LU1AAX wrote: ↑Sat Apr 25, 2020 5:36 am
Hi! I have just seen there's this open firmware for DM-5R/RD-5R and I am actually very happy.
I understand this is too experimental but I'd like to give it a try. I need to know I can go back to stock firmware when I need it. What are the chances the radio bricks and is there a safe way to unbrick it?
I would also like to learn how to program for this radio so I might help with some contributions but that will take a little more.
Thanks again!
You can go back to the stock firmware, but you also need to reload your RD-5R codeplug, because the OpenGD77 firmware uses the OpenGD77 codeplug format.
I have reverted my RD-5R several time.
Re: Bricking the radio
2 people have partially bricked their GD-77 when reloading the official firmware. There seems to be a bug in the newer versions of the official GD-77 firmware which cause bootloader to no longer accept firmware updates.
In those 2 cases the owners recovered their radios by attaching a $15 JLink compatible debugger and reflashing the a patched version of the bootloader.
One other person also put their GD-77 into that state, but so far has not connected a JLink to recover the radio
So..
Chances of bricking are low.
Even if the bootloader gets bricked, if you are willing to buy a cheap Jlink compatible debugger, you can easily reflash the CPU / MCU to recover the radio.