Trouble with china pi-star

[emanuel32804]

Hi guys,
I got myself one of those china pi-stars, though I know the china ones are generally frowned upon. Anyway, I've been trying to configure it and it seems to be working except for the fact that I can't transmit to it. I can receive RF on my handheld via networks but the pi-star seems to completely ignore anything that comes from my radio. I have double checked that my frequencies are set correctly (it's a duplex version) and I have also made sure to put in the TG under conventional personalities on my XTS5K. I have also tried it in simplex mode. Same issue. One thing I noticed is that when I key up, the COS light turns yellow and seems to just stay that way until I restart the pi. The power LED is solid green, and service is blinking red quickly, which I understand to be a good sign. The OLED on top works as well. I was looking in the expert area at the RXoffset and TXoffset, which are both set to 0. I thought this was really strange, but they seem to be the best values, at least for TX. I tested it using the mmdvmcal function via ssh and when I move the offset up or down from 50% it gets worse on my handheld. So presumably offset of 0 is ok? This is also assuming that the RX and TX offset should be the same, which is to my knowledge correct. I started the RSSI function of the mmdvmcal and here is what it printed out:

RSSI Mode                                                                          
RSSI: max: 121, min: 114, ave: 117                                                  
RSSI: max: 128, min: 116, ave: 120                                                  
RSSI: max: 125, min: 114, ave: 118                                                  
RSSI: max: 123, min: 116, ave: 119                                                  
RSSI: max: 123, min: 47, ave: 83                                                    
RSSI: max: 47, min: 47, ave: 47                                                    
RSSI: max: 47, min: 47, ave: 47                                                    
RSSI: max: 47, min: 47, ave: 47                                                    
RSSI: max: 47, min: 47, ave: 47                                                    
RSSI: max: 122, min: 47, ave: 82                                                    
RSSI: max: 125, min: 112, ave: 121                                                  
RSSI: max: 125, min: 113, ave: 119                                                  
RSSI: max: 123, min: 117, ave: 120                                                  
RSSI: max: 123, min: 117, ave: 119                                                  
RSSI: max: 126, min: 47, ave: 72                                                    
RSSI: max: 47, min: 47, ave: 47                                                    
RSSI: max: 47, min: 47, ave: 47                                                    
RSSI: max: 47, min: 47, ave: 47                                                    
RSSI: max: 47, min: 47, ave: 47                                                    
RSSI: max: 126, min: 47, ave: 60                                                    
RSSI: max: 125, min: 118, ave: 121                                                  
RSSI: max: 125, min: 118, ave: 121

What's particularly interesting to me is that every time I key up, you can see the RSSI actually dips down to 47. I assume there should be a negative sign in front of this? Regardless, it looks like the pi-star is receiving my signal. So why does nothing show up in the logs? I've been testing this with the parrot function as well, with no improvement. I've updated pi-star as well as the MMDVM hat firmware. If anybody has any ideas, I'm all ears.

Thanks,
E

 

[n9mxq]

Have you ran MMDVMCAL? If not, I'd start there. (instructions here: MMDVM - KH7MS)

 

[emanuel32804]

Looking at the BER option, it seems it only works for DMR, and I don't have a working radio that does that at the moment. Unless I'm mistaken? Is there a way to switch it to P25?

Edit: I'm a dummy. I found the P25 option. Here is the printout:

P25 HDU received                                                                     
P25 LDU1 audio FEC BER % (errs): 0.243% (3/1233)                                     
P25 LDU2 audio FEC BER % (errs): 0.162% (2/1233)                                     
P25 LDU1 audio FEC BER % (errs): 0.892% (11/1233)                                    
P25 LDU2 audio FEC BER % (errs): 0.973% (12/1233)                                    
P25 LDU1 audio FEC BER % (errs): 0.243% (3/1233)                                     
P25 LDU2 audio FEC BER % (errs): 0.568% (7/1233)                                     
P25 LDU1 audio FEC BER % (errs): 0.081% (1/1233)                                     
P25 LDU2 audio FEC BER % (errs): 3.001% (37/1233)                                    
P25 TDU received, total frames: 8, bits: 9864, errors: 76, BER: 0.7705%

So I'd say the BER actually looks pretty good. I'm still not sure then why it's not showing up on the dashboard. Could it be a radio configuration problem?

 

[n9mxq]

I don't have any p25 gear so my usefulness ends there. Might want to try the Pistar forums. Forums.pistar.uk

 

[RBMTS]

I know you are referring to the P25 mode but just checking . . . you still have to have a DMR ID and that ID needs to be in the Pi-Star configuration AND your radio needs to be setup to Xmit the ID. Additionally you are setting up a P25 talkgroup on your radio for the TG you want to access.

You don't mentioned these topics in your first post to just checking that you've done these things.

 

[emanuel32804]

I do have a DMR ID put in the radio and the pi-star, and I did put the correct TG in my radio. I ended up adjusting the offset to -250 for an average BER of 0.2%

 

[emanuel32804]

Just to be sure, I put the TG in the radio under conventional > Astro Systems > Astro Talkgroup List > Talkgroup List 1 in the TG ID box all the way on the left right?

 

[K5MPH]

Your off set may not be set right......

 

[emanuel32804]

Are you talking about the offset in the handheld? The pi-star offset seems to be fine at least.

 

[K5MPH]

I was talking about Pi-star........

 

[frenchfry]

I would give the Pi-Star RXoffset a try. Under version 3 mine was set to -200 to work and on version 4 it is now set to -100 to work.

 

[emanuel32804]

I mentioned it further up somewhere, but I did end up adjusting the RXoffset to -250 based on results from mmdvmcal