VE2XPM - How to get started with development?

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VE2XPM
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VE2XPM - How to get started with development?

Post by VE2XPM » Sat Apr 18, 2020 6:40 pm

Hi all,

I am just getting up to speed after a few years away from Amateur Radio, so I have just discovered DMR and OpenGD77 in quick succession.

GD77 on order and I have been browsing in GitHub too, but I am having difficulty finding info on a recommended development environment, so I can start getting up to speed with the toolset.

I was involved in embedded systems development for a long time, military radio mostly, so I need to resurrect those skills. Anyway, I am looking forward to getting up to speed. These days I mostly provide funding and management support of open source projects on behalf of my employer.

Can anyone provide some pointers to a quick start guide for the dev environment?

Thanks

David
VE2XPM

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Re: VE2XPM - How to get started with development?

Post by G4EML » Sat Apr 18, 2020 10:02 pm


VE2XPM
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Re: VE2XPM - How to get started with development?

Post by VE2XPM » Sat Apr 18, 2020 10:40 pm

Thanks!! That helps a lot ... Obviously I haven't been reading the right stuff ...

73 David VE2XPM

VE2XPM
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Re: VE2XPM - How to get started with development?

Post by VE2XPM » Mon Apr 20, 2020 12:09 am

Hi all,

I now have the dev environment up and running, and building successfully.

I have a GD77 on order as a reference so that I can ensure that my builds actually work as expected on that platform. Also, I will order a couple of Baofengs so that I can participate in the current work.

The next questions is, where can constructively contribute? I am still reading as much as I can, code, datasheets, user guides, etc. but until I get the GD77 I still don't have the necessary hands-on experience, so I will keep in touch.

Really impressed with everything I am seeing by the way ... excellent work!

That's all for now. thanks for the support so far.

All the best,

David
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Re: VE2XPM - How to get started with development?

Post by KC7RBW » Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:56 am

Hi David,

There's a feature requests section on the board you could browse through to see if one of the missing features interests you. A lot of mentions of Vox recently and some discussion on how it might be done but no word that anyone is working on it yet. Working on a feature like that would expose you to several parts of the codebase and the hardware.

There are also some issues filed in GitHub https://github.com/rogerclarkmelbourne/OpenGD77/issues

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Re: VE2XPM - How to get started with development?

Post by VK3KYY » Mon Apr 20, 2020 2:37 am

I should have mentioned, I do have a schematic for the GD-77 but can't share it because of a NDA.

However, tell you how the VOX is connected and also there is a DTMF detect input from the AF output of the AT1846 (shame its not a direct unfiltered connection from the AT1846 to the MCU, because if there was, we could decode other modes)

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Re: VE2XPM - How to get started with development?

Post by kd2lh » Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:27 pm

Read the forum and you'll see several areas of interest and activity.

In the last few weeks, support for multiple radios (all using the C-6000 DMR protocol chip) have been tested and are functioning.

Much of the work has been based on reverse engineering the behavior of the chip, and understanding the differences in how it's used in different radios. There may be more radios using the C-6000 to test on.

One more that is looking like it will become more active and productive is a port to the TYT MD-UV380 / MF-UV390 radio. It also uses the C-6000 chip with a color display and other radio differences.

An even more cost reduced / size reduced radio was released by TYT and Radioddity using the next generation DMR / Processor chip. The C7000 incorporates the firmware processor core and the DMR protocol processing in the single chip. The processor appears to be a proprietary Chinese embedded general purpose processor based on C-SKY architecture. Right now, this one is beyond project investigation.

OpenGD77 is pretty feature rich right now. A team in France is working to try and abstract the radio control functions from the lower level hardware more completely. Someday, this could permit a single firmware to be adapted easily to multiple target radio designs. Some of the internal OpenGD77 code was recently refactored to minimize the "if/def" style of sequential coding to accommodate differences.

And, debug and chip behavior testing and refinement is continuous. The more that can be discovered about the behavior of the C-6000, the more reliable and feature rich OpenGD77 can become.

Marc

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Re: VE2XPM - How to get started with development?

Post by VE2XPM » Fri Apr 24, 2020 10:24 pm

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!!

Everything is going fine with OpenGD77 running on a RadioOddity GD77. The installation of the firmware was really fast and easy, so fast and so easy that I was not convinced it had completed successfully. Anyway a bit of parrot and a couple of QSO's and it was clear that all was well. First impressions were ... amazing.

The UI is intuitive and I was able to get a long way without referring to the manual for straight forward operation, but now I need to get into the guts of the thing and understand where it is in terms of development, and of course, read the backlog on GitHub.

The only issue I had was getting the USB port driver to load. I am not quite sure what happened, but eventually, everything came together.

Anyway, the JLink Edu arrived this afternoon, so I will explore OpenGD77 more over the weekend, and then it's time to dismantle it and attach the debugger - another thing I need to read up on.

Thanks for the useful summary of the state of HW for these radios too. Clearly the community needs to be able to keep up with the knowledge of the chipset that is needed. As Roger says elsewhere, trying to do adapt the SW to radios that are appearing is time-consuming (and probably a full-time job for a small team if we were running a company!). NOt sure how modular the firmware architecture is ... but I guess you have looked at that already.

With the circuit diagram under NDA and ICs with various degrees of documentation, I can understand the challenge more!

Anyway, I haven't done much so far but I'm hooked already :lol:

73

David
VE2XPM
Last edited by VE2XPM on Sat Apr 25, 2020 1:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: VE2XPM - How to get started with development?

Post by VK3KYY » Fri Apr 24, 2020 10:54 pm

David

Re: Attaching the JLink

So that the radio is still usable after connecting the JLink..

Open the radio (i.e remove the front cover)

Remove the rubber dust cover which is secured through a hole in the side of the radio.

Note. After the initial reflash (to remove the read protection), you do not need the Reset wire. You only need GND, SWD_IO and SWCLK.

These 3 wires can be fed out though the hole for the dust cover, and if you use short wires, you can hold them in place with an elastic band when normally using the radio.

Note. I don't have this problem on the GD-77, but on the RD-5R, it reboots due to signal injection, into those wires, when transmitting

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Re: VE2XPM - How to get started with development?

Post by VE2XPM » Sat Apr 25, 2020 1:56 pm

Many thanks, Roger!

Those were going to be the next questions :D

I had read the info in the wiki and I need to make sure that I understand exactly what do to address the issues below the word 'IMPORTANT' to avoid bricking the radio.

I am not clear where I can find 'the special version of firmware created by Kai for this purpose' but I will work that out - a hint would help of course! Obviously it is different to the version I have on the GD77 at the moment.

Should be a fun weekend :geek:

Cheers

David

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