I create communications protocols for embedded devices as a regular part of my job. (I have also been an actual rocket scientist.) The following are my somewhat-informed prejudices...
Designing an external programming interface that is 1) close to bulletproof, so a user CANNOT damage the device, and 2) nearly universal, so that common operations as programming a memory channel are the same across revisions of the device, or across similar devices, is NOT rocket science, and there is no good reason a radio manufacturer cannot do that. In fact, it would almost certainly be cheaper and easier in the long run for them to do so. If you know the internal format of your device configuration memory, and what the limits for each setting are (and you MUST know these things in order to write your radio firmware), then a well-organized firmware design can definitely accommodate a mostly-generic programming protocol. Program memory is cheap and plentiful now, even for very low-cost devices, and generic interface code can easily be written to be reusable in your NEXT product.
The next step, of course, is documenting and releasing your protocol, whereupon you can then make it a standard, and most everyone can use it. Interoperability benefits everyone, and there's a competitive advantage to using a standard where one exists. The practice of just bit-banging a binary memory image into the radio is, IMO, lazy and short-sighted. Or maybe they just don't have good programmers writing their radio firmware, or good managers setting sensible priorities for the development projects...
</rant>
Regards, Steve
On Sun, May 25, 2025 at 6:49 PM Stiv Ostenberg via Users < users@lists.chirpmyradio.com> wrote:
Agreed. I am not happy with Yaesu for that reason. To be honest, as I pointed out to a testy Yaesu rep, if their radio is so badly designed that a user level program can brick the radio, then their radio is garbage. Seriously, coming from an IT and Computer background, if your product is so fragile, nobody should trust it. Needless to say they continue to insist their radio is solid, but can be destroyed by software.
I still own Yaesu radios, and I will buy them if they suit me, just ignore their marketing claims, they are not trustworthy.
-----Original Message----- From: John K via Users users@lists.chirpmyradio.com Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2025 6:09 PM To: CHIRP users list users@lists.chirpmyradio.com Cc: John K kemkerj3@gmail.com Subject: [users] Re: Chirp with Yaesu radios
Yaesu engages in FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt, marketing. It's because they've entered into a marketing agreement with a for-profit company to produce software for modifying their radios. Therefore, a group of amateurs who have written open-source software that Yaesu can't make money off of, they'll make all sorts of claims about it "bricking" Yaesu radios. I've yet to meet a single person who has experienced it first-hand. Only people who know others who have supposedly had their radios bricked with Chirp.
I wouldn't worry about it at all.
Of course, I no longer buy Yaesu for that, and other reasons.
On Tue, May 13, 2025 at 9:04 PM howard--- via Users < users@lists.chirpmyradio.com> wrote:
I have an FT817ND and an FTM7250DR, both of which are listed as supported radios. However, I have seen a number of posts on the internet from Yaesu stating that using Chirp with Yaesu radios may
damage them.
On the 7250, Chirp uses the clone mode of the radio which, to my mind, is a very safe way to go. I am not sure how it works with the 817. I would like to use Chirp with both but I am, of course, worried by the Yaesu statements. Are these statements still valid? Or have they been invalidated by progress within Chirp? Or were they not valid in the first instance but a reflection of some other issue? Thanks for any information on this. Howard, VK4BS _______________________________________________ Users mailing list users@lists.chirpmyradio.com https://lists.chirpmyradio.com/postorius/lists/users.lists.chirpmyradi o.com To unsubscribe, send an email to users-leave@lists.chirpmyradio.com To report this email as off-topic, please email users-owner@lists.chirpmyradio.com List archives: https://lists.chirpmyradio.com/hyperkitty/list/users@lists.chirpmyradi o.com/
-- --John E Kemker III _______________________________________________ Users mailing list users@lists.chirpmyradio.com https://lists.chirpmyradio.com/postorius/lists/users.lists.chirpmyradio.com To unsubscribe, send an email to users-leave@lists.chirpmyradio.com To report this email as off-topic, please email users-owner@lists.chirpmyradio.com List archives: https://lists.chirpmyradio.com/hyperkitty/list/users@lists.chirpmyradio.com/ _______________________________________________ Users mailing list users@lists.chirpmyradio.com https://lists.chirpmyradio.com/postorius/lists/users.lists.chirpmyradio.com To unsubscribe, send an email to users-leave@lists.chirpmyradio.com To report this email as off-topic, please email users-owner@lists.chirpmyradio.com List archives: https://lists.chirpmyradio.com/hyperkitty/list/users@lists.chirpmyradio.com/