Greatings from Kingston, NY. & a NewBie Question.

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N2MCI
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Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 1:12 am

Greatings from Kingston, NY. & a NewBie Question.

Post by N2MCI » Fri May 15, 2020 6:17 pm

I just received a new DM-1801. Should I updated to the latest Beofeng Firmware before putting on the OpenGD77 firmware?
Also, when I do update the radio, should I first backup the EEprom & other data via the Extra's section in the OpenGD77 CPS?
Do those tools even work with the stock firmware?

Almost 40yrs in the Computer Mainframe area makes me know how important backup data is.

Thanks for any input and the great work being done with this Project.

-73, Pete N2MCI

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F1RMB
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Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 5:42 am
Location: Grenoble, France

Re: Greatings from Kingston, NY. & a NewBie Question.

Post by F1RMB » Fri May 15, 2020 6:31 pm

Hi,
N2MCI wrote:
Fri May 15, 2020 6:17 pm
I just received a new DM-1801. Should I updated to the latest Beofeng Firmware before putting on the OpenGD77 firmware?
Also, when I do update the radio, should I first backup the EEprom & other data via the Extra's section in the OpenGD77 CPS?
Do those tools even work with the stock firmware?

Almost 40yrs in the Computer Mainframe area makes me know how important backup data is.

Thanks for any input and the great work being done with this Project.

-73, Pete N2MCI
No, no need to install the latest official firmware.
  • Install the OpenGD77 CPS software, with its drivers
  • Install the OpenGD77 firmware
  • Turn on you DM-1801
  • In the CPS, Extras menu, OpenGD77 Support, make a backup of everything (EEPROM/Flash/Calibration/MCU).
Cheers.
---
Daniel

N2MCI
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Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 1:12 am

Re: Greatings from Kingston, NY. & a NewBie Question.

Post by N2MCI » Fri May 15, 2020 7:34 pm

Thank you Danial, I'll do that..

-73, Pete N2MCI

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kd2lh
Posts: 312
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Re: Greatings from Kingston, NY. & a NewBie Question.

Post by kd2lh » Sat May 16, 2020 12:28 am

Hi Pete, and welcome to the forum. I expect I know who you worked for in Kingston, because so did I (and in Poughkeepsie and Raleigh). Ever hear of "Service Director"? "Eclipse"?

The OpenGD77 firmware and it's associated CPS are complete replacements for the radio firmware and CPS released by Baofeng.

You can go back by reloading Baofeng firmware, but I expect you won't want to do that after working with this project.

Marc (I hang out on the 98977 OpenGD77 talkgroup as well as 31371 the Triangle Talkgroup).

N2MCI
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Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 1:12 am

Re: Greatings from Kingston, NY. & a NewBie Question.

Post by N2MCI » Mon May 18, 2020 2:41 pm

Before I loaded the Open GD77 firmware, I looked at stock firmware level under
utilities and the entree was blank. So, I don't know what stock level was loaded.

I was able to load the OPENGD77 firmware without any problems. I downloaded all the
possible date from the radio. (Eeprom/MCU/...) The flash bin file size was 1,048,576 bytes.

I built a new code plug, as the one I downloaded from the radio looked a little wonky.

The radio is up and running fine after a little learning curve with the differences in
TG section when building a channel. The New code plug had TG List set to a default
TG list and that was overriding my Contact info that I selected.

Lots off cool features I keep finding.

-73, Pete N2MCI

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kd2lh
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Re: Greatings from Kingston, NY. & a NewBie Question.

Post by kd2lh » Mon May 18, 2020 6:38 pm

There are some neat and new ways of working.

One particular thing to consider is that the code incorporates a full feature DMR MMDVM hotspot radio (allowing you to plug the DM-1801 into a Raspberry Pi running PiStar, and setup a moderate power hotspot with a receiver that features AFC to correct for bit errors.

This is Daniel's work, collaborating with the rest of the development team.

You'll particularly like how easy the new firmware is for changing to multiple talkgroups without wasting codeplug channels (you now only need one channel for frequency regardless of the number of talkgroups).

Enjoy!

N2MCI
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Re: Greatings from Kingston, NY. & a NewBie Question.

Post by N2MCI » Mon May 18, 2020 7:22 pm

Marc, one the reason's I bought the DM-1801, was to use it as a moderate power Hotspot. We lost
our local DMR rptr. last year and now I don't have any coverage while I walk around the neighborhood.

I also see it supports, BlueDV. I run BlueDV on my phone & tablets with a DV-Mega w/ Bluestack.
I like this combo when you go to a hotel, so you get through the hotel firewall and use the hotel
WiFi. Kind of hard to do with a Pi/ MMDVM.

Been listing on both 31371 & 98977 and haven't heard ya.

-73, Pete N2MCI

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kd2lh
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Re: Greatings from Kingston, NY. & a NewBie Question.

Post by kd2lh » Mon May 18, 2020 9:07 pm

A quick look at Brandmeister shows you were connected as a HotSpot about 8 hours ago:

https://brandmeister.network/?page=hotspot&id=113613501

It shows a static link to 31360 talk group, but not a static setup for 98977 or 31371 talkgroups. In this configuration, you'll see Brandmeister forwarding you voice packets for those groups only for the configured dynamic hangtime after your last transmission to that group, then the dynamic connection will drop.

Try setting up the Brandmeister Manager feature on PiStar and Brandmeister, and then adding the 98977 and 31371 groups as static. Alternatively, you can set this up by logging into Brandmeister and selecting your hotspot to add to the list of static talkgroups.

Note that Brandmeister has been a bit wonky recently, apparently dropping some forwarding to static configured talkgroups until they get used again.

Marc

N2MCI
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Re: Greatings from Kingston, NY. & a NewBie Question.

Post by N2MCI » Mon May 18, 2020 9:55 pm

Marc, wrong HS.. I have 3 active.
https://brandmeister.network/?page=hotspot&id=113613502

I'm good at arrl.net

-73, Pete N2MCI

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