forum.pistar.uk

The website is still there but it seems to be, if not dead, in suspended animation.

Someone gifted me this Nano-Spot quite some time back and I have, finally, both set it up and figured it out: it's a hard box with various transmitters and ports that contains a Pi Zero (I think) clone that runs Pi-Star, which has within it MMDVM. I had only played with a DVDongle before and so didn't "get it". I do now. Hotspot, not dongle. My device is only configged to do D-STAR.


Now, the questions:

o Is Micro-Node still a thing? Are there new firmware updates for the HW? The drop-down on the FW page under Expert seems to say no, but I haven't had this long enough to know if that menu populates automagically or if I need to put something into the box for it to find. Doesn't seem to be anything on the website, either.

o I see this on the dashboard: Pi-Star:3.4.19 / Dashboard: 20240307 ... but I see that IRL there is a Pi-Star 4.x . "Dashboard" seems to have been updated by me since I probably got this in 2022 or so and surely that version is from an update I did recently. I did do the update from the web interface as well as sshed into the box.

It does all work as expected. I logged into the Cannet or Canada Net or whatever it's called at 0100 UTC Saturdays and was able to say hi and have people say hi back, so that's good. Also pleased that I can get into the "repeater" in my 2nd fl radio room from the end of my 250-m driveway - what are these 100 mW?

Anyway, I don't like to have outdated software on things, so if there is newer stuff, point me at it. If the box is a dead end, I can live with it.

Peter
VE[23]UWY

Micronode closed out of the hotspot buisness a long while ago. Theres no mention of these devices on their website any more, only their analogue devices. binning it and purchasing a newer mmdvm based setup would be the recommended upgrade path, if i were you.

Sent via smoke signals using my SM-G935F

M1DNS wrote: ↑Thu Jun 20, 2024 6:51 am binning it and purchasing a newer mmdvm setup would be the recommended upgrade path, if i were you.

Well, you are not me nor I you, so that won't happen. Seems a nice box. The only reason I'm even doing this is because I had been gifted the box ... and I can't get into my local D-STAR gateway with my current setup. That gateway was out of service for some time, but it's back now ... and I can't hit it because of rubbish antennas at the house.

I was secretly hoping there was a way to put firmware from a different device in it, but alas. As noted, it is working for what I need it for I will just live with it not being "current" w/r/t Pi-Star.

I reached out to Mark when 4.1.8 came out and asked for a new image and he sent it to me. I haven't bothered him for another update as 4.1.8 is working great. It really is a great hotspot, I use one at home and one at work.