GD-88, the new Radioddity DMR radio

AA3RP
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Re: GD-88, the new Radioddity DMR radio

Post by AA3RP » Mon Aug 22, 2022 12:25 am

Thank you for the link of the radio tear down.

AA3RP

AA3RP
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Re: GD-88, the new Radioddity DMR radio

Post by AA3RP » Mon Aug 22, 2022 12:39 am

what I can tell from the photos of the internal of the GD-88 is that it has two (C7000) processors and from the report of a current owner two RF receive circuits (paths).

Might be an impressive radio, but I doubt there will any independent 3rd party firmware for this radio any time in the near future.

For now I will keep using my C6000 based radios running the various implantations of OpenXXyy.. firmware.

AA3RP

VK3KYY
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Re: GD-88, the new Radioddity DMR radio

Post by VK3KYY » Mon Aug 22, 2022 12:49 am

AA3RP wrote:
Mon Aug 22, 2022 12:39 am
what I can tell from the photos of the internal of the GD-88 is that it has two (C7000) processors and from the report of a current owner two RF receive circuits (paths).

Might be an impressive radio, but I doubt there will any independent 3rd party firmware for this radio any time in the near future.

For now I will keep using my C6000 based radios running the various implantations of OpenXXyy.. firmware.

AA3RP
There is nowhere near enough documentation on the C7000 to be able to write firmware for it.

Also the CPU inside the C7000 uses a Chinese designed C-SKY processor core, and there is only limited support for this outside of China.
I think there is now a version of the GCC compiler linker toolchain that will work with some C-SKY CPU's but there are different models of C-SKY core, and its not know what is inside the C7000 and whether there is a compiler for it.

I don't think the Openxxx firmware will ever run on this radio, or any radios that use the C7000, combined DMR and CPU chip.

OK5MD
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Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:36 pm

Re: GD-88, the new Radioddity DMR radio

Post by OK5MD » Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:45 pm

I got my GD-88 last week. My expectations were high - I wanted to see a better successor of famous GD-77 I own and am happy with.
Yet the bigger was my disappointment. Crappy CPS, crappy firmware, overall disappointment considering the (not so low) price.

Anyways I am open to any discussion and even hacking :)

My observations regarding the radio itself:
- Alternate CPS editor is built by MM7DBT: https://www.cpeditor.co.uk/ and works great.
- In APRS, the radio identifies itself as "Anytone: AT-D878 (ht)" (see my station report here). Yet I am new to APRS so no idea what this exactly mean. EDIT: reason is that by default, TOCALL in analog APRS config is defined as APAT81 which results in this.

I have a lot of other thoughts regarding usability, build quality and overall performance, but this is perhaps more for a pub chat as it will end up as a rant on chinese radios.

EDIT:
I contacted Radioddity support with various questions. Only thing they helped me with is an issue with connecting of default CPS failing with message "Data Mistake". Reason is, ridiculously, too high COM port number (my case was COM16). Changing it to lower number (I tried COM4) did help.

VK3KYY
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Re: GD-88, the new Radioddity DMR radio

Post by VK3KYY » Fri Nov 04, 2022 8:57 pm

I noticed that Radioddity have posted updated firmware for the GD-88 recently

Interestingly, the firmware files are named

C7000_DR880UV_HAM_A_2022-10-27.bin and C7000_DR880UV_HAM_B_2022-10-27.bin, so Radioddity are clearly getting updates directly from Kydera and not bothering even to rename the files

Firmware does not appear to be encrypted, but as the entire chipset used in this radio is made in China and the development toolchain has never been released, its basically impossible to write firmware for this radio.

ok1pt
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Re: GD-88, the new Radioddity DMR radio

Post by ok1pt » Sat Nov 05, 2022 5:12 am

VK3KYY wrote:
Fri Nov 04, 2022 8:57 pm
I noticed that Radioddity have posted updated firmware for the GD-88 recently

Interestingly, the firmware files are named

C7000_DR880UV_HAM_A_2022-10-27.bin and C7000_DR880UV_HAM_B_2022-10-27.bin, so Radioddity are clearly getting updates directly from Kydera and not bothering even to rename the files

Firmware does not appear to be encrypted, but as the entire chipset used in this radio is made in China and the development toolchain has never been released, its basically impossible to write firmware for this radio.
Hi Roger,
I upgraded the firmware yesterday. The flashing utility also seems to be untouched, it offers two models to flash, DM850 and NC550. DM850 is checked and works.
There are two files because GD-88 has two separate channels (as explained in the how-to-flash document). One file (A) is much longer than the other, so it probably contains common things for both channels.
The bootloader mode is activated by holding SK1 and powering on the radio. It shows either IAP A or IAP B, which can be changed by pressing SK1 for longer time. It then accepts the appropriate software file.
Flashing time is longer than for GD-77, because it uses the relatively slow asynchronous serial transmission. However, the flashing process is shown on both radio display and utility window (counting page numbers), so the user can monitor the flashing process.
The new firmware seems working, the main added feature is TA support, which has been checked and really works. I hope that some bugs are fixed as well, but it will need more time to check.

WIth regards & 73
Pavel OK1 PT

VK3KYY
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Re: GD-88, the new Radioddity DMR radio

Post by VK3KYY » Sat Nov 05, 2022 7:01 am

Very interesting

The radio has 2 separate C7000 CPU + DMR chips, which explains why the 2 different firmware files

I don't know why they use serial comms to the radio for firmware updates, because AFIK the C7000 has built in USB, as the GD73 uses a C7000 and does not use a USB to Serial converter dongle.

Possible both C7000 are connected to the serial connection and something in the header of the data file indicate whether the firmware is for CPU A or CPU B

Probably some clever software could analyse the 2 patterns of data which are identical, which would indicate some functionality associated with the RF hardware (AT1846S)

I can see blocks of common binary codes when I look at the bin files, and also see telltail patterns for commands for the AT1846S

KC3VPY
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Re: GD-88, the new Radioddity DMR radio

Post by KC3VPY » Sat May 20, 2023 7:15 pm

My Abbree antenna got stuck on my GD-88 yesterday the sma-female connector mounted in the body of the radio was coming out instead of the antenna I finally managed to get the antenna free but noticed the radio was acting like it had no antenna and was shorting and the radio was rebooting. Anyway took it completely apart to see what was up and ended up fixing it I took photos of the process and no soldiering iron needed if anyone is interested in seeing the GD-88 naked I can post the pics :)

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YT5HOK
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Re: GD-88, the new Radioddity DMR radio

Post by YT5HOK » Tue May 23, 2023 7:11 pm

KC3VPY wrote:
Sat May 20, 2023 7:15 pm
My Abbree antenna got stuck on my GD-88 yesterday the sma-female connector mounted in the body of the radio was coming out instead of the antenna I finally managed to get the antenna free but noticed the radio was acting like it had no antenna and was shorting and the radio was rebooting. Anyway took it completely apart to see what was up and ended up fixing it I took photos of the process and no soldiering iron needed if anyone is interested in seeing the GD-88 naked I can post the pics :)
Yes, please. I have GD-88 too and I am interested. You can use G drive or something like that.

KC3VPY
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Re: GD-88, the new Radioddity DMR radio

Post by KC3VPY » Sun May 28, 2023 10:51 am

Here you are. Mind you the photos where taken after I had the radio apart then thought I should take photos so what you see is me putting it back together. :) Enjoy.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

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