CHIRP

Hi Tim,

I believe I have access to the DOS software for sniffing and I'm willing to sniff out and write a driver provided you have a

• working radio
• working battery and
• working programming cable

Please read the loaner rules at https://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Rules_For_Loaning_A_Radio

My address is current in the FCC database under my GMRS license: W Q Z N 6 3 0

Feel free to email me to confirm any of the details and let me know the tracking number if you choose to send it.

Thanks,
Tony

I just got an email notice informing me the cable has been shipped... still waiting on the batteries to be shipped.

Radio is on it's way...

Confirming that the package arrived and the equipment is inside.

Notes so far:

• The USB to Serial adapter doesn't load on my machine. I will substitute with my own USB to serial adapter
• The programming cable has a few pieces of the cable broken into so I'm crossing my fingers that it's in working condition
• The programming port looks like a baofeng style port but it's actually about 1/8 closer than the baofengs.

In case anyone see the message "usbfs: interface 0 claimed by ftdi_sio while 'brltty' sets config #1":

Tim pinged me that his USB to serial adapter using a FTDI chip and filtering dmesg for FTDI revealed this

[36799.576179] usb 1-2: new full-speed USB device number 12 using xhci_hcd
[36799.930285] usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6001, bcdDevice= 6.00
[36799.930287] usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[36799.930288] usb 1-2: Product: FT232R USB UART
[36799.930289] usb 1-2: Manufacturer: FTDI
[36799.930290] usb 1-2: SerialNumber: AB0P5PD8
[36799.947296] ftdi_sio 1-2:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[36799.947316] usb 1-2: Detected FT232RL
[36799.952284] usb 1-2: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[36800.146468] usb 1-2: usbfs: interface 0 claimed by ftdi_sio while 'brltty' sets config #1
[36800.157449] ftdi_sio ttyUSB0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0
[36800.157465] ftdi_sio 1-2:1.0: device disconnected

What's concerning is the disconnect message. A quick google points me to https://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?t=8441 which says uninstall the brltty package

So running

sudo apt-get remove brltty

and unplugging and replugging the USB to serial adapter allows it to stay connected to /dev/ttyUSB0

[37016.504299] usb 1-2: new full-speed USB device number 13 using xhci_hcd
[37016.858281] usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6001, bcdDevice= 6.00
[37016.858283] usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[37016.858285] usb 1-2: Product: FT232R USB UART
[37016.858286] usb 1-2: Manufacturer: FTDI
[37016.858286] usb 1-2: SerialNumber: AB0P5PD8
[37016.875255] ftdi_sio 1-2:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[37016.875272] usb 1-2: Detected FT232RL
[37016.880295] usb 1-2: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

Update on this ticket. I am able to get the OEM software communicating with the radio using both a built-in serial port as well as Tim's USB to serial adapter.

The hardware/software make use of hardware flow control and it seems that "sniffing" the port interferes with the operation of the flow control signals. The OEM software errors out with "Radio sent data at the wrong time" or similar.

I'll continue searching for a method to insert a sniffer/spy on the serial port but I'm having trouble getting off the ground.

Tony

Update on this ticket. I received my serial port breakouts from eBay today. This is quite an interesting radio communication scheme used here.
The serial port has 9 pins as a lot of us know.

RI (ring indicator) is used to tell if the radio is powered on/off. The OEM software will tell you to turn on/off your radio before/after programming
CTS/RTS is used. I tried the OEM software with these signals disconnected and it refused to work
GND is common ground
DSR/DTR is used. I tried the OEM software with these signals disconnected and it refused to work
TXD is used. I tried the OEM software with these signals disconnected and it refused to work
RXD is not used. This is quite strange for typical serial communications
DCD is not used.

So the actual data is flowing either through CTS/RTS or DSR/DTR. I'm guessing that there's clock + data going over one pair TO the radio and clock + data over another pair but I have not confirmed this.

I'll pull out the oscilloscope (soon) and check what is going over those wires while posting a question to the chirp_devel list to see if it's worth adding such a radio.

Tony