HamClock Alternatives and setup

[N9JIG]

I have an old Raspberry Pi v3 and cannot seem to get the thing to work with current distros of the Pi OS.

Is there a decent Windows or Mac based alternative that provides similar functionality such as propagation maps etc.?

Alternately is there someone who has successfully get HamClock to work on a v3 Pi and can make an SDCard image available?

 

[eorange]

nvm

 

[N9JIG]

I just loaded Bullseye last week on a Pi 3. Did you use the Raspberry Pi installer? What didn't work?

Yes, I used the Raspberry Pi Imager on the Mac. I used it to format the SD card then installed it on the card. I put it in the Pi and powered it up. It seemed to start up then said it was installing new SSH keys (?) then it advised it was rebooting. After it rebooted it came up with the splash screen then the video disappeared and would not appear. The KB and mouse were still lit up and the caps lock still went on and off but no video.

This happened on 3 different SD cards. Maybe tomorrow I will try it off my Windows machine.

 

[eorange]

I thought I had misread your question which is why I deleted my answer. I was wondering if you had trouble with the Pi OS, or if that was ok and it was only HamClock problems.

Pi OS: I use the Pi installer to format the SD card and then install the Bullseye OS. I've done this on my Pi 3 with both the headless and full desktop. This was using my Win 10 and then Win 11 machine.

Do you preconfigure your Pi OS using the gear in the installer? I only use SSH keys so I put the public key in the installer, but not doing that shouldn't bork the OS.

What was the last working OS in your Pi 3?

 

[N9JIG]

I had the Pi sitting around unused in my garage for the last 9 years so the last version of Pi OS was at least that old.I plugged it in as it was and ran it but did not note the version number. It crashed whenever I went to web pages from its browser.

I then took out the SD Card, reformatted it and ran the most current installer package on the Mac (Raspberry Pi Imager 1.7.3) and selected Pi OS 32-bit with a release date or 09-22-2022 (Debian Bullseye). I reinserted the SD Card and it seemed to start up and then installed the SSH Keys. I didn't have a chance to get the HamClock installer going before the Pi crashed.

There was no options for any SSH keys that I saw in the imager or when I started up the Pi itself, it just started doing it on its own.

I admit I know nothing of Pi OS, I am a Mac and Windows guy...

 

[eorange]

Well, if you wanted to 'get into it', I'd recommend doing this:

- ssh into your Pi
- sudo raspi-config
- Disable the splash screen option, so you can see detailed activities happening during your next boot
- also check your display options

If you can ssh in (either with a password or a private key) and you get a working command prompt, then you know the pi is running and you likely have just a display problem.

Raspberry Pi Documentation - Configuration

The official documentation for Raspberry Pi computers and microcontrollers

www.raspberrypi.com

 

[N9JIG]

As a followup I eventually got it working just fine. I tried a couple different SD cards and for whatever reason a third eventually worked. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the others, and the one that worked is identical to one that didn't. All three were reformatted and re-imaged several times during the process.

I suppose the one that worked was waiting for the magic fairy dust to settle or something.