Status of Pirrot replacement?

[scottredd]

Howdy!

I've just recently discovered Pirrot and have found it to be a great solution for a simplex repeater in my area.

Are you still planning to develop its replacement? Pirrot works just great the way you left it, but I'd be interested to see what ideas you cooked up for a new system.

Thanks,

Scott

[allebb]

Good evening Scott,

That's great to hear :)

With regards to new features, I don't really have any planned as such, the system, as you mentioned works great as is and is really stable (what you want from a simplex/duplex repeater, right 👍).

If you have any specific requests please raise them as a separate GH issues(s), the only issue that I might have is including functionality that is very specific to your personal requirements (and others highly unlike to use as I don't really have the time to add very bespoke functionality which may require me to personally fork out (cash) for specific pieces of hardware/radio equipment to test with etc. (you're welcome to submit a PR though).

I've not abandoned the project, I've just been super busy with other things recently (other projects etc) and on that note (if it puts your mind at ease) I do plan to release updates to the existing functionality and the "core" later this year however and, as I say, open to adding other features if these would benefit others (aren't too specialised/would be widely used/is easy for me to test without having to fork our thousands on new hardware).

Hope this helps,
Bobby

[scottredd]

Thanks for the contact. I am glad to hear the Pirrot project is alive and well. I am using it to run a simplex GMRS repeater in downtown Omaha. I live in a condo, so I can't put antennas outside, but my height on the 7th floor gives me a decent reach in three directions. There aren't any true GMRS repeaters in my area, so there are a handful of users within range of me who are excited to use the simplex repeater. Any activity is better than no activity, right? :)

My system consists of:

• Controller: Raspberry Pi 4
• Audio interface: Tigertronics SignaLink USB
• Radio: TYT MD-9600 at 40 Watts
• Antenna: Homemade 1/2 dipole inserted into a PVC pipe and leaning up inside my 7th floor window

I wrote some shell scripts that interface with a weather API and Google Text-To-Speech to transmit station ID, channel, PL tone, weather, and time via cron jobs.

The RPI 4 is probably overkill for this, but it works well. I also tried it on a Pi Zero, but I need that board for other projects. I tried to install the package on a Libre Computer Le Potato, but there's an issue, I think with PHP, but I'm not sure. I might open a ticket for that if you think it's something easily resolved. It's so hard to get RPI hardware now that I am trying to use the Le Potato ($35) when I can to save the RPI for other projects.

Thanks again, Bobby!

Scott
Ham: W3RED
GMRS: WRFQ264