Hi-Perf HotSpot for newbie ..

[IW2CZG]

Hi All,
please forgive me if I am asking something really basic, but talking with local Ham community I really had a lot of interest about how to develop a hi-perf hot spot system, but no ideas about how to develope it.

I collected all the wishes of other operators and here's the list:
- Pi-Star based hotspot
- Raspberry Pi 3 B or 3B+ architecture
- Large LCD
- Single radio or dual radio option
- 10 mW output RF, with PA option, in the range of some W
- case

Is alerady there a kit ready to get assembled or a guide for newbie to build up ?

Again sorry for the generic and basic set of questions, but I will be glad to learn and support a number of local hams.

Thanks in advance and 73 !
Luca IW2CZG

[KE0FHS]

I wouldn't call 10 mW "high performance" (that's just normal performance, and all you really need, for a personal hotspot), and I don't know what you mean by "with PA option, in the range of some W," but if you want a good quality Radio/Modem board, I recommend the ZUMspot. I've tried a bunch of different radio/modems, and the ZUMspot is one of the most solid, flexible, and reliable ones I've found. It is sold through Ham Radio Outlet in the U.S. and ML&S (Martin Lynch & Sons) in the U.K. They both offer kits.

For the Raspberry Pi, I personally prefer the 3B or 3B+, but for running Pi-Star, the Zero W will also work, as will many older models. (If you use the 3B+, my favorite choice, you need to use the beta version of Pi-Star: http://www.pistar.uk/beta/.)

For cases, C4Labs.com offers some good ones (search for ZUMspot). You also can find a variety of cases on eBay.

For more info, you might find my notes about hotspots helpful: https://amateurradionotes.com/hotspots.htm

[IW2CZG]

Hi,
thanks a lot for your answer.
By hi perfomrmance I mean performances from CPU side, by using an higher class Raspberry board.

I own a Raspberry 3B+ and I would like to plug into the radio board (the one with OLED) that comes with the Pi Zero W
How can I connect ? Forgive my absolute ignorance but these are my real first steps with Raspberries.
I have noticed that the dual strip pinout is compatible. Should I unplug the RF + OLED board from the Pi Zero and plug into the the 3B+ directly ?
I assume yes but ... could you please help me on this topic ?

I downloaded the image file from http://www.pistar.uk/beta/ and by using Balena Etcher I flashed a 16 GB SD Card, then I copied the supplicant to give information about WiFi network. Is that correct ?

About the output power... Since I would like to serve a very small communities of OM here, I would like to know if there is a power amplifier that brings up to some W the output power of the RF module, just to put something meaningful to the antenna on the roof.

Thanks again for your support
73 de IW2CZG Luca

[KE0FHS]

Raspberry Pi 3B+ is your best bet for performance. Any radio/modem board that works on a RPi Zero W should work just fine on a 3B or 3B+.

It's fine to manually create a wpa_supplicant.conf file and copy it to the board, but if you're using the RPi Zero W, 3B, or 3B+, the easiest method is to use Pi-Star's Auto AP feature. For more info, see: https://amateurradionotes.com/pi-star.htm#bootingpistar

I don't know about your power amp question ... maybe someone else has an idea?

[IW2CZG]

Great answer, than k you so much.
I will study the autostart feature, but I am already happy to use the supplicant solution.

Just because I got problems with flashing of the image, could I ask you the courtesy to describe the best / safest way to prepare the SD CARD ?

Thanks and 73

Luca

[KE0FHS]

I don't do anything fancy, I just use Etcher to burn the image. I've done this on Windows and macOS. One important thing: ignore any system message you get that says you need to format the microSD card when you first insert it or after you finish flashing the image.

[IW2CZG]

I did this way some months ago with the pi ZeroW and it worked, then I replicate the methodology on the same SD card with either NEW and OLD release of the PI-Star and I wasn't able to replicate the success in both case.
Fortunately I kept the original SD Card I got with the kit ... so I recovered the situation, but I am still confused about how to proceed.

How strange ... I always followed very tightly this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5G4gYDdJeQ
and I have no more the ERROR pop-up message due to the wrong formatting.
When in the past I got the error, the SD card was OK; now that I don't have the error anymore, the SD Card is not booting the Raspberry

Maybe this is the crucial point ... Any suggestion ?

[KE0FHS]

Craig, W1MSG, is one of the best sources of information around, so you can trust what he suggests. Maybe you have a bad microSD card? What size is it?

[IW2CZG]

Thanks again for reply.
I am using the SAME 16 GB SD card that I was using previously. If I copy the image of the backup SD card , this 16 GB SD is working ok.
Then I tried the whole process with other 3 SD (2 and 4 GB) with bad results.
I performed as well a low-level format of the SD .... no errors at all, so I assume the SD is good.

I am using Balena ETCHER.
Can you tell me which ETCHER are you using ? Maybe this is the problem ...

[KE0FHS]

What kind of radio/modem card do you have? What kind of power supply are you using (steady 2.5A output is key)? Which exact image are you using

There is only one Etcher. Balena is the company name.