Playing with the DV4mini

The last post has been a while now. I was busy preparing the annual Balloonfoxhunt and helping Mischa (PA1OKZ) out with expanding the PI2NOS repeater system. Last week a package arrived from Hamshop, the distributor for the DV4mini USB stick in the Netherlands and Belgium. Time to start playing around…

What is the DV4mini

The DV4mini is an micro transceiver for several digimodes. In it’s current version, D-Star, DMR and System Fusion are supported. The developers are working on support for ACPO P25 in the next v1.6 version but since P25 isn’t widely used throughout Europe and I don’t have the gear to test it, no reason to test the released v1.6 beta-software. The latest supported production version is version 1.4 available here. The USB stick should have build in drivers for Windows 7 and upwards. The radio has 10 milliWatts of output power and works on UHF only.

Let’s plug it in – Windows 7 (64-bit)

According the manual, drivers for Windows 7 will be automatically installed. Unfortunately for me that was not the case. And since drivers for Windows 7 (x64) are not available as download, I had to use the XP version and ignore some errors forcing the driver to install. And yes, the Visual Studio 2013 runtime was installed as 32 bit version before… After installing the driver, the program would start up and recognise the stick.

Testing D-Star

Not tested, yet

Testing DMR

To start this test, first thing I have to mention is that the USB stick transmits on TimeSlot 2, Group 9, simplex only. So be sure to program your terminal according. I tested with the Hytera PD785G portable radio. Second thing to say is that the WorldWide (TS1-1) and domestic (TS1-204) network are not supported (yet). At this moment, only the DMRplus reflectors are supported. This had to do with the DMR backbone infrastructure where every country runs his own master server(s). You do not want every ham to connect to this network. That would bring instability to the repeaters throughout the country. Maybe later on, the Dutch DMR-master administrator is setting up a 2nd master server dedicated for DV4mini users. He’s more than willing to, but it needs to be supported by the DV4mini software to.

Testing System Fusion

Unfortunately I don’t own any Yaesu equipment supporting the C4FM System Fusion protocol. I might borrow some from one of the fellow hams at the local club to do some tests later on…

4 comments

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    • gary on 12/11/2016 at 02:08
    • Reply

    having a problems with my DV4MINI and Raspberry Pi 3 not sure if you can help or know of someone who can yet i explain


    I am not sure if you can help me or know of someone who can yet i will explain I do check into the PAPASYS on Tuesday and Thuresday night REF012 A from Fort Worth Using the Dallas Repearter here is my problem

    have a DV4MINI running on a Raspberry Pi 3 . I have tried 5 different images and none will stay running for over 2 to 5 hour with out resetting

    one screen i see keeps saying

    23:54:48,270797 (1011): DSTAR … Connect CCS7-USA
    23:54:49,280530 (1010): DSTAR … Connect CCS7-USA
    23:54:50,289244 (1009): DSTAR … Connect CCS7-USA
    23:54:51,297822 (1008): DSTAR … Connect CCS7-USA
    23:54:52,307840 (1010): DSTAR … Connect CCS7-USA
    23:54:53,318630 (1011): DSTAR … Connect CCS7-USA
    23:54:54,327928 (1009): DSTAR … Connect CCS7-USA
    23:54:55,337552 (1010): DSTAR … Connect CCS7-USA
    23:55:55,877501 (0540): DSTAR … Connect CCS7-USA

    over and over and i hear nothing or
    it restarts the DV4MINI for no reason and i see this

    scanning for DV4minis …
    scanning for DV4minis …
    scanning for DV4minis …
    scanning for DV4minis …

    is like it lost connection If i restart the program in raspberry Pi it will work for while then do one of 2 things i see here

    i had added a Powered USB hub hoping that fix thinking the USB on Pi was not working right

    So at a loss

    Any help would be very nice

    Garold ( Gary )

    N0FIB No Fib N0FIB2@gmail.com

      • Ken on 20/01/2017 at 03:19
      • Reply

      Seeing the same thing here .. I am guessing it is normal. But the disconnects and reconnects are not wanted. The other thing I see is that the scroll lock light on my keyboard keeps turning on and off when the mini is running (version 1.73 firmware). That is kind of spooky – would seem to indicate some software is running amok.

      Ken

    • Hans on 26/02/2019 at 20:59
    • Reply

    Indeed it does, every 50 seconds switching on and off. Weird!

    • Glen on 18/03/2021 at 03:26
    • Reply

    Hi
    Can you help find
    version 1.4 for dv4mini win xp install?

    Glen
    VA7CV
    gfarough@yahoo.com

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