Prerelease 4th April

[VK3KYY]

Because I'm aiming to only "release" stable versions via the GitHub "releases" system, I am going to post pre-release versions on the forum, and hopefully if all feedback is positive I will be able to made a formal release.

The last Release was on 15th March, and a number developments have been made since then, mostly from Daniel F1RMB but also some form me and a bug fix from Colin G4EML.

The main reason for not releasing version sooner is that I've simply not had time. The slowly increasing COVID19 lockdown here in Australia, means that normal daily life takes up a lot more of my time than it used to.

Its difficult to list every small change since the last release, but here are main changes to the firmware

• Czech language support added (by Daniel)
• Fix bug when editing and updating a contact (by me)
• Complete re-work of the VFO scan functionality (by me)
• Added support for the GD-77S - only has a hotspot (by me, bug fixes by Daniel)
• Hotspot mode fixes (by Daniel)
• Add reverse repeater listing function (Black + Blue button) ( by me, bug fixed by Daniel)
• Baofeng power off data saving fix (by Daniel)
• Updates to existing non-english language texts (by various contributors, helped by Daniel)

The Scan function has been changed for both Channel and VFO mode. To enter Scan mode, you now use a Long Press on the Up arrow key
In Channel mode, this immediatly commences scanning.
In VFO mode, it switches the VFO into Scan Mode, but does not start the scan immediately.
In Scan Mode, the lower and upper scan frequency limits are shown on the bottom line of the display.
To change these limits, both the lower and upper frequencies must be entered, one after the other

e.g. to set the scan limits to 144 to 146Mhz, you need to enter the numbers

1 4 4 0 0 0 1 4 6 0 0 0

When all digits have been entered the lower and upper limits will be updated

To start the VFO scan, press the Up arrow key when in VFO mode.

To exit Scan Mode, press and hold the Down arrow key

VFO A and B have their own upper and lower scan limits, and also whether the VFO is in Scan Mode or not. e.g. VFO can be in Scan Mode, whilst VFO B is in normal operation mode.

In Scan Mode, only the Rx frequency is displayed.
Any offset between Rx and Tx frequency will be maintained.

Actually, I just noticed if you transmit in Scan Mode, its not displaying the Tx frequency, so I think I will need to fix this before I can release this version, but there may be other problems with this pre-release which also need to be fixed.

[F1RMB]

Plus: to change the scanning direction (in VFO mode), press Left arrow key.


Cheers.
---
Daniel

[Ik0nwg]

I downloaded from the telegram channel and it works very well especially the scan (now much more practical and functional) thanks Roger
ciao Sal

[VK3KYY]

Plus: to change the scanning direction (in VFO mode), press Left arrow key.


Cheers.
---
Daniel

Thanks Daniel

I added that prior to the rework of the whole VFO scanning, and I forgot that was done after the previous release.

[m1dyp]

thank you all

[IU4LEG]

hi all,
it seems to work well, however sometimes it still goes to transmit on the other time slot when resuming the transmission before the repeater queue falls. today during a qso of about an hour it happened to me 2 times. if you let the repeater queue fall and you go on tx after 2 or 3 seconds, I could see that the problem does not occour.
73 de IU4LEG

[W1AEX]

Hi Roger,

I loaded the April 3 2020 [6b61afe] version into both of my GD77 radios and immediately noticed that both radios seemed to break the squelch persistently while scanning FMN or FM, or even when parked on a quiet channel with or without the antenna installed. Note that the "busy" light does not flash and the scan does not stop when the squelch breaks. It does this on VHF and UHF and is most noticeable when FMN is utilized but it also will "chuff" when FM is programmed but with less persistence. Note that the squelch breaks even when a frequency is programmed with an RX Tone.

I rolled one GD77 back to the previous firmware that I was using [March 22 ec50e380] and the chuffing squelch breaks stopped with that version.

73, Rob W1AEX

[youtube]https://youtu.be/ngm4KMrZP84[/youtube]

[F6GVE]

The new way using the scan function is much more friendly. This is a great job.

But in VFO + DMR mode would the processor be overloaded?
I have no problem in MR mode or VFO/FM (I agree the combination VFO/DMR is not so useful...)


youtu.be/AGsFbyh9XPQ

[VK3KYY]

Hi Roger,

I loaded the April 3 2020 [6b61afe] version into both of my GD77 radios and immediately noticed that both radios seemed to break the squelch persistently while scanning FMN or FM, or even when parked on a quiet channel with or without the antenna installed. It does this on VHF and UHF and is most noticeable when FMN is utilized but it also will "chuff" when FM is programmed but with less persistence. Note that the squelch breaks even when a frequency is programmed with an RX Tone.

I rolled one GD77 back to the previous firmware that I was using [March 22 ec50e380] and the chuffing squelch breaks stopped with that version.

73, Rob W1AEX

There are 2 possible causes for the problem.
There was a fix to a bug, by Colin, about 2 days ago, as the squelch was not opening when it was supposed to.

Someone also reported that FMN seemed to be noisy.

Of the 2 reasons, I think it’s more likely to be a problem with FMN

[VK3KYY]

hi all,
it seems to work well, however sometimes it still goes to transmit on the other time slot when resuming the transmission before the repeater queue falls. today during a qso of about an hour it happened to me 2 times. if you let the repeater queue fall and you go on tx after 2 or 3 seconds, I could see that the problem does not occour.
73 de IU4LEG

This happened to me about 3 weeks ago.

So it’s more likely to be a bug that is intermittent in the previous version.

Does it happen all the time ?