Rx issues, mostly one radio...

MMDVM_HS Hat hardware
W8DEX
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2018 1:40 am

Rx issues, mostly one radio...

Post by W8DEX »

Hello,
I have a "jumbospot" (duplex MMDVM HS Hat) and 2 radios: a Baofeng RD-5R and an Ailunce HD1 GPS.
I am having a hard time getting the hotspot to receive from the Ailunce HD1, while it seems to be working 90% of the time with the RD-5R.

The Ailunce is a better radio (???) but I get about 5-10% success when trying to tx to the hotspot.
Even the RD-5R sometimes misses but I get in about 90% of the time on first key press.

I made sure to put in the Rx/Tx offsets from the sticker, I don't know what else to do or to look for.
Pi-star and MMDVM fw are all up-to-date.
fw on the radios are up-to-date
Tx/Rx freq are 5Mhz apart (447/442)

Also sometimes when I try to key in with the Ailunce I get both slots on the hotspot keyed in (????) very strange.

I have tested calling the radios to each other in simplex and they seem to work as expected 100% all the time.

Please help if you can!

Cheers
Chris, W8DEX
W8DEX
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Re: Rx issues, mostly one radio...

Post by W8DEX »

No suggestions?
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KE0FHS
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Re: Rx issues, mostly one radio...

Post by KE0FHS »

The JumboSPOT isn't a dual hotspot. If you really have a JumboSPOT, try setting your Controller Mode to Simplex.
73, Toshen, KE0FHS
Playing with Pi-Star (unofficial notes about setting up and using Pi-Star):
https://amateurradionotes.com/pi-star.htm
W8DEX
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Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2018 1:40 am

Re: Rx issues, mostly one radio...

Post by W8DEX »

KE0FHS wrote: Wed Aug 01, 2018 12:05 pm The JumboSPOT isn't a dual hotspot.
Well one can always make mistakes but just to make sure I got the name right I went and looked:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2018-Duplex-MM ... m570.l1313

Yep, it's called Jumbospot, at least this one and it has 2 antennas and it has been working as a repeater since I bought it.

But I have tried simplex too and I get the same result.

I guess no help is coming.
Cheers
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KE0FHS
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Re: Rx issues, mostly one radio...

Post by KE0FHS »

Well, you didn't make a mistake ... but the seller did. Probably the seller is someone who doesn't know what they're selling or else they're trying to leverage the JumboSPOT name. That's actually an MMDVM_HS_Hat_Duplex board (probably a clone). And that leads to your next troubleshooting steps: Does the board have the correct firmware and is the correct modem type selected in Pi-Star? If both of those are correct, then you may need to adjust the RXOffset in the Expert Editor or you may have a defective board. Good luck!
73, Toshen, KE0FHS
Playing with Pi-Star (unofficial notes about setting up and using Pi-Star):
https://amateurradionotes.com/pi-star.htm
W8DEX
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2018 1:40 am

Re: Rx issues, mostly one radio...

Post by W8DEX »

Check, check, check. Gotcha.

Still wondering why it would work with one radio and not another.
I wish some DMR experts would hang around here.

My suspicion is on modulation. Maybe the two radios have some emission differences that the hotspot is sensitive to.
Or maybe they have different DMR standards?? Here is where some of those hobby geniuses could help figure it out....

Oh well, CQ,CQ,CQ big radio and DMR experts....
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KE0FHS
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Re: Rx issues, mostly one radio...

Post by KE0FHS »

It's definitely possible the two radios will need different RXOffsets to function optimally. Worth playing around with anyway.

One issue with clone boards is that they sometimes use lower quality or even defective chips. Re: the JumboSPOT, I've read about issues with the oscillators and the TXCO chips.

Anyway, I'm going to bow out and make room for the geniuses to step in! :)
73, Toshen, KE0FHS
Playing with Pi-Star (unofficial notes about setting up and using Pi-Star):
https://amateurradionotes.com/pi-star.htm
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G8SEZ
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Re: Rx issues, mostly one radio...

Post by G8SEZ »

Suggest that you look for any frequency adjustments in the CPS for the 2 radios, for instance with the Tytera radios there is a frequency offset with settings low, medium, high and it's available in each channel definition and appears to default to low. I think this means that the radio will have all frequencies offset a little in one direction. Try changing it to medium on the channel you use for hotspot access.
--

Brian G8SEZ
n0xlf
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Re: Rx issues, mostly one radio...

Post by n0xlf »

That's not a TX offset. Stolen from the SharkRF forums:

From Connect Systems: "Selects the Reference Frequency used when receiving on the current channel. The reference frequency can be shifted to allow the radio to operate on channel frequencies that would otherwise be blocked by internally generated spurious signals. Internally generated spurious signals would appear as silent carriers on certain channel frequencies. Shifting the reference frequency allows these permanent signal carrier to be shifted to unused frequencies so that the desired channel frequencies can still be used.This is a channel-wide feature."
W8DEX
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Re: Rx issues, mostly one radio...

Post by W8DEX »

Well, I think I might have found the culprit.

While looking for a tx offset setting, I found out the Ailunce HD1 does not have one, but it has a "repeater mode" setting.
In other words, for some reasons, the channel programmed for communication for a repeater must be set in "repeater mode".

I used to set the channel to "simplex" to communicate with the hotspot, but the one I have is a repeater as set up.
Once I changed the mode everything seems to be working fine. At least I get almost 100% coms now while transmitting with the Ailunce HD1 to the hotspot.

This might sound like a "duh" moment, but it is not.
The RD-5R does not have this settings of this kind at all. It is virtually always transmitting in the same mode, either radio-to-radio or radio-to repeater.

I am no DMR expert so I am not sure what technical difference is between "simplex mode" and "repeater mode", but it does make a difference to the hotspot, so it must be something to do to DMR specific modulation.

The "repeater mode" does not set the radio to be a repeater, just to be clear. It sets the radio to communicate with repeaters.

I find this interesting and I am wondering if other radios (TYT, Motorola, Hytera, etc.) are more like the RD-5R (one tx/rx mode) or like the Ailunce HD1 (3 different modes: simplex, repeater and dual slot).

Cheers
Chris
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