[chirp_devel] Adding Settings support to the VX8-R

[Keith Williamson]

Hi Ray,

Yes, I would love to have a VX-8GR image also!

Thanks,

Keith

On Sun, Jun 4, 2017 at 3:01 PM, ray c <rayslinky at gmail.com> wrote:

> FWIW, my VX-8GR identifies as AH041. I did a factory reset and took an
> image of it. It's not a DR, but I'd be happy to send it to you.
>
> ray
> AC1BC
>
> On Sun, Jun 4, 2017 at 4:59 PM, Keith Williamson via chirp_devel <
> chirp_devel at intrepid.danplanet.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I think I figured out the "chirp" method for dealing with differing
>> memory layouts between radios withing the same driver.
>>
>> I split the aprs struct into a shorter aprs struct, followed by a
>> aprs_msg_macro[%d] struct, and an aprs2 struct. I prepended both the
>> aprs_msg_macro[%d] struct and the aprs2 struct with "#seekto 0x%04X;" I
>> then computed the beginning address of the aprs_msg_macro[%d] struct and
>> added the starting address and number of message macros to the _mem_params
>> for both the VX8Radio and VX8DRadio classes. I also computed the beginning
>> address of the aprs2 struct and added those to the _mem_params for both
>> radio classes.
>>
>> I've tested these changes with my VX-8R and the test image
>> Yaesu_VX-8_R.img. This leads to a quandry.
>>
>> Reading back through the archived messages from around 2013, I see that
>> when the Settings support was added for the VX-8DR, the conclusion at the
>> time was that Settings would not be supported for the stock VX-8R due to
>> lack of a radio to test with. It was felt that most everyone would have
>> sent their VX-8R's in for the Yaesu upgrade that added the enhanced memory
>> and APRS support of the VX-8DR. Unfortunately, I was asleep at the switch
>> and was unaware of that opportunity until it was no longer offered. I would
>> have jumped on that given that APRS was one of my major drivers for buying
>> the VX-8R in the first place. Bummer..would have definitely liked to have
>> smart beaconing. Anyway, inspecting the Yaesu_VX-8_R.img memory, I see that
>> it is an AH029 that appears to have come from Dan who I remember from the
>> archives had gotten his upgraded through the Yaesu program. So, apparently,
>> the upgrade didn't result in a change to the _model for the radio.
>>
>> Does anybody know of a way to disambiguate between a stock VX-8R and an
>> upgraded one? I need to be able to support upgraded VX-8R's as VX-8DR's.
>>
>> Can anyone supply an image for a true VX-8DR so that I can test that my
>> code changes for the VX8DRadio class?
>>
>> Thanks in advance!
>>
>> 73's,
>>
>> Keith
>> KF7DRV
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Jun 2, 2017 at 6:16 PM, Keith Williamson <hkwilliamson at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I'm trying to add support for Settings for the original VX-8R. I just
>>> recently have been switching over to chirp for all of my radios and was
>>> surprised to find that the Settings tab was empty after downloading from my
>>> VX-8R. After a few modifications to the vx8.py driver, I have settings
>>> coming up properly for my radio but have doubtless broken support for the
>>> VX-8DR.
>>>
>>> The VX8-DR has expanded APRS features such as SmartBeaconing, more
>>> Message Macros, more DigiPaths, etc. These affect the memory layout some.
>>> To fix it (temporarily), I corrected the memory layout to align with the
>>> VX-8R and commented out the calls that referenced the now missing memory
>>> elements.
>>>
>>> I'd like to contribute the changes back but I'm not sure how to handle
>>> support for both the VX-8R and VX-8DR (and VX-8GER). With differences in
>>> memory layout, should the VX-8R have a separate driver or can the memory
>>> layout differences be somehow accommodated within the same driver?
>>>
>>> 73's,
>>>
>>> Keith
>>> KF7DRV
>>>
>>>
>>
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>
>
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