MAC-address issue

Christiaan Roselaar

unread,

Jun 12, 2021, 3:36:23 PM6/12/21

to Hermes-Lite

Hi Group.

An HL2- user in PA noticed all HL_2s seem to have the same MAC-address? I did a quick check and indeed: all HL2's I know have MAC-address e4:5f:01:29:08:c9
Does anyone know the reason for this? I can think of one I'd rather not mention.
Is this by purpose or a production-fault? Multiple devices having the same MAC can (will) cause problems if they end up in the same network.

73's Christiaan PA3FUN

Christiaan Roselaar

unread,

Jun 12, 2021, 3:45:45 PM6/12/21

to Hermes-Lite

Correction:

The MAC-address of the HL_2s I checked: 00:1C:C0:A2:13:DD

Sorry for the confusion...

Op zaterdag 12 juni 2021 om 21:36:23 UTC+2 schreef Christiaan Roselaar:

ron.ni...@gmail.com

unread,

Jun 12, 2021, 5:03:22 PM6/12/21

to Hermes-Lite

The hardware default MAC address is compiled into the FPGA gateware. Re-compiling the FPGA code for each unit during manufacturing doesn't seem like the best idea when outsourcing builds offshore.

However the last few bits of the MAC address can be modified by a command from hermeslite.py (or some of the HL2 supporting SDR apps) and rebooting, so that's people who have more than one unit can do.

73,

Ron

n6ywu

ron.ni...@gmail.com

unread,

Jun 12, 2021, 5:06:23 PM6/12/21

to Hermes-Lite

And it's a kit, so the very last steps of manufacturing production are up to the user, e.g. you.

73,

Ron

n6ywu

On Saturday, June 12, 2021 at 12:45:45 PM UTC-7 chris...@roselaar.eu wrote:

Steve Haynal

unread,

Jun 12, 2021, 10:26:46 PM6/12/21

to Hermes-Lite

Hi Chris,

The HL2 is designed for a local network where MAC spoofing is common, not for the wild internet. This is not a commercial project so we do not have the means for a proper assigned MAC to each device. As Ron said, you can change the last 16-bits of the MAC address in case you run multiple units on your local network. You must use Quisk, SparkSDR or hermeslite.py to change this. Changes are stored in EEPROM. See address management on this wiki page:

https://github.com/softerhardware/Hermes-Lite2/wiki/Troubleshoot-Network

73,

Steve

kf7o

James Ahlstrom

unread,

Jun 13, 2021, 7:01:03 AM6/13/21

to Hermes-Lite

Hello Christiaan,

Ethernet devices have different addresses because the manufacturer paid money for a block of addresses. This is not feasible for a homebrew project like this. So the address is compiled into the FPGA code with an alternate address available.

Jim

N2ADR

Christiaan Roselaar

unread,

Jun 13, 2021, 9:19:50 AM6/13/21

to Hermes-Lite

Hi Steve.
All perfectly clear. And a big "thank you" to all having contributed to the referenced article on network-troubleshooting.
Enjoying this great little wonder called "Hermes-Lite" on a daily basis!
73's Chris(tiaan) PA3FUN

Op zondag 13 juni 2021 om 04:26:46 UTC+2 schreef softerh...@gmail.com:

Roger David Powers

unread,

Jun 15, 2021, 7:13:10 PM6/15/21

to Hermes-Lite, Christiaan Roselaar

I was glad to do the first several passes of the network troubleshooting pages, and am glad others are contributing quite often as well.

It seems this list has recently received a lot fewer basic network troubleshooting questions than we used to get.

I am not sure if this is because we made the process clearer or if we scared away the first timers, LOL.

There is a lot going on, but hopefully if people take the time to sort things out they should be able to make things work.

The good news is the hardware and on-board gateware is solid and gives solid info to help users figure out what may be going on.

You just have to take some time to learn what it is saying and why it could be saying it.