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Reviews For: NEX-GEN Rugged SPOT

Category: Interfaces, Radio to computer, amp, rotor, coax switch, internet

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Review Summary For : NEX-GEN Rugged SPOT
Reviews: 2MSRP: 249.95
Description:
NEX-GEN Custom Hot Spots "Plug & Play Ready" DMR-D-Fusion-P25-NXDN-D-Star Hot Spot built on a fast Raspberry Pi3-B. Will cross mode between DMR+ Fusion and can bridge to D-Star
Product is in production
More Info: http://https://hamradio1.com/rugged/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0023.5
WA2ASB Rating: 2019-11-29
Liked it enough to order another Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I really like this thing. Initially, I couldn't connect to the router that they had configured for me. I plugged in an ethernet connection, brought up PI-Star and scanned for routers. It wasn't there. Of course not because that router doesn't broadcast its SSID. I also have a Nano-Spot, which also works well, but takes a long time to boot up. I guess because it is on a PI-Zero vs PI 3. What I like most about the Rugged Spot is if I do have trouble, it is easily serviceable. I only wish it was built on PI 4, but I really don't think there is a need because the PI 3 is plenty adequate. It is much bigger than the Nano-Spot so if you want to use it in a car, you might want to opt for the Nano-Spot.
N7EKY Rating: 2019-01-18
Disappointing Time Owned: N.A.
Programmed by NEX-GEN for my frequency 435MHz and my SSID and Password per their advertising. Upon receipt the unit would not reliably work with YSF, DMR or D-Star. After several e-mails, was told to change frequency to 433MHz which seemed to fix the problem. Unit worked for a few weeks then just stopped with no radio connectivity at all. Downloaded and re-flashed MicroSD cards two times, all while communicating with the NEX-GEN folks. The unit started working for about 30 minutes and stopped again. The NEX-GEN representative insisted that the problem had to be all software and, if not, then it must have been subjected to an electrical surge and that they knew how to determine if it had happened. I felt that the company clearly did not want to admit that the product could be defective. I followed their step by step procedure and burnt another image. The unit does work but not reliably. In the interim I purchased another Pi-Star based product that has worked from day one. I am fairly well experienced with the Raspberry Pi and have used the OpenSpot for well over a year. I use YSF, D-Star and DMR.