[chirp_users] Baofeng UV-5RTP

[Jim Unroe]

Hi Tycen,

See below.

On Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 3:55 PM, Tycen Stafford <k7tyc at k7tyc.com> wrote:
> I just got a pair of Baofeng UV-5RTP tri-power (8/4/1W) HT's.  I see on
> CHIRP's wiki page and elsewhere to use BF-F8HP when trying to program from
> CHIRP.  However, when I select that I get "An error has occurred: Incorrect
> 'Model' selected" and the radio reboots.

Correct. See below.
>
> If I select UV-5R as the model then CHIRP is able to download from the radio
> - but in CHIRP the only available power settings are HIGH and LOW.

Correct. See below.

>
> I tried uploading to one of the radios when selecting UV-5R and it seemed to
> work fine.  On the radio I was still able to switch the transmit power
> between HIGH, MEDIUM and LOW - I'm just not able to set that in CHIRP.

High is HIGH and Low is MID. You just can't select LOW.

>
> Should I just keep using the UV-5R selection or will that have unforeseen
> consequences (beyond having to manually set transmit power if I want
> medium).

Yes. See below.

>
> The firmware for both (holding down #3 while starting up) is listed as
> BFP3-23.

If this were true, there would be no issue. Unfortunately with the
introduction of BFB299 firmware back in 2013, the power on message no
longer displays the "real" firmware version. The "real" firmware
version can only be determined by using CHIRP.

Settings -> Other Settings -> Firmware Message 1:
Settings -> Other Settings -> Firmware Message 2:

The real firmware version is "HN5RV01"

Until recently, Baofeng has differentiated between radios with 2 power
levels and 3 power levels by the firmware version. CHIRP uses this
difference to determine if the radio being programmed has 2 or 3 power
levels.

But recently Baofeng started shipping radios with 3 power levels
(BF-F9V2+, GT-3TP, UV-5RTP, etc) with "HN5RV01" firmware. This
firmware version was originally assigned to radios with 2 power
levels. So CHIRP is programmed to recognize this firmware version as
being from a radio with 2 power levels.

Until a way can be discovered or developed to differentiate between
the two radio types, this will be an issue.

If you wish, you could edit the uv5r.py driver file as explained here
to allow the three power levels to be available.

http://chirp.danplanet.com/issues/4445#note-4

>
> I'm on macOS 10.12.3 and using CHIRP daily-20170311 (latest build as of this
> morning).

This affect all CHIRP supported operating systems.

>
> Thanks for any info,
> Tycen K7TYC

Jim KC9HI