Portsdown software
The core software for the Portsdown transmitter has been written by Evariste, F5OEO. Other contributions have been made by numerous developers and it is a great example of an open-source project. Most of the source code is available on the BATC GitHub repository, but some of the code is downloaded from other sources.
The potential capabilities of the hardware and software combination are very diverse and maintenance of the totality of the software is beyond the resources of the project team, so only a subset of capabilities will be actively supported. As most of us are TV enthusiasts rather than software enthusiasts, every effort has been made to make the configuration menu-driven.
Micro-SD cards with the latest software will be made available from the BATC Shop, and if you buy one of the cards you can skip this step and go straight back to initial setup section of the user guide.
Important note - the Portsdown transmitter has been designed to "work out of the box":
- You do not need to do anything other than follow the initial set up guide
- Do not load any device drivers
- Do not tinker with Linux commands
If you do, we don't have time to support you and will just advise you to reformat your SD card and start again!
However, a number of members may want to build their own and the process is not difficult. There are a few operations that require the use of the Linux Command Line. Do not be alarmed – these are simple cut and paste exercises, and full instructions will be provided. The detail will be posted on the BATC GitHub (Git Hub is an open-source software collaboration website), with the latest software. The BATC GitHub can be found at https://github.com/BritishAmateurTelevisionClub/rpidatv
You will require an application to check the IP address of your RPi when it first boots up, such as Advanced IP Scanner and an SSH Terminal application such as Putty.
Downloading and Installing the Latest Software
- You will need another computer with a means of writing an image to a Micro-SD Card. The use of Win32DiskImager is recommended for writing to the card.
- Then follow the instructions at https://github.com/BritishAmateurTelevisionClub/rpidatv/blob/master/README.md . This will lead through the steps to install the software and when complete, you are now at the same stage as if you had purchased a Micro-SD card from the BATC Shop.