Digirig Lite RX issues

I recently purchased a digirig lite, from Amazon, and have been having issues with RX. It will TX but for whatever reason it will not hear any packets coming in. I am hoping I am just missing something silly and that the unit is not faulty.

I first experienced the issue trying to send APRS messages between 2 devices:

Station 1: APRS Droid > Pixel 7 Pro > digirig lite > FT3DR

Station 2: APRS Droid > Samsung Galaxy Tab Active5 > digirig mobile > BaoFeng UV5R

I could RX packets on the Active5, but not on the Pixel. I searched and saw some reports of Pixel users having audio issues. I tried a few different options without resolve and ended up purchasing a BTech UV-Pro. Now I have a known working station.

I tested between the UV-Pro and digirig mobile, this works flawlessly, you can see the configs and the RX packet in direwolf below.

I also tested the same radio, same direwolf config, same UV-Pro, but with the digirig lite and no packet RX.

I love digirig products and the only reason that I purchased the UV-Pro was to have a known working station to troubleshoot this issue with the digirig lie. It has some quirks that I still dont like but I will probably keep it as it seems to be pretty much plug and play for my applications.

I am approaching returning the digirig lite, but I would like to understand am I doing something wrong here or is this unit faulty? Any suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated!

$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 0d8c:0012 C-Media Electronics, Inc. USB Audio Device
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 10c4:ea60 Silicon Labs CP210x UART Bridge
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0d8c:013c C-Media Electronics, Inc. CM108 Audio Controller
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0424:2412 Microchip Technology, Inc. (formerly SMSC) Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
$ cat /etc/udev/rules.d/99-direwolf-cmedia.rules | grep -iv “#”

SUBSYSTEM==“hidraw”, ATTRS{idVendor}==“0d8c”, GROUP=“audio”, MODE=“0660”

SUBSYSTEM==“hidraw”, ATTRS{idVendor}==“1209”, ATTRS{idProduct}==“7388”, GROUP=“audio”, MODE=“0660”
$ cat /etc/udev/rules.d/99-graywolf-cm108.rules | grep -iv “#”

SUBSYSTEM==“hidraw”, ATTRS{idVendor}==“0d8c”, MODE=“0660”, GROUP=“plugdev”

SUBSYSTEM==“hidraw”, ATTRS{idVendor}==“1209”, ATTRS{idProduct}==“7388”, MODE=“0660”, GROUP=“plugdev”

SUBSYSTEM==“hidraw”, ATTRS{idVendor}==“0c76”, MODE=“0660”, GROUP=“plugdev”
$ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****

card 2: Device_1 [USB PnP Sound Device], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

card 3: Device [USB Audio Device], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

$ cat test_slim.conf && direwolf -c test_slim.conf

ADEVICE  plughw:3,0
ADEVICE1  plughw:2,0
CHANNEL 0
MYCALL KO4PWQ
MODEM 1200

Dire Wolf version 1.7Includes optional support for:  gpsd hamlib cm108-ptt dns-sd

Reading config file test_slim.confAudio device for both receive and transmit: plughw:3,0  (channel 0)Audio device for both receive and transmit: plughw:2,0  (channel 2)Channel 0: 1200 baud, AFSK 1200 & 2200 Hz, A+, 44100 sample rate.Channel 2: 1200 baud, AFSK 1200 & 2200 Hz, A+, 44100 sample rate.Note: PTT not configured for channel 0. (Ignore this if using VOX.)Note: PTT not configured for channel 2. (Ignore this if using VOX.)Ready to accept AGW client application 0 on port 8000 …Ready to accept KISS TCP client application 0 on port 8001 …DNS-SD: Avahi: Announcing KISS TCP on port 8001 as ‘Dire Wolf on hampi-5’DNS-SD: Avahi: Service ‘Dire Wolf on hampi-5’ successfully registered.

KO4PWQ-5 audio level = 196(72/69)    |||||__Audio input level is too high.  Reduce so most stations are around 50.[2.3] KO4PWQ-5>APDR17,WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1::ALL      :Testing RX via digirig mobile {1APRS Message, number “1”, from “KO4PWQ-5” to “ALL”, APRSdroid Android App http://aprsdroid.org/Testing RX via digirig mobile<0x20>

I reached out this afternoon via the phone number in Amazon support and mentioned this forum post.

Recommended next steps were to procure a second digirig lite unit based on my previous results, alternatively if I can get my hands on a Windows computer follow the windows specific troubleshooting guide on YouTube.

I have placed an order for a new digirig lite for testing, should be here tomorrow.

In the meantime I will search for a windows matchine to assist with troubleshooting.

I will check back in when I have the results of these two steps.

Just a note on the phone discussion I was instructed that if the unit does turn out to be faulty to let them know and we would deal with it directly. They want to avoid a faulty unit potentially making its way out to another customer. I really appreciate this level of customer awareness and wanted to call it out.

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I was able to find a Windows computer for testing. I conducted testing with both my digirig mobile (known working) and digirig lite (suspected faulty). I followed the instructions on https://youtu.be/wBFFI-31tU0 directly connecting to the windows computer as well as using a USB hub, both connections produced the same results.

  1. digirig mobile (known working) connected to baofeng UV5R tuned to 162.550 FM produced movement on the sound indicator and produced sound when the “listen” option was applied.
  2. digirig lite (suspected faulty) connected to baofeng UV5R tuned to 162.550 FM produced NO movement on the sound indicator and produced NO sound when the “listen” option was applied. I assume this confirms that this unit has a faulty RX path.
  3. Same setup for both digirig mobile and digirig lite, except connect into a USB hub, produced the same results as above. There was no difference between testing with or without the USB hub.

My second unit should be arriving sometime tomorrow, once I receive the new unit I will test it out using the same methodology and report back with the results. For now it appears as though the first digirig lite unit that I received in fact does have a faulty RX path.

I received the second digirig lite unit this afternoon, I tested using the above methods and confirmed the new unit DOES produce movement on the sound indicator and DOES produce sound when the “listen” option is applied.

It appears as the first unit that I received is indeed faulty on the RX path.

That solves the mystery.

Please reach out via the directly via contact form to arrange rafund/return of the troubled unit so it doesn’t end up in Amazon’s stock again.

Will do. Thanks for the support and guidance!

I also wanted to report that I was able to successfully send messages between two android stations.

Graywolf > Samsung active5 > digirig lite > uv5r > uv-pro > Bluetooth > pixel 7 > aprsdroid

Tnx and 73,

KO4PWQ

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Just to close this thread out, I received a refund for the faulty unit. Thanks for the excellent customer service!

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