Pi-star not communicating with HAT and Nextion

[wb4sqi]

New assembly build, Pi Zero W with Pi-star latest file for the Zero, set up for D-Star.

Chinese HAT clone, UHF only. 3.5" Nextion connected to the 4 pin header in correct order.

I have installed the Nextion driver via instructions from VK3CRT and the driver shows up in the /dev directory.

In the expert mode what do I need for the port? Tried both modem and /devtty/NextionDriver What is correct?

Every time I go to configuration I get a window that says modem has changed, need to re-select modem. Why?

When I touch the Nextion screen I get a warning the NextionDriver by ON7LDS needs to be installed.

Hotspot is not responding to RF from my D-star radio. I am also not showing any activity on REF30C on my dashboard but it is connected to my wifi.

I have the same exact setup running smoothly in DMR, no issues. I have something wrong somewhere, need guidance please.

Nick
WB4SQI

[wb4sqi]

Thank you for the help.

To begin with I am not programming at the command line level. I am making changes via pi-star Expert-MMDVMHost

Modem
TFT Serial
Nextion
NextionDriver

are the areas I am changing but can't seem to find the correct combination

First problem I had was the Pi was not recognizing the HAT radio, changed to a new radio and it now receives my d-star handheld transmissions so I know the receiver is working. MMDVMHost block in Admin was green.

I began again this morning in pi-star Expert>MMDVMHost by reconfiguring the above mentioned areas. Now when in pi-star Admin I do not get the MMDVM host block in green. It was in green when the HAT received my transmission.

One other thing, this new HAT radio has a rapid blinking red led whereas the original HAT radio had a slow blinking led.

What are the correct settings for the above four areas in Expert>MMDVMHost?

thanks,

Nick
WB4SQI

[wb4sqi]

Forgot to mention, the Nextion is connected directly to the 4 pin header on the HAT.

[wb4sqi]

OK, starting from the beginning this morning with a clean install of pi-star 3.14.17.

I have a couple of 8gb micro sd cards with pi-star installed and need to wipe those clean and reformat. Any recommendations to totally erase?

[wb4sqi]

Clean install working fine as the hotspot, linked to REF30C and hearing a lot of traffic. The HAT is receiving me so all is well there.

What I don't have is the Nextion 3.5" reading data from the HAT. Using the ON7LDS L3 HS version and nothing is working there.

I have not installed the NextionDriver.

Per your last email the 4.1.2 did not run on the pi zero W.

[wb4sqi]

I used update from the Dashboard and the Zero updated itself, so that is done.

I probably need to look at the Nextion Screen layout I chose because it appears to be set up for a duplex function since it has separate blocks for frequency. I'll go back an take another look at layouts again.

The Nextion does say "refresh - NextionDriver by ON7LDS needed" however, on my identical hotspot for DMR I don't recall installing the NextionDriver and it does not indicate that in the Config menu.

[wb4sqi]

Configuration is set to modem.

Screen is not from VK3CRT, was just using his guidelines which require one to use Expert mode. I have not done that on this go around.

I changed from the HS version back to the standard version. No change there. When I had it hooked to my Pi-3B+ I was using the USB/TTL adapter. That combo will not fit in my case so decided to fall back to the Pi zero.

Went back to Github to download the PD0DIB 3.5" basic screen and will take a look with Nextion editor later today or tomorrow. Slowly but surely I'm getting there with your help.

Thanks again.

[wb4sqi]

I think we have found the smoking gun. If you were using ON7LDS L3 HS and a USB/TTL adapter then your Nextion is defaulted to 115200 baud, and the 4 pin port on the hat only uses 9600 (unless you compile a custom firmware)

So you'll need to program your Nextion for 9600 baud for things to work.

The easiest way would be to plug the Nextion into that USB/TTL adapter and plug that into a computer where you can run the Nextion editor and in the simulator connect to your Nextion and issue the command

Code: Select all

bauds=9600

Then unplug the Nextion and plug it back into the MMDVM_HS hat.

I'm 100% certain that the baud rate is culprit and when you set it to 9600 it will display information.

I used the same .tft file I had saved for my DMR hotspot and after loading it to the nextion it works great. Now the screen is showing all the D-Star data as it should. There are 2 tiny issues left:

1. Can't get rid of the DMR ID block, probably will need to edit the HML file to delete it?

2. RX frequency shows at 438.999.999 when it should show 438.900.900 In Config I have selected duplex repeater/hotspot. If I change to simplex repeater then my call disappears and two new blocks popup for RSSI and BER.

[wb4sqi]

Using an older file from PD0PIB I've had for a while, got if from github a couple of years ago. Works great on the DMR hotspot.

Nick