W0CHP-PiStar-Dash -- A Custom and Enhanced Pi-Star Dashboard
This is my very highly modified and customized fork of MW0MWZ’s Pi-Star
software, and I call it “W0CHP-PiStar-Dash”. There are so many large changes,
divergences and new features, it merited my own fork/version.
The Rules and Caveats – IMPORTANT
I really don’t want to regret publishing my open source software,
only to be bombarded by inept hams who need
hand-holding. I don’t have the time, patience nor desire to help the clueless.
So PLEASE, do not ask me for support. This is my personal
code, that I offer as a gift to power-users and hackers.
Anyone asking for
support will be ignored, and very likely, torn a new asshole and mocked on this website
for not following simple instructions.
Do NOT ask for support for W0CHP-PiStar-Dash on any official or
unofficial Pi-Star support page/forum/medium/etc. This is not Andy’s
(MW0MWZ) Pi-Star software! Users found doing so will be relentlessly mocked on this website.
Running my version of the Pi-Star dashboard is for the initiated, talented and
self-motivated. It is NOT for casual, clueless users/hams.
The ONLY person who supports this code, is YOU. Yes, you will need to figure shit
out if/when things go awry; on your own.
This code/project is a moving target, has bugs (like any code does) and can be
unstable. It also consumes more system resources due to the myriad improvements.
Issue / Bug Tracker and Pull Requests / Patches:
DO NOT ASK FOR SUPPORT. Repo and issue tracker access is for developers/hackers and contributors only!
The issue tracker is NOT for:
Support requests
Feature requests
Other bullshit not germane to bugs, issues, etc.
I do, depending on my mood and availability, offer limited support via ham radio on
XLX493 ; Module E. Other users will also be happy
to help! A direct DMR conference to this module/room is bridged with BrandMeister
and TGIF Networks: Simply call TalkGroup 3170603.
Read This Entire Fucking Page
I cannot stress this enough. Just read the rules above again, and read the
entire page.. It’s informative and you’ll learn how to install it, restore the
old dashboard, etc. I took the time to write it in order to help you. So read
it. This web page is the only form of support I offer (aside from being on
XLX493 ; Module E periodically).
(…to install the dashboard without the W0CHP custom CSS)
When the installer completes, refresh your dashboard home page to see the changes.
You must run the aforementioned
commands with the exact syntax. Note the spaces and extra -- (dashes), etc.
Otherwise, the commands will fail.
Updating W0CHP-PiStar-Dash
Once you install W0CHP-PiStar-Dash, it will automatically be kept up-to-date
with any new features/versions/etc. This is made possible via the native,
nightly Pi-Star updating process.3
You can also manually invoke the update process via the dashboard admin section
(Admin -> Update), or by command line:
Connected dynamic talk groups now display idle-timeout time (due to no TX).
Added ability to mass-drop your static talk groups; and mass re-add the previously
linked static talk groups.
Added ability to batch add/delete up to 5 static talk groups at a time (for now)
TGIF Manager; now displays connected actual talk group names. (NOTE: Since TGIF has moved to a new platform with no API available, this currently does not work until TGIF’s API is made available.)
“Instant Mode Manager” added to admin page; allows you to instantly pause or resume selected radio modes. Handy for attending
nets, quieting a busy mode, to temporarily eliminate “mode monopolization”, etc.
“System Manager” added to admin page; allows you to instantly:
Disable / Enable the intrusive and slow Pi-Star Firewall.
Disable / Enable Cron, in order to prevent updates and Pi-Star services restarting during middle-of-the-night/early AM operation.
Enable / Disable Pi-Star Remote and Pi-Star Watchdog
Ability to configure POCSAG hang-time from the config page.
User Interface / Design Features
Updated user interface elements galore, styling, wider, bigger, updated fonts, etc.
Country-of-origin flags for callsigns.
Improved and graphical CSS/color styling configuration page; easily change the look and feel of the dashboard.
User-Configurable number of displayed Last Heard dashboard rows (defaults to 40, and 100 is the maximum).
User-Configurable font size for most of the pertinent dashboard information.
Reorganized and sectioned configuration page for better usability.
System process status reorganized into clean grid pattern, with more core service status being displayed.
User-Configurable 24 or 12 hour time display across the dashboard.
Connected FCS and YSF reflector names and numerical ID both displayed in dashboard left panel.
Additional hardware, radio and system information displayed in top header; which can be toggled.
Admin page split up into logical sub-sections/sub-pages, in order to present
better feedback messages when making changes.
Note: Last-Heard and other dynamic tables are hidden in the admin sections by default, allowing users
to focus on the tasks-at-hand and their outputs. The Last-Heard data can be toggled in these areas, however.
Features in Official Pi-Star Which are Intentionally Omitted in W0CHP-PiStar-Dash
Upgrade notice/nag in header (unnecessary and a hacky implementation). This has been replaced by my own
unobtrusive dashboard update notifier; displayed in the upper-right hand side of the top header.
“GPS” link in Call Sign column of dashboard (superfluous and unreliable).
Selectable Call Sign link to either QRZ.com or RadioID.com (both services
suck, and the implementation of this feature is poor and unintuitive. Left
the original function linking to QRZ.com).
CPU Temp. in header; when CPU is running “cool” or “normal” recommended temps, the cell background
is no longer colored green. Only when the CPU is running beyond recommended temps, is the cell colored
orange or red.
No reboot/shutdown nag screen/warning from admin page (Superfluous; you
click it, it will reboot/shutdown without warning.).
Yellow DMR Mode cell in left panel when there’s a DMR network password/login
issue (poor/inaccurate and taxing implementation, and can confuse power users that
utilize my Instant Mode Manager, where the default cell is amber colored for
paused modes [color is user-configurable].).
Instead, the actual network name is highlighted in red when there’s a login issue (courtesy of F1RMB’s excellent code).
Notes about CSS, and custom CSS you may have previously applied
When using the -id option, the “normal” Pi-Star colors are used, and no CSS is installed. Any custom CSS
you may have had, is removed but backed up. See bullet #4 below.
When using the -idc option, the W0CHP CSS is installed, and any of your custom CSS settings
before installing the W0CHP dashboard, are backed up in the event you want to restore the official dashboard
(see bullet #4). This is done because the CSS in the official Pi-Star is incompatible. You can still
manually map/change your CSS back when running W0CHP-PiStar-Dash (see bullet #4 for details).
If you are already running W0CHP-PiStar-Dash, AND you have custom or W0CHP-PiStar-Dash CSS, no CSS changes, no matter which
option you run this command with.
When using the -id option, your custom CSS settings are backed up (in the event you want to revert back
to the official dashboard – see bullet #6), and the W0CHP dashboard uses the standard Pi-Star colors.
This means that if you want your previous custom CSS applied to the W0CHP dashboard, you will need to manually
customize your colors; You can reference the color values you had previously used, by viewing the backup file of
your custom CSS…
/etc/.pistar-css.ini.user
…the reason for bullets #4 and #1, is because the W0CHP dashboard is vastly different than the official upstream version
(completely different CSS mappings). Since this is for my personal use, I haven’t added any logic to suck-in
the user CSS values to the new mappings.
If you had customized CSS settings before installing the W0CHP dashboard, they will be restored when
using the -rd option.
You can at any time start over and reset to the “normal” Pi-Star colors, by performing a CSS Factory Reset (Configuration -> Expert -> Tools -> CSS Tool).
If you’d like to start over with the custom W0CHP colors/CSS, you can copy/paste the following values into your /etc/pistar-css.ini.
Screenshots
Not all pages shown here. Note, that you can customize the colors to your preferences…
Main Dashboard
Main Admin Landing Page
BrandMeister Manager
Instant Mode Manager
System Manager
Live Caller Screen
ChangeLog
Displayed below, is a live ChangeLog, pulled from the source code repository
upon page load. Displayed are the last 20 changes. For the full change
history, you will want to browse the entire commit/change
history.
8bfc5a996e - (4 days ago)* Minor: XLX DMR Manager current link display refresh tweak- Chipster (HEAD -> master) mmdvmhost/xlx_dmr_manager.php | 4 ++-- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
f7b26a15bb - (5 days ago)* Minor: ensure XLX DMR Link Manager auto-refreshes current XLX link- Chipster mmdvmhost/xlx_dmr_manager.php | 9 ++++++++- 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
bacedf669c - (4 months ago)* Minor: When QTH is not available (.e.g. non-dmr modes), use Country as "location" field across the UI (live/current caller screens).- Chipster mmdvmhost/live_caller_backend.php | 4 +++- mmdvmhost/live_caller_table.php | 4 +++- 2 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
145e1b1ba6 - (4 months ago)* Intermediate: MMDVMhost has been phasing out "Direct" DMR connecions in favor of DMRGateway by default. Ergo, the config page and resulting backend config changes reflect this new direction; plus, it addressses a bug where the MMDVMHost connection "Type" is misconfigured due to this new transition. Fixes #12.- Chipster admin/configure.php | 171 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------------- 1 file changed, 85 insertions(+), 86 deletions(-)
f2439a3cf5 - (4 months ago)* Minor: When DMR roaming beacons are anabled, display whether timed/vs. network-initiated beacons are being used.- Chipster css/pistar-css-mini.php | 63 +++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------------- css/pistar-css.php | 1 - mmdvmhost/repeaterinfo.php | 8 +++--- 3 files changed, 40 insertions(+), 32 deletions(-)
Credits
Of course, most of the credit goes to the venerable and skilled, Andy Taylor,
MW0MWZ, for creating the wonderful Pi-Star software in the first place.
Credit also goes to the awesome Daniel Caujolle-Bert, F1RMB, for creating his
personal and customized fork of Pi-Star; as his fork was foundational and
inspirational to my W0CHP-PiStar-Dash.
The USA callsign lookup fallback function uses a terrific API,
callook.info, provided by Josh Dick, W1JDD.
The callsign-to-country flag GeoLookup code was adopted from
xlxd… authored by Jean-Luc Deltombe,
LX3JL; and Luc Engelmann, LX1IQ. I run an XLX(d)
reflector, plus, I was able to adopt some of its code
for W0CHP-PiStar-Dash, ergo, I am very grateful.
The excellent country flag images are courtesy of Hampus Joakim
Borgos.
Credit must also be given to to Kim Heinz Hübel, DG9VH, who arguably created
the very first MMDVMHost dashboard, of which, spawned the entire Pi-Star
concept.
Lastly, but certainly not least; I owe an enormous amount of gratitude toward
a true gentleman, scholar and incredibly talented hacker…Jonathan Naylor,
G4KLX; for the suite of MMDVM and related client tools. Pi-Star would have
no reason to exist, without Jonathan’s incredible and prolific contributions
and gifts to the ham community.
W0CHP-PiStar-Dash was not created for single-core and low-powered hardware; such as
the first generation RPi Zero, etc. (armv6l). This software will run very slow on under-powered hardware.
Please consider yourself warned. Also, please ignore all of the idiot hams on various
support mediums saying, “anything more than a Pi Zero is overkill”. These ignoramuses
have no idea what goes on under the hood in order to display meaningful info on the
dashboard. Hint: it’s a lot, and it’s very resource-intensive. Ignore them…they are dumb and
they have no idea what they are talking about. ↥
W0CHP-PiStar-Dash occasionally queries the git repository server in
order to determine if updates are available. In the spirit of full-disclosure,
I wanted to mention this. This is no different than how the official Pi-Star
software functions (but doesn’t make this well-known). Additionally, every
W0CHP-PiStar-Dash installation has a unique UUID generated for it; for
web/repo-traffic capacity planning/analytics, as well as for troubleshooting
purposes. You can find the unique UUID within the /etc/pistar-release file. ↥
Ver. # e1b9bb3 - Document last updated: 8/12/2022
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