[chirp_users] IC-2720

[Dan Smith]

> Is there any documentation ( wiki or otherwise) on how to use Chirp
> and about the different format to save in ( csv, vs chrisp vs img) ?

Just the beginner's guide:

   http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Beginners_Guide

If you and others can come up with some specific things that you'd like 
to see documented, I'll be glad to try to write those up. Being 
neck-deep in the internals, it's hard for me to "see" what needs to be 
documented.

Of course, anyone that wants to take a stab at actually writing 
something up gets bonus points :)

> How difficult would it be to allow something like an import of a csv to
> a generic radio then set the type up and do a write to the Radio.

Well, you can import a CSV into a CSV right now. I think what you're 
looking for is the ability to upload a CSV directly into a radio, and 
have CHIRP do the behind-the-scenes work to create an empty image, right?

I'm a little hesitant to start distributing blank images of radios with 
CHIRP itself, but I have considered providing some sort of a bootstrap 
process which would let you capture "base" images of your radios and 
have them stored internally. Then, chirp could provide something like a 
direct upload from CSV by silently merging to the base image and 
uploading that.

Is that what you're looking for?

The only problem here is that you could put something in your CSV that 
your radio can't support, which means when you go to do the upload, 
you'd see an error like "The IC-2720 doesn't support 50.525MHz" as 
opposed to seeing it immediately while editing now. It's definitely 
something I can look into though.

I also worry that people will constantly be asking why CHIRP is 
(seemingly) reversing settings such as backlight intensity or beep 
volume. Since that stuff would be stored in the base image, if you 
tweaked it just before doing an upload, it would revert.

Do other people think this is a useful workflow?

> Currently I do not seem to be able to setup the type of radio except
> for a read from the radio.

Well, the idea has always been that you download an image of your radio, 
edit or import, and then upload. You can store a .img file of your 2720 
and open it later (without having to do a download first).

-- 
Dan Smith
www.danplanet.com
KK7DS