A lightweight M17 Hotspot

Until now, CC1200 Hat users had to operate their M17 digital data/voice hotspot using the rpi-interface software on the command line, for example. To change this, Jim N1ADJ and I have spent the last few days developing a lightweight M17 hotspot based on the CC1200 and a Raspberry Pi. The heart of the hotspot is Jim’s m17-gateway, which he has now brought to a stable release. In the meantime, I have completely rebuilt the dashboard rpi-dashboard started by Wojciech SP5WWP and adapted it to Jim’s m17-gateway.

The following things can now be done via this dashboard:

• Monitor incoming and outgoing calls
• Read text messages
• Edit the configuration of the dashboard
• Edit the configuration of the m17-gateway and thus
  • Changing the reflector
  • Changing the module
  • Changing the hotspot frequency
  • and much more
• Updating the M17 hosts file
• Starting/stopping the m17-gateway

It offers all the essential functions you need for daily use while more features are already planned. Jim is also developing his m17-gateway further, whereby we both involve each other, as gateway and dashboard go hand in hand.

It is not a ready-to-use, downloadable Raspberry Pi image, but we provide an installation script, which I have already presented here. In the meantime, this has been adapted so that it no longer installs the rpi-interface but the m17-gateway.

If there are any problems with the installation or if you have any other questions, you can find us on the M17 Discord Server