Using the Raspberry Pi based DMR hotspot with BlueDV

In my previous post I provided a tutorial for setting up a DVMega and Raspberry Pi to use as a DMR hotspot.

The DVMega can also be used in a bluetooth only configuration where the heavy lifting is done my another device, such as an Android or iOS handset. The bluetooth hardware seems to go by a few different names but can be purchased here. The software to do this was previously called openSpot, but has been renamed blueDV.

As I have already got the DVMega and Raspberry Pi 3 package, I thought I'd have a go at 'converting' it to be suitable for use with blueDV. I found some information on doing this on G0WFV's blog, which sets up ser2net so blueDV can communicate over 'serial' over Ethernet.

Some of the steps were already performed prior to installing MMDVMHost, so I've added the modified steps below.




First of all, install ser2net-

apt-get install ser2net

Configure ser2net-

sudo bash -c 'echo "2000:raw:600:/dev/ttyAMA0:115200 8DATABITS NONE 1STOPBIT" >> /etc/ser2net.conf'

Stop ser2net starting at boot-

update-rc.d ser2net disable

Stop MMDVMHost-

systemctl stop mmdvmhost.service

Create a startser2net script-

nano /usr/local/sbin/startser2net 

Add the following

#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/screen -dmS ser2net -D -m /usr/sbin/ser2net -n

Create a stopser2net script-

nano /usr/local/sbin/stopser2net 

Add the following-

#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/screen -S ser2net -X quit

Make them both executable-

chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/startser2net 
chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/stopser2net 

Start ser2net-

startser2net 

Check its listening-

netstat -tulpn

You should see a line that looks like this-

tcp  0      0 0.0.0.0:2000  0.0.0.0:*  LISTEN  24211/ser2net   

You can now configure blueDV to connect via ser2net and start using it!

Remember when you've finished, to return into the standard MMDVMHost mode you will need to-

Stop ser2net-

startser2net 

Start MMDVMHost-

systemctl start mmdvmhost.service