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Upgrading the flash chip

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2020 9:13 pm
by KI5GZK
If I replaced the current 1 Mb flash chip in my GD-77 radio with a larger 8 Mb chip, will the OpenGD77 firmware and CPS utility support the added storage and allow uploading a larger DMR ID database?

Re: Upgrading the flash chip

Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:06 am
by VK3KYY
KI5GZK wrote:
Sat Aug 29, 2020 9:13 pm
If I replaced the current 1 Mb flash chip in my GD-77 radio with a larger 8 Mb chip, will the OpenGD77 firmware and CPS utility support the added storage and allow uploading a larger DMR ID database?
Basically no, changing the chip on its own will not make any difference as the firmware does not detect chip size as all normal GD-77's only have 1Mb.

To make use of the larger chip would require changes to both the firmware and also the CPS, so you'll need to modify both of those as well as modifying your radio.

Re: Upgrading the flash chip

Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 6:06 am
by Zl1XE
I wonder how much memory we need to hold all the registered DMR Amateur numbers ?
and if a suitable flash chip is available.

[edit]
DMR MARC = 144000 registered users. >6600 DMR repeaters.
radioid.net = 104627 DMR ID's with Ham-Digital's 66966 ID's, we have a global network of 171593 DMR ID's

Re: Upgrading the flash chip

Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 7:04 am
by F1RMB
Hi,

It depends of the network you're using, I mean, BM is sending Talker Alias data, so using DMRIds database is useless for it.
DMR-MARC/DMRPlus/IPSC2 is another story.
Also, looking up in a 171k entries database could take quite some time, even if the current code is a bit optimized.

Code: Select all

pi-star@pi-star-blue(ro):~ $ cat /usr/local/etc/DMRIds.dat | wc -l
171410

Cheers.
---
Daniel

Re: Upgrading the flash chip

Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 9:38 am
by VK3KYY
One problem with the entire DMR ID database, is that a large proportion of the IDs are never used.

This is for a variety of reasons, including people with multiple ID's, club callsigns special event stations etc etc
Last time I checked HamDigital, only about 1/2 the total DMR ID's were active in the last 12 months.

Even if there was space to upload the entire database it would take quite a long time to upload the callsign and name to the radio.

If DMR MARC supported TA, then the database would be completely redundant.

Re: Upgrading the flash chip

Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 11:23 pm
by KI5GZK
In a perfect world all of the DMR networks would support Talker Alias, but that is sadly not the case.

Now if Pi-Star had the ability to inject TA data into the DMR stream, that would be a great help.

Re: Upgrading the flash chip

Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 11:48 pm
by VK3KYY
KI5GZK wrote:
Mon Aug 31, 2020 11:23 pm
In a perfect world all of the DMR networks would support Talker Alias, but that is sadly not the case.

Now if Pi-Star had the ability to inject TA data into the DMR stream, that would be a great help.
Thats a good idea.
It's MMDVMHost which would need to do this, but I can't remember if MMDVMHost reads the database file.. Possibly not.

Re: Upgrading the flash chip

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 1:08 am
by F1RMB
Hi,
VK3KYY wrote:
Mon Aug 31, 2020 11:48 pm
KI5GZK wrote:
Mon Aug 31, 2020 11:23 pm
In a perfect world all of the DMR networks would support Talker Alias, but that is sadly not the case.

Now if Pi-Star had the ability to inject TA data into the DMR stream, that would be a great help.
Thats a good idea.
It's MMDVMHost which would need to do this, but I can't remember if MMDVMHost reads the database file.. Possibly not.
MMDVMHost send the QSOInfo data to the firmware (source and destination) at the beginning of a network activity. This is how OpenGD77's hotspot code is able to send fake TA if such data is missing.


Cheers.
---
Daniel

Re: Upgrading the flash chip

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 3:07 am
by KC7RBW
KI5GZK wrote:
Mon Aug 31, 2020 11:23 pm
In a perfect world all of the DMR networks would support Talker Alias, but that is sadly not the case.

Now if Pi-Star had the ability to inject TA data into the DMR stream, that would be a great help.
My openSPOT2 does this, but it's no use on the air on the C-bridge network here in the Pacific Northwest.