forum.pistar.uk

Posted: **Fri Jan 26, 2024 8:54 pm**

The MMDVM GitHub has comments about support for these devices being removed - Remove support for STM32F1* boards, they're just too slow.

So how will this decision affect Pi-Star in the future? I have several HS_DUAL_HAT boards running v1.5.2 firmware, with no signs of firmware updates. It would be really helpful to know if these will continue to work or whether I should start looking for something a bit more future proofed. I'm reading a lot of posts about YSF functionality breaking in recent updates - I have encountered this too in both 4.1.8 and the 4.2.0 beta, but rolled back to 4.1.6 to get it working. DMR in the later versions does seem to be working for me though.

Thanks for all the great features this far, I hope it can continue.

Posted: **Fri Jan 26, 2024 10:26 pm**

I haven't kept up with the development on Github recently due to inacivity, i just took a look over there earlier when I read comments about updating firmware. I have build it from source when I had it running on the Arduino Due platform. I can appreciate that the MMDVM developers want to support newer modes (or analogue FM) which requires faster hardware.

What does concern me is that a lot of hotspot users see Pi-Star as part of the package, they are unaware of the MMDVM development in the background and there are a lot of HS_Hat clone out there. Maybe someone will fork the Github and and create mmdvm-lite or similar, but there will come a point when a lot of hardware stops working so it may be worth giving users a heads-up now so they look for something more future-proofed than the STM32F10.

Posted: **Sat Jan 27, 2024 12:08 am**

Looks like the world of MMDVM_HS firmware has changed a little, it looks like Jonathan has forked Andy's repo to add the lastest patch set.

Take a look here: https://github.com/G4KLX/MMDVM_HS
For reference this is the other MMDVM_HS repo: https://github.com/juribeparada/MMDVM_HS

Pi-Star has not been doing a great job of delivering firmware along with the binaries, so that you can match up

Posted: **Sat Jan 27, 2024 1:26 am**

MW0MWZ wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 12:08 am Looks like the world of MMDVM_HS firmware has changed a little, it looks like Jonathan has forked Andy's repo to add the lastest patch set.

Take a look here: https://github.com/G4KLX/MMDVM_HS
For reference this is the other MMDVM_HS repo: https://github.com/juribeparada/MMDVM_HS

Pi-Star has not been doing a great job of delivering firmware along with the binaries, so that you can match up

Thanks Andy, just what I was looking for!

I've managed to build the Dual_Hat 14.76 firmware. I'll figure out which file I need to transfer over (bin hex or elf) and see if I can re-flash it from Pi-Star.

Posted: **Sat Jan 27, 2024 12:07 pm**

It took a few attempts to get working firmware.

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Detected MMDVM_HS Port: /dev/ttyAMA0 (GPIO) Baud: 115200 Protocol: V1 
	 Modem Data: MMDVM_HS_Dual_Hat-v1.6.1 20230526 14.7456MHz dual ADF7021 FW by CA6JAU GitID #7ff74ed

I built it on Ubuntu 22.04 using the cross-compiler tools referenced in the Git. There are a lot of #defines in Config.h that need to be set up, I found this tool useful - https://www.df2et.de/mmdvm_hs_builder/ which built V1.6.0. and gave me the correct Config.h #defines.

Building produces three files in the bin directory, the firmware is mmdvm_f1.bin.

Uploaded firmware to the Pi over sftp (do rpi-rw before uploading).

Once on the Pi - flashed the modem using the pistar tool.

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rpi-rw
sudo pistar-mmdvmhshatflash-custom mmdvm_f1.bin

I also found I was able to restore V1.5.2 by using pistar-mmdvmhshatdowngrade and choosing from the list.

So far, on 4.2.0 Beta, DMR works but it doesn't hear my FT-3D for YSF

Posted: **Sun Jan 28, 2024 5:32 pm**

See here: viewtopic.php?t=4803

I think the comments are related to the MMDVM repeater boards and FM mode more-so than Hotspots (that do not support FM).
New tools and new firmware pulled in with an update and you can more easily flash the hotspot hat.

Posted: **Mon Jan 29, 2024 10:55 am**

Thanks Andy - it works for me, however pistar-mmdvmhshatflash-custom has vanished. Can this be restored or is there another way to upload locally-build firmware with the new tool?

Posted: **Mon Jan 29, 2024 11:16 am**

AC8OB wrote: ↑Mon Jan 29, 2024 10:55 am Thanks Andy - it works for me, however pistar-mmdvmhshatflash-custom has vanished. Can this be restored or is there another way to upload locally-build firmware with the new tool?

Not currently, the old tools were not great, sure they worked, but they were not great.
The new one that Chip Cuccio (W0CHP) has written is much better, plus I now push the firmware out to you all when I release new MMDVMHost binaries, so you will have a matching set.

For GPIO MMDVM_HS boards it does this:

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# stop the services
systemctl stop pistar-watchdog.timer >/dev/null 2>&1
systemctl stop pistar-watchdog.service >/dev/null 2>&1
systemctl stop mmdvmhost.timer >/dev/null 2>&1
systemctl stop mmdvmhost.service >/dev/null 2>&1

# flash the modem
/usr/local/bin/firmware/utils/stm32flash -k /dev/ttyAMA0 >/dev/null 2>&1
/usr/local/bin/firmware/utils/stm32flash -v -w <firmware file name here> -g 0x0 -R -i 20,-21,21:-20,21

# remove any old version from the log
sed -i '/MMDVM protocol version: 1, description:/d; /MMDVM protocol version: 2, description:/d' /var/log/pi-star/MMDVM-*.log

# start the services
systemctl start mmdvmhost.service >/dev/null 2>&1
systemctl start mmdvmhost.timer >/dev/null 2>&1
systemctl start pistar-watchdog.timer >/dev/null 2>&1
systemctl start pistar-watchdog.service >/dev/null 2>&1

Please take note of <firmware file name here> - you need to change that (including the <> brackets) to the location of your firmware.
There should be no need to do this however, since Pi-Star now includes 1.6.1 firmware for about everything I know of.

Repeater board firmware is already included, but the method to flash them isn't - yet, coming soon

Posted: **Mon Jan 29, 2024 12:36 pm**

I now have YSF working again with 4.2.0 beta. The change that fixed it was setting LowDeviation to 1 in the MMDVMHost settings. Mode on my FT-3D is set to DN. I'll go away and research what this does.

Posted: **Mon Jan 29, 2024 1:26 pm**

AC8OB wrote: ↑Mon Jan 29, 2024 12:36 pm I now have YSF working again with 4.2.0 beta. The change that fixed it was setting LowDeviation to 1 in the MMDVMHost settings. Mode on my FT-3D is set to DN. I'll go away and research what this does.

DN and VW mode have the same modulation parameters but use different codecs and hence the packet contents are different. DN uses AMBE, VW uses IMBE which is what P25 radios use, it's older than the AMBE variants and has a higher speech bit rate on air.

The radio does not change the inner and outer 4FSK deviation values, as far as I know this only affects the deviation on FM with 5kHz for FM and 2.5kHz for FM-N. The 4-level FSK deviations are +/-600Hz and +/-1800Hz with GMSK filtering in the modulator.

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Future support for STM32F1 boards?

Future support for STM32F1 boards?

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