[chirp_devel] TYT MD-380

[Andrew Jorgensen]

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