I've got a Yaesu FT-1802 and FT-817 here I'd really like to use with Chirp. They are both cloning-cable radios, so I assume I could use the existing Yaesu cloning system once I figure our how the memory is mapped. My guess is that the FT-1802 is very similar to the FT-2800.
If so, have you tried telling chirp you have a 2800 and seeing if it will accept the 1802 clone? Or the 7800 for that matter. It won't decode the memory correctly, but that's the easy part.
Where should I start? Has anyone poked at either of these radios before? I know there is existing programming software for the FT-817, but I couldn't find documentation of the memory map.
The 817 is a clone-type? I figured it'd be a CAT type, although maybe it will do both.
For the Yaesu radios, you just have to initiate a clone from the radio side and do something on the PC to look at what is being sent and send what the radio expects in return. I often run pre-existing software in a Windows VM using portmon to capture the traffic and then reverse-engineer from there. Most yaesus are expecting to send a block of data and get back a single ACK (0x06), so it's not too tough to fake out the radio until you figure out what needs to be done.
I think I owe Eric an empty shell stub driver for the FT-270 so maybe that would help you for yours as well.