Modifying a Quansheng for CW

Neil
I had the same problem recently.
You probably have a newer radio with another CPU, see behind the battery if there is small “V2”, next to the UV-K5(8) on the label.
All the older firmwares don’t work on that CPU.
I used a firmware by F4WHN ( a derivative of the egzumer firmware), ported to the V2 model , and that works great.

Here is a video about it (in French, but you can add English subtitles):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfJHgWU7GKQ

I used the “Bandscope” variant, which lacks the FM broadcast band.
The “Broadcast” variant then lacks the interesting spectrum display, so you have to make a choice.
I don’t know if and when the IJV firmware will become available for V2. If someone knows more, please report here.

PS1 : there is a nice Wiki about all the features of the F4WHN firmware:
https://github.com/armel/uv-k5-firmware-custom/wiki

PS2 : you will need another python script to program the rig with CHIRP, that can be found here:
https://github.com/armel/uv-k5-chirp-driver

PS3 : I now see there is also a “Basic” variant, which has bandscope AND FM band, but then lacks some other (less important) functions.

73,
Luc - ON7DQ

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Many thanks for the replies. I don’t believe that the flashing process was interrupted - I’ve also tried it quite a few times. It’s possible the binaries were corrupted, but again I’ve downloaded the software several times and tried each one with no change. I think you are correct Luc about the hardware on my K5(8) being incompatible with the older fw releases. I was planning on reverting back to the factory fw to check this, but unfortunately when I go to the Quansheng web site downloads section there’s nothing there - perhaps Quansheng have got fed up with people loading their radios with fw variants. I was only really interested in getting a small cw capable radio to carry with me on my bike when doing cross country ‘roughstuff’ riding. does the F4HWN fw enable CW?

Otherwise, does anyone have the original factory K5(8) FW squirrelled away somewhere that I could try?

Thanks again

Neil MW0ECX

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I should have said, the radio does not have V2 anywhere on the chassis behind the battery - just K5(8) and k5

OK, another happier update. I found a web address that took me to the specific Quansheng download page 福建泉盛电子有限公司 - the 3268 is the specific bit for the K5. -the plain ‘downloads’ is a blank page. On there I found FW for v1, v2 and v3. I started with v3 and the flashing software rejected this as being too big for a fw load. The first v2 fw failed (plain v2 filename), but the second one called ‘k5_py030_v1.02.01_publish.bin’ worked and after reloading the cal and config files (I’d saved them as instructed) the radio appears to be working as it was. It displays ‘v1.2’ on boot up. Now my faith in the flashing process and the tools I have is restored I’ve ordered an older (plain K5) radio to see if I can get the IJV FW with CW capability onto that one. I guess I’ve got a spare standard Quansheng too now for further experimenting.

I put the detail here in case it is of any use to someone else who gets the same problem.

73s

Neil (MW0ECX)

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Radio has been flashed and the (very suspicious) cable has been built. The only remaining adjustments required are in my brain!

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I’ve been enjoying CW on my Quansheng. Indeed, i now have 3 of them.

I thing i am unsure of, related to flashing new firmware…how critical is it to save and reload the calibration file onto the Quansheng. Does flashing firmware overwrite the calibration parameters?

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https://qsfj.com/support/downloads/3268 is the address - it seems to change to the Chinese address when I post it here. I had to wait for someone else to post before putting this up :slight_smile: .

I’ve noticed one or two things on Quashing (IJV fw) now I’ve been using it, which may be solvable by changing some parameters or may be permanent:

There’s a funny sort of keying hesitancy, where after keying some characters, putting in a word space seems to stop the radio responding to the next keying input. e.g after ‘de’. the radio always refuses to take my first dash of ‘M’ in my callsign, unless I truncate the gap between e and the M.

There’s an annoying squelch tail at the end of some characters being received if there’s a gap in sending.

The DSB modulation sounds pretty horrible when received on SSB on my FT817.

I think all this has been noted elsewhere.

Neil

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a lot of trouble to modify a crystal set to one with a different detector. Still is a crystal set.