DVMEGA Raspberry Pi DMR with TYT-380

This is going to be one of those posts that if you don't know much about the subject...you won't know much more at the end.

Long story as short as I can...

The lastest technology available to Amateur Radio hobbyists is digital audio.   So same radio frequencies, but instead of analog audio like on your old walkie talkie...it is digital audio like your cellphone/skype/etc.  Why? More conversations on a frequency, better audio, 'caller id, internet connectivity. etc

So I picked up a cheap DMR HT the TYT-380 I wrote about before.   It works great, DMR programming is complicated due to the capabilities of DMR.

Unfortunately my house is a Faraday cage, and signals have a hard time making it through the walls...so I can only use the radio outside the house.

A technology that has been available for a while and are really maturing are Digital Voice hotspots.   This took me a while to understand the usefulness...because the job it did wasn't really well described.  I have a DV hotspot that has a small radio and connects to the internet...my radio can talk to this hotspot which puts my radio on the internet...most Repeater or other hotspots are ALSO on the internet...so this hotspot is my connection to the larger radio world.   This hotspot lets me use my DMR radio inside the house.

There are a lot of choices of  'gateway' or 'hotspot' depending on need and what digital radio technology you are using (DMR, DSTAR, FUSION, for a few examples)

So again the problem is I cannot use my DMR in the house.   The solution I chose is the DVMEGA board mounted on a Raspberry Pi.  There are other types...this is simply the one I chose.

I am not going to regurgitate all the well documented steps, I am simply going to list the links I used, and the problems I encountered...in all cases I made an error/didn't fully understand.

You will need the DVMEGA board...I got the dual band version(from Gigaparts) or. http://dvmega.auria.nl/
You need a Raspberry Pi...I have version 3s.
You need an antenna for the DVMEGA board (unless it comes with yours)  I am using a stubby rubber ducky style antenna.

One thing they don't tell you is the DVMEGA is a self contained Arduino powered board...so there will be firmware updates for it...unless you have some kind of special serial programmer (available separately) you will need another method to do the updates...and it involves soldering.   If you do not want to solder, then I would look at a different solution for your DV hotspot.

http://www.dvmega.auria.nl/Downloads.html

https://g0wfv.wordpress.com/how-to-update-dvmega-firmware-without-a-programmer-or-an-arduino/

https://www.florian-wolters.de/blog/2016/03/12/firmware-upgrade-on-dvmega-without-programmer/

So my first problem involved the soldering...I did it in my office (I don't have a magnifying glass here, and you are soldering on a SMD component) and apparently I didn't get a good connection...it took about a day of battle to troubleshoot that one.

https://www.florian-wolters.de/blog/2016/03/12/firmware-upgrade-on-dvmega-without-programmer/#imgModal-89

Once the firmware successfully updated, it was all pretty much straight forward.  The second part was getting the software that does the DV stuff onto the Raspberry Pi.  The two ways to do it are to use a standard RPi install and add the new software, or download an already created image...well I did both and downloaded 5 RPi images in the process...that took forever.

BTW the software that does the DMR (and others) is MMDVMHost

For the image, the last one I found (by accident...well hidden) is from DMR-UTAH   http://www.dmr-utah.net/support/mmdvm/images/

I recommend going straight to that one.  You still have to edit a file...but there is a shortcut to all the tools.

https://wiki.brandmeister.network/index.php/DVMEGA

The BrandMeister link has the best explanation for the settings...a VERY IMPORTANT SETTING IS Port=/dev/ttyAMA0   There are a variety of other ones in the settings...but this is the only one you want.

https://www.hamdigitaal.nl/?p=6122 (one of my attempts used a DSTAR Pi image)

So assuming the firmware update went well, and you are running the software on the Pi...how do you know if it is working...this also took a while for me to track down, but found simple solutions for that.

First, with the software running on the Pi, when I transmit with my radio, the Terminal window running on the Pi will show the transmission and my callsign...and if it is receiving data it will show those callsigns.   But what do I sound like...is anyone trying to call me?   Found an easy tester for that.

BrandMeister is the voluntary collective for DV through internet...they have some good info (not all, but some)  They also have a couple of good tools.   LastHeard shows all the current connections world wide...you can filter the results to your callsign.  Second one is Hoseline , you select a TalkGroup number (note I typed in 3100 in the URL) and it will play the live audio...so select the TalkGroup you will be transmitting on, and when you transmit, your audio will come from the webpage.  BTW between all the various moving parts...the audio I heard on the website of other transmission I also heard simultaneously on my HT through the DVMEGA-Pi.

Those two tools really gave me a warm fuzzy that everything on my end was working properly, and the final confirmation was a very positive signal report from an Amateur radio operator who was south of Milan Italy.

The last hard part about this setup is programming the radio...essentially your hotspot is a repeater, so add it to your radio settings like you would add any other DMR repeater.

Some TalkGroups.

http://www.trbo.org/talkgroups/

https://wiki.brandmeister.network/index.php/United_States_of_America

TYT MD-380 DMR Firmware hack etc...

I will apologize in advance for not having all the answers on the subject.   The purpose of this post is to give the background info, step through the programming, and results so far.

The Tytera MD-380.

So this is a DMR radio, comes in 2 versions, VHF and UHF.   I have the UHF one...mine cost $110.

A group of Amateur Radio hackers figured out how to get into the firmware, and wrote their own to reflash the radio...the future purpose is to hopefully add some additional digital features to the radio.

According to this article.

And this Hackaday article...with this link to the groups notes (near end of PDF)

 Not too long after the first hack,  a firmware was written that supposedly will allow the radio to act as a DMR scanner.

This article talks about it.

And here is the TYT MD-380 Yahoo Group.

I know nothing about DMR setups, but I wanted to learn, and this seemed like a interesting way to do it.

...DMR  is Digital Mobile Radio...voice calls are converted into packets of data and sent over the airwaves...Icom's D-STAR, Yaesu's System Fusion are two of the popular Amateur radio versions.

This PDF has all the background info.

And while I am listing links, this one shows all the DMR-MARC linked repeaters.

 That is all I know about DMR at this second...I just got the radio an hour ago or so, so that's my excuse.

But here is the meat of the post...how to get the hacked firmware loaded (and how to load future firmware) and how to program frequencies etc.

The same website with the news on the new firmware also had the various firmwares.

I needed the "Experimental Firmware" V1.0 as I write this.   And the Programming Software to program the channels...I used the latest which was 1.30.0

My radio came with a programming cable (looks exactly like my Baofung one) that worked with no drivers needed (Win7 64-bit...I am not sure if I have programmed the Baofung on this Windows install).   EDIT:   I did install the programming software before doing all this  MD-380 v130.exe ...that might be necessary.

I plugged the cable into my USB port, and with the radio off plugged it into the radio.

I held the top two buttons (PTT and the one above it...NOT "M")

As I held those buttons I turned the volume knob to power the radio on.

I heard the Win7 beeps as hardware was added...I think I already had the firmware uploading software running...but am not sure if that makes a difference.  (I did NOT have the radio programming software running)

If it is going good so far, the LED at the top will alternate Red/Green. throughout the process...and the colors hold
 steady a few times during the actual firmware load.

Now to the software.

When you unzip the "Experimental Firmware" file you get about 14 files...The TXT file will explain the same process I used.   The Upgrade.exe file is what we will use to load the firmware.

Not much to it...and note the gibberish characters...we will see more in a bit.

In the middle you see "Open Update File", click on that and select the file you want, the TXT file explains the choices...and if you ran the program from the same folder all the files were in, then you should see some ".bin" files.   I chose the "experiment.bin" file   ( "experiment.img and experiment.bin: patched to monitor all talk groups, private calls, and sideload alternate firmware")

Now click on "Download Update File"...that loads it into the radio.   The TXT file says it takes less than a minute...mine took more than a minute.

When it was done I got this...

Apparently it means the load was successful.   I clicked OK, turned off the radio, exited the program, unplugged the cable, and powered it back on.

Great Success!  (that is what the patched bootscreen looks like)


Now time to program some frequencies.

That is the Programming software MD-380.   I hooked the cable back up to the radio, turned it on normally (not holding any buttons).

Then on the software I selected the icon that looks shows yellow arrow away from the radio.

You click that then the radio shows this.

After a bit you get this...

Then do your editing...much like using Chirp or other radio software...I don't know all the ins and outs of DMR, so I don't have everything loaded...but it does receive.

When you are done editing, save a copy for yourself, then push the icon with the red arrow pointing toward the radio.

Looks like this while writing.   You can see the expanded menus on the left where I poked around trying to find where to put in frequencies.

That's about it for now,  I programmed the local DMR repeaters and have been listening to Amateur radio conversations from London and all points of the U.S.

Hopefully they will figure out some advanced firmware soon.