Open re-implementation of the Quansheng UV-K5 v2.1.27 firmware

This repository is a merge of OneOfEleven custom firmware with fagci spectrum analizer plus my few changes.

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

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

Warning

Use this firmware at your own risk (entirely). 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), in which case, you'd need to buy another radio. Anyway, have fun.

Table of Contents

• Main Features
• Manual
• Radio Performance
• User Customization
• Compiler
• Building
• Credits
• License
• Example changes/updates

Main features:

• many of OneOfEleven mods:
  • AM fix, huge improvement in reception quality
  • long press buttons functions replicating F+ action
  • fast scanning
  • channel name editing in the menu
  • channel name + frequency display option
  • shortcut for scan-list assignment (long press 5 NOAA)
  • scan-list toggle (long press * Scan while scanning)
  • configurable button function selectable from menu
  • battery percentage/voltage on status bar, selectable from menu
  • longer backlight times
  • mic bar
  • RSSI s-meter
  • more frequency steps
  • squelch more sensitive
• fagci spectrum analyzer (F+5 to turn on)
• some other mods introduced by egzumer:
  • SSB demodulation (adopted from fagci)
  • backlight dimming
  • battery voltage calibration from menu
  • better battery percentage calculation, selectable for 1600mAh or 2200mAh
  • more configurable button functions
  • long press MENU as another configurable button
  • better DCS/CTCSS scanning in the menu (* SCAN while in RX DCS/CTCSS menu item)
  • Piotr022 s-meter style
  • restore initial freq/channel when scanning stopped with EXIT, remember last found transmission with MENU button
  • reordered and renamed menu entries
  • LCD interference crash fix
• some mods introduced by me:
  • RxOff menu setting offsets the receive frequency by any specified amount in the range of 0-150Mhz for use with upconverters. Allows to fine tune frequency (in 1kHz steps) as opposed to other implementations that use hardcoded offsets. (IMPORTANT: Make sure you set this value to 0 if not using an upconverter, when used for the first time. Otherwise it might load some random offset from EEPROM.)
  • ENABLE_SPECTRUM_COPY_VFO allowing to exit the spectrum and fine tuning screen with PTT button and copy current peak frequency, modulation, step, bandwidth to VFO. Also entering spectrum will carry these settings from VFO (full integration). Now to enter fine tuning screen in spectrum press MENU button. This allows you to save and respond to the frequencies found much faster.
  • ENABLE_SPECTRUM_SHOW_CHANNEL_NAME shows channel number and channel name of the peak frequency in spectrum
  • ENABLE_ULTRA_LOW_POWER_TX flag allows to transmit with ultra low power (thanks to egzumer work) for local testing of communication between radios.
  • ENABLE_ADJUSTABLE_RX_GAIN_SETTINGS keeps the rx gain settings set in spectrum mode after exit (otherwise these are always overwritten to default value), this makes much more sense considering that we have a radio with user adjustable gain so why not use it to adjust to current radio conditions, maximum gain allows to greatly increase reception in scan memory channels mode (in this configuration default gain settings are only set at boot and when exiting AM modulation mode to set it to sane value after am fix)
  • ENABLE_SPECTRUM_CHANNEL_SCAN this enables spectrum channel scan mode (enter by going into memory mode and press F+5, this allows SUPER fast channel scanning (4.5x faster than regular scanning), regular scan of 200 memory channels takes roughly 18 seconds, spectrum memory scan takes roughly 4 seconds, if you have less channels stored i.e 50 - the spectrum memory scan will take only 1 second

Keyboard shortcuts

• In VFO mode long press 5 to enter scan range mode
• In VFO mode long press 5 then press F+5 to enter spectrum scan range mode
• In Memory Channel mode press F+5 to enter SUPER FAST spectrum channel mode
• Press F+5 to enter spectrum mode
• While in spectrum mode press MENU to enter fine tuning mode
• While in spectrum mode or fine tuning mode short press PTT to copy current modulation, step, frequency, bw and enter VFO mode

Manual

• Radio operation

• Menu

• Button functions

• Spectrum analyzer

• Flashing the firmware

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.

Using the radio in high intensity RF environments will most likely make reception anything but easy (AM mode will suffer far more than FM ever will), the receiver simply doesn't have a great dynamic range, which results in distorted AM audio with stronger RX'ed signals. There is nothing more anyone can do in firmware/software to improve that, once the RX gain adjustment I do (AM fix) reaches the hardwares limit, your AM RX audio will be all but non-existent (just like Quansheng's firmware). On the other hand, FM RX audio will/should be fine.

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' = disable, '1' = enable) ..

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_AIRCOPY                     := 0       easier to just enter frequency with butts
ENABLE_FMRADIO                     := 1       WBFM VHF broadcast band receiver
ENABLE_NOAA                        := 0       everything NOAA (only of any use in the USA)
ENABLE_VOICE                       := 0       want to hear voices ?
ENABLE_VOX                         := 1
ENABLE_ALARM                       := 0       TX alarms
ENABLE_TX1750                      := 0       side key 1750Hz TX tone (older style repeater access)
ENABLE_PWRON_PASSWORD              := 0       power-on password stuff
ENABLE_DTMF_CALLING                := 0       DTMF calling fuctionality, sending calls, receiving calls, group calls, contacts list etc.

ENABLE_BIG_FREQ                    := 1       big font frequencies (like original QS firmware)
ENABLE_SMALL_BOLD                  := 1       bold channel name/no. (when name + freq channel display mode)
ENABLE_KEEP_MEM_NAME               := 1       maintain channel name when (re)saving memory channel
ENABLE_WIDE_RX                     := 1       full 18MHz to 1300MHz RX (though front-end/PA not designed for full range)
ENABLE_TX_WHEN_AM                  := 0       allow TX (always FM) when RX is set to AM
ENABLE_F_CAL_MENU                  := 0       enable the radios hidden frequency calibration menu
ENABLE_CTCSS_TAIL_PHASE_SHIFT      := 0       standard CTCSS tail phase shift rather than QS's own 55Hz tone method
ENABLE_BOOT_BEEPS                  := 0       gives user audio feedback on volume knob position at boot-up
ENABLE_SHOW_CHARGE_LEVEL           := 1       show the charge level when the radio is on charge
ENABLE_REVERSE_BAT_SYMBOL          := 0       mirror the battery symbol on the status bar (+ pole on the right)
ENABLE_NO_CODE_SCAN_TIMEOUT        := 1       disable 32-sec CTCSS/DCS scan timeout (press exit butt instead of time-out to end scan)
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            := 0       show debug data for the AM fix
ENABLE_SQUELCH_MORE_SENSITIVE      := 1       make squelch levels a little bit more sensitive - I plan to let user adjust the values themselves
ENABLE_FASTER_CHANNEL_SCAN         := 1       increases the channel scan speed, but the squelch is also made more twitchy
ENABLE_RSSI_BAR                    := 1       enable a dBm/Sn RSSI bar graph level in place of the little antenna symbols
ENABLE_AUDIO_BAR                   := 1       experimental, display an audio bar level when TX'ing
ENABLE_COPY_CHAN_TO_VFO            := 1       copy current channel into the other VFO. Long press `1 BAND` when in channel mode
ENABLE_SPECTRUM                    := 1       fagci spectrum analyzer, activated with `F` + `5 NOAA`
ENABLE_REDUCE_LOW_MID_TX_POWER     := 1       makes medium and low power settings even lower
ENABLE_BYP_RAW_DEMODULATORS        := 0       additional BYP (bypass?) and RAW demodulation options, proved not to be very useful, but it is there if you want to experiment
ENABLE_BLMIN_TMP_OFF               := 0       additional function for configurable buttons that toggles `BLMin` on and off wihout saving it to the EEPROM
ENABLE_SCAN_RANGES                 := 1       scan range mode for frequency scanning, see wiki for instructions (radio operation -> frequency scanning)
ENABLE_SPECTRUM_COPY_VFO           := 1       pressing MENU in spectrum mode will exit and copy current peak frequency, bw, step, modulation to current VFO, also entering spectrum will carry these settings from VFO (full integration)
ENABLE_SPECTRUM_SHOW_CHANNEL_NAME  := 1       shows channel number and channel name of the peak frequency in spectrum
ENABLE_ULTRA_LOW_POWER_TX          := 0       transmits with ultra low power. useful for dev/testing
ENABLE_ADJUSTABLE_RX_GAIN_SETTINGS := 1       keeps the rx gain settings set in spectrum mode after exit (otherwise these are always overwritten to default value), this makes much more sense considering that we have a radio with user adjustable gain so why not use it to adjust to current radio conditions, maximum gain allows to greatly increase reception in scan memory channels mode (in this configuration default gain settings are only set at boot and when exiting AM modulation mode to set it to sane value after am fix)
ENABLE_SPECTRUM_CHANNEL_SCAN       := 1       this enables spectrum channel scan mode (enter by going into memory mode and press F+5, this allows SUPER fast channel scanning (4.5x faster than regular scanning), regular scan of 200 memory channels takes roughly 18 seconds, spectrum memory scan takes roughly 4 seconds, if you have less channels stored i.e 50 - the spectrum memory scan will take only **1 second**

Compiler

arm-none-eabi GCC version 10.3.1 is recommended, which is the current version on Ubuntu 22.04.03 LTS. Other versions may generate a flash file that is too big. You can get an appropriate version from: https://developer.arm.com/downloads/-/gnu-rm

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

If you have docker installed you can use compile-with-docker.bat (Windows) or compile-with-docker.sh (Linux/Mac), the output files are created in compiled-firmware folder. This method gives significantly smaller binaries, I've seen differences up to 1kb, so it can fit more functionalities this way. The challenge can be (or not) installing docker itself.

To compile directly in windows:

1. Open windows command line and run:

   winget install -e -h git.git Python.Python.3.8 GnuWin32.Make
   winget install -e -h Arm.GnuArmEmbeddedToolchain -v "10 2021.10"
   

2. Close command line, open a new one and run:

   pip install --user --upgrade pip
   pip install crcmod
   mkdir c:\projects & cd /D c:/projects
   git clone https://github.com/egzumer/uv-k5-firmware-custom.git
   

3. From now on you can build the firmware by going to c:\projects\uv-k5-firmware-custom and running win_make.bat or by running a command line:

   cd /D c:\projects\uv-k5-firmware-custom
   win_make.bat
   

4. To reset the repository and pull new changes run (!!! it will delete all your changes !!!):

   cd /D c:\projects\uv-k5-firmware-custom
   git reset --hard & git clean -fd & git pull
   

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:

• OneOfEleven
• 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

Video showing the AM fix working ..