Category: Softwares

Software related articles in desktop computing and amateur radio.

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Softwares

Kicad 6.0 Fix or Workaround for OpenGL required version 1.5

Kicad 6.0 OpenGL required version 1.5 fix

Kicad 6.0 is an schematic entry and pcb layout editor software that is popularly used by electronics hobbyist and even commercial users. The latest issue that I have encountered with Kicad 6.0 latest version is the 3D rendering engine throwing up an OpenGL compatibility error requiring version 1.5 minimum. This is most common with computers using old hardware but is still fully capable. The culprit is the OpenGL compatibility if you have an old graphics card which is not fully supported by Windows 10. My computer is an old laptop with i7 processor, 16GB ram, with Nvidia Optimus card and a default Intel HD 3000 which by latest standard is already obsolete. The issue is still common among Kicad 6.0 users as I have searched around looking for the fix.

An OpenGL error is thrown up when using 3D viewer

Luckily for me I have came across this same issue when using Blender software before. So the fix is to copy the opengl32.dll which is an old opengl32.dll libraries for Windows to make the software revert to use the software rendering engine instead of the graphics card.

You just need to download the file which I have provided here for those looking for fix: https://dev.dw1zws.com/downloads/OpenGL32dll.zip

I have attached the file here on my home server for you to download and use. However use it at your own risk, it’s your responsibility to scan the file for viruses – even though I have use it for my own Kicad 6.0 installation.

What you need to do is just copy the file to yout Kicad 6.0 installation directory /bin folder and paste the file there. Closed all instances of Kicad 6.0 and open it again to load the DLL file. Now you can use your Kicad normally with 3D viewer properly working.

If it helps you, please consider subscribing to the channel. Thank you!

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Radio Softwares Softwares

WLN Softwares

WLN UHF Radio programming softwares and image for the following models below. The small radio that looks like a toy works well. The programming cable is easily available online from popular shopping websites, but if you are looking for a DIY programming cable try this link https://dw1zws.com/kenwood-kpg-46-using-usb-ch340/ the programming cable is tested to work with WLN KD-C1 radio following the connection diagram of Baofeng radio on the article.

WLN_KD_C1.imgPL2303_Prolific_Driver_V1.9.0KDCV1-v1.31
KDC30v1.31KD-UV1KD-C888
KD-C50KD-C1KD-C10v1.25
Categories
Radio Softwares Softwares

TYT Radios Softwares/Firmwares

Software Download Service for TYT Radios

This page provides downloads for TYT Radios firmware and software however, this is a self hosted service running on my experimental server at home on netbook. What does it mean to you?, as it is a self hosted service on top of my internet connection at home running on symmetrical 30Mbps upload/download the quality and availability of the service is dependent on my home internet connection so up time is not guaranteed to 99.9% availability except for the main website which is running on a shared host which I also managed (shared host prohibits uploading of excessively huge files so it is better to run this as a separate service).

Caveats

This will mean that there are times when this page is available, but downloads are not accessible. So don’t email me or ask me, why it it is not working?, you just need to wait for a couple of hours, half a day or worst it would take forever, to restore depending on my free time and if the experimental nature of the device running this service, have introduced a bug which is not easily traceable or worst the device decides to take a rest forever. I also do not own the content of the software as it is the property of TYT Radios however, it is publicly available and you can find a copy of it across the web just by searching. I provided the files here as is, without any warranty or guarantee that it would work.

220105-TH-UV98-FirmwareCPS-MD-9600-Setup-V1.30
CPS-MD-9600-V1.27DM-UVF10
Factory-Software-20191024IP-39s-programming-CPS
MD-2017-programming-softwareMD-280
MD-380-GPS-SoftwareMD-380-software
MD-430-CPSMD-680
MD-760-CPSMD-8500-software
MD-9550MD390-V1.0.9-GPS
Q1-Software-20180426Q1-software-20190905
TC-3000A-English-softwareTC-5000
TC-666-softwareTC-999-Software
TC-F1TH-2R-V1.3
TH-350-SoftwareTH-446
TH-7800TH-8600-for-USA
TH-8600-software-170817TH-8600-software
TH-900D-softwareTH-9800
TH-F5-V1.07-USTH-UV8200-English-Software
TH-UV88-firmware-20210520TH-UV98-firmware-20210821
TH-UV9FDTK-938
TK-X1-SoftwareTYT-800
TYT-8000TYT-8800
USB-Driver-DMRUSB-Driver-for-analog-radio
USB-Driver-for-digital-radio220105TH-UV88-firmware
8500-USB-DriverCPS-IP35+58
CPS-MD-9600-1.33versionCPS-MD-UV380-setup-v1.20
IP-77-CPSIP-77-software
KCM-228-softwareMD-380-CE.rar
MD-390-common-versionMD-446
MD-8500MD-9550-software
T5-softwareT6-software
TC-100TC-2000A
TC-3000A-English-softwareTC-3000B-software
TC-568-softwareTC-7000
TH-256-softwareTH-258
TH-258V1.02TH-2R-V1.3(5K)
TH-350-Software2019TH-8600-firmware
TH-8600-LCD-softwareTH-9000D-66-88-software
TH-9800-beepTH-F2-software
TH-F5-v1.1TH-F7-programming-software-v1.06
TH-UV8000D-softwareTH-UV88-firmware-20210821
TH-UV88-Latest-firmware0701TH-UV98-CPS
TH-UV98-firmware-20210520TK-918
TK-928TK-X1
TYT-Q1-V1.12enW700-software
WCDMA-software-v1.0.2Win10-DMR-DFU-software.zip

Categories
Softwares

How to install Chirp on Ubuntu 20.04

installing Chirp Ubuntu20.04

If you’re a Chirp user a programming software to manage ham radios, then most probably you are used to running Chirp without hiccups on Ubuntu’s previous version by just following the PPA installation from the link above, and then you decided to upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa and suddenly your Chirp doesn’t work anymore. Well here’s the solution suggested repository install was from @Ken Slimmer (WA0SBU).

1. First you still need to follow the original instruction in installing the repository
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:dansmith/chirp-snapshots
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install chirp-daily

focal-to-xenial

2. Edit the “/etc/apt/sources.list.d/dansmith-ubuntu-chirp-snapsots-focal.list” and point it to “xenial”

dependencies-error

3. Run the commands sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get install chirp-daily, this will run you into dependencies error.

4. You are now required to install the missing dependencies, I collected all the dependencies and put it in google drive for easy access to everyone, download each or the zip file and install it individually to satisfy the missing dependencies here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1irLlhwTVlC8wO9OhSt3-9j943CyimhmM as an alternative to the above dependencies download which may require for me to allow access to my google drive through notification request. I’m providing alternate file download coming from self hosted server at home running on a netbook here’s the file: https://dev.dw1zws.com/downloads/articles/Chirp-dependencies-Ubuntu20.04.zip it’s your responsibility to check the file for any viruses if in doubt just don’t use it.

5. Once done run the command again sudo apt-get install chirp-daily, and Chirp will install without problem.

Important: Don’t forget to add yourself to the dial out user if your cable doesn’t connect
sudo usermod -aG dialout username (replace username with your own)

Installing Chirp Ubuntu 20.04
Chirp under accessories

You can now find Chirp under the Accessories link on your Ubuntu 20.04

Click on it and the program will run without problem.

Chirp install on Ubuntu 20.04 success



Take note: If you keep getting this error: “Could not configure port:(5, ‘Input/output error’) —S after following the procedure above, and you are using USB based programming cable scroll down on the port list selection menu at the bottom and find “/dev/ttyUSB0” (the correct selection for a USB based programming cable). Then it should work fine.

Categories
Softwares

Versa Series Radio (Programming Software)

versa-alerto and versa-hero

I’m updating the content of this page as we continue to discover variants of Versa radio available in the Philippines radio market. We just wish that the technical support of the company selling the radio would be more helpful to us its consumers in obtaining software support for easy management of such radios.

We are featuring two of the local brands Versa’s popular radio model Versa Alerto and Versa Hero – for civic and amateur radio operator in the Philippines with loyal following due to number of queries we received regarding the radio’s programming software. The programming software is not readily available on Versa’s website but due to necessity my friend DV7FJB (Bon Go) researched the source of the radio and found it to be coming from OEM manufacturer Quansheng from China.

Another radio software was requested from this page through the comment section by an amateur radio operator, Efren-DW5BPE asking for the software of Versa Duo to manage his radio. We continue to monitor this page for request of software however it may or may not be available immediately as we usually don’t have direct access to such equipment right away. As a courtesy to the amateur radio users of these radios we published the details here as soon as we discover the OEM equivalent in the market- as usual my friend DVF7FJB (Bon Go) have provided us the programming software to the radio and the OEM version equivalent on the market.

List updated to include Versa P800 aka QUANSHENG TG-6A software courtesty of DV7FJB (Bon Go)

He initially sought the help of Versa through their facebook page and asked them about the radio programming software, he needs to program some units in his possession however the tech support was unable to provide him the software.

So with a little bit of reverse and engineering and looking for clues about the board and hardware manufacturer and trying different version of the software from Quansheng, he decoded the riddle and asked me to share the information he gathered from this adventure in the spirit of Amateur Radio.

Versa P800 aka QUANSHENG TG-6A

UHF 70cm Radio

Quansheng TG6A aka Versa P800

Specifications
Frequency Range: UHF 400~470Mhz
Output Power: Power output: ≥4/2/1W
Type of Modulation: 16K F3E and 11K F3E
Receiver Sensitivity: Sensitivity: -122dBm (12dB SINAD)

TG-6A aka Versa P800 Programming Software

Versa Dou aka QUANSHENG TG-K4ATUV

VHF/UHF Dualband Amateur

QUANSHENG TG-K4ATUV

Specifications
Frequency Range: VHF 136~174MHz, UHF 400-480MHz
Output Power: 5W
Type of Modulation (W/N): 16K F3E / 11K F3E
Receiver Sensitivity: -122dB

TG-K4AT-UV aka Versa Dou Programming Software

Versa Alerto

Versa Alerto

Specifications
Frequencies
VHF: 136-174 MHz
UHF: 400-470 MHz

Output Power:
5Watts

Modulation:
16K Ф F3E/11K Ф F3E

Receiver Sensitivity:
≤ 0.25/0.28 µV

Programming Software

Versa Hero

Versa Hero

Specifications
Frequencies:
VHF: 136-174 MHz
UHF: 400-480 MHz

Output Power:
5Watts

Modulation:
16K Ф F3E/11K Ф F3E

Receiver Sensitivity:
-122dB (12dB SINAD)

Programming Software

Categories
Amateur Radio Softwares

Antenna stacking distance calculator (K6VHF)

Antenna stacking calculator for long yagi’s, all you need to know is the -3db beamwidth for stacking similar antenna. Read the information on the program screen on how to use it. Download it here or click the image below:Antenna Stacking Calculator

Antenna Stacking Calculator
Categories
Amateur Radio Softwares

Cignus Programmer

Cignus radio programming software (Windows)

Categories
Softwares

Firmware Recovery China Radios

Recovery firmware for China radio’s, make sure to back up your radio image before using any of the firmware available here, so that in case of data corruption you can restore your radio from previous state.

Categories
Softwares

Installing Chirp on CentOS 6.9 Linux

Chirp

If you are on Windows then using it will not be an issue specially if you have an FTDI chip programmer, for users of Prolific chip then it would be another story, since I have a Prolific chip on my programming cable I have an issue on using it on Windows. Using the Prolific chip on Windows 7 upwards to Windows 10 will cause you a lot of issues that need constant attention in order for the programming cable to work.

Since I have a dual boot machine running CentOS 6.9 and Windows 10. I decided to install and use Chirp on Linux. Chirp can be installed on Linux and Mac OS without much difficulty specially if you are using the latest Linux distribution like Ubunto and Fedora, as for me I am using CentOS 6.9 a Redhat clone distribution of Linux mainly for development purposes. So I am stuck with the default install of Python which is required to run Chirp successfully.

Python 2.6
Python 2.6

Following the installation instruction from Chirp website http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home will not let you install Chirp on CentOS 6.9. What is needed is the Python serial access library (pyserial) to enable Chirp to use the Prolific usb chip on the programming cable. If you have the latest version of Python then installing pyserial is just a matter in invoking the install command on your Linux distribution.

Invoking the command: yum install chirp on latest Linux distribution will install Chirp without issues including the installation of pyserial dependency. On CentOS it will cause the system to look for a higher version of Python which can’t be updated unless you risk the stability of your system. So in this case a work around is needed.

I look around for the pyserial and manage to obtain an old pyserial library suitable to the version of CentOS running my system I uploaded this on my Google drive for future use just in case I need to do this again in the future, it can be downloaded from this link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B09fSUA0v5hRcU5YTXV6NngwalU

The pyserial package is a tar.gz type archive so you need first go to the directory where it has been downloaded in the terminal.

Next give the following set of commands:

Extract the Archive
tar -zxvf pyserial-2.6.tar.gz
Go the pyserial directory
cd pyserial-2.6
Build the package
python setup.py build
Install the package
sudo python setup.py install

Now the package is ready to be use and installed.

Make sure that your Linux username is also added to the dialout user group issue this command if Chirp can’t connect on your radio.

sudo usermod -aG dialout username (replace username with your own)

Once done you are ready to use the latest distribution that can be downloaded on the Chirp homepage extract the files go to the extract directory if you don’t want to install it and just issue the command

./chirpw

If it runs on your system then you may opt to install it permanently by invoking these commands

sudo python setup.py install

To quote Chirp instruction.
“When finished, you should be able to run “chirpw” from anywhere on your system, and (with luck) you’ll also have an item in your distribution’s applications menu.” -source Chirp danplanet.com

Which is exactly what happened on my install. So I successfully run Chirp on CentOS 6.9 and managed to work with my Baofeng UV-5RE radio.

Here’s some screen shots.

Chirp Screenshot 1
Chirp Screenshot 2
Chirp Screenshot 3
Chirp Screenshot 4

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