All hotspots running Pi-Star use the same procedure for logging in.

Using your browser, access http://pi-star.local

To access the Admin or Configuration screens, a users name and password is required. Those are:

User name: pi-star

Password: raspberry

Simplex DMRspots all use timeslot 2. When programming your radio, be sure to configure channels you create for use with your DMRspot to use time slot 2.

The duplex version uses both timeslot 1 and timeslot 2. You program your radio exactly how you would for a dual timeslot repeater.

You will notice that you have two micro USB ports on your DMRspot. Always use the one closest to the corner of the device. The second one is rarely used, but could be used tor something like a micro USB ethernet adapter.

That's one of ours. We need access when we configure your DMRspot of course, so what you are seeing is one of our access points. We have two here that we use exclusively for customer configuration that are isolated from our regular network. You can safely delete it.

Take a close look at the white light pipe in the upper left corner of the face of your DMRspot when you first apply power. There is a red LED inside that blinks slowly. When it connects to WiFi successfully, it will blink faster.

Also, the display will not show anything unless it has a WiFi connection. So if your display is blank, you are not connected.

It is possible that the WiFi credentials are not correct. When set these up, we use the information you provide us. In fact, we copy and paste it in from your information to avoid typos on our end. Of course, it is possible that you made an error sending us the information. This does happen and when it does, it can prevent your DMRspot from connecting to your WiFi. Generally, the most common problem we see is incorrect capitalization for the SSID or password.

All is not lost. There are a couple of ways to work around this.

1) This article on the Pi-Star site explains how to create a file with your WiFi credentials to copy to your micro-SD card.

https://www.pistar.uk/wifi_builder.php

2) Here is an excellent step by step explanation from amateurradionotes.com on how to connect your DMRspot if it does not connect to the pre-configured WiFi you provided to us. Note: This is also helpful if you take your DMRspot somewhere else and need to change your WiFi settings.

https://amateurradionotes.com/pi-star.htm#bootingpistar

The firmware that runs the MMDVM modem board can be updated so you can always be up to date. It is import ant to update your firmware periodically to get the latest features and bug fixes. If you are familiar with using a terminal program or something like putty, then you will already know how you connect to the command line interface of your DMRspot.

For users that have never done this before, Pi-Star provides a simple way to do this. Here is the procedure, step by step.

1) Connect to your DMRspot by typing this in your browser address bar.

From a Windows computer type:

http://pi-star/

From a Mac computer or an iPhone or iPad type:

http://pi-star.local/


2) On the top menu, click on Configuration.

3) On the Configuration page, Click on Expert. It will ask you if you are sure you want to use Expert mode, and just answer Yes.

4) On the Expert page, Click on SSH Access. There is a lot to choose from in the menu, so look in the lower right of that group.

5) After clicking on SSH Access, you will see a black window open up where you can type your commands. This allows you low level access to the Raspberry Pi Zero so you can update your firmware.

6) Login to the SSH terminal. We named the hostname on ours dmrspot. In our example images, the prompt will say dmrspot login. Yours will say pi-star login.

Your login name is pi-star, and the password is raspberry. You will see the screen below.

7) You're in! Good job! Okay, the next step is to put pi-star in a read-wrote mode. You do that by typing rpi-rw and hitting return.

rpi-rw

8) Almost there. The next step is to type or paste in one of the following commands and hit return.

For the Standard or Premium Simplex board use this command:

sudo pistar-mmdvmhshatflash hs_hat

For the Duplex board, use this command:

sudo pistar-mmdvmhshatflash hs_dual_hat

9) Just let it do its thing for a couple of minutes. When it's done, it will tell you to press any key to reboot. Go ahead and hit and wait for it to reboot.

You're done!

There are two parts of the Pi-Star software you can, and should update from time to time.

1) The first part is the Pi-Star dashboard. This is easy. There is a menu item for this on the Admin page. Just click it and it will update the dashboard files.

2) To update all the core Pi-star files, follow the same instructions as we provide for updating your firmware until you get to step 8. Instead of typing in the command we give you in step 8, type this one instead:

sudo pistar-update

Note: If you are a few versions behind, you will need to repeat this a few times to being your DMRspot up to the current version. That's because the pistar-update command will only update one version at a time.

If you use any of the following email services, you might not have received a response from us after you submitted a support request.

aol.com
yahoo.com
hotmail.com
live.com

You should note that all of these provide free email accounts grudgingly. They are old services and the only reason they continue on providing email is to use data they collect from you. THEY DO NOT CARE IF YOU GET YOUR EMAIL OR NOT. These services to not reject an email properly, they simply do not deliver it to the recipient. So we have no way of knowing that an email was not received.

We operate our own state-of-the-art mail server and maintain the highest technical and ethical standards to ensure maximum deliverability. We are not blacklisted by any of the 100+ top blacklist services.

Please do not use the above email services to communicate with us if at all possible. We waste a good portion of our day, every day, trying to figure out how to reach people using these services. So if you have sent us a question and have not received a response, this may be the reason.