October 10, 2025: The WPSD-M17 fork works on the Raspberry Pi 5 platform! I assembled another hotspot with a Raspberry Pi 4 and documented this each step of the way.
Thanks for the great review of building a hotspot from scratch. Chip should be honored about the WCHP-M17 fork as no one is trying to portray that as anything other than WCHP… that supports M17. Hi from Pacificon!
I think some of the innovators in our digital voice realm are sadly underappreciated. I've noticed a tendency for folks to pick at the work products instead of appreciate the incredible amount of work that has gone into those products. That's unfortunate. They deserve better.
Ah, good to know. Thank you. I know the upgrade for the U.S. DVMEGA Cast adds RF capabilities but I don't know if that means a MMDVM modem is part of the upgrade.
The CAST has “hotspot” capability which requires an optional single or dual-band DVMEGA modem/RF board[1]. Like the CAST, they only support DMR, YSF and DSTAR. I have the former installed in my CAST.
1- If you want to sell off one of your CC1200 boards, please let me know. I did the same thing you did, getting the price and then not pulling the trigger.
2- I've had a DVMegaCast for at least 3 years and went up to WPSD as soon as it was available for the DVMegaCast. I never had access to M17 on the DVMC. The DVMC runs a nano-pi and is 32-bit only./Steve
The Euronode version of the DVMEGACast was compatible with M17. I don't know if the U.S. version of the DVMC ever did run M17 but was guessing it did. In my DVMC, in the Advanced Area, Full Tools, RF Remote Support, there is an entry for M17 triggers for controlling the DVMC. That seems suggestive.
Thanks for the great review of building a hotspot from scratch. Chip should be honored about the WCHP-M17 fork as no one is trying to portray that as anything other than WCHP… that supports M17. Hi from Pacificon!
I think some of the innovators in our digital voice realm are sadly underappreciated. I've noticed a tendency for folks to pick at the work products instead of appreciate the incredible amount of work that has gone into those products. That's unfortunate. They deserve better.
The CAST hardware and firmware only supports DSTAR, DMR and YSF. It’s never supported M17 (nor P25 and NXDN).
The DVMEGA Euronode, unlike the CAST, uses an actual MMDVM modem with RF. It has M17, P25 and NXDN capabilities with the right software.
They are two different/separate products.
Ah, good to know. Thank you. I know the upgrade for the U.S. DVMEGA Cast adds RF capabilities but I don't know if that means a MMDVM modem is part of the upgrade.
The CAST has “hotspot” capability which requires an optional single or dual-band DVMEGA modem/RF board[1]. Like the CAST, they only support DMR, YSF and DSTAR. I have the former installed in my CAST.
It’s also not exclusive to the US.
[1] https://www.combitronics.nl/index.php?route=product/category&path=61
TY. I've found access to this kind of information is not entirely clear, so I greatly appreciate the clarifications you've been providing!
Two thoughts:
1- If you want to sell off one of your CC1200 boards, please let me know. I did the same thing you did, getting the price and then not pulling the trigger.
2- I've had a DVMegaCast for at least 3 years and went up to WPSD as soon as it was available for the DVMegaCast. I never had access to M17 on the DVMC. The DVMC runs a nano-pi and is 32-bit only./Steve
Aye aye on the boards.
The Euronode version of the DVMEGACast was compatible with M17. I don't know if the U.S. version of the DVMC ever did run M17 but was guessing it did. In my DVMC, in the Advanced Area, Full Tools, RF Remote Support, there is an entry for M17 triggers for controlling the DVMC. That seems suggestive.