I have been running two MMVDM hotspots for the past year with Pi-Star connected to the same XLX reflector. One (Pi-Zero) was running on version 3.4 and was solely being used to be able to communicate in YSF mode to the XLX reflector. In contrast, the other one (Raspberry Pi 2B with MMDVM) acted as DMR2YSF connected to the same reflector.
This provides me a possibility to check whether or not the reflector which I administer works as expected.
Until recently, there was no option to upgrade to version 3.4 on the Pi-Zero since there was just no image available. But somehow, they managed to port a 4.1.5 version to Pi-Zero and provide it under the Beta section of the Pi-Star website. I immediately downloaded and copied it to a microSD card, booted the hotspot, and confirmed it to work as expected.
On the second hotspot, I was running a Spanish version; if I am correct, this was the version that provided switching between rooms. As it was not applicable with the reflector I administer, since there is only one room we all use, I have also decided to upgrade that hotspot. So I downloaded the 4.1.5 version, copied it to a microSD card, booted the hotspot, and confirmed it was not working. I couldn’t get DMR2YSF working (even with the correct TG setting) whatever I tried. So, in the end, I decided to upgrade to 4.1.6 to see whether or not that would make a difference, but the answer was no. (By the way, upgrading from 4.1.5 to 4.1.6 can be done by issuing a couple of commands directly on the command line or by clicking the upgrade button at the top of the screen when you’re in expert modus)
Then it came to my mind that the XLX reflector would, by default, be able to transcode the DMR signal to C4FM and the other way around. In other words, what would be the reason to transcode a signal from DMR to YSF on a hotspot with restricted hardware compared to the server the XLX reflector runs on? So I decided to switch from DMR2YSF to DMRGateway and thus send the data signal directly off to the XLX reflector.
For this to be working:
– enter your 7-digit CCS7/DMR ID under general configuration
– only enable DMR mode
– toggle the Brandmeister Network Enable and DMR+ Network Enable switches to off
– set the XLX master to the correct XLX reflector
– set the XLX module to the suitable module on the reflector
– toggle the XLX Master Enable control to on
– make sure you have the DMR CC set to one that matches your HT
– don’t forget to apply the changes
– verify under Expert modus / DMR GW the settings for Slot and TG so this matches with the settings on your HT
And that should be sufficient. By the way, if you don’t like the voice notification “Connected to XLX reflector…” you can disable this under Expert modus / DMR GW / Voice by modifying Enable 1 to Enable 0
