This offer still available if anyone wants to take me up on it. If I don't hear back in the next two weeks I'll put it to some other use.
Kind Regards, Andrew
On Tue, Oct 20, 2015, 8:47 AM Andrew Jorgensen andrew@jorgensenfamily.us wrote:
Greetings,
Many Linux hams have written elsewhere about wanting support for the Connect Systems CS700 or the Tytera MD-380 DMR radios in CHIRP. I don't personally have much time to devote to the task, but I will soon have an MD-380 which I will give (free as in beer, down from $140) to a developer who wants to get into DMR and put in the time to add support to CHIRP.
The two radios use the same configuration format, based on DfuSe, and method of writing the config - a modified USB Device Firmware Update (DFU). The MD-380 is very popular right now, because of its price, and it seems that similar radios will be on the market for some time to come.
Some reverse engineering and USB debugging on Windows is likely required. Existing open source DFU utilities have not (for me) succeeded in writing the configuration, but there are a number of examples of code (including Python code) for handling DfuSe files, and some documents on some of the specific layout of the configuration.
I've been told that CHIRP is (almost?) entirely serial-based so far. I don't know how much of a wrench that throws in this. There's also some trepidation about accidentally bricking the radio, but I would guess that concern is common here.
I'm a Linux Systems Engineer and mostly write code in Python, but I'm just too busy with kids and work to believe that I'd be able to make much progress on my own. I'm happy to test from time to time, and to help figure out the file format and USB protocol.
If you're sufficiently interested in DMR and in adding a new radio to CHIRP, and you believe you can pull it off, please let me know off-list. I expect no payment, and I'm accepting the risk that the work may never get done. I've decided opening DMR to the world of hams who don't own any Windows machines is worth that risk.
I hope there's nothing inappropriate about making this offer on this list, and that you'll all forgive me if there is.
Kind Regards, Andrew Jorgensen KC7RBW