Can you brick an MD-9600?

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KN4FYR
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2022 11:41 pm

Can you brick an MD-9600?

Post by KN4FYR » Wed Jan 11, 2023 12:10 am

Good day to you all!

I posted this in the OpenGD77 Facebook group and I hope that duplicating this here is permitted.

I loaded up the latest OpenGD77 on my MD-9600 a few days back and everything worked perfectly. I was able to upload new code plugs and the full functionality of the radio was at my disposal. It's a real improvement over stock.

However, this afternoon, while exploring the various menus and settings, the radio stopped accepting new code plugs with the error message "Error connecting to the radio" and "Comm PortNot Available." I checked the Windows device manager and sure enough, the correct OpenGD77 device driver was loaded and running, and assigned to Com 18. In firmware flash mode, the correct driver also appears in the device manager. Various reboots and reinstallation of both the CPS and the device driver have failed to resolve the issue.

But that's the not crazy part.

My friend and fellow ham and I were on the phone together sharing our experiences and pointing out features to each other. BOTH of our radios stopped accepting uploads at roughly the same time, same symptoms, same frustration. He's got the right device driver loaded and all that. In my case, I even tried a different computer (albeit a virtual one) and got precisely the same results.

I am out of things to try. I am not a computer neophyte having started in the computer biz in the '70s. But this one has me stumped.
I'm sure I am just missing something obvious. Perhaps my friend and I changed a setting or some other parameter that is causing this issue.

Any help you can provide would be terrific. Thanks in advance!

73,
Dan, KN4FYR

G4EML
Posts: 919
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 10:01 am

Re: Can you brick an MD-9600?

Post by G4EML » Wed Jan 11, 2023 12:43 am

Have you changed the GPS settings?
Setting the GPS to 'NMEA' mode can cause the radio to fail to connect to the CPS.


Colin G4EML

KN4FYR
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2022 11:41 pm

Re: Can you brick an MD-9600?

Post by KN4FYR » Wed Jan 11, 2023 1:07 am

Funny you should mention that. lol...

I DID have the GPS on NMEA, and when I turned it off, the radio became functional again. What the hell? lol...

Why is that? That's a rather odd set of circumstances.

Thanks much!

Dan

G4EML
Posts: 919
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 10:01 am

Re: Can you brick an MD-9600?

Post by G4EML » Wed Jan 11, 2023 10:53 am

When the GPS is set to NMEA the Com port is used to output the NMEA data from the GPS module so that it can be used by an external program. While the Com port is being used for this it becomes unresponsive to the CPS commands.

I know Roger has tried to automatically detect the CPS connection and disable the NMEA output but has not yet found a reliable method. Hopefully this can be fixed in a future release.

Colin G4EML

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