Open reimplementation of the Quan Sheng UV-K5 v2.1.27 firmware

This repository is a cloned and customized version of DualTachyon's open firmware found here ..

https://github.com/DualTachyon/uv-k5-firmware .. a cool achievement !

in addition to OneOfEleven enhancements and changes,

RE3CON changes:

• Changed: Full freq range of BK4819 max. outside specs for TX and RX: Band 1: 14 MHz to 665 MHz and Band 2: 745 MHz to 1899,5 MHz.

• Added: A 2nd ToneBurst 1050Hz and 1750Hz = PTT + Sidekey 1, PTT + Sidekey 2.

• Changed: NOAA channels to first 10 PMR channels

• Changed: Github Compiler arm-none-eabi-gcc to newer Version 11.3.Rel1 save some kb VS. latest Version and older Ver. 10.3.1

  ENABLE_TX_UNLOCK is now obsolete because 1o11 added it now too, renamed as ENABLE_TX_UNLOCK_MENU

Use this firmware/code ENTIRELY at your own risk. This firmware is totally experimental, and at times will go completely tits up (break your radio).

There is absolutely no guarantee that it will work in any way shape or form on your radio(s), it may even brick your radio(s).

You're on your own.

NO REFUNDS, ever !

Observed radio boot problems

After having two UV-K5(8) radios for a while now, and I don't know how many programming lead insertions/deinsertions (lots n lots!) both radios are now having trouble booting up into either the bootloader and/or the firmware.

I suspect the reason being something to do with the the 3.5mm/2.5mm mic jack sockets or the volume control pot, either that or broken thru-hole plating in the PCB or such like.

Need to find matching replacements to confirm this though (or just temp short the terminals that are suppose to be shorted at power on).

Radio performance

Please note that the Quansheng UV-Kx radios are not professional quality transceivers, their performance is strictly limited. The RX front end has no track-tuned band pass filtering at all, and so are wide band/wide open to any and all signals over a large frequency range.

But, they are nice toys for the price, fun to play with.

User customization

You can customize the firmware by enabling/disabling various compile options, this allows us to remove certain firmware features in order to make room in the flash for others. You'll find the options at the top of "Makefile" ('0' = remove code, '1' = include code) ..

ENABLE_CLANG                     := 0     **experimental, builds with clang instead of gcc (LTO will be disabled if you enable this)
ENABLE_SWD                       := 0       only needed if using CPU's SWD port (debugging/programming)
ENABLE_OVERLAY                   := 0       cpu FLASH stuff, not needed
ENABLE_LTO                       := 1     **experimental, reduces size of compiled firmware but might break EEPROM reads (OVERLAY will be disabled if you enable this)
ENABLE_UART                      := 1       without this you can't configure radio via PC
ENABLE_UART_DEBUG                := 0       just for code debugging, it sends debug info along the USB serial connection (programming lead)
ENABLE_AIRCOPY                   := 1       clone radio-to-radio via RF
ENABLE_AIRCOPY_REMEMBER_FREQ     := 1       remember the aircopy frequency
ENABLE_AIRCOPY_RX_REBOOT         := 0       auto reboot on an aircopy successful RX completion
ENABLE_FMRADIO_64_76             := 0       enable FM radio   64MHz ~ 76MHz
ENABLE_FMRADIO_76_90             := 0       enable FM radio   76MHz ~ 90MHz
ENABLE_FMRADIO_76_108            := 0       enable FM radio   76MHz ~ 108MHz
ENABLE_FMRADIO_875_108           := 1       enable FM radio 87.5MHz ~ 108MHz
ENABLE_FMRADIO_64_108            := 0       enable the FM radios full frequency range
ENABLE_NOAA                      := 0       everything NOAA (only of any use in the USA)
ENABLE_VOICE                     := 0       want to hear voices ?
ENABLE_MUTE_RADIO_FOR_VOICE      := 1       mute the radios audio when a voice is playing
ENABLE_VOX                       := 0       voice operated transmission
ENABLE_VOX_MORE_SENSITIVE        := 1       make VOX more sensitive
ENABLE_ALARM                     := 0       TX alarms
ENABLE_1750HZ                    := 1       side key 1750Hz TX tone (older style repeater access) and 1050Hz tone.
ENABLE_MDC1200                   := 0       enable MDC1200 TX/RX + menu TX option
ENABLE_MDC1200_SHOW_OP_ARG       := 1       show RX opcode and argument values when MDC1200 is RX'ed
ENABLE_MDC1200_SIDE_BEEP         := 1       enable short side tone/beep when MDC1200 is sent - so user knows when they can start taking after PTT pressed
ENABLE_PWRON_PASSWORD            := 0       include power-on password code
ENABLE_RESET_AES_KEY             := 1       '1' = reset/clear the AES key stored in the eeprom (only if it's set)
ENABLE_BIG_FREQ                  := 0       big font frequencies (like original QS firmware)
ENABLE_DTMF_LIVE_DECODER         := 0       enable the live DTMF display/decoder .. adds a menu option
ENABLE_SHOW_FREQS_CHAN           := 1       show the channel name under the frequency if the frequency is found in a channel
ENABLE_SMALL_BOLD                := 1       bold channel name/no. (when name + freq channel display mode)
ENABLE_TRIM_TRAILING_ZEROS       := 1       trim away any trailing zeros on frequencies
ENABLE_WIDE_RX                   := 1       full 18MHz to 1300MHz RX (though front-end/PA not designed for full range)
ENABLE_TX_WHEN_AM                := 1       allow TX (always FM) when RX is set to AM
ENABLE_F_CAL_MENU                := 0       enable frequency calibration hidden menu
ENABLE_TX_UNLOCK_MENU            := 1       allow TX everywhere.. TX harmonic content will cause interference to other services, do so entirely at your own risk !
ENABLE_TX_POWER_CAL_MENU         := 0       used to compute the TX power register values .. leave at '0'
ENABLE_TX_POWER_FIX              := 1       fix the TX output power, L ~ 10mW, M ~ 500mW, H ~ 4W, U ~ user settable
ENABLE_CTCSS_TAIL_PHASE_SHIFT    := 0       standard CTCSS tail phase shift rather than QS's own 55Hz tone method
ENABLE_CONTRAST                  := 0       add contrast menu
ENABLE_BOOT_BEEPS                := 0       gives user audio feedback on volume knob position at boot-up
ENABLE_DTMF_CALL_FLASH_LIGHT     := 1       flash the flash light LED when a DTMF call is received
ENABLE_FLASH_LIGHT_SOS_TONE      := 1       also do SOS in morse
ENABLE_SHOW_CHARGE_LEVEL         := 0       show the charge level when the radio is on charge
ENABLE_REVERSE_BAT_SYMBOL        := 1       mirror the battery symbol on the status bar (+ pole on the right)
ENABLE_FREQ_SEARCH_LNA           := 0       keep this disabled
ENABLE_FREQ_SEARCH_TIMEOUT       := 0       timeout if FREQ not found when using F+4 search function
ENABLE_CODE_SEARCH_TIMEOUT       := 0       timeout if CTCSS/CDCSS not found when using F+* search function
ENABLE_SCAN_IGNORE_LIST          := 1       ignore selected frequencies when scanning - add freqs to list with short */scan button when freq scanning, remove freq from list with long press MENU when not scanning
ENABLE_SCAN_RANGES               := 0       adds menu option to auto select frequency scan range/step depending on your initial frequency
ENABLE_KILL_REVIVE               := 0       include kill and revive code
ENABLE_AM_FIX                    := 1       dynamically adjust the front end gains when in AM mode to help prevent AM demodulator saturation, ignore the on-screen RSSI level (for now)
ENABLE_AM_FIX_SHOW_DATA          := 1       show debug data for the AM fix (still tweaking it)
ENABLE_SQUELCH_MORE_SENSITIVE    := 1       make squelch levels a little bit more sensitive - I plan to let user adjust the values themselves
ENABLE_SQ_OPEN_WITH_UP_DN_BUTTS  := 1       open the squelch when holding down UP or DN buttons when in frequency mode
ENABLE_FASTER_CHANNEL_SCAN       := 1       increase the channel scan speed, but also make the squelch more twitchy
ENABLE_COPY_CHAN_TO_VFO_TO_CHAN  := 1       long press M, copy channel to VFO, or VFO to channel
ENABLE_RX_SIGNAL_BAR             := 1       enable a menu option for showing an RSSI bar graph
ENABLE_TX_AUDIO_BAR              := 1       enable a menu option for showing a TX audio level bar
ENABLE_SIDE_BUTT_MENU            := 1       enable menu option for configuring the programmable side buttons
ENABLE_KEYLOCK                   := 1       enable keylock menu option + keylock code
ENABLE_PANADAPTER                := 1       centered on the selected VFO RX frequency, only shows if dual-watch is disabled
ENABLE_PANADAPTER_PEAK_FREQ      := 0       show the peak panadapter frequency
ENABLE_SINGLE_VFO_CHAN           := 0       not yet complete

New/modified function keys

• Long-press 'M' ... Remove current frequency from ignore list (only if it's in the ignore frequency list)

• Long-press 'M' ... Copy current frequency into a channel (takes you into the channel save menu)

• Long-press 'M' ... Copy current channel into the same VFO, then switch the VFO to frequency mode

• Long-press '5' ... Toggle selected channel scanlist setting (if NOAA is disabled in Makefile) or

• Long-press '7' ... Toggle selected channel scanlist setting (if VOX is disabled in Makefile)

• Long-press '*' ... Start scanning, then toggles the scanning between scanlists 1, 2 or ALL channels

• Short-press '*' .. Add current frequency to the frequency ignore list (only if in frequency scan mode)

Edit channel/memory name

1. Press Menu button
2. Scroll to "CH NAM" (around number 17)
3. Press the Menu button to enter
4. Use up/down keys to choose the desired channel to edit
5. Press the Menu button again to enter edit name mode
6. Use the up/down keys to cycle through the letters etc
7. Press the Menu button again to move to the next character position
8. Repeat steps 6 and/or 7 till you reach the end
9. When it pops up the "Sure?" text, press Menu button to save, or Exit to cancel

Press the Exit button at any time to cancel the edit and return to the main menu.

Sounds complicated but once you done it a couple of times you'll be fine.

When you're editing the name, you can enter digits (0 ~ 9) directly without having to use the up/down buttons to find them.

Some changes made from the Quansheng firmware

• Various Quansheng firmware bugs fixed
• Added new bugs
• Mic menu includes max gain possible
• AM RX everywhere (left the TX as is)
• An attempt to improve the AM RX audio (demodulator getting saturated/overloaded in Quansheng firmware)
• keypad-5/NOAA button now toggles scanlist-1 on/off for current channel when held down - IF NOAA not used
• Better backlight times (inc always on)
• Live DTMF decoder option, though the decoder needs some coeff tuning changes to decode other radios it seems
• Various menu re-wordings (trying to reduce 'WTH does that mean ?')
• AIRCOPY RX'ing radio now requests packet resends from TX'ing radio if RX'ed packet is lost/corrupted
• ..

Symbol information

Compiler

arm-none-eabi GCC version 11.3.Rel1 is recommended, which is the best version on latest Ubuntu. Other versions may generate a flash file that is too big. You can get an appropriate version from: https://developer.arm.com/downloads/-/arm-gnu-toolchain-downloads#panel6a

clang may be used but isn't fully supported. Resulting binaries may also be bigger. You can get it from: https://releases.llvm.org/download.html

Building

To build the firmware, you need to fetch the submodules and then run make:

git submodule update --init --recursive --depth=1
make

To compile directly in windows without the need of a linux virtual machine:

1. Download and install "arm-gnu-toolchain-11.3.rel1-mingw-w64-i686-arm-none-eabi.exe" from https://developer.arm.com/-/media/Files/downloads/gnu/11.3.rel1/binrel/arm-gnu-toolchain-11.3.rel1-mingw-w64-i686-arm-none-eabi.exe?rev=674f6ef06614499dad033db88c3452b3&hash=11B71993F9DA4B77974E9E8AE6EEF366
2. Download and install "gnu_make-3.81.exe" from https://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/make.htm
3. If need be (probably not), also download Dependency.zip that includes the library files from https://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/make.htm

3. You may need to (I didn't) manualy add gcc path to your OS environment PATH.
   ie add C:\Program Files (x86)\GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain\10 2021.10\bin

4. You may need to reboot your PC after installing the above

Then you can run 'win_make.bat' from the directory you saved this source code too. You may need to edit the bat file (path to make.exe) depending on where you installed the above two packages too.

I've left some notes in the win_make.bat file to maybe help with stuff.

Credits

Many thanks to various people on Telegram for putting up with me during this effort and helping:

• DualTachyon
• Mikhail
• Andrej
• Manuel
• @wagner
• @Lohtse Shar
• @Matoz
• @Davide
• @Ismo OH2FTG
• OneOfEleven
• @d1ced95
• and others I forget

License

Copyright 2023 Dual Tachyon https://github.com/DualTachyon

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

Example changes/updates

WARNING if trying to use K5/K6 to TX out of band ..

Most of the radios TX energy is concentrated into the harmonics and other spurious carriers rather than within the fundamental ..

You have been warned !