord plugged into the cigarette lighter plug. If I just "pull the plug" on the whole thing to turn it off, all is fine. If I turn off the PICO using the on/off switch on the back of the unit, it sometimes scrambles it's memory. This happened the last time at 6:00AM as I was setting up for an ARES bike race, and I did not bring along the laptop... I was not on the map that day.

The problem seems to be related to the power source supplied to the PICO. Some folk I've talked to have gone to NOT supplying power to the radio transmitter and the PICO via the same cable. Any dip in voltage seems to cause the PICO to reset. It will run for days on a 9 volt battery, so run 12 volts to your radio, and use a separate 9 volt source for the PICO.

Overall, a fine product, but it's sitting in a drawer now... as it has been replaced by the even smaller TinyTrakII and APRS Engineering MIM.

73 and good luck, N9UUR

Back to the Hardware page.

Back to the Packet page.

Back to the N9UUR home page.

Jan. 21, 2002