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programming a uv5r pro with chirp

 

I just received two UV5R Pro HT's that I purchased as a package deal and I am now trying to program them and set them up for use but I have run into some real issues.
Every time I try to load a set of 19 channels (both duplex and simplex with most of the duplex being tone access) I am unable to upload that into the radio using chirp.??
I do not know if I am doing something wrong or if I am using the wrong version of Chirp, or maybe if there is something that I am missing.? I have also tried to program the radio by hand and I am having absolutely no success with that.?

What steps are involved in setting up a set of channels or frequencies in Chirp and uploading those into the Baofeng UV5R? Pro?
 

Are you first downloading the database from the radio to set up the
fields for the program to use? After that, you can copy and paste
information into the spreadsheet-like interface then upload to the
radio.

You need to download the radio information first, before making
changes. If you don't do that, the program doesn't have any defined
fields to work with.

Also, are you using an official Baofeng cable or a knock-off? There
are some bad reviews on SOME knock-off cables, especially those with
the Prolific chipset. The Prolific driver can detect a counterfeit
cable and will refuse to work with it. I have the official cable with
the FDTI chipset, and it works well. I haven't seen many bad reviews
on the knock-off FDTI chipset cables.

That said, I also bought one of those multi-headed programming cables
(sort of a universal programming cable for multiple brands) and used
it's driver and it worked just fine, too.

There's also a CHIRP group, if this doesn't help, or if you don't get
your answer. Both this and the CHIRP groups are rather small still but
hopefully we'll get you figured out.

Donald KX8K

On Wed, 04 Aug 2021 20:35:34 -0700, "W5CTD"
<charles.t.dennis@...> wrote:

What steps are involved in setting up a set of channels or frequencies in Chirp and uploading those into the Baofeng UV5R Pro

----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
/g/ICOM /g/Ham-Antennas
/g/HamRadioHelp /g/Baofeng
/g/CHIRP

 

I'm going to assume you have installed the prolific USB serial driver,
connected the USB serial cable to the radio and to the computer's USB
port and turned the radio ON and have launched Chirp.

Make sure you know what serial port the USB cable is using. This must be
determined when selecting the UV5R radio. To check the serial port,
launch "Control Panel" then click "Device manager". When Device Manager
comes up, go to and click "Ports (COM & LPT)". Look for a line that
says:

"Prolific USB-to_Serial Comm Port (COM6)"

The comm port being use will be at the end of the above message
surrounded in Parenthesis. I indicated COM6 but your USB serial
port may be different.

Click Chirp's "RADIO" drop down menu. The first selection is

"DOWNLOAD FROM RADIO"

You must perform that first. Once the radio data has been downloaded
save it to a file on your computer the click "FILE" and select "NEW".
At this point you can reload your original file and after checking it
to ensure all options are what you want, click "File" then "Save As".
Name the file what ever name you want then click "SAVE". Now you can
upload the data to your UV5R.

Having said all that if during the loading process you see the following
error text box:

"An Error has occurred"

then check you setting again. If you still see the error text box then
it's possible your USB cable is at fault. Not all of those Chinese USB
serial cables will work. I had problems with them and ended up having
to order a good cable from Amazon.com.

One additional comment. If you program the Uv5R to receive analog EMS,
fire, NOAA Weather, and police frequencies and you don't want to
transmit on those frequencies, set Chirp's "DUPLEX" option to "OFF".
This will prevent the UV5R from transmitting on those frequencies but
you will still be able to receive on those frequencies. If you press PTT
on any of those frequencies you should hear a "BEEP" in the speaker and
the UV5R will NOT transmit on the selected frequency.

Regards,
Mike
UV3R, UV5R/UV5R+, UV9R+ user

On 2021-08-04 10:35 PM, W5CTD wrote:
I just received two UV5R Pro HT's that I purchased as a package deal and I am now trying to program them and set them up for use but I have run into some real issues.
Every time I try to load a set of 19 channels (both duplex and simplex with most of the duplex being tone access) I am unable to upload that into the radio using chirp.
I do not know if I am doing something wrong or if I am using the wrong version of Chirp, or maybe if there is something that I am missing.? I have also tried to program the radio by hand and I am having absolutely no success with that.
What steps are involved in setting up a set of channels or frequencies in Chirp and uploading those into the Baofeng UV5R? Pro?
Donald Froula
 

In addition to the others' good advice, I'll add the following.

Even with two identical models of radio, it's a good idea to download each to make a template file and store the settings for each separately. Sometimes minor firmware differences can cause problems if you upload a file used on one radio to another of the same model, even the same firmware. It is necessary to perform a factory reset, then download and program using that radio's template to recover. I just copy and paste from the two CHIRP tabs, then set the radio options manually.

FYI, the two Baofeng-labelled programming cables I recently ordered both use the CH340 USB serial chip, rather than a phony Prolific. Windows installs the CH340 without any driver downloads. The cables just work. Maybe Baofeng decided to get away from the phony chip issue.

Prolific at one time had released some driver versions that would actually disable phony clone chips, rendering the device useless. I think they stopped the practice, but you still need the older driver to make them work. Windows will try to update the old driver, so a working cable can suddenly stop working. A pain.

Best regards,

Don
WD9DMP

baofeng_cable_chip.jpg

Donald Froula
 

An additional note on programming repeater offsets.

If the repeater uses an non-standard split, the CHIRP software accepts entering the TX frequency and the radio programs fine. When the radio is read back or the saved file loaded, you will find that entered TX frequencies have been converted to an offset! Weird, but no big deal.

I also noticed that id you wish to both send and receive CTCSS sub-audible tones, you need to set the Tone Mode to "TSQL", rather than use the "Cross" setting to enter separate frequencies. Actually, you can us "Cross" , enter TX and RX tones and enter Cross Mode as "Tone-Tone", but CHIRP converts it to TSQL when the radio is read back or the file loaded.

I haven't found a way to set TX-only DTCS.

Best,

Don
WD9DMP

Don
 

Another problem I encountered: I had to press very hard on the cable's connection to the radio. Feeling it snap into place was not sufficient...I had to intentionally press the connector firmly into the connection.

Regarding Chirp: I've used it successfully, and all of the above suggestions are really good. However...

My focus right now is being prepared to help in an emergency. I feel like I need to be skilled in programming my UV-5R on the fly, in the wild, without needing my laptop.

You mentioned that you've had no success in manually programming the UV-5R. I totally get that. I spent several months struggling with the user manual, searching the internet, and experimenting. The fruit of that struggle is a 14-episode series of how-to-program the UV-5R by hand.

I'm not selling anything, and I'm not saying that programming by hand is for everyone, but I do believe these videos provide a step-by-step to the basics of programming and operating the UV-5R.

73!
Donald Froula
 

¿ªÔÆÌåÓý

Some features, such as scan skip cannot be programmed without CHIRP!?

On Aug 5, 2021, at 11:14 AM, Milt / KJ7PPX <milt.reynolds@...> wrote:

?

Another problem I encountered: I had to press very hard on the cable's connection to the radio. Feeling it snap into place was not sufficient...I had to intentionally press the connector firmly into the connection.

Regarding Chirp: I've used it successfully, and all of the above suggestions are really good. However...

My focus right now is being prepared to help in an emergency. I feel like I need to be skilled in programming my UV-5R on the fly, in the wild, without needing my laptop.

You mentioned that you've had no success in manually programming the UV-5R. I totally get that. I spent several months struggling with the user manual, searching the internet, and experimenting. The fruit of that struggle is a 14-episode series of how-to-program the UV-5R by hand.

I'm not selling anything, and I'm not saying that programming by hand is for everyone, but I do believe these videos provide a step-by-step to the basics of programming and operating the UV-5R.

73!
 

I am getting the following results to my efforts to program the radio so far.

20210805 uv5r programming issue.docx
20210805 uv5r programming issue.docx

 

Very good point, Donald. Yes, I'm grateful for CHIRP. Another feature that CHIRP allows is adjusting the squelch levels. The UV-5R only allows 10 levels of squelch, 0-9. The default settings for these ten are quite insufficient!
 

Charles . . .

On Thu, 05 Aug 2021 10:05:02 -0700, "W5CTD"
<charles.t.dennis@...> wrote:

I am getting the following results to my efforts to program the radio so far
You might also attach a PDF. Not everyone has a program to read MS
Word documents.

I do, and looking at your error, it looks like you have a faulty
cable, connection, or didn't choose the correct COM port. As I
remember it, CHIRP only gives you the option of using COM 3 or 4. That
may not be correct, but it's all that I saw when I used it. I had to
change the default to match what I had.

If you see your port driver is using a port number not available in
CHIRP, change it in Windows to match one of them.

Donald KX8K


----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
/g/ICOM /g/Ham-Antennas
/g/HamRadioHelp /g/Baofeng
/g/CHIRP

 

I'm not sure why you only have comm 3 and 4 but I have "Com6" that
shows up on Chirp when selecting the comm port. I run Windows 7
and Device Manager serial port shows "Prolific Com6" which is
what Chirp sees.

73
Mike W5RKL

On 2021-08-05 2:30 PM, Donald Hellen wrote:
Charles . . .
On Thu, 05 Aug 2021 10:05:02 -0700, "W5CTD"
<charles.t.dennis@...> wrote:

I am getting the following results to my efforts to program the radio so far
You might also attach a PDF. Not everyone has a program to read MS
Word documents.
I do, and looking at your error, it looks like you have a faulty
cable, connection, or didn't choose the correct COM port. As I
remember it, CHIRP only gives you the option of using COM 3 or 4. That
may not be correct, but it's all that I saw when I used it. I had to
change the default to match what I had.
If you see your port driver is using a port number not available in
CHIRP, change it in Windows to match one of them.
Donald KX8K
----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
/g/ICOM /g/Ham-Antennas
/g/HamRadioHelp /g/Baofeng
/g/CHIRP

Donald Froula
 

On Thu, Aug 5, 2021 at 01:33 PM, Milt / KJ7PPX wrote:
The default settings for these ten are quite insufficient!

Yes!! I reset all of the levels to give a full-range squelch control.
 

Michael . . .

On Thu, 5 Aug 2021 14:58:49 -0500, "Michael Waldrop"
<mikew5rkl@...> wrote:

I'm not sure why you only have comm 3 and 4 but I have "Com6" that
shows up on Chirp when selecting the comm port. I run Windows 7
and Device Manager serial port shows "Prolific Com6" which is
what Chirp sees.
I suspect the driver and Windows work out which COM port to assign.

If you have other COM ports assigned when you install the driver,
Windows will assign a new one for it. I don't know why I was offered a
choice between two ports when the driver was only on one port.

Be glad in some ways that you have Windows 7. It won't be updating
anymore so your COM ports won't be changed around after a Windows
update like many WIN 10 users see. I haven't had that problem but I
expect I will when I install digital ham programs unless I reassign
the ports to ones higher than 20. Windows doesn't mess with those.

Donald KX8K


----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
/g/ICOM /g/Ham-Antennas
/g/HamRadioHelp /g/Baofeng
/g/CHIRP

 

I used Windows 10 and didn't like it. I switched most of
my computers to Windows 7. I have a tablet that has
Windows 10 on it but my primary operating system is
Windows 7.

Microsoft is coming out with a new version of Windows.
I checked to see if any of my computers would work
with that version of Widnows. NONE of them will work
which means if I wanted to move up to the new Windows
version I would have to get rid of all of my computer
and buy a new more expensive computer. Not going to
happen!!

73
Mike W5RKL

On 2021-08-05 5:05 PM, Donald Hellen wrote:
Michael . . .
On Thu, 5 Aug 2021 14:58:49 -0500, "Michael Waldrop"
<mikew5rkl@...> wrote:

I'm not sure why you only have comm 3 and 4 but I have "Com6" that
shows up on Chirp when selecting the comm port. I run Windows 7
and Device Manager serial port shows "Prolific Com6" which is
what Chirp sees.
I suspect the driver and Windows work out which COM port to assign.
If you have other COM ports assigned when you install the driver,
Windows will assign a new one for it. I don't know why I was offered a
choice between two ports when the driver was only on one port.
Be glad in some ways that you have Windows 7. It won't be updating
anymore so your COM ports won't be changed around after a Windows
update like many WIN 10 users see. I haven't had that problem but I
expect I will when I install digital ham programs unless I reassign
the ports to ones higher than 20. Windows doesn't mess with those.
Donald KX8K
----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
/g/ICOM /g/Ham-Antennas
/g/HamRadioHelp /g/Baofeng
/g/CHIRP

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