[chirp_devel] any Chirp developers in NJ, NY, or PA?

[Rhett Robinson]

So far my limited experience with adding support for a radio (the 2730A is
my first) is that it doesn't need any knowledge of C (the chirp library
itself is python). A basic familiarity with memory (bytes, ascii, binary
formats for numbers, etc), arrays, python and being comfortable digging
into hex dumps is important, though. Depending on how similar to the
existing drivers your radios are, this may or may not be easy or hard. For
example, most Icom drivers have similar layouts and routines, but then the
2730A turns out to do things a bit differently, so that took some staring
at hex dumps and scratching my head and debugging a bit to figure out what
was different. Another recent example of a difficult driver was
https://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/repository/revisions/e96b1bfcc450
where the developer reverse engineered an obfuscation routine of the memory.

If you have a radio that is supported with Chirp, an interesting exercise
might be to try to use that one and reverse engineer it. Delete the
existing driver file, and repeat the procedure. You have the existing
driver file as a "cheat" to compare against when you get stuck.

As for dangers to your hardware, probably not much. I've tried writing a
few times to the 2730A as I'm debugging, and the only thing that has
happened so far is the radio beeps, displays CLONE ERROR and I have to
power cycle it, after which the memory is reset. That is using the wrong
protocol, though, and not writing bad data using the right protocol, so I'm
not sure what happens there yet. I would imagine it might just display an
error or reset itself if there's bad or corrupt data. You are unlikely to
be able to actually harm it, but, of course, that's not a guarantee.

On Thu, Jan 4, 2018 at 10:36 AM, Rob Owens via chirp_devel <
chirp_devel at intrepid.danplanet.com> wrote:

> I'm not well versed in C.  I was hoping to be able to map out the memory
> locations, and modify an existing driver.  And I'm very unsure of any
> dangers to my hardware, so I'd like a little better understanding in
> that area.  I mean, at some point I have to try writing to my radio, and
> I'm not sure what the worst case scenario is there or how to avoid it.
>
> On Thu, Jan 04, 2018 at 09:57:36AM -0800, Silverfox wrote:
> > I don't think you need constrain yourself to a regional area to
> accomplish
> > what you want to do but I suggest that if you are not well versed in C
> > development and knowledgable to use data collection and debug techniques,
> > you will have a hard time moving forward.  I am not saying "don't try it"
> > but you should be aware of the requisites.
> > 73,
> > Alan - W6ARH
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: chirp_devel-bounces at intrepid.danplanet.com
> > [mailto:chirp_devel-bounces at intrepid.danplanet.com] On Behalf Of Rob
> Owens
> > via chirp_devel
> > Sent: Thursday, January 4, 2018 9:40 AM
> > To: chirp_devel at intrepid.danplanet.com
> > Subject: [chirp_devel] any Chirp developers in NJ, NY, or PA?
> >
> > I now have three radios that are not supported by Chirp.  Nobody has
> stepped
> > up to add support, so I'm trying to teach myself how to do it.
> > But I'm sure my learning curve would be much quicker if I had somebody
> > experienced to work with for a day or so.
> >
> > Is there anybody near northwestern New Jersey who would be willing to
> help
> > me get started?  I'm not looking for someone to do the work for me, just
> > somebody to help remove the cloud of uncertainty I'm stuck in.
> >
> > -Rob
> > _______________________________________________
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> > chirp_devel at intrepid.danplanet.com
> > http://intrepid.danplanet.com/mailman/listinfo/chirp_devel
> > Developer docs: http://chirp.danplanet.com/
> projects/chirp/wiki/Developers
> >
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