Quansheng UV-K5 Remote Dock System

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A system to control the popular Quansheng UVK5 hand-held radio from a PC.
These are the GitHub links
Application: github.com/nicsure/QuanshengDock
Firmware: github.com/nicsure/quansheng-...

[@akimboslice03]

This is huge. I hope this gains traction in the dev community and people build off this rather than do their own thing

[@2ftg]

Ain't this one of the many examples of people building their own thing?

[@SheepdogPreparedness]

Wow, coolest thing to come out of ham radio in the past several months! Great work!

[@heinerrambold8889]

Wow, well done!! These Quansheng things seem to be very popular at the moment. Thanks a lot for the video!!!

[@MatthewJohnCrittenden]

Presentation isn't rough for me, straight to the point. Good work, I will check this out.

[@F4LDT-Alain]

Extremely impressive work! Thanks a lot. Hours of more fun with my UV-K5 ahead.

[@walterblizzard]

Love this docking software, and thanks for the thorough tutorial.

[@sgtclubba1732]

Fantastic work, I'm so impressed I've just ordered a 2nd cable and radio to use this. Get ready for a boost in followers.

[@irixsyncd]

You have implemented very smart ideas into the software! Cheers !:)

[@beeryes2723]

Simply irresistible. Great stuff.

[@HakanKoseoglu]

Fascinating project - it's incredible how such a small device is creating such big waves. Thanks for the nice demo and open source code!

[@xephael3485]

this is what happens when hardware is open and not controlled by its manufacturer.

[@dexxsterlab2726]

Amazing job ! Very useful !

[@AndyWragg]

That's outstanding and all with a radio that cost me £13 - so good I've just sent for another and a set of spare batteries. I've only just got my UK-K5(8) and I live in a bit of an RF hole, but this would be great for /P work. It's also got me thinking I could knock up a bit of a joint box with some sockets to save on hacking wires together, and maybe make things a bit neater. That Spectrum analyser is the dogz bollox. Well done Sir!!

[@TalmidAndy]

It has been said by some cynics that the reason that these are so open and modifiable is that the manufacturer is using the community to do all of the work of research and development for them..

[@HakanKoseoglu]

I hope it's working for them, I've already got two of these things and can't be happier. The open source firmware just opens endless options.

[@2ftg]

If the manufacturer acknowledges all the wide band firmware's existing, they might have to prevent their installation, to keep their FCC certifications.

[@paulthelefty]

This is amazing! Can’t wait to see more!

[@marianofpv]

Wow this is great! And a lot of work! Thanks for sharing.

[@MrRobertSpearsJr]

great work, looking forward to the refinements.

[@EvgeniX.]

awesome one! with all this new mods on the uv-5k, i wish someone could shot a video comparing the different ones 🙏

[@farrenconstable]

I'll be purchasing another K6 just for this! Thanks!!

[@janhenkins]

This is fabulous, will play with it as soon as possible! Cheers, Jan M7HNK

[@StormsRadiosCats]

Wow! Amazing work! This radio just keeps getting better and this software just stepped it up to a whole 'nother level.

[@HotelFoxtrotTangoEcho]

It is a good news. I will write about this on my channel. Thank you for this program

[@Jack-tr1jm]

Nic, absolutely brilliant! Thank you so much for this. I’m going to find the proper plug and wire this up today! Jack N3DNA

[@jillsink1431]

Brilliant work! Thank you!

[@BadSector]

this is awsome.. will be adding this to my systems

[@heatherryan9820]

I think thats relly cool what you've goy going there, and I'm definately going to check that out. I also like how you left in the part about it nkt saving the last settings because that's just real life.

[@colinashley]

Some time consuming but great work, Thank you.

[@HamTechRadioScannerDrones]

This is fantastic work so looking forward to enjoying / Learning this -M0FXB

[@digitalchaos1980]

About to watch your video next, bro! 😎

[@sergiomatoz6371]

Nice work... From Matoz

[@MegaEyeTV]

Lots of projects coming for this radio from its radio community. Nice work!

[@Crusher9mil]

Superb project, you must have invest considerable time & effort, it's greatly appreciated, thank you. 👍🏻👍🏻

[@sylenzyostampa]

Great job, tx all for cool fw 👍👍!!

[@garyevans3058]

Absolutely great contribution to ham radio / open source! Many thanks.

[@tomperone9338]

Amazing work! I suspect this hack is going to go places!

[@tomperone9338]

I was going to ask if you had incorporated the AM FIX into your firmware, but in digging a little deeper, it appears that you did. Very nice!

[@johnwest7993]

The perfect software for my new rigs. Thank you. I'll be opening up my 2 HT's and mounting them in metal cabinets to act as base stations. I'll add switched bandpass filters for 10 meters, 6 meters and 900 MHz to make a couple of 5 band transceivers out of the HT's. They will come in handy, as I have nothing at the moment that can operate on 6 meters or 900 MHz. I'll add a good speaker and pre-amps for receive as needed, and perhaps a 40 Watt power amp for 10 meters and 6 meters. I already have a couple of 3 Watt amp modules for 900 MHz. The hardware mods I can do, and I have a lot of old HP and similar test equipment on the bench that has just been gathering dust, and I have a NanoVNA as well, so I'm all set. The software I'm not good enough at, but that's all on the web for easy downloading, and there are new features being added practically every day by software folks. Fun and games and a winter construction project. These rigs will take some work, but I have most of the parts I'll need already in stock, so I doubt if I'll even have $50 into each of them by the time I'm done. I'll call one rig Frank, and the other rig Stein.

[@diandana]

You might need to remove the existing filters from the radio pcb to make it work decent enough

[@GoonyMclinux]

Just completely bypass the filters in the radios and send it straight to your filters, thats the only hard part of the mod.

[@oasntet]

I'd be interested to see how much TX power you can get on 10m and 6m after hacking the filters. It might make for a pretty decent portable 10m radio, suitable for the the technically-minded new technician-class ham... Especially for the next couple of years with the space weather being so nice.

[@GoonyMclinux]

@@oasntet even a watt would be fine.

[@neiltaylor6825]

Brilliant Stuff! many thanks for your hard work 73's

[@bruce1carr]

Woot! I was going through the setup and having issues with an errant USB driver (unrelated to the Quansheng Dock), when I decided to try to use the cables I got with my Digirig to see what I could make work. Initially, I found very limited functionality but when I connected the radio to the Digirig with the green end cables to the Serial port I suddenly had sound and PTT functionality, a little more configuring and I was broadcasting voice over the air - VICTORY LOL - followed shortly thereafter with a Microsoft error and the app shutdown. I have repeated it all including varied crash messages. That being said it does work after a fashion allowing full computer control and voice through the headset. Great program with superior potential. If I can get some pattern to the crashes I will forward the details to you, Bruce WROE975

[@AndyMcGeever]

Are you sure it's not RF crashing your PC? I've had mine typing characters when accidentally transmitting with the antenna close to my wireless keyboard. It put my PC into standby twice, opened webpages and completely crashed the system before i realised what was happening. I suspect the system crash was direct RFI rather than just corrupting wireless HUD data so i probably got off lightly in not doing any permanent damage.

[@bruce1carr]

I suspect you are both right. I wasn’t thinking about it, because the radio was behind my keyboard, not near my computer, certainly, but right behind the keyboard, and I’ll bet that is what it was. Thank you for the reply and the info.

[@KB1UIF]

Great piece of software. Well written. A great addition to the Quansheng radio user community. Good job, Sir. 👏 👍

[@davidg2011]

Great work 😊

[@stoner197]

installed all this ty looks great

[@DuanesMind]

Amazing well done 👍. I was wonder if something can be made with just using a keyboard for the messaging firmware.

[@oasntet]

Neat stuff. I was having a look at the firmware project. I think documenting the serial port API you implemented could yield a lot more interesting projects. I'm personally thinking about the possibility of permanently attaching a Pi Zero and enabling scripting operation via bash scripts or a python library, possibly even adding a web UI...

[@jacobscheit4128]

Please do everyone a favor and do it in go lang especially if you intend to use a web GUI, python is just to hungry especially on devices like a Raspberry Pi. But besides that I give your ideas a thumbs up 👍

[@oasntet]

@@jacobscheit4128 If you're that worried about performance, I'll make sure it runs under pypy. I'd rather not have to worry about ensuring it compiles under multiple architectures. But the language won't be a limiting factor here; everything will be bottlenecked by the serial communication with the radio.

[@geoffreylohff3876]

I think this mod is perfect for uniting this radio with a DigiPi system...

[@DonzLockz]

Wow, this is awesome!😮

[@G3PWP]

Wow !! this is really cool

[@phildurall7466]

Thanks for all of the work mate! You have done a great job Sir! I love the way it even includes a way to edit the channels. The "Normalize" function is really nice. 73 - KF6IF

[@nicsure]

Thanks, most folk don't seem to use the Normalize though.

[@Outcaste153]

Nice work sir.

[@pastoriuspisa1]

Well done! Thanks a lot!!!

[@matthewbennett]

This looks useful. 🎉

[@Oregun]

Great work!

[@emersonmsd]

Nice work.

[@JaseEtheridge]

This is amazing!

[@okhamradio]

This radio is a miracle 😁

[@diandana]

but it's a miracle with the help and ideas of peoples like @nicsure

[@antoniogaspar2659]

Superb! Thanks for your contribution! 73, António CT1CXP

[@thegingaman]

Great work

[@SteelWolf13]

Sweet. Put a roof mounted 2m/440 antenna on the roof and this radio o house main power you have a radio that hits all the repeaters in my area and it has its own back up power incase of emergencies. Controllable with a PC. Even better.

[@esuccessoveramente]

perfect!

[@xanderstuff7]

Okay this is awesome...

[@MDthreeeighty]

superb! thanks!!

[@VideoColServices]

Nice work buddy

[@DXJungle]

Excellent! 🤝👏👏👏👏👏

[@mark8392]

Well done....

[@eacuatrogndecoalfagnd5295]

Impresive

[@viktormauch4402]

Great 🎉73 from Germany

[@diandana]

Brilliant idea! I have a question. The audio is just a split cable from the programming cable to extract audio in/out?

[@diandana]

Just answered myself from your github. I was to lazy and also excited to try it before reading the whole readme file.

[@nicsure]

Pretty much yes, it's just a couple of Y cable splitters. The audio out however has to be converted to high-impedance with a resistor because otherwise you get bleed into the serial lines causing garbage data.

[@diandana]

Thank you. I wonder if a real time (ish) Doppler compensation for Satellite/ISS repeaters can be now implemented on your docking software

[@nicsure]

@@diandana What would be required for that? I'm afraid what you said went over my head a bit, I have no experience with working satellites.

[@diandana]

@@nicsure Just modifying the frequency in "real time" to compensate for doppler effect on radio waves. In my opinion even once every 5-10 sec. it's enough. At the "rise" of the ISS (lets take the ISS example) at the horizon the frequency of the downlink of the repeater will be higher than the ISS transmitter is actually set due to doppler effect. On the same principle, on the "fall" on the other side of the horizon the receiving frequency would be lower. Here it is a good example : kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5zJeYeGeb6CptUsi=rhe69ZCkcHT6kgUx around min 2.30. It can be done somehow using the radio memories and selecting them manually, but would nicer to be able to automatically track the frequency from the PC.

[@ihavecojones]

I envy people like you... I envy people like you so much it's asympthotic to hate.

[@DM-fz3ly]

Very nice work on the programming!! I wonder if it would be possible to tap into the RF before the internal amplifier and feed it off to an external proper amp. Since, for example, the RF power generated at 27 MHz is much lower, (and with lots of harmonic distortion and undesirable spurs) than say 144 MHz, since the RF amp and filtering is not designed for 27 MHz (or what ever freq is desired) then one could possible feed that rf to a proper amp that IS designed for the freq of interest? just a thought but this is awesome work so far.

[@nicsure]

Yes, I have seen other comments talking about that. It's a very involved mod though and requires disassembly. To be fair, once you've setup your band pass filters and PA externally the monetary cost may start to get a little high.

[@LJ45Chimera]

This looks awesome. Do you plan to make it multiplatform? Would love to run this in Linux.

[@nicsure]

My WPF programming in this is not very MVVM compliant so it would be awkward to port without a full rewrite unfortunately. It might work in WINE but I've not tried it yet. I'll boot up my Linux box a little later on and see what I can do.

[@humaxf1]

Fantastic...very slick. Will a virtual audio cable output work once a modified physical cable is used? I'm looking to trigger VOX in zello. Thanks.

[@nicsure]

VOX is tricky, you'd need to hack into the audio-in line too. Unfortunately I don't know what zello is or what a virtual audio cable is either so I can't really advise you on that.

[@johnathan1806]

This is awesome! I'd like to hook up a USB ptt switch and be able to use it with the program. Than I could use my flex radio audio setup with a Chinese ht on my base antenna 😂

[@soljaedits3317]

Nice video! I'm still a beginner on this but I wanted to use and try this. Just a question if incase I wanted to revert this to the original egzumer firmware do I just flash it again directly? I don't wanna brick my radio im just poor.

[@nicsure]

Yes, there's nothing permanent about flashing a firmware. I must have flashed mine hundreds of times now. If you want to take the radio back to the standard egz firmware, just flash it back on.

[@soljaedits3317]

@@nicsure Alright, thanks!

[@forerunner75]

Nice tuto and software ! Do you need a spécial câble or something ? I plugged it to the computer with the prog câble, the radio channels are read but no sound ?

[@nicsure]

Seriously?

[@edwardfletcher7790]

This is fantastic work👍😲 Could we possibly have dedicated buttons instead of having to hit F for features though ? Just one technical point, your mic ( Camera mic? ) is a bit rubbish... A $10 Boya phone lapel mic is great.

[@nicsure]

Yeah, I really need to invest in a better mic, the one I have is awful. There is already one button like that, hitting Tab switches the VFOs. I could put some kind of Key macro system in place so key combinations can be defined. Good idea.

[@ingeborgsvensson4896]

Nice video and amazingly well done. I'm surely going to experiment with this, thanks! Coincidentally I just bought two of these on AliExpress two days ago: a UV-K5(8) (€19) and a UV-5R (€20) including programming cable and free shipping. They will be delivered around Jan 15th. I was thinking of unlocking TX on one of them for the PMR channels. Any idea if some power will get through the hardware rejection filter (if there is any) on those frequencies? 73 de PA. Liked and subscribed.

[@nicsure]

Thank you for liking and subscribing I really appreciate that. As far as I know, it will transmit on the PMR frequencies with no problem, but I must point out that the radio isn't certified for transmitting on those frequencies. Realistically no one is going to know what you're transmitting on if you keep the power low, but just be aware of potential legal issues there.

[@ingeborgsvensson4896]

@@nicsure Good point, don't want to lose my license. I'll keep the power as low as possible.

[@mikhailsimon9027]

in my opinion....i think it's better to integrate with pc/laptop microphone... there's APRS cable that have 3.5mm and 2.5mm to a 3.5mm audio jack that's usually done for APRS,SSTV etc....

[@nicsure]

Yes, I was wanting to do this, but then it starts getting messy with regard to wiring and audio routing, you'd need two audio inputs on the PC side, one for microphone/FSK and one for radio audio/FSK and two audio outputs for monitoring and sending audio to the radio for transmission. It's likely something I will incorporate later as I wanted to get this to a state where I can fully use the radio from a remote desktop connection.

[@KOSTAS.K]

hi i have a problem with sound.... do you have the extra cable or only the usb programming cable ? thanks

[@murrij]

Is the USB port accessible for anything other than power? This is really really rad work.

[@nicsure]

No I think it's just for power. It'd be nice if it were data as well but sadly not.

[@franciscomtois7777]

Great job! Is it possible to purchase the cable for the audio ?

[@nicsure]

If you saw the actual state of the cable I made, you'd really not want one from me. And I'm not really geared up for that. They are pretty easy to make though. The instructions on GitHub are really only for a make-shift cable. I'm going to contact some cable makers and see if I can get them to make them properly, that way I can also incorporate audio input too.

[@franciscomtois7777]

@@nicsure Thanks, definitely there would be a market for such cable (and your software) !

[@teslar1]

Does the dock work with egzumer v2.2 or must we use your fork

[@computerjohn1973]

Great video & program. I just have a quick question. I received my UV-K5(8) this afternoon. The first thing I did was connect it to chirp to make sure it would read. I then updated the firmware to your required version. It connects to my computer perfectly. When I tried to reconnect it again with chirp it will no longer read, it tries but getting error msg. I tried to power cycler the radio, disconnect and reconnect the USB cable & radio, still won't connect. I tried my other UV-K5 "white display" version and that radio connects fine with the Egzumer v2.01.31 Will it not work with chirp? I was just going to use the built-in channel programmer, but it's not displaying all of the freq modes. Thanks in advance!!

[@nicsure]

The data it sends for the remote display confuses CHIRP. That's what causes the problem. If you look in the Radio's menu, there's an option called "Remote", if you turn that off, CHIRP will work. Be aware that rthe option turns back on when the radio is turned off and back on, or when it's reset.

[@cchalfantusa]

I wonder if it would be an unrealistic dresm to make the UV-K8 with software and firmware comparable with remotetx!

[@NielsDonker-IK-als-WC-voor-JOU]

how to make a cable for the quansheng uv-k5 Remote Dock audio in and out of the radio to pc and to radio?

[@nicsure]

Details on GitHub.

[@Akiralsdr]

it works with the programming cable ? or i have to modify the radio in a certain way for this software to work?

[@nicsure]

You don't have to modify the radio at all. It will work with just the programming cable but you won't get any audio. You need a special cable for audio and TX to work.

[@Akiralsdr]

@@nicsure got it, in a radioamateur group im at alot of people talk about the poor quality of the quansheng radios on rx or tx or even in' build quality, are they wrong ? because since i started looking into this radio there is alot of cool things about it that for example my baonfeng uv82 doesnt have at all, would you recommend it ?

[@nicsure]

@@AkiralsdrIt's hard not to recommend it for the price it is. When all said and done it costs about as much as ordering a couple of pizzas. For that price you're not going to get an iCOM but at the end of the day, it works, and in my opinion it works far better than it has any business doing for its price point.

[@robertburdoff1789]

so, if you want to quickly program in sub 50mHZ frequencies (CB channels as receive only) you can - CHIRP won't accept sub 50mHZ values for this radio.

[@HamTechRadioScannerDrones]

PS I have com port is there a connect button ?

[@nicsure]

No, once you select the correct COM port in the settings it should automatically connect.

[@W4TRI]

How are you ding presets in Spectrum? Did not catch the function. Thanks!

[@nicsure]

Right click menu.

[@technozombiePT]

Any plans for the Dock to work with other firmwares like the egzumer?

[@nicsure]

Okay, think of the firmware on the radio as a translator. It has to translate the language spoken by the app in order to make the radio "do stuff". egzumer and other firmwares do not speak that language AT ALL. I have to modify egzumer in order to make it speak it. So how can the Dock be made to speak to a firmware that doesn't understand that language to begin with? Answer, it cannot. Standard firmwares do not have any capability for remote operation, so no matter what I do with the application on the PC side it simply cannot talk to the radio, it requires a modification to the firmware in order to do so. The dock ALREADY uses egzumer, that's the base firmware that I modified in order to make this work.

[@TonyLing]

If this could be made to work on Linux and with a jog wheel like a contour, that would be awesome.

[@nicsure]

I am working on just that right now. Instead of mimicking the radio's UI it'll be a completely different display, more like a base station setup.

[@TonyLing]

That would be so cool, I look forward to watching your project progress.@@nicsure

[@nicsure]

Well I did an early Linux/MacOS version, result? Total lack of interest. So not worth doing.

[@TonyLing]

@@nicsure I didn't know it was out. I'll look into it, thanks

[@nicsure]

@@TonyLing It's not out, I withdrew it due to lack of interest.

[@VolkerSt]

How did you connect it? Normal cable? USB? Thanks

[@nicsure]

Custom cable, external microphone and USB programming cable. Check the GitHub readme.

[@Paul_anderson_creative]

Now for ipad . hopefully 😢

[@ominkan3129]

This is very cool, I have tried for hours to get it to work but the radio firmware, I haven't been able to get it to go past the release all buttons screen. Plus when I try to flash the egzumer 0.21 firmware it no longer works, even after resetting the radio. If I go all the way back to 0.15, that flashes to the radio and the radio works fine of course not with your doc. I don't know how to get your radio firmware to work on my radio or what has happened to the egzumer mods from working.

[@nicsure]

That's a very bizarre problem. It appears to be something to do with the way the Dock simulates a key press on the radio. Sounds like it thinks a key is pressed all the time. The only two things I can think of off the bat are maybe a faulty PC keyboard, it's working in Windows but the Dock is seeing some key pressed that Windows is ignoring? Or maybe some form of eeprom corruption that's causing issues with later versions of the firmware. If an earlier firmware is working, try using CHIRP to flash it clean.

[@ominkan3129]

@@nicsure It is bizarre for sure, I will try the CHIRP suggestion. Thank you for your response.

[@ominkan3129]

@@nicsure I found something interesting. Only egzumer firmware 0.16 to 0.21 won't work on my radio anymore when using the battery. I removed the battery and powered the radio off the USB port and egzumer Firmware works fine and works with your firmware you provided and the dock works as it should, nice. But when I put the battery on the radio, the egzumer firmware says my battery is at 0 percent. IJV firmware says my battery is 100 percent. I have used the egzumer firmware with no trouble in the past, I think since I've used the Facqi Reborn Firmware it has changed the battery settings someway in the EPROM, that egzumer says my battery is dead and the firmware will not boot. Take the battery off the radio and use USB power and the radio boots egzumer firmware properly and the dock works fine. Eqzumer made changes to battery specs for 1600 and 2000 mAh batteries at version 0.16 and that version is where the firmware won't start. Facqi Reborn in a forth coming update and has added battery options. Hopefully I can get Eqzumer firmware working in the future.

[@nicsure]

@@ominkan3129Wow that's very peculiar. Since you can get the radio to work without the battery with egzumer. Try doing that and enable the secret menu items, this gives you battery type and battery calibration menu options. You may be able to reset the battery settings with those options.

[@ominkan3129]

@@nicsure Wow thanks for mentioning that. I knew the battery type was there, but not battery calibration, but there it is next to the BatTyp. I charged the battery to full and recalibrated the setting to 100% . Thank you, you fixed it for me. How wonderful, thanks for your help. ｡⁠◕⁠‿⁠◕⁠｡

[@huguesmassart4483]

Amazon job ! Could you provide câble schematic in ordre to connect audio to the computer ?

[@nicsure]

Sure. I'll add a schematic to GitHub. There is a rough hand-drawn diagram there already.

[@mikhailsimon9027]

​@@nicsurecan you show how to DIY it....i have this in my thought a month again but failed to think how to diy it

[@nicsure]

@@mikhailsimon9027 The diagram, schematic and step by step guide on how to make the cable is on the project page on GitHub. Check the video description.

[@bitemykrank1970]

Just curious. Does your very nice software only run on your firmware, or can it be used with any? I have 2 of the radio's both on different firmwares. Is there anything special built into your compiled bin file to make your front end work or will it see other's aswell ? Small update : I installed the frmware from the link above, installed the software on my PC, and it does work, problem is, it also crashed my PC 4 times in a row with a different BSOD code each time, there is some really BAD bugs in your software, as soon as I uninstalled it,. my PC was fine again. I like the idea, but not the instability it seems to have.

[@nicsure]

Sorry to hear that you're having those problems. Not sure what to tell you. I've been developing this for that last 4 days and my PC hasn't been restarted that whole time and the app has been run hundreds of times and left running overnight and I've not experienced a single BSOD. Everyone's PC is different though and you may very well have some hardware/software configuration that disagrees with it somehow. I did see another video of someone demonstrating it where the app crashed while he was adjusting the font size in the channel editor, yet I could not replicate it. But I clearly saw it crash on the video. Things like that are extremely difficult to pinpoint when they can't be replicated locally. I'm sure that others will likely get the same issues as you and report it. Bear in mind this app didn't exist 5 days ago, it's extremely new and bound to have teething problems.

[@bitemykrank1970]

@@nicsure Thanks for the reply. I haven't got a problem with the software, I FULLY understand newborn's and their inherent ability to piss one off. I'm happy to keep playing with it, like I said, I like the concept, but the bugs are problematic. My PC is setup with just about every radio software I can install, and programming software for several different radio's, any of which could be throwing a tantrum. I can try it on a less cluttered machine and see if the problem re occurs. I really don't want to have to reload Windoze as a possible fix for an issue, It would be a nightmare on this PC, as it's my radio machine, it has EVERYTHING I use daily for all my radio stuff, and some of it takes ages to reconfigure, I hope it gets sorted somehow, I am very impressed by it so far, I REALLY like the channel programming abilities you built in, the feature video made me install it before it had even finished playing..... Quick crash information : All was working, I was clicking around and seeing button presses changing things on the radio, opened the spectrum and closed it, opened the settings and closed them. I then clicked on unlock TX, nothing happened to the icon, I clicked PTT and it opened the TX on the radio, even though the icon padlock was still locked. I clicked PTT a second time and the radio locked in TX, the software froze and I had to do a force shutdown of the entire PC. Both keyboard and mouse were locked. I assume something crashed the USB hubs in the PC. After a reboot, simply opening the software with the radio connected and turned on would result in a BSOD. After unplugging the cable, rebooting and removing the software, the PC is fine again. i tried to find the BSOD logs to see if anything was showing as to the cause, but I have no idea what to look for or where to find them. I followed a google idea or two and got nowhere, and sadly event viewer lacks any real information in its error logging. One other idea, is is possible to maybe have the radio talk the PC via the USB3 port as an optional connection? Or would that require more in depth knowledge?

[@nicsure]

@@bitemykrank1970I would say that the most probable cause is RF energy getting into the cabling and causing all sorts of mayhem.

[@bitemykrank1970]

@@nicsure It would have to get through a bucketload of ferrite first. Every cable in my shack has at least ten clip on or through wrap ferrite blocks as I had RF caused PC shutdowns on 144-148mhz before with the HT antenna's too close to the monitors. I doubt it's RF swamping it, it was only on TX for 2 seconds and only at 800mW output power. I'll try it again and see if I can replicate the problems. It's simple enough to change the radio firmware again.

[@nicsure]

@@bitemykrank1970I'm just seeing a lot of reports of problems that seem to appear right when the user is transmitting. It seems unlikely to be a coincidence. I actually have a bad fear that radio, being not of stellar construction has very little isolation on the side ports. So when transmitting it's literally injecting RF directly into the attached cables. If that's the case I may as well close the project as it's never going to work. :(

[@steelgtr]

So, no audio without the fancy home made cable?

[@nicsure]

Unfortunately no, when you plug in the cable it cuts out the internal speaker. That's a hardware thing and no amount of software can overcome it. So a cable mod is the best I can do I'm afraid.

[@steelgtr]

@@nicsure Thanks and great job. USB jack an audio out option? :)

[@steelgtr]

Nic, sorry for asking again but I'm not getting any audio through my PC speakers, radio is connected and program working but no sound? TY

[@nicsure]

What type of audio cable are you using?

[@steelgtr]

@@nicsure Forgive me I'm 75:) I'm not using cables, I just want to monitor audio through my PC speakers :)

[@nicsure]

@@steelgtrYou need a special cable to do that. Either a custom one you build yourself or something like an AOIC (all in one card). Instructions are on the GitHub page.

[@steelgtr]

@@nicsure OK, sorry, I thought that you said it was always possible but you meant with a cable. Any sources for the AOIC?

[@nicsure]

@@steelgtr Where are you located in the world?

[@AndyMcGeever]

Would there be any reason why we couldn't just tap the Serial TTL data straight from the back of the socket inside the radio and use the built in speaker/mic as normal?

[@nicsure]

Yes, when audio is being output from the speaker or any low-impedance output, the audio bleeds into the serial line and causes corruption. If that wasn't the case there would be no need to mod the cable at all to convert it to high-impedance, it would just work with two unmodified Y splitters.

[@AndyMcGeever]

I understand that part but if there's nothing plugged into the sockets then the audio wouldn't be re-routed to the 2.5mm jack rather than the internal speaker. If the TTL data is available on the back of the jack socket without plugging anything in to it then it could be tapped off from there without affecting audio routing. @@nicsure

[@nicsure]

@@AndyMcGeever Hmmm, i see where you're going. I'm not sure if the situation would just be the same. The serial TX shares its ground return with the audio's ground return, since the audio is low impedance, if there's any significant resistance between there and V- it's going introduce noise because the audio will be effectively biasing the ground. It might be a better situation from directly inside the radio though. I've not taken it apart to check.

[@AndyMcGeever]

I would imagine it's just crosstalk between the two side by side conductors within a common screen but either way, if the 2.5mm jack is not inserted then the audio signal won't be routed to the jack. It would have been nice if the data was on the USB-C but only the power pins are connected internally. There's easy access to the back of the jack sockets so i may try tagging a data line to it this aft and see i can maintain a serial connection whilst audio is routed to the speaker. My thought was whether or not the data would be always present at the socket or only routed to it when the jack is plugged in as the audio is. @@nicsure

[@AndyMcGeever]

Ok that worked buddy.. I just took a twisted pair (CAT6) straight from the back of the socket and it's clean on the serial monitor. I did have a little bit of breakthrough initially when transmitting but that was with a single conductor to a TTL/USB converter and a ground to the radio chassis but that didn't happen with the twisted pair. I'll put a 2.5mm socket on the side of the radio and then it should be ok with a decent quality short extension to plug the original programming lead into. @@nicsure

[@kchaney56]

What you have is a K5 the K6 looks quite different.

[@nicsure]

That's just an Image I grabbed from the internet. My radio is a K5(8)/K6 and also have the newer one too.

[@francispanugaling5333]

does it run on windows 8 32bit ? id try to run the exe but my laptop couldnt run it bec its 64bit ,,,mine is 32 pls help,,, thanks ....

[@nicsure]

The source code is on GitHub, you can compile it for 32 bit CPUs.

[@eddiewalker4530]

Cool program. I’m using it on a dell laptop and the frequency numbers are to long. I’ve tried to adjust the but to no avail. Maybe it’s a screen setting on my laptop. Anyone had a similar issue? Thanks 73’s

[@nicsure]

Go into settings and tell me your F Stretch setting.

[@Funkyoitube]

It's possible to use the radio in remote? Like rcforb?

[@nicsure]

I don't even know what rcforb is, sorry. The whole point of the project is to use the radio remotely. Unless I'm not understanding you?

[@Funkyoitube]

@@nicsure i'm asking if it's possible to enable ptt and talking using the mic and speakers of a remote pc. Not only control the radio, but full transmit and receive in remote.

[@nicsure]

@@FunkyoitubeDo you mean a PC other than the one connected to the radio? Basically remote control the software itself from another PC?

[@cchalfantusa]

That’s what I want to do!

[@nicsure]

There's no (yet) built in function for that, however you do have possible areas such as remote desktop or TCP/IP to Serial. Audio is a little tricky though, probably need some kind of streaming setup to pull that off.

[@kevinbarnes1167]

I can't get the app to work. In windows. Does it only work in windows 11. I am running 10

[@nicsure]

Should work in 10, I'm pretty sure there are others running 10.

[@mt8385]

It's a shame that such an awesome piece of software is developed for such a poor radio. Would it be possible to use it with a truSDX or something von QRPLabs?

[@nicsure]

The radio isn't the only thing that's poor. I can only really develop for stuff I can afford.

[@mt8385]

@@nicsure that's true but the others are not much more. maybe you can modify it so that the community can develop it further for other radios or donate you other radios. I could imagine how much time you spent in this and it would be a pitty if it's only usable for such a crappy radio

[@nicsure]

@@mt8385Well it's all open source so anyone can try to adapt it.