Robert | Feb. 18, 2021

K S | Feb. 1, 2021

Phillip | Jan. 30, 2021

Fantastic Product

I am new to the digital radio world but the MMDVM board has worked great. Well engineered and built.
Only one minor issue, when I went to solder header on the board for a 5" Nextion display and found my header pins slightly larger then the holes.
It would be nice to have the pins offered loose or as a pre solder option.
My question was answered quickly. I removed one star in documentation because I was not aware the through holes were smaller then normal and I would need to find a different size header pin for the display port. Shipping is a 4 stars because of the USPS. Maybe offer another shipping option would help.
Theses are minors issues though, I love the product, great quality and workmanship.
I am buying a second board today.

Thanks,
73, Phil KB3UUL

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Feb. 3, 2021

Thanks so much Phil for the nice review.

The holes are 0.031" in diameter which should be a good but VERY TIGHT fit for standard pins which are square pins that are 0.020" on a side. That makes the diagonal of the pin from one corner to the other 0.031". Granted there is absolutely no tolerance but this is by design. If you verify you have standard pins that are indeed 0.020 square, you can get them to press in with just a modest amount of force. Round pins that are 0.031" in diameter should fit exactly the same way.

I hope this is helpful.

Thanks again for the nice review.

Regards,
David

V | Nov. 27, 2020

Great board, now I am a happy DMR participant

High quality build and components, perfect soldering, tuned to 0 RX Offset.
Also the really appreciate N5BOC communication and explanation for a newbie like myself.

I was new to the whole thing (to ham radio, to DMR, to hotspot, to DYI of the hotspots)
So I sent the board to Paul Lamhut (WB2HHH), who added the pi-star board, OLED display, 3rd printed the case, and configured the whole thing for me.

Overall great experience, the hotspot has been working nonstop for several months. Did not need to reboot it even once (unless I changed configuration).

I am now running it in DMRGateway mode so that I can participate in multiple DMR networks simultaneously, without switching Pi-Star config.
The temperature stays always in green always, so thermal performance is great.
Even with the small antennas provided I can walk a bit out of house and still reach the hotspot with low RF power.

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Feb. 3, 2021

I am so glad I was able to be of help. That is really the best part of selling these. I've made a LOT of new Ham friends in the process and it always makes me smile when I'm on the air and someone tells me they are talking to me on one of the boards I built.

Thanks again,
David

Kelley | Aug. 14, 2020

Amazing Board

What an amazing board. I received it yesterday and set it up within 10 min. The build quality is excellent. The TX/RX is the best I have heard. No offset, and a BER of 0.1 out of the box. The price is right also. Complete with antennas I save $60 over the Zumspot. with less hassle tweaking it.

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Feb. 3, 2021

Thank you so very much Kelly for the kind words.
Thanks for mentioning the price break. I think this often goes unnoticed.

David

Ryan | Aug. 8, 2020

Fantastic DMR hotspot

I have been playing with DMR for some time now at home. I have a hotpot for the desk but wanted to add another one...so I could have one for mobile and one for the house. I bought this to be my new home hotspot and I'm glad I did!

To start off, the board I received had an offset of 0. Sometimes I find that this is the hardest part of the setup is dialing everything in with the correct offset (with one of the cheaper ones I had having something like a 1150Hz offset). This was spot on out of the box and setup was a breeze. I was able to be on the air within minutes of installing it on a pi board.

I have had no issues with this hotspot and it performs very well. Definitely worth the money!

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Feb. 3, 2021

Thanks so very much Ryan. Your words of support are greatly appreciated.

Justin | June 10, 2020

James | March 22, 2020

Super design, excellent build - great Duplex MMDVM board

Easy to get going. Calibrated before shipment with Rx Offset listed on the box. Stable, no drift, with all this quality on a small board that fits on a Pi Zero.

Got my first DV modem in 2010 and I've been through many others over the years. Dave's design is first class. And I'm glad I'm not experiencing the problems I read about the knock-off boards built by cutting corners. For the quality, the N5BOC MMDVM Duplex board is not expensive and well worth the price.

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | May 30, 2020

Thanks so very much James. You've been doing this long enough your words carry a lot of credability.
I hope you enjoy it for a long time to come.

David

Rob | Jan. 6, 2020

Great purchase and support!!! HIGHLY RECOMMEND

I am a total noob to pi-star and Digital Radio. I found the modem easy to use and the feedback from the seller to be most helpful. I'd highly recommend purchasing this hotspot.

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Jan. 29, 2020

Thanks so very much Rob for your positive comments.
Glad I could be helpful.

Perry | Oct. 25, 2019

Fantastic Board!

I am very pleased with this fantastic board. I added a pi Zero W, the C4Labs case and a .96 OLED screen to complete the hotspot.

David is very friendly and professional. The buying experience could not have been better. I was excited to find a high-quality board designed and sold in the USA, so I was glad to support his business.

Set up pistar with your Brandmeister API key to take full advantage of this hotspot's capabilities. David will provide the offset for your board, so you can plug that into pistar and get going very quickly. If you are interested in adding the .96 OLED screen, look for one with the VCC-GND-SCL-SDA pin layout.

Craig, W1MSG, has done a fabulous video on this hotspot. Check it out at:
https://youtu.be/eXEvm-AL5M0

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Oct. 26, 2019

Thanks Perry for mentioning Craig's videos. Craig was gracious enough to take the time to illustrate how to setup the Duplex board and I have pointed a LOT of people that direction to get them started.

Also thanks for the kind words on my board. Glad you were able to work through and find an OLED with the proper pinout.

73's
Dave

Harry | Sept. 22, 2019

Outstanding Duplex Hotspot

The MMDVM Duplex hotspot board arrived quickly, well packed in a box with the RXoffset noted on the box. I had already ordered a Pi-zero WH, a OLED LCD display module (see end of review for details) and a Plexiglas case from C4 labs. I installed the OLED display on the MMDVM board, mounted the board to the Pi-zero, applied power, installed and configured Pi-Star and it came to life working as it should with a BER of .2-.3 and I haven't tried to tweek any Pi-star settings yet. My biggest issue is learning to program my radio to get the most out of having TS 1 & 2 available as desired, I'm still playing with that. Since I'm on the Brandmeister network, I set one TS to a static worldwide TG91 and left the other open for dynamic TG's. After a few days of burn in I mounted it in the C4 case. The N5BOC board is exceptionally reliable, high quality and the entire package is elegant installed in the C4 case. I highly recommend it.

An OLED display with the correct pin out to mate with the NSBOC board that fits in the C4 case is - Amazon ASIN - B00O2LKEW2, Item model # - FZ1112 DIYmall 0.96" Inch Blue I2c IIC Serial 128x64 OLED LCD LED Display Module for Arduino 51 Msp420 Stim32 SCR

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Oct. 15, 2019

Thanks so very much Harry for adding the Amazon skew number. This is a consistent question so thanks for adding it here for others to see.
Also thanks so very much for the kind words.

73's David

Dwight | Sept. 18, 2019

great product and support

Definitely would recommend this product and the support was fantastic.
Thanks again
Dwight KB8KVP

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Sept. 30, 2019

Thanks so much Dwight for the detailed review. The link to the OLED display on Amazon is very helpful. I also appreciate all the kind words.
Best Regards,
David

Ricardo | Aug. 25, 2019

Amazing little device!

I love this board! I mistakenly tried to pair it with a Pi3, but this was not made for that device. $15 and one trip to micro center fixed that issue. Make sure to get a Pi Zero WH for this MMDVM as the ports on the Pi3 get in the way of a portion of this board.

Since it was my initial mistake to pair it with the wrong board (and an easy one to fix no less) this product get's 5 stars. If it had been advertised to work with a Pi3, but didn't, i'd give it 4.9 stars.

Yes, this board is that good.

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Sept. 30, 2019

I'm sorry you had some trouble initially trying to put this on a Pi3. As you and I discussed through Email there is an option that will allow it to work on a Pi3. That is to purchase what is called a stacking header. These are easiest to get from Adafruit.
This is the header...
https://www.adafruit.com/product/1979

I just want to mention it here for others reading this review.

Thanks so very much for the positive review Ricardo.
Best Regards,
David

Kevin | Aug. 13, 2019

Great product

Works great out of the box. Minimal adjusts to offset Having 2 time slots is a must once you experience it.

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | March 14, 2020

Thanks so very much Kevin for your response and thank for pointing out the advantage of 2 time slots.
Dave

Chris | Aug. 13, 2019

pi Zero board

These is one of the best boards I have ever purchased. The quality is amazing and you will see when you make your first key up.

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Sept. 30, 2019

Thanks Chris. I've have had offers to put less expensive components on the board, but in my 35 years of experience I've found in the long run this doesn't pay.
I'm glad you are enjoying the board.

Regards,
David

Douglas | July 2, 2019

LA, OZ, OH & SM - check this: 2 MHz spacing that works!

This is one great piece of kit, none of the Chinese boards even come close! It is smack on frequency using the offset numbers on the box, and it stays there.

I stuck it vertically an a wooden vertical post of my bedroom window upstairs with the antennas in “end to end” configuration to get best possible RX/TX isolation (I plan to use this as a battery powered travel kit and wanted to see how well it performed in this compact configuration).

In the Nordic countries we only have access to 432-438MHz, which means only 3 MHz is actually available because of the satellite section, so it was crucial that I could fit it in our standard repeater segment with 2MHz spacing.

And this is where it shines, I have yet to see another duplex hot spot that will do this. In the best of cases people get them to go with 2MHz spacing by physically separating the antennas and/or reducing TX power.

I have tested 5 and 10MHz too and the range and BER is exactly the same with the compact “end to end” setup I have here.

The ADF7021 radio chip has one shortcoming however, filters! You have to be perfectly on frequency and even then you cannot achieve better BER than 0.2-0.3% on DMR - this means using multiple radios, not to mention multiple modes - gets difficult (this goes for all hotspots using this chip).

Five antennas out of five.

Frank – OZ5ACI

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | July 31, 2019

Thanks so very much for the kind words Frank. I makes me so very happy to see these being enjoyed all over the world.

Thomas | June 24, 2019

Great quality, great operation, great experience.

Professionally, I am an assembly and rework technician and IPC quality control for SMD and TH component electrical boards. I inspected this board with great satisfaction.

As intended, coupled with Pi-Star, this MMDVM is perfect. I opted to get N5BOC's board as opposed to the horror-show of untrustworthy chinese boards flooding the market. I put a 0.96" OLED screen on it, put it on a Pi-Zero and sealed it in a 3d printed case and now it's a talking piece in my livingroom. I put it on a 20aH portable USB battery and it ran for a solid 100-hours, with TAC-310 and 31360 (highly active TG out of NJ). I may eventually remove said battery, and the radio unit, from their housings and and combine them into a single 3d printed unit, mounted in my car.

As NOT-intended: I ran the TX to an old NTSC broadcast amplifier to get this thing from 20mW (I'm guessing) up to about 1.2W. Both the TX and RX antennas were well separated. I set Pi-Star's config to do CW identify every 1 minute and went for a drive. I was able to hear it, full quieting, CW ID 5mi away and decode its DMR output with my HT 3mi away. I was not able to key it up with the HT from these distances. I imagine the selectivity for the receive on this board, in this configuration, is not optimal for this scenario. I have not hooked it up to a spectrum analyzer, but a glance at the SDR in this configuration (unfiltered) did not reveal any egregious spurious emissions of note.

One important thing to note: I purchased a cheap 0.96" screen (IZOKEE 128X64 Pixel OLED) from Amazon to use with this hat and the polarity pins on the header were flipped, so I had to remove those two and fashion my own pins with some wire. This is not the fault of N5BOC, in fact there's a 50/50 split on Amazon-available screens on where the power pins should be... but the screen printing is so small that I didn't think to check them until this prevented proper boot. I completely understand why, real estate on this board is very valuable and the components are the priority.

de W2XG

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | July 31, 2019

This is some very interesting detail. You are right about the receiver. It is setup to be so broad banded it isn't very sensitive. That is the price you pay for being able to receive from 144 MHz all the way to 900 MHz. It this were designed for a specific band it would be easy to put some filtering on the front end and a little bit of gain and make this a fairly nice receiver. Give me something to think about going forward.

Thanks so very much for your kind words.

Regards,
David

Joseph | June 18, 2019

Gunnar | March 25, 2019

Best Quality Hotspot

Thank you for your shipment of 2 MMDVM DUPLEX Pi Zero Form Factor boards to Germany! Visually the Quality of the board is very good!
I have now to do some testing if your product has better HF separation between TX and RX and therefore has less desensitisation of the RX. Also have to have a look how the HF range is at all.
Mounting: I am using your board an an Raspberry 2B, and a RPI Header 40 Pin to rise the board a few millimetres higher so it also fits on top of the Pi2B.
Programming: I am using Pi-Star Image 4RC which works very good. CPU Temperature not above +41 deg centigrade. No extra cooling.
Shipping: need to add time if German Customs pics it. In my case it needed 1 week extra. Then I had to pay VAT, in Germany VAT = MwSt 19%. Customs did not charge any toll :-)
Kind regards an 73

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | April 14, 2019

Gunnar,

Thanks so much for the kind words about the hotspot. I'm sorry you had so much trouble getting it through customs. I don't think there is anything I can do to facilitate that, but if there is please let me know so I can help future customers in Germany.

I too use it with a Pi3 when I am doing testing. I purchased a "stacking header" from Adafruit and with that it will clear the USB connectors.

I know by the time you paid VAT and shipping to Germany it made my board quite expensive. I really appreciate the support in spite of the extra cost to you.

Regards,
David

Kevin | March 22, 2019

I ask for information on a problem and was ignored

Dennis claimed to not have the repeater not found issues that the Chinese duplex boards do on DMR but they do. I inquired on several Facebook groups he posts on about it he asked my bit error rate wich was .2 -.3%. His only response was well I don't have that problem with my radio. Im using a Motorola xpr7550 and a Anytone 878 both have the same problem.

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | April 14, 2019

I have no idea about what the first issue you mention is. You speak like this "repeater not found" issue is a common thing everyone knows about. Never heard of it before you brought it up. So it would have been a bit hard for me to claim mine didn't have an issue with something I've never heard of. I have to say It doesn't sound like a hardware issue if it works on any TG at all.

Honestly a 0.2% BER is nothing. I don't understand why your concern and I challenge you to find a board that has a better BER. At that low of BER It does not impact your ability to communicate at all. You also specified some other issue and I believe my response was, " I don't have that issue with my radio so I can't investigate it if I can't reproduce the issue". Your review is omitting details that I feel make it misleading.

Jay | Feb. 26, 2019

Not sure if the Pi or the MMDVM is bad.

Purchased a Pi-Zero from another source and the mmdvm from here. Got everything up and running for about 2 days now it doesn't. We have tried reflashing images to router configuration and nothing seems to work. We are still trying but it is looking more and more like I'm out of luck.

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | April 14, 2019

Jay,
Did you contact me through Tindie?
I'd be glad to help you if you did.

Charles | Jan. 5, 2019

Outstanding Hotspot

Of all the hotspots I have, this is by far the best as far as performance.
The Pi Zero footprint makes it ideal for mobile operating.

Overall, I give it extremely high marks for quality and performance.

Chuck - WB2LMA

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Feb. 22, 2019

Thanks so much for your support Charles.

Tobias | Jan. 5, 2019

Wonderful product, excellent customer service

This is my 6th hotspot and my favorite one. I have ZumSpots everywhere. In office, in the car, in the shack,..
I got from a friend a cheap chinese duplex spot and it never worked satisfying. I calibrated the offset to one radio and it was ok. The next day it lost again lots of bits.
This one is awesome. Not just is it smaller and visible from much higher quality. The offset values on the box were accurate. Of course you have to keep your radios offset in mind ;)
It is running and running and running....no problems at all.

Love the product and will buy another one once the stock situation is getting better.

Get yourself this beautiful US made quality hotspot, you will love it.

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Feb. 22, 2019

Thanks so very much for the kind words Tobias.

Dewey | Dec. 29, 2018

Great performance

This sex board out performs all my other hotspots, including the $300 brand name spot !!!! I’ll be replacing all my duplex’s with this board , fits great in the c4labs , both are top notch quality!

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Feb. 22, 2019

I didn't realize I was selling a sex board, but I"m very glad you're enjoying it however you are using it.

Peter | Dec. 20, 2018

A brilliant Dual MMDVM board that is very compact

Originally the MMDVM Duplex in Pi Zero form Factor board was not available in Australia. Many thanks to David Dennis his board is now available down under..
The board arrived well packed and included the 2 antenna's and right angled connectors. The build quality far better than the Chinese Jumbo Spot Board. The available PDF made programming the unit easy. I have fitted the board onto a Pi-zero to make it a compact unit.
On air test: all on air tests were conducted with Adrian VK5TUX in Queensland on the Australia Repeater Net which is now Multi Mode: Equipment used was Yaesu Ft2Dr, Ft70dr, Ft400Xdr, TYT 390, TYT960, Motorola P25 Unit, Icom ID5100: Not sure on the NXDN unit Kenwood Hand held?
1) Yaesu Fusion excellent audio quality on DN both ways (Ft2Dr, Ft70 Dr and FT400XDR)
2) Yaesu Fusion to DMR again the quality was superb, this was also the other way DMR to Fusion.. (Ft70dr, Ft2Dr, TYT390 & TYT9600)
3) Yaesu Fusion VW (Voice Wide) to P25, P25 to Yaesu Fusion yielded excellent audio results both ways . (Ft70dr, Ft2Dr and Motorola)
4 Yaesu Fusion DN to NXDN. This was a dark horse; I hadn't realized that Adrian had swapped modes and radios. I believe he was using one of the new Kenwood handhelds to do the test, this by far seemed to have the best audio quality of any of the other modes.surprisingly clear well rounded audio quality...the report back from Adrian was same (Ft2Dr Ft70Dr and Kenwood?)
5) Yaesu fusion DN to "D" Star; "D" Star to Yaesu fusion DN. I have heard some bad transitions from "D" Star to Fusion but this was quite a surprise. The audio from "D" Star was clear and not as Nasally as I expected.... (Ft2Dr Ft70Dr, Ft400Xdr & Icom ID5100)
6) On air local tests simplex and through Local Fusion Dr1 repeater, other operators did not realize I was using the N5BOC Dual MMDVM board until I had advised them ..... switching between the board and to the radio direct the operators could not pick the difference, however they did not some difference in the audio when I used the Jumbo spot dual MMDVM....
Summary: A well designed board that works very well across all modes. This board is worth the price...

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Feb. 22, 2019

Peter,

Thanks so very much for the detailed summary. I'm so happy that you guys down under are enjoying my boards. It makes me happy to see them being used all over the world!

Best Regards,
David

Steve | Dec. 18, 2018

Great product and pricing

This is a well designed product that has met all my expectations. It was easy to setup once I got my code plug on the radio setup correctly. Since I am operating on the PNW DMR network there is a locally produced script to pick up the missing connections for the MMDVM servers in use here. Shipping was quick and David was very responsive to my queries. Thankfully it was not a product issue, just an operator error!

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Feb. 22, 2019

Steve,
I"m happy to hear how well it is working for you.

Best Regards,
David

Andrew | Dec. 17, 2018

MMDVM DUPLEX in Pi Zero Form Factor

Works as advertised. the best feature that i find useful is the full duplex. personally, i use it with P25. I always get a good signal report. more importantly... the product is compatible with the current pi-star image. doesn't require any special programming outside of the pi-star environment, requires no special licensing, requires no special initialization and no soldering (unless the Pi doesn't come with a header already soldered). Plug and Play on the Raspberry Pi Zero W with the Pi-Star image running.

Thanks for a superb product.

Drew
KC5EQX

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Feb. 22, 2019

Thanks so much for your supportive words Drew.

Regards,
David

Mark | Dec. 15, 2018

Very fine product

The first hurdle was to make the purchase within about 15 minutes of getting the availability notice - these sell out really fast! The board was as advertised - follow the directions about being careful attaching the antennas. I was careful and I didn't break anything!!
I did have to do some Googling to come up with the information to download the correct image (links on the web site would help). Once imaged I did have to hook up a monitor (needs mini-HDMI adapter) and a keyboard because it didn't connect to my wifi automatically. That was corrected quickly and then it was just down to software configuration.

Once done, it's working great. I'm not seeing any issues with it.

Mark, AB7MP

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Feb. 22, 2019

Thanks so much for the support Mark and thanks for taking the time to leave a review. I always find the reviews helpful when I'm making a purchase.

Best Regards,
David

Duane | Dec. 2, 2018

MMDVM Duplex Hotspot by N5BOC

I have been building MMDVM hotspots for over a year, have tried all the different units available. David's Duplex hotspt is heads above all other Duplex units.
Excellent design, high quality product and phenomenal support.

If you miss picking up one of the N5BOC units, you will be missing the best of the best!!

Duane
N6DMR

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Feb. 22, 2019

Thanks so very much for your kind words Duane!

Regards,
David

James | Nov. 29, 2018

Excellent!

The N5BOC Duplex MMDVM is an interesting hot spot that works like a repeater. Quality components used and excellent build quality. Good layout - I liked that the antennas were at opposite ends of the board. Very stable and did not require an offset. Well worth the extra money. – Jim WA2UMP

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Feb. 22, 2019

Thanks so very much for your supportive words Jim.

Regards,
David

Robert | Oct. 12, 2018

Excellent Product

Unlike Other Products Out there this is Truly a Quality Build.

Form Factor is Exactly the Size of the Smaller Zumspot Boards and with the C4Labs Case makes a Very Professional Setup.

Build quality is Excellent requiring no Offset on my System here making setup a Breeze.

Unlike Inferior foreign products that are purchased with really no way of returning them in the event of a failure this is built to last and has the backing of the builder to make sure that it works first time every time..

American Construction at it's best..

Used for DMR and DMR2YSF..

The matching Simplex board gives you piece of mind and an after sales service that is second to none..

Buy these Boards over any other..

Response from N5BOC Store ( LoneStar Semiconductor Designs ) | Oct. 13, 2018

Thank you so much Robert for your very kind words. I am so glad you are enjoying your board.
As you mention I hope what I bring to the table beyond a quality build is the after purchase support. These can be a bit intimidating for someone just getting into digital communications. I think it helps when people feel they are not just left to fin for themselves but instead have support from the seller.

Thanks again.
David