CHIRP

I tried version 1.1.9 on Windows 11 and it would consistently crash on me while downloading from the radio. I found an earlier version of the software that works for me (both reading and writing) and I hope it will help to figure out how to communicate with these radios.

https://baofeng.s3.amazonaws.com/Baofeng_UV5G_Plus_CPS_1.1.8_202311.zip

Ty Lu wrote:

The factory CPS appears that the radio supports a custom image to be uploaded to the radio similar to the UV-17Pro GPS. That feature under the factory CPS is also broken and doesn't work. Just get a failed/error message.

FYI, there is a little utility that Terri wrote that I was able to use to upload custom image to my UV-5G Plus.

Jim Unroe wrote in #note-4:

I recently acquired a Baofeng GM-5RH to use for development. As far as I know it is identical to the UV-5G Plus except for the name on the badge and possibly differences in the case.

I am attaching a driver module to be used for testing. How you load and use it is explained here: LoadingTestModules

Please test and provide feedback. Don't forget to save your first successful download, unedited, to a native CHIRP Images (*.img) file to be kept in a safe place as a backup.

Tested the module out tonight and it was spot on. Was able to read and write to the radio with no issues. Was able to copy and paste all the frequency/channels from other radios and the radio accepted it. I tested it out with the 2m/70cm and the radio will accept those frequency but will not let you TX, so it's still locked to GMRS how the radio was designed to be. I haven't tested Terri's little app to upload the custom image like you can with the UV17 Pro GPS and it's variants. But so far there are no issues with CHIRP and this radio.

Also tested GMRS Channel 16 and all the local repeaters with all different DCS/CTSS tones. Was able to check into a local net and net controller actually said I sounded really good tonight.

Ty Lu wrote in #note-5:

Tested the module out tonight and it was spot on....

This radio is causing me to go insane trying to get it to work with Chirp. I had the 20240317 version of chirp installed and was able to get the module running and working perfect and was able to download my config from my UV-5G Plus. I then made the fatal mistake of downloading the new version of chirp that just dropped this morning like an idiot. Now, I cannot get the radio to acknowledge itself within chirp again. I have uninstalled, removed registry keys, and reinstalled the older version to no avail. Chirp now says that it is not receiving the correct amount of data and will not recognize the radio.

Nothing changed in today's build that would have affected that, by the way. Also, you can always confirm by reinstalling the previous version that was working for you, or running the .zip standalone build so you don't have to uninstall/reinstall. Also, please grab debug logs of the failures in case there's anything useful - just telling us it doesn't acknowledge the radio is not really enough for us to see if something else is going on.

But again, nothing has changed that affects that driver, there were only changes to the TID H8 driver in today's build.

Slight update:

I was able to get it working by using the portable version of 20240317. I will continue to use that version until it is confirmed that it is added or the module has been updated.

Please grab a debug log using the current version after it fails. If there really is something changed, then that's the easiest way to get it fixed. If Jim can't reproduce your issue, then saying "I'll just use the old version until this merges" means we just won't merge it. Please help us help you.

Okay, thanks. The log confirms there are no strange errors or other things related to anything that could be different between the older and newer versions of CHIRP. I'll let Jim confirm, but I see no reason why they would behave differently, FWIW and just FYI.

Jim Unroe wrote in #note-12:

I did a test with 7 programming cables....

I feel dumb now that I realize the issue was with the cable and not the program itself. Thank you for your work!

Ty Lu wrote in #note-5:

...I haven't tested Terri's little app to upload the custom image like you can with the UV17 Pro GPS and it's variants...

Just wanted to post a final update and say that Terri's image upload app works perfectly.

Where does one get Terri's image app?