Information on Jamsat/TAPR Trakbox Hardware and Software. Work on new version of Trakbox on newer hardware.
IMPORTANT UPDATE! Originally, this was going to be a project to emulate the older trakbox hardware including CPU so that older firmware image would operate on newer ARM based hardware. This was due to the fact I could not make contact with original Author and there was concern that the original software was lost. However, after one more try to find the Author, we have had success! Dr. Sasato JA6FTL sent me the following emails. I have been given permission to share the original Trakbox source code and will do so using the MIT License. See LICENSE file for License Information.
Hello, KF7PSM, Peter Congratulations for your "Update TrakboxDue Project".
Is it ok to publish the trakbox software you made on my page?
Yes, OK to publish it all over the world! Please specify that JAMSAT, JA6FTL, W3IWI and KF7PSM has the copyright.
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ei7m-wkt/numbr979.htm (JP)
de JE9PEL, Mineo Wakita
Hello OM, I had phone call from Wakitasan,JE9PEL about my old C-source code of TrakBOx. It has flown many time after the last TrakBox EPROM release. My TrakBOx development system was missing due to old PC failure. After searching the PC from my junk box, finally ang fortunately, I found The broken PC and extract IDE hard disk. Here I enclosed the C-source code for 8052, 80C320, 80C251 CPU If you need the DEFINE, INCLUDE files for compiling I will forward you The total system files of compiler set.
The enclosed ZIP file has W3IWI's original tracking BASIC code which I implemented for C The latest source code ETC.
I hope the code is helpful for your project. BTW, what is the CPU you intend to implement?
73s de JA6FTL
He did a lot of work to recover the source code of the original Trakbox! Once I confirm it is ok to post publicly here I will do so and start on recompiling it for newer ARM based hardware. I have decided to use an older dev kit I had MCBSTR9 to start since it has the same type of lcd originally used in the original TRAKBOX and also has a RTC and lots of i/o and serial ports which already have the rs-232 drivers installed.
Thanks to Martin W6LHI/G8LHI who found this github page and contacted me to tell me he found his old original trakbox has
sent it to me to use for reference! It's in great shape!
I have successfully compiled the original source code for trakbox. I will burn an eprom and test it in Martins unit to validate that it does work. After which I will update the data in the code to bring it up to 2021-2030 and publish a new rom image for anyone wanting to still use their units. Then I will port this code to a newer processor and see how that works out. The goal is to replace the trakbox hardware with a more modern faster and lower power device.
Check back for updates. 73