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Bug #10603

open

Baofeng UV-5R 8W Low & Med Power output greater than High Power

Added by Dave Gower 11 months ago. Updated 7 months ago.

Status:
New
Priority:
Normal
Assignee:
-
Category:
-
Target version:
-
Start date:
05/30/2023
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Estimated time:
Chirp Version:
next
Model affected:
Baofeng UV-5R 8W
Platform:
MacOS
I read the instructions above:

Description

Using the recommended BF-F8HP, the UV-5r 8W radio programmes fine but the 3 power levels measured give a higher output wattage for 'Low' than 'Med' and 'High'. 'Med' and 'High' measure the same wattage.


Files

Baofeng original.img (6.5 KB) Baofeng original.img Original copy David Nunez, 06/27/2023 06:07 AM
chirp_debug-cls67ebe.txt (4.66 KB) chirp_debug-cls67ebe.txt David Nunez, 06/27/2023 08:51 AM
Baofeng_BF-F8HP_20230910.img (6.5 KB) Baofeng_BF-F8HP_20230910.img tsachi wolf, 09/10/2023 07:43 AM
TX_Power_Levels(H-M-L-H-M-L).png (62.9 KB) TX_Power_Levels(H-M-L-H-M-L).png Jim Unroe, 09/10/2023 10:06 AM
Baofeng_BF-F8HP_manually-programmed.img (6.5 KB) Baofeng_BF-F8HP_manually-programmed.img tsachi wolf, 09/10/2023 11:10 AM
Baofeng_BF-F8HP_chirp-programming.img (6.5 KB) Baofeng_BF-F8HP_chirp-programming.img tsachi wolf, 09/10/2023 11:10 AM
Baofeng_BF-F8HP_power_transmit_issue.img (6.5 KB) Baofeng_BF-F8HP_power_transmit_issue.img tsachi wolf, 09/10/2023 11:13 AM
CHIRPonUSB.png (460 KB) CHIRPonUSB.png Jim Unroe, 09/10/2023 07:41 PM
Actions #1

Updated by Dave Gower 11 months ago

Using the recommended BF-F8HP, the UV-5r 8W radio programmes fine but the 3 power levels measured give high output wattage for 'Low' and 'Med' settings. 'High' power setting outputs a LOWER power!

Actions #2

Updated by Jim Unroe 11 months ago

Dave Gower wrote in #note-1:

Using the recommended BF-F8HP, the UV-5r 8W radio programmes fine but the 3 power levels measured give high output wattage for 'Low' and 'Med' settings. 'High' power setting outputs a LOWER power!

So when you program 'High' using CHIRP, does the radio show that 'HIGH' is selected? And 'Mid' for 'MID' and 'Low' for 'LOW'?

Jim KC9HI

Actions #3

Updated by Dave Gower 11 months ago

Jim Unroe wrote in #note-2:

Dave Gower wrote in #note-1:

Using the recommended BF-F8HP, the UV-5r 8W radio programmes fine but the 3 power levels measured give high output wattage for 'Low' and 'Med' settings. 'High' power setting outputs a LOWER power!

So when you program 'High' using CHIRP, does the radio show that 'HIGH' is selected? And 'Mid' for 'MID' and 'Low' for 'LOW'?

Jim KC9HI

Suffice to say that when the radio says L, actual power output is high and when radio says M or H actual power output is low and the same value.
Dave Gower wrote:

Using the recommended BF-F8HP, the UV-5r 8W radio programmes fine but the 3 power levels measured give a higher output wattage for 'Low' than 'Med' and 'High'. 'Med' and 'High' measure the same wattage.

Actions #4

Updated by David Nunez 10 months ago

The same thing happens to me with two pieces of equipment.
I think the problem occurred when trying to change the max/min range of vhf and uhf. The requested range is not modified but remains fixed in 130-179 and 400-520 without being able to modify them again even loading the original firmware.
I have checked that if I modify the power in chirp it is reflected correctly in the walkie. Attached is a copy of the device before making any modification.
I have not opened a new incident because maybe we can solve it with this one.

Actions #5

Updated by David Nunez 10 months ago

In my case, MID and LOW have the same wattage and HIGH is lower

Actions #6

Updated by David Nunez 10 months ago

Dave Gower wrote in #note-3:

Jim Unroe wrote in #note-2:

Dave Gower wrote in #note-1:

Using the recommended BF-F8HP, the UV-5r 8W radio programmes fine but the 3 power levels measured give high output wattage for 'Low' and 'Med' settings. 'High' power setting outputs a LOWER power!

So when you program 'High' using CHIRP, does the radio show that 'HIGH' is selected? And 'Mid' for 'MID' and 'Low' for 'LOW'?

Jim KC9HI

I give you more information can you help us?

Suffice to say that when the radio says L, actual power output is high and when radio says M or H actual power output is low and the same value.
Dave Gower wrote:

Using the recommended BF-F8HP, the UV-5r 8W radio programmes fine but the 3 power levels measured give a higher output wattage for 'Low' than 'Med' and 'High'. 'Med' and 'High' measure the same wattage.

Actions #7

Updated by David Nunez 10 months ago

David Nunez wrote in #note-6:

Dave Gower wrote in #note-3:

Jim Unroe wrote in #note-2:

Dave Gower wrote in #note-1:

Using the recommended BF-F8HP, the UV-5r 8W radio programmes fine but the 3 power levels measured give high output wattage for 'Low' and 'Med' settings. 'High' power setting outputs a LOWER power!

So when you program 'High' using CHIRP, does the radio show that 'HIGH' is selected? And 'Mid' for 'MID' and 'Low' for 'LOW'?

Jim KC9HI

Suffice to say that when the radio says L, actual power output is high and when radio says M or H actual power output is low and the same value.
Dave Gower wrote:

Using the recommended BF-F8HP, the UV-5r 8W radio programmes fine but the 3 power levels measured give a higher output wattage for 'Low' than 'Med' and 'High'. 'Med' and 'High' measure the same wattage.

I give you more information, can you help us?

Actions #8

Updated by Dave Gower 10 months ago

I have tried uploading the Baofeng Original file and the power anomaly remains the same.

Actions #9

Updated by David Nunez 10 months ago

My debug file when I download from the walkie.

Actions #10

Updated by David Nunez 10 months ago

I uploaded the original img using this guide and now is working ok
Maybe you can try with your image.

https://chirp.danplanet.com/issues/10639#note-4

Actions #11

Updated by Dave Gower 10 months ago

Thank you! It finally worked! However, the action of pasting the frequencies undid the fix, so I had to do the 'UseAtOwnRisk' thing again withe the frequencies in. Thanks again!

Actions #12

Updated by David Nunez 10 months ago

It's a workaround, maybe Jim Unroe find a permanent fix.
Happy to help!

Actions #13

Updated by tsachi wolf 8 months ago

I had exactly the same issue.
Using Windows 7 64bit with the latest build of CHIRP-legacy .
Brand new UV5R 8W, Before writing, I tested the power of the radio, it gave for H 6.0w, M about 5.3 and L for about 1w

I used chirp to read the radio , then I edit the channels , wrote back and M power was higher then H and L was higher then M.
H gave 1.8w , M gave 4.6w, L gave 4.6w also.

I had to use Jim Unroe method "UseAtOwnRisk" with factory version of BFG298 to fix the issue.

I suspect that it's a bug of CHIRP-legacy for windows 7 or maybe other versions too.
When I have used Windows 11 to write the channels everything was perfect.

I will format and install windows 10, but maybe it's worth to investigate why it's happening on other version too.

Actions #14

Updated by Jim Unroe 8 months ago

Reset the radio.
Manually program 3 channels (1, 2 and 3, each differing only by the selected TX power level)
Download to CHIRP
Program 3 more channels (4, 5 and 6, each differing only by the selected TX power level)
Save to a CHIRP Radio Images (*.img) file and attache it to this issue.

Actions #15

Updated by tsachi wolf 8 months ago

Hi Jim.

I reset the radio with MENU 40. (RESET,ALL).
Manually programmed 3 channels as you requested with L\M\H power level.
Used chirp to read the radio, selected F8HP for the model.
Programmed using chirp 3 more channels , I didn't write the image back to the radio.

Image is attached.

Thanks for the help.

Actions #16

Updated by Jim Unroe 8 months ago

tsachi wolf wrote in #note-15:

Hi Jim.

I reset the radio with MENU 40. (RESET,ALL).
Manually programmed 3 channels as you requested with L\M\H power level.
Used chirp to read the radio, selected F8HP for the model.
Programmed using chirp 3 more channels , I didn't write the image back to the radio.

Image is attached.

Thanks for the help.

Thank you for programming a providing the test image file. Also thank you for the details steps that were taken to create the requested image.

This shows that how CHIRP programmed TX power levels exactly matches the manually programmed TX power levels.

00 = H/High
01 = M/Med
02 = L/Low

So if there is a problem, it has nothing to do with how CHIRP programs the TX power level for the individual channels. It would have to be related to some other issue. So unless and until someone can provide a pair of images from the same radio where one was captured while the actual TX power levels are correct compared to the H/M/L indications of the display and the second is from the radio when the actual TX power levels are inverted.

Actions #17

Updated by tsachi wolf 8 months ago

Hi again and thank you.

I made another test.
These are the steps I took :

  1. Reset another UV5R device.
  2. Manually programmed 3 channels , first was H , second M , third L.
  3. Tested the 3 channels with power meter , results are H 6.7w, M 5.2, L, 0.98w.
  4. Used Chirp , selected F8HP to read the device.
  5. I saved the imaged from the radio (file name Baofeng_BF-F8HP_manually-programmed).
  6. Now I have added manually to chirp another 3 channels (4,5,6 , 4=H,5=M,6=L) file name is Baofeng_BF-F8HP_chirp-programming.
  7. Now I used chirp to write the channels that I have added from step 6 . I tested again and H gave 3w, M5.4w, L 5.4w.
  8. I used chirp to read the radio again , the file name is Baofeng_BF-F8HP_power_transmit_issue.img .

Hope you can find the issue.

P.S , the same happened with UV82 with chirp. But when I have used the original software provided by Baofeng it was OK.

Thanks again.

Actions #18

Updated by Jim Unroe 8 months ago

tsachi wolf wrote in #note-17:

Hi again and thank you.

I made another test.
These are the steps I took :

  1. Reset another UV5R device.
  2. Manually programmed 3 channels , first was H , second M , third L.
  3. Tested the 3 channels with power meter , results are H 6.7w, M 5.2, L, 0.98w.
  4. Used Chirp , selected F8HP to read the device.
  5. I saved the imaged from the radio (file name Baofeng_BF-F8HP_manually-programmed).
  6. Now I have added manually to chirp another 3 channels (4,5,6 , 4=H,5=M,6=L) file name is Baofeng_BF-F8HP_chirp-programming.
  7. Now I used chirp to write the channels that I have added from step 6 . I tested again and H gave 3w, M5.4w, L 5.4w.
  8. I used chirp to read the radio again , the file name is Baofeng_BF-F8HP_power_transmit_issue.img .

Hope you can find the issue.

P.S , the same happened with UV82 with chirp. But when I have used the original software provided by Baofeng it was OK.

Thanks again.

Exactly the kind of testing that I was looking for. Thank you.

I believe that your radio has the bug mentioned in issue #10505. Please load the test driver that I added to #10505 yesterday and then repeat your most recent test (create and attach all 3 images).

The instructions for how to load the driver is here: LoadingTestModules

Actions #19

Updated by Jim Unroe 8 months ago

Which version of CHIRP are you using? The Aux memory area shouldn't have been affected by an upload may by any recent CHIRP.

Actions #20

Updated by tsachi wolf 8 months ago

Hi again,
I am using CHIRP legacy-20221217 with Windows 7, 64Bit.

On "How to load test modules" page it says that
"Launch CHIRP. Make sure you are running the latest CHIRP-next build. If not, upgrade and start over."

However , I am using legacy-20221217. How to proceed?

Actions #21

Updated by Jim Unroe 8 months ago

tsachi wolf wrote in #note-20:

Hi again,
I am using CHIRP legacy-20221217 with Windows 7, 64Bit.

On "How to load test modules" page it says that
"Launch CHIRP. Make sure you are running the latest CHIRP-next build. If not, upgrade and start over."

However , I am using legacy-20221217. How to proceed?

This is your problem. The new radios are not compatible with the legacy CHIRP. CHIRP-next requires Windows 10 64-bit or later.

You would have to upgrade to Windows 10 64-bit or (what I would probably do) create a live version of Linux (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc) on a boot-able USB thumb drive using Rufus and then install CHIRP-next on that. That way you could boot up on the USB drive to run CHIRP without affecting your existing computer system.

In the mean time, make a backup of your original radio's "working" configuration with CHIRP and don't change or lose it.

Actions #22

Updated by tsachi wolf 8 months ago

Can I use live Ubunto and install a program on it ? what will happen if I will reboot the computer and load Ubunto again , will I still be able to access chirp or I will have to download it again and again ?

(Maybe I am missing the point of Live CD , I always thought that Live CD is not meant for keeping files\softwares).

Thank you.

Actions #23

Updated by Jim Unroe 8 months ago

tsachi wolf wrote in #note-22:

Can I use live Ubunto and install a program on it ? what will happen if I will reboot the computer and load Ubunto again , will I still be able to access chirp or I will have to download it again and again ?

(Maybe I am missing the point of Live CD , I always thought that Live CD is not meant for keeping files\softwares).

Thank you.

When you use Rufus to transfer the Ubuntu 'iso' file to you USB flash drive, you have an option to create a "persistent partition". This partition should allow Ubuntu to save both your CHIRP install and files across reboots.

I am currently in the process of installing Linux Mint 21.2 on an 8GB drive with a 4GB persistent partition to see for myself that it will actually work.

Actions #24

Updated by Jim Unroe 8 months ago

I used Rufus 4.2 to install Linux Mint 20.2 Cinnamon on a Sandisk 8GB Cruiser Fit USB flash drive with a 4GB persistence partition. Works great. The attached screen capture is after several reboots.

Actions #25

Updated by tsachi wolf 7 months ago

Hi Jim. I wanted to thank you.
I upgraded to Windows 10 and everything was solved.

P.S
do you know when the option to set power-on message will be fixed on baofeng uv5r \ baofeng f8hp ? it's currently disabled.

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