The single MOOS onboard Iridium modem currently has two uses:

1) User console - users can dial-in from shore to use this function. The onboard modem periodically listens for incoming calls to implement this function. 

2)  Shore-messaging link - Onboard applications can send SBD messages back to shore (via the SIAM ShoreMessaging interface). The onboard modem periodically waits for onboard client connection requests to implement this function.

As of August 2009, the onboard modem is an A3LA installed on the secondary node, port /dev/ttySX12.

Modem phone number

As of August 2009, the onboard MUCE Iridium modem can be reached by dialing 011-8816-9375-7168 from a console application such as 'minicom' or 'hyperterm'. When dialing from an MBARI phone, you must first dial '8' to get an outside line. Your console application baud can be configured for 19200 baud. The Iridium console "How To" can be found here.

Configuring the Iridium node

Management of the Iridium modem is rooted in /etc/inittab. When configuring the Iridium host node, you ensure that /etc/inittab is identical to /etc/inittab.iridium. This inittab respawns several tasks:

runShoreMsgService - runs the SIAM shore-messaging RMI service

manageIridium - alternates between 'getty' (listen for incoming calls) and establishing SBD connection (downlink queued messages to shore)

Shore Messaging Service

The SIAM shore messaging service enables onboard clients to send SBD messages to shore via the Iridium modem. We have service implementations based on the A3LA modem and the NAL9601 modem. As of August 2009 the onboard Iridium is an A3LA on the second node, port /dev/ttySX12. Normally the shore messaging service is launched automatically via the /etc/inittab script. The A3LA-based message service is launched by utils/a3la script; the NAL9601-based is launched by the utils/nal9601 script.

You can queue an Iridium message to be downlinked via Iridium through the utils/shoremsgclient script. The script has options to accept an interactively typed message as well as a file. Just type 'shoremsgclient' with no arguments to get a brief description of available options. NOTE: In general do not specify the connect ('-c') option, as then the shore messaging service will contend with getty for the serial port; instead rely on the manageIridium script running on the modem host node to periodically connect the modem (once every several minutes).