Playing with Pi-Star: Revisions – Recent

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Revisions: Recent · Previous

Jan 13, 2021

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20210111:
Merged updated Japanese translation, and a minor fix.

Jan 11, 2021

Revised section 5e) D-STAR configuration

Made a small correction to the following bullet point to update the reference from "see section 5l" to "see section 5m".

• Note: This is different from the Remote Access Password (see section 5m below) that is used for accessing the Pi-Star Admin and Configuration settings, as well as for SSH access.

Revised section 7) Backing up and restoring Pi-Star

Clarified the following bullet point:

• Remote Access Password – (For more info about this password, see section 5m.) For security reasons Pi-Star backup does not back up this password, and restoring your configuration settings from a backup will not reset this password. If you changed this password from the default "raspberry" to a stronger custom password (which for security purposes is a good idea), then subsequently forgot that custom password, the easiest thing to do is start over with a fresh Pi-Star image to regain access to Pi-Star Admin. and Configuration settings, as well as SSH access. Once you have installed a fresh image, you can restore your saved configuration to restore your other settings.

Revised section 4a) For all boot-ups

Clarified the following note:

Note: If your hotspot has an external display attached to its Raspberry Pi (unusual), you can watch Pi-Star start up until the login prompt is displayed, but don't log in there because you can't set up Pi-Star via the hotspot.

Jan 8, 2021

Revised The current status of Pi-Star note

Updated the final bullet point:

• If you're running a hotspot based on a Raspberry Pi 3B, Zero W, or earlier, you can still download and use the Pi-Star V3.4.17 release; however, it hasn't been getting any new features for over a year now and in early 2021, an official member of the Pi-Star team described it⩘  as: "an outdated, no longer supported image." So at this time, Pi-Star V4.1.x is a much better choice.

Jan 2, 2021

Removed the note at the beginning of the article: "Nov 19, 2020: Important note about BrandMeister Security." But the note is still available in the 5d) DMR Configuration section of the article.

Dec 29, 2020

Revised 5c) General Configuration and 5i) POCSAG Configuration

Added additional information to the band plan bulleted lists:

• Band plan: See your country's band plan and your local frequency use plan. For example, for the U.S., see: U.S. Band Plan. For the U.S. State of Colorado, see: Colorado Frequency Use Plans (especially, CCARC Guidelines on Hotspots). To find links for other U.S. states, refer to the Amateur Radio: Frequency Coordinators list by Tom, W2XQ. See also the info posted by Ron, VE1AIC: Digital Voice frequencies.

Dec 21, 2020

Revised 5d) DMR Configuration

Added a note in the BrandMeister Master section:

Note: Bud, WØRMT, has a good article about how to find more information and support for BrandMeister U.S.A.: BrandMeister Support.

Dec 11, 2020

Revised 8) Updating Pi-Star

Revised Update notes:

mount: / is busy – The Update process automatically switches Pi-Star into Read-Write mode, writes the updates, and then switches Pi-Star back into Read-Only mode. Occasionally, the process will fail to complete the switch back to Read-Only mode, and a message is displayed:
mount: / is busy
Other times, Pi-Star will start up in Read-Write mode.
When this happens, it typically doesn't work to manually switch Pi-Star back into Read-Only mode using the "rpi-ro" command. To fix this, there's a couple things that might work:

• The most reliable solution I've found is to shut down Pi-Star, power off the hotspot, and then quickly power it back on. After that, it often starts up properly in Read-Only mode.
• Sometimes it works to re-run Pi-Star Update and then Pi-Star Upgrade (even if you're on the latest version).

Dec 8, 2020

Revised 5e) D-STAR Configuration

Updated D-STAR Configuration image and added a bullet for the new Callsign Routing option:

• Callsign Routing – Enable if you want callsign routing for D-STAR.

Dec 5, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20201205:
Added a jitter test:
sudo pistar-jittertest [requires a single argument, the prefix of the group of hosts you want to check as used in the /usr/local/etc/DMR_Hosts.txt file]
for example:
sudo pistar-jittertest BM_United_States
and other minor changes.

Revised 5d) DMR Configuration

Revised the note about BrandMeister SelfCare and added two additional bullets:

• Note: If you use BrandMeister SelfCare (and you should!):
  
  • Set up one SelfCare account for each CCS7 ID you use with BrandMeister.
  • For the U.S. servers and in some other countries (the list is growing), a BrandMeister Hotspot Security password is required as of Dec 2020. See the bullet point below about BM Hotspot Security for more details.

Dec 1, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star version 4.1.3 and dashboard version 20201201:
Changes related to the randomization of nightly update cron jobs. Updates now run between 3:00 and 4:59 AM locally.

Nov 28, 2020

Revised 5k) Firewall Configuration > Auto AP (Auto Access Point)

Added an additional note about Auto AP and re-ordered the notes:

• Auto AP is enabled by default.
• You can use Auto AP to connect to new networks, for example, when traveling.
• If you're not intending to connect to new networks, you don't need to leave Auto AP enabled. In fact, it can be advantageous to disable it in certain situations.
  
  • Thanks to Ron, AE5E, for pointing this out to me. He and a group of friends he helps out with their hotspots were experiencing a problem with their hotspots that they used to connect to their home and work WiFi networks, and while driving back and forth (via their cellphone hotspots). If Auto AP was enabled, the transition from one connection to another would frequently fail and the hotspots would go into Auto AP mode, requiring a power cycle to re-establish a connection. Worse, they experienced multiple instances of microSD card corruption during this process, so often that they started carrying spare cards with copies of their images. Once they disabled Auto AP, the problem completely disappeared. They report that once Auto AP is disabled, Pi-Star will search through all the saved wireless connections, and will then repeat the search seamlessly, so it never needs to be power cycled.
• Auto AP supports a few 3rd-party WiFi cards (limited by the Linux driver).
• Auto AP also enables connection sharing, so if you connect your hotspot via ethernet cable to a network or tether it to your phone via USB, you also can share the internet connection with other devices.

Nov 19, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20201117:
Changes related to ircDDB Callsign routing option.

Revised 5d) DMR Configuration

Added important note about BrandMeister Hotspot Security:

Per Corey, N3FE: "Due to issues that have been happening recently, we are going to need to start requiring users to set a hotspot security password to gain access to the US Masters. If you already have a hotspot security password set on the bm portal, you can ignore this post. We are going to start requiring this on master 3101 Nov 30, 2020; 3102 will follow on Dec 4, 2020; and 3103 on Dec 11, 2020. This is already implemented on the RU masters, and other Master servers will follow. At this time this will just be for hotspots. The API is being worked on to allow repeater owners to make this change as well, but it is not quite ready to go. Here is a link to a post on how to set your hotspot security on the BrandMeister portal: Please configure a personalized security password for your hotspots!"

Oct 29, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20201028:
Added a SkyBridge modem and an additional DAPNET server, which he describes as “reliable”: db0dbn.ig-funk-siebengebirge.de. Also fixed a “TOut” (timed out) issue for FCS traffic.

Oct 24, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20201021:
Some updates to YSFGateway.

Oct 5, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20201005:
Added options to General Configuration > Radio/Modem Types for the three LoneStar boards:

• LoneStar - MMDVM_HS_Hat for Pi (GPIO)
• LoneStar - MMDVM_HS_Dual_Hat for Pi (GPIO)
• LoneStar - USB Stick

Aug 26, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200813:
Minor updates

June 23, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200528:
Fixed a bug related to BM Hotspot Security passwords that contained certain special characters.

Revised 5d) DMR Configuration

• BM Hotspot Security – If you have enabled a Hotspot Security password in BrandMeister SelfCare (instructions), enter it here to enable your hotspot to access the BrandMeister Network. This provides an extra level of security, preventing others from accessing the BrandMeister Network using your CCS7 ID.
  Hint: In general, avoid using special characters in the password that may cause issues, such as: ?{}|&~!()^"

Revised 5m) Remote acess password

1. The user name is pi-star, and can't be changed. This is different from the Hostname that can be changed in the General Configuration settings.
2. In the Password field, type your new password, preferably something long and strong.
   Note: Some special characters work for accessing Pi-Star Admin and Configuration settings, but not for SSH. For example, a tilde symbol (~) works for logging into Pi-Star Admin, but not for signing in via SSH.
   Hint: In general, avoid using special characters in the password that may cause issues, such as: ?{}|&~!()^"

May 28, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200528: Fixed a bug related to MMDVM Display Port settings.

Revised the Introduction section

Revised the The current status of Pi-Star note: removed the following sentence:
Note that there still are some issues you may need to deal with: Pi-Star 4.1 issues

Revised the The current status of Pi-Star note: added the following bullet:

• If you want to experiment, check out the Pi‑Star fork being developed by Daniel, F1RMB. More info: Pi-Star fork by F1RMB.

May 27, 2020

Revised 6a) Dashboard view and 6b) Admin view

Updated the screen captures of the Pi-Star dashboard that show the DMR Repeater module to reflect the change that the TG/REF field was eliminated. For the same reason, also deleted the note and screen capture titled "DMR links."

May 26, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200526: Among other changes, added a Nextion Driver service handler.

May 24, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200524

May 21, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200521

May 20, 2020

Revised release numbers

Noted the release of Pi-Star version 4.1.2:
Per Andy Taylor in the Pi-Star User Forum > RELEASE Pi-Star v4.1.2:

• Updates for the base OS already on-board, this should stop Pi 3A+ users from having issues out of the box.
• Cleaned up some left over issues from the Buster upgrade, some services have been broken and bleating at boot, so now removed.
• MobileGPS added in, and available on the dashboard, It may need some more work to get it perfect but its here at last.
• /boot/config.txt updated to bring a few of the settings up to date in line with upstream changes.
• Added a captive portal feature - if you use the AutoAP you will notice this :)
• There are lots of other new things in Pi-Star that are not unique to this build, link managers for almost everything for example

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200520:
Changes mainly related to a new overlay for DMRGateway to better support TGIF Rewrite Rules. For more info, see Andy Taylor's post in the Pi-Star User Forum: New Overlay for DMRGateway.

Revised the Introduction section

Revised the The current status of Pi-Star note.

On Mar 26, 2020, Pi-Star V4.1.0 was released as a regular version. It can be downloaded from the Pi-Star website (now at V4.1.2):
Pi-Star_RPi_V4.1.2_20-May-2020.zip.

Revised 4c) For all boot ups

Revised step 2:

1. At this point, you can either click the Configuration link or wait 10 seconds to be redirected automatically to the Configuration page.
2. If you're running Pi-Star 4.1.2 or later, you won't need to authenticate (this applies only when using Auto AP). If you're running an earlier version of Pi-Star, Configuration requires signing in. The default user name is pi-star and the default password is raspberry (all lowercase). You can change the default password later on in the configuration process.

Revised 5c) General Configuration and 5i) POCSAG Configuration

In the notes in both sections, updated the link to the Colorado Frequency Use Plans, to match the new URL they are using.

Added 5j) Mobile GPS Configuration

Note: This is a new feature added in 4.1.2.

If you have a GPS unit attached to your hotspot, you can enable Mobile GPS to update your GPS coordinates.

Note: Also reindexed the following configuration features:

• 5k) Firewall Configuration
• 5l) Wireless Configuration
• 5m) Remote Access Password

May 19, 2020

Revised 5d) DMR Configuration

Changed Notes 3 and 4 under DMR Master > If you want access to multiple systems simultaneously:

• Note 3: From a Pi-Star User Forum post by Andy Taylor: "Keep in mind then when using DMRGateway, if a network is active … then DMRGateway is listening there until that traffic stops, it then stays listening there until the Net Hangtime for DMR expires. So, if you try to use [a different network] within that time, it really won't work. This is why less is more when it comes to pinning talk groups and using DMRGateway."
• Note 4: If you're comfortable tweaking Pi-Star expert settings, you can customize how DMRGateway is configured. See Github: g4klx / DMRGateway / Rewrite Rules. For example configurations, see the Pi-Star User Forum topic DMRGateway for a dumb smart person, especially the post by VE3RD dated Dec 16, 2019. For TGIF Rewrite Rules, see Andy Taylor's post in the Pi-Star User Forum: New Overlay for DMRGateway

May 18, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200518:
Minor tweaks.

May 16, 2020

Revised 2) Downloading Pi-Star

If your hotspot came with a microSD card loaded with the Pi-Star image, skip ahead to step 3a. Otherwise, download the image from Pi-Star Downloads to a Windows, Mac, or Linux-based computer (not the hotspot). If your hotspot uses a Raspberry Pi, download the RPi image. Pi-Star 4.1.x works for hotspots based on all Raspberry Pi boards, and must be used for hotspots based on a Raspberry Pi 3B+, 3A+, or 4B board.

May 15, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200515:
Minor tweaks.

May 13, 2020

Revised 5b) MMDVMHost Configuration

Clarified hang time bullet:

• Hangtime – Related to multi-mode use. Time to stay in mode after RF (Radio Frequency, measured from the beginning of a transmission) or network reception. For starters, the defaults are fine.

May 9, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200509:
Updates related to WiFi.

Revised the Introduction section

Revised the The current status of Pi-Star note.

May 7, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200507

May 6, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200506

May 5, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200505:
Fixes to the dashboard layout in Firefox.

May 3, 2020

Revised the Introduction section

Revised the The current status of Pi-Star note.

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200503. Per Andy Taylor in the Pi-Star User Forum:

Today has been a busy busy day, many many updates going into 4.1 at the moment…
 
All of the YSF2xxx have been updated to attempt to address the lack of audio back form reflectors that some users are experiencing;
Please give me feedback here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2688
 
YSFGateway/P25Gateway/NXDNGateway updated:
Some minor upgrades based on changes up-stream, more information coming on this soon, but the short version is that it is now possible to drive the connected TG / Reflector from the command line, and that means I can build dashboard modules too. YSFGateway module is complete, update, head to the config page (dont need to make any changes) apply your settings and it will add-in the extra config to make it work.
 
DMRGateway updated:
Again just getting us in-sync with the upstream code base, adds in the new Dynamic TG re-write support, I don't yet have standard rules for this in Pi-Star, but we may well work something up soon, in the mean time you can update and experiment :)
 
MMDVMHost / MMDVMCal updated:
Just bringing us in-line with the upstream.

Revised 5d) DMR Configuration

Revised the DMR Master introduction:

• ☆ DMR Master (a master server connects you to the rest of the system):
  
  • If you want to use only a specific system – Choose a BrandMeister (BM), DMR+, or HB master.
    Or choose the FDARN_Network (Florida Digital Amateur Radio Network), Ozark_Digital (Ozark Digital Voice Network), or TGIF Network.
    With any of these choices, everything is simpler as you'll see only options specifically for the selected system.
    

Revised 6b) Admin view

Revised Info and manager modules paragraph, and added a new image showing the new YSF Link Manager:

Info and manager modules – The upper portion of Admin view shows Gateway Hardware Info and Service Status, as well as modules for D-STAR Link Info and Manager, BrandMeister Active Connections and Manager, and YSF Link Manager.

May 2, 2020

Revised version number

Noted the release of Pi-Star version 4.1.1:
"Fix up issues with missing ralink firmware." Per Andy Taylor: q"This minor upgrade to the OS adds in some missing WiFi device drivers. At the same time we also released the new DMRGateway binary that adds in the TGDynRewrite support that a few of you have been asking for."

Revised 5l) Remote access passwords

Updated the note to add info about caret symbol:

• Note: Some special characters work for accessing Pi-Star Admin and Configuration settings, but not for SSH. For example, a tilde symbol (~) works for logging into Pi-Star Admin, but not for signing in via SSH, and I read another user's post in the Pi-Star User Forum who had a similar issue with a caret symbol (^).

Apr 23, 2020

Revised version number

Changed back to 4.1.0. I made a mistake on Apr 23, 2020 and misread commit #784 to Pi-Star_Binaries_sbin. It was just a preparatory commit, not an actual version bump.

Apr 24, 2020

Added additional links to other website pages

I heard from someone who was having trouble finding the articles about the hardware that Pi-Star works with, so I added links in the first few paragraphs to the Hotspots, DMR, and D‑STAR pages.

Apr 23, 2020

Revised version number

Noted the release of Pi-Star version 4.1.1:
"Fix up issues with missing ralink firmware."

Apr 22, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200421:
Some minor updates to the way YSF2DMR is handled.

Apr 11, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200411:
Some minor fixes.

Apr 7, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200406:
I can't totally decipher the code, but I think Andy added the ability to handle overrides in a /root/XLXHosts.txt file (previously, it handled only room changes, and that option got moved onto the Configuration page). Second change has something to do with the way BrandMeister password is handled.

Note: I had a lot of difficulty updating to this dashboard version with a hotspot based on the RPi 3A+. It totally froze two times during the download and update process, causing me to have to do a hard reboot (pull the power plug). Third time was the charm. Not sure what was going on, though I have tended to have more update problems with the hotspots based on the RPi 3A+ and 4B. In general, I suspect either Pi-Star 4.1.0 or Raspbian Buster—or both—still have some wrinkles to iron out.

Apr 1, 2020

Revised the Introduction section

Revised the The current status of Pi-Star note to correct the download link:

On Mar 26, 2020, Pi-Star V4.1.0 was released as a regular version. It can be downloaded from the Pi-Star website:
Pi-Star_RPi_V4.1.0_26-Mar-2020.zip.

Mar 31, 2020

Revised the Introduction section

Revised the The current status of Pi-Star note:

• Pi-Star V3.4.17 is still available. If you're running a hotspot based on a Raspberry Pi 3B, Zero W, or earlier, you can still use the 3.4.17 release; however, it's not getting any new features and some Raspbian Jessie libraries have been deprecated, so updates may throw errors. Everything seems to be working okay still, but you probably should upgrade to 4.1.0 soon.

Mar 26, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star V4.1.0 as a regular version:
Nothing actually changed between the V4.1.0-RC8 release candidate and the release of the V4.1.0 regular release; it's just now the official regular release.

Revised the Introduction section

Made major revisions to the The current status of Pi-Star note to acknowledge the release of Pi-Star V4.1.0 as a regular release.

Feb 25, 2020

Revised 6e) Some great places to start playing with Pi-Star

Revised the paragraph about Telegram groups:

Additional Telegram groups

There's a good list of Amateur Radio Telegram groups that was compiled by Tom, W2XQ, which is posted on the Colorado Digital website's Resources page: Ham Radio Telegram Channels. One that I really like is for finding DMR nets: Ham Radio DMR Nets. It has a quite comprehensive list of active DMR nets. Each net is displayed an hour before it goes live, making it easy to find out what's currently on the air: https://t.me/HamRadioDMRNets

Feb 21, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200221:
Adds additional ZUM Radio Radio/Modem board options: the ZUMspot - Duplex Raspberry Pi (GPIO) and ZUM Radio-MMDVM-Nucleo (USB). Renamed the ZUMspot - Raspberry Pi Hat (GPIO) option to ZUMspot - Single Band Raspberry Pi Hat (GPIO).
Also changed the OLED Type of display option to OLED Type 3 (0.96″) and OLED Type 6 (1.3″).

Feb 19, 2020

Revised the Introduction section

Minor revisions to the The awkward current status of Pi-Star note.

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star dashboard version 20200219:
Adds option for the ZUMspot - Duplex Raspberry Pi (GPIO) Radio/Modem board.

Feb 18, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of Pi-Star 4.1.8 and dashboard version 20200218:
Changes to fix issues with the BrandMeister API not connecting. For more info, see Active BrandMeister connections not showing. Also, added rng-tools to Pi-Star, which should fix issues with WiFi connectivity.

Revised the Introduction section

Minor revisions to the The awkward current status of Pi-Star note.

Feb 9, 2020

Revised the Introduction section

Minor revisions to the The awkward current status of Pi-Star note.

Revised 4) Booting up Pi-Star

Minor revisions to the Overview of Pi-Star Auto AP boot-up steps for a new wireless network illustration.

Feb 5, 2020

Revised release number

Noted the release of dashboard version 20200203:
Changes related to the handling of the DMR Master host ports.

Jan 31, 2020

Revised 5k) Wireless Configuration

Added the following hint:

Hint 2: If you need to set a static IP address for your hotspot, you can edit the /etc/dhcpcd.conf file to add the entries, for example:
interface wlan0
static ip_address=10.0.0.11/24
static routers=10.0.0.1
static domain_name_servers=10.0.0.1
Thanks to Dan, KA5TAA, for this hint.

Jan 24, 2020

Revised the Introduction section

Significantly revised the The current status of Pi-Star note.

Rearranged the first sections

Moved the disclaimer to the top. Moved The current status of Pi-Star note to the first thing after the table of contents. Merged the Introduction into section 1, Learning Pi-Star.

Jan 22, 2020

Revised the Introduction section

Revised the The awkward current status of Pi-Star note to add:

• For those willing to experiment, you might want to check out the fork of Pi-Star that is being actively developed by Daniel, F1RMB and includes lots of new features : GitHub: f1rmb/Pi-Star_DV_Dash.

Jan 20, 2020

Revised the Introduction section

Revised the The awkward current status of Pi-Star note.

Jan 14, 2020

Revised 5d) DMR configuration

Revised the notes under the DMR Master bullet point, especially to add "It's important to note that your SelfCare settings are saved per master server. If you change to a new master server, you need to re-enter settings you want to use."

• ☆ DMR Master (a master server connects you to the rest of the system):
  
  • If you want to use only a specific system – Choose a BrandMeister (BM) or DMR+ master, or the TGIF Network. In this case, everything is simpler as you'll see only options specifically for the selected system.
    
    • Note: If you use BrandMeister SelfCare:
      
      • It's important to note that your SelfCare settings are saved per master server. If you change to a new master server, you need to re-enter settings you want to use..
      • You can turn on Pi-Star's BrandMeister Manager module, which gives you access to key BrandMeister settings in Pi-Star's Admin view. For more info, see: Pi-Star's BrandMeister Manager module. See also Using the BrandMeister API by Vladimir, AC2F.
      • You can turn off sending APRS info via BrandMeister. For more info, see the note: Prevent sending APRS info via BrandMeister.

Jan 05, 2020

Revised the Introduction section

Revised the The awkward current status of Pi-Star note to add a link to more info about the release candidate issues: Pi-Star 4.1 release candidate problems.

Jan 01, 2020

Happy new year!

Revised the Introduction section

Revised the The awkward current status of Pi-Star note to reflect that as of Jan 2020, Pi-Star's status is that the 3.4.x codeline is aging, while the beta 4.1.x codeline isn't quite ready for prime time.