A lightweight M17 Hotspot
Posted on 2025-07-29 by DK1MIUntil 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
- 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