Help w/ DVMega + RPi Hotspot

DV-Mega Single / Dual band Hat for the Raspberry Pi
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kd6ftr
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Apr 21, 2018 8:57 pm

Help w/ DVMega + RPi Hotspot

Post by kd6ftr »

Hello all.

I have watched several Youtube videos (including a few from W1MSG) that I could find and browsed across numerous websites to verify that the steps I've taken to get this hotspot working are correct. Based on this, I believe I have either missed something super basic (wouldn't be the first time), or I have a bad DVMega board. The Rpi 3B boots up just fine. I got all the way through Pi-Star configuration and nothing wants to work. It is connecting to my router via WiFi. I went through the wiki looking for info and found the ports to forward and configured all of them.

I can provide the configs (copied-n-pasted) from expert mode if desired. I've attached a screenshot of the dashboard.

Everything appears to be working fine, except when I try to transmit with my radio, an AnyTone AT-D868UV, nothing happens. The dashboard shows no activity, except when it comes in via the network.

I confirmed that when I switch to another zone with a local repeater it sees me transmit there. Can someone shed some light on a possible configuration for a radio to make sure I'm not overdoing it? I've set my channels to send TG's dynamically and it's set up as simplex.

Thanks.

73 de Mike/KD6FTR
Morgan Hill, CA CM97ED
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AA7US
Posts: 30
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2018 10:35 pm
Location: Benson, AZ, USA DM41
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Re: Help w/ DVMega + RPi Hotspot

Post by AA7US »

Hi Mike,

If the hotspot isn't capturing any RF from your HT, then some things which come to mind are:

1. Verify channel frequency programmed on HT and hotspot frequency match.
2. Verify the correct time slot (2) is programmed on the HT channel.
3. Verify correct color code (1) is programmed on the HT channel.

Does the status LED on your DVMega board pulse off and on when you key up the HT? Mine does.

73,

John
AA7US
kd6ftr
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Apr 21, 2018 8:57 pm

Re: Help w/ DVMega + RPi Hotspot

Post by kd6ftr »

See my replies inline
--------------------------
>Hi Mike,
>
>If the hotspot isn't capturing any RF from your HT, then some things which come to mind are:
>
>1. Verify channel frequency programmed on HT and hotspot frequency match.

I checked the pistar config and my radio's channel config are identical. I'm not sure if I mentioned this in the first message, I have an Anytone AT-D868UV.

>2. Verify the correct time slot (2) is programmed on the HT channel.
>3. Verify correct color code (1) is programmed on the HT channel.

I set up a few channels with the frequency of 446.250 MHz, CC1, TS2 and pointed it toward TG31064 (Santa Clara County), and a few others. I also set up TG31064 as a static TG in pistar. I checked the TDMA Simplex box and verified that both the Tx and Rx frequencies were set to 446.250 MHz.

>Does the status LED on your DVMega board pulse off and on when you key up the HT? Mine does.

I have the DV-Mega Single Band (UHF) board and it does NOT have an LED.

Also, using my analog Baofeng HT, I set up the VFO to monitor 446.250 MHz. The only time I heard any data transmissions or anything at all, was when I pressed the PTT on the Anytone DMR radio.

Gigaparts called me after I sent an email to them requesting assistance. They pointed me to the DV-Mega manufacturer in the Netherlands and asked that I see if they have any further troubleshooting before they send me a replacement.

Thanks for the sanity check. I was trying to think if I missed anything, but after 6 hours of trying various things, including completely starting over with imaging the uSDCard, I gave up.

It would be nice if there were some commands I could send to the DV-Mega board to verify it's various settings. I'll post back what I find from DV-Mega.

Thanks again.

Mike
N0MII
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2018 3:49 pm

Re: Help w/ DVMega + RPi Hotspot

Post by N0MII »

Hey Mike... I bet you got it fixed, eh? You had the same problem I had :-)
--
Jeff N0MII
kd6ftr
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Apr 21, 2018 8:57 pm

Re: Help w/ DVMega + RPi Hotspot - RESOLVED

Post by kd6ftr »

Hello all.

Well, I figured it out with some basic troubleshooting, head banging and wild guessing.

After several days of banging my head against a wall and thinking that being a courteous Ham by using the specified FM Simplex UHF frequencies (446.5 MHz to be specific) specified by the coordination body here in order not to interfere with anyone close to weak signal propagation or satellite operators, I got some help from another local Ham in the SF Bay Area, Chuck, K6CES. Chuck had a working RPi 3 w/ a DV-Mega UHF single band board. He sent me some screen shots of his config via email. The only thing i saw that was different with his setup was that his Pi-Star config was using 431.000 MHz.

So, I changed my Pi-Star config to 431 MHz and rebooted. Immediately after the dashboard showed and I saw green indicators for DMR and DMR Net, my analog radio I had tuned to 431 MHz suddenly let out a burst of audio data. I quickly reconfigured my Anytone HT and it worked. I was able to receive and transmit on static and dynamic TG's.

The DV-Mega Boards are manufactured in the Netherlands and the company that makes them responded to an email I sent them asking for assistance. This was the response I received. Too bad I hadn't noticed it before I guessed and changed the frequency.

From: DVMEGA the open-source D-Star transceiver <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, Apr 23, 2018 at 10:59 PM
Subject: Re: DV-Mega Single Band Board on RPi 3B
To: Mike

Hello Mike,

Please can you try a Frequency between 430 and 440.

And do you have a singleband or a dualband ?

Met vriendelijke groet / With kind regards,

Guus van Dooren
Dooren Electronic Solutions
Boomdijk 6c
4417BE Hansweert
Netherlands
+31 113383540
[email protected]

I sure hope this helps someone else who may run into the same issue if Dooren Electronic Solutions doesn't quickly begin to add frequency spec info on their web site as well as in the packaging.

73 to all and look forward to hearing you on DMR.

Mike/KD6FTR
Morgan Hill, CA
TG 31064 & 31075
N0MII
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2018 3:49 pm

Re: Help w/ DVMega + RPi Hotspot

Post by N0MII »

A firmware update should restore our DVMegas’ frequency range...
---
Update: it does! I flashed an Arduino Uno's chip with the new DVMega firmware, swapped chips, and everything's now working beyond the 440.0 frequency.
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