FGCom (before 3.0)

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FGCom is an addon for FlightGear. With FGCom (and the infrastructure behind), FlightGear gets a realtime voice communication system. Which could be used for ATC.

Status

• 19 June, 2008: Currently the server is down due to hardware problems. It is unknown when the service comes back becuase he currently has no time to fix the problems.

• 22 November 2007: Due to heavy development at this time there may be some differences between the information on the web pages and the installation. Please follow the discussions on the FlightGear development list!

Installation

Before you start, make sure that your speakers and mic are working and tested to sensible volumes.

Linux

Fetch FGCom (a copy of a working iaxclient is inside)

svn checkout svn://svn.dfn.de:/fgcom/trunk fgcom

Optional: edit iaxclient/lib/Makefile

To use oss emulation (recommended and the default for now)

USE_PA_OSS=1
USE_PA_ALSA=0
USE_PA_JACK=0
AUDIO_ALSA=0

To use native alsa (WARNING: PTT won't work)

USE_PA_OSS=0
USE_PA_ALSA=0
USE_PA_JACK=0
AUDIO_ALSA=1

To use portaudio alsa (WARNING: only if your card natively supports 8000Hz sample rate)

USE_PA_OSS=0
USE_PA_ALSA=1
USE_PA_JACK=0
AUDIO_ALSA=0

Edit fgcom/src/Makefile and check the pathes for PLIB_PREFIX and OPENAL_PREFIX.

Compile iaxclient and fgcom. To do so, do the following:

cd fgcom/src && make

Install

make install

and you should be ready for a quick test...

Using

Testing

quick test

   $ fgcom -f910      

will give the following output--

fgcom - a communication radio based on VoIP with IAX/Asterisk

(c)2007 by H. Wirtz <wirtz@dfn.de>

Version 1.1.0 build 42

Using iaxclient library Version SVN 42

Reading list of airports...done.

Initializing IAX client as guest:xxxxxxxxxxx@fgcom1.parasitstudio.de

Call 0 accepted

Echo-Box

Call 0 answered

speak into the mic and your words will be echoed back with a short delay.

type ctrl-C to exit this test

Configuration

Or if it didn't work perfectly first time

   fgcom --help

returns the following useful info

fgcom - a communication radio based on VoIP with IAX/Asterisk

(c)2007 by H. Wirtz <wirtz@dfn.de>

Version 1.1.0 build 42

Using iaxclient library Version SVN 42

fgcom: unrecognized option `--help'

Usage: fgcom [-u user] -w [password] [[-s voipserver] [-p port]] | [[-a airport] [-f frequency]] [-d]

--user | -U username for VoIP account (default: 'guest')

--password | -P password for VoIP account (default: 'guest')

--voipserver | -s voip server to ceonnect to (default 'localhost')

--port | -p where we should listen to FG(default '16661')

--airport | -a airport-id (ICAO) for ATC-mode

--frequency | -f frequency for ATC-mode

--mic | -i mic input level (0.0 - 1.0)

--speaker | -o speaker output level (0.0 - 1.0)

--debug | -d show debugging information

--mic-boost | -b enable mic boost

--list-audio | -l list audio devices

--set-audio-in | -r use <devicename> as audio input

--set-audio-out | -k use <devicename> as audio output

Mode 1: client for COM1 of flightgear:

$ fgcom

- connects fgcom to fgfs at localhost:16661

$ fgcom -sother.host.tld -p23456

- connects fgcom to fgfs at other.host.tld:23456

Mode 2: client for an ATC at <airport> on <frequency>:

$ fgcom -aKSFO -d120.500

- sets up fgcom for an ATC radio at KSFO 120.500 MHz

Note that fgcom starts with a guest account unless you use -U and -P!

Registration

To make full use of FGCOM you will need an account

please email wirtz@dfn.de and login details will be sent to you shortly. Accounts will not be made until Autumn 2008.

But you can test without an account (by default the used account is guest, password guest) with restricted frequency use. As guest you can only use the following frequencies:

911.000 MHz (ATC-Help)

910.000 MHz (Echo-Box)

123.450 MHz (Air2Air 1)

122.750 Mhz (Air2Air 2)

External links

• Official website
• Manual