[chirp_devel] Getting started with the Alinco DR-635

[Nathan Crapo]

Looks like rtsystems.com has software for $49.00.  :(  And it's Windows
only software, too.  One route would be to borrow/eval a copy of that,
install it on a VM along with Serial Port Monitor and get the protocol.
Then add support to Chirp and you'd give cross-platform programmability to
everyone.  Maybe you're willing to make a $49 sacrifice to enable
everyone?  I know a lot of people like CHIRP because it's a universal tool
for all their radios.

Another route is to "fuzz" the radio.  You could form your stimulus with
the existing Alinco radio to speed things up a bunch.  It looks like the
protocol for most models differ pretty minimally for a given vendor.

You're right: Serial Port Monitor is Windows only.  Unfortunately a lot of
the OEM programming software is Windows only as well.  FWIW, Serial Port
Monitor did do a really nice job of documenting the protocol.

I'm not a Windows fan, either.  I don't even use it for work much.  I used
a Windows 7 VM for the initial protocol snooping, and then carried out the
remaining dev in MacOS and Linux.  It's pretty easy to "pipe" your USB
serial dongles from the host to guest OS with VirtualBox, for example.  I'm
sure other VM technology will do this as well.

Regards,
Nathan




On Sun, Jun 12, 2016 at 10:36 AM, Nate Bargmann via chirp_devel <
chirp_devel at intrepid.danplanet.com> wrote:

> * On 2016 12 Jun 11:10 -0500, Nathan Crapo wrote:
> > Nate,
> >
> > I recently went through a similar experience with the TH-7800 driver.  I
> > used Serial Port Monitor 6 to "sniff" the serial traffic while uploading
> > and downloading the radio via the OEM software.  The TYT software is
> really
> > limited, but it does that part well.  Once I figured out the protocol, it
> > was easy to modify the a very similar driver to work.  I'm betting Alinco
> > has their own software you can do this with.  Good luck!  :)
>
> I see that "Serial Port Monitor 6" is for Windows.  I am using Devuan
> (Debian) Linux so that is probably out.
>
> Alinco shows no OEM software for the DR-635T.
>
> 73, Nate
>
> --
>
> "The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all
> possible worlds.  The pessimist fears this is true."
>
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