VK2KFJ Blog: modem

Friday, April 26, 2024

MMDVM HS_HAT Modem Firmware Release Notes

I haven't found any release notes yet for v1.6.0 or 1.6.1, but here are the recent previous releases

CA6JAU Release notes for version 1.5.2 :

Support for BridgeCom SkyBridge HS
Fix pictures transmission in YSF (Manuel EA7EE)
Add "." to CWId (Andy MW0MWZ)
Support for OrangePi firmware installation using generic_duplex_gpio_fw.bin (Sergei)
Support for ZUMspot Dualband RPi and ZUMspot Duplex RPi (Abad Vera)
Old ZUMspot Duplex USB is now Generic Duplex USB
Serial Repeater RX optimization (Shawn Chain)
UDID support (Shawn Chain)
UDIO optional
Beta fw support for installer scripts

This is a beta release 1.5.1b, for beta testing:

Support for new boards: ZUMspot Dualband RPi and ZUMspot Duplex RPi (Abad Vera)
Old ZUMspot Duplex USB is now Generic Duplex USB
Serial Repeater RX optimization (Shawn Chain)
UDID support (Shawn Chain)
UDIO optional
Beta fw support for installer scripts
Fix bugs

Release notes for version 1.4.17 :

Additional "sleep" for flashing (Florian DF2ET)
Update NanoDV (Tom BG4TGO)
Enabling Serial Repeater RX (Garry WD0DUD)
Add D2RG MMDVM_HS support

Release notes for version 1.4.16 :

Add support for POCSAG calibration mode by Florian DF2ET (latest MMDVMCal)
Add I2C host communication support (custom firmware compilation)

for the rest of the release notes go to here :

Releases · juribeparada/MMDVM_HS · GitHub

Upgrading MMDVM board firmware from Pi-Star

I just recently completed the exercise of upgrading my Pi-Star units with the Dashboard upgrade to 20240309 (9th March, 2024), and the Pi-Star firmware to 1.4.8

I noticed my MMDVM modems were still on 1.4.17, I looked at CA6JAU's GitHub and could see latest version he has was 1.5.2 GitHub - juribeparada/MMDVM_HS: MMDVM HotSpot: firmware for ZUMspot or MMDVM_HS based boards (D-Star, DMR, YSF, P25, NXDN and POCSAG)

but when I actually used the Pi-Star > Configuration > Expert > FW function to upgrade firmware, I discovered it was deploying version 1.6.1 for MMDVM_HS_HAT and same version for MMDVM_HS_DUAL_HAT

for my MMDVM HS_HAT modems (JumboSpot and the S56AL clone (Red)) were all same firmware that I upgraded manually a few years back. Below are extracts from Pi-Star Livelogs, before and after upgrade :

MMDVM protocol version: 1, description: MMDVM_HS_Hat-v1.4.17 20190529 14.7456MHz ADF7021 FW by CA6JAU GitID #cc451c4

MMDVM protocol version: 1, description: MMDVM_HS_Hat-v1.6.1 20230526 14.7456MHz ADF7021 FW by CA6JAU GitID #7ff74ed

for my MMDVM Dual HAT modem, extracts from the Pi-Star Livelogs, before and after upgrade :

MMDVM protocol version: 1, description: MMDVM_HS_Dual_Hat-v1.4.17 20190529 14.7456MHz dual ADF7021 FW by CA6JAU GitID #cc451c4

MMDVM protocol version: 1, description: MMDVM_HS_Dual_Hat-v1.6.1 20230526 14.7456MHz dual ADF7021 FW by CA6JAU GitID #7ff74ed.

I ran into issue when doing the MMDVM_HS_DUAL_HAT modem board, the firmware upgrade stopped with an error,

So I did a google search to see what to do about it, a few forums mentioned, but explanations were not easily understood, but eventually found the error details I needed, which was basically solder a JP1 solder pad and solder a wire link into a header position, then I was able to complete the modem firmware task from Pi-Star menus, Configuration > Expert > FW.

From another forum, I learnt some more commandline commands from Configuration > Expert > SSH Terminal, not so much to resolve, but to interrogate the MMDVM modem, which confirmed a few things.

For the type of MMDVM modems I am referring to above, then here they are:

JumboSpot :