For some time now, I’ve yearned for a way to quickly link to various XLX reflectors and modules on DMR, as well as unlink from modules to “mute” a busy reflector/module.
Recently, I’ve witnessed two networks suffer from loops, caused by
mis-configured hotspots. Now while Pi-Star has some rudimentary checks in place
(simply a warning message for hotspots configured as “Public Nodes”), I’ve
improved W0CHP-PiStar-Dash to help
prevent these loops even further.
The original Pi-Star (still) uses myriad HTML tables for layout (non-tabular)
data. That’s a Bad Thing™ And since my
W0CHP-PiStar-Dash software is a fork, it
inherited lots of that legacy garbage. However, I’ve begun the conversion from
HTML tables for layout, to proper HTML(5) and CSS.
This is a UI/UX project that will be completed in phases as I get to them.
My XLX493 MultiProtocol Reflector is now peering/bridged with
BrandMeister. What this provides, is a direct and easy link into XLX493, Module “E - W0CHP-PiStar-Dash”.
All you need to do is talk on TalkGroup 3170603 in BrandMeister, and you’ll
automatically be connected due to the bridging/peering.
This is a very simple way to connect to the reflector if you’re looking for
W0CHP-PiStar-Dash support, or
just general chat about the software.
Since the birth of W0CHP-PiStar-Dash in
~2019, the “back-end” had historically used (and stuck with) the official
Pi-Star
binaries (the
core third-party programs found in /usr/local/bin)
compiled by the Pi-Star author Andy, MW0MWZ. This was deliberate…
Firstly, I really didn’t want to compile all of the upstream binary sources by-hand. And secondly, they were perfectly stable enough for daily usage and didn’t merit any changes.
However, as of 1/26/2022, that has since changed.
Since 2018, I migrated all of my code and repositories from GitHub onto my own on-premise, self-hosted solution which was based on the venerable Gogs software (proxied by an Apache web server).
While my solution worked quite well for some time, I had been meaning to migrate all of my code repositories to a different back-end.
W0CHP-PiStar-Dash has a new versioning & version display scheme…
Users may recall version information being displayed like this:
Pi-Star: 4.1.6 / Dashboard: W0CHP-20211226_01 / Branch: master
This versioning scheme required me to change the version number in the config
file, albeit, it was an automatic process. However, the former “DATE_INCREMENT” scheme
tells us nothing.
Sometimes, I only want to see the live caller of the current contact on my hot spots. Similar to how my Nextion and other OLED screens display pertinent caller information; but nothing else. No other data, no buttons, just the current information. Well, I’ve developed it and I’m currently testing this feature.
I’ve added a new feature to my W0CHP-PiStar-Dash
software to help scratch yet another personal itch of mine. It’s called the
“System Manager”.
You’ll find it in the admin section of the dashboard.
It manages/accomplishes two things (for now):