Baofeng UV-5R...how do I program it?

I bought the famous (?) $50 Baofeng UV-5R Dual-band amateur HT (walkie talkie) 70CM and 2M.

Because it is $50 the menus for programming it are painful to use, but programming it using software is pretty much like programming any other radio using software.

I will show some steps, and screenshots to walk it through, but for now here is the quick list.

BTW mine has the BFB251 version of the ROM (power on holding the "3" button down).  I just got it about a month ago...they are up to version 293 I believe.


I just got a 251, and just programmed it. Make sure you have the basics
covered.

This blog post has, how to set up USB cable, basic CHIRP instructions, VIP instructions.  (and I am always willing to improve it...just let me know)




   
Important links

Baofeng UV-5R Yahoo Group

Miklor's Baofeng UV-5R page full of resources

-Miklor's USB driver page

-Miklor's  VIP software page

-Miklor's CHIRP software page

Danplanet THE CHIRP site.




Plug in USB adapter.

1. make sure that your USB cable was installed as a "Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm
Port" (look in Device Manager/Ports)

2. make sure that the driver for that port is Prolific 3.2.0.0
(Properties/Driver)

3. Note what comm port is assigned to that Prolific USB-to-Serial Port (COM )



CHIRP software instructions.

(CHIRP as of 6Oct12, may not support BFB291 or later to to vendor detection issues)

4. When you start CHIRP, make sure it is using the correct serial port.

5. An 'unable to connect to comm port' or some error like that probably means that the driver is wrong

6. An 'unable to connect to radio' type error means you need to make sure the plug is installed all the way (I had to trim a bit of plastic off the bottom of the plug. (or in this case I selected the wrong comm port).

7. make sure you are using the very latest 'daily build' CHIRP software (I have the 5 Oct 2012 version)


Note:  It was suggested to me on the Baofeng yahoo group by Jim (KC9HI) that the latest 'daily build' may not suit your needs.  If it doesn't work, take a look at the Danplanet CHIRP 'Activity Page' to see which version may suit you.

I am not in the CHIRP users group, so I don't follow what is going on there.

I followed the Miklor Chirp page.




VIP Software instructions.



1. Use correct version for radio...the software even tells you which version it is for.

2. The older version opens up in Chinese fonts (which most of us do not have installed...just go to the second pull down menu on the right, and select English.

 Close that front window...don't worry you can get it back later.

3. Now select Comm Port, click the Communication Menu and this window will pop up.

 My adapter was on COM3








4. Download from radio...do this before editing your channels.

 Select 'Read'

Now you can edit if you want.

These are the programmed channels on your radio.

This menu has other optional settings.

This menu lets you change your power on message...as it says, Read from radio first, then edit and Write back to radio.















How to save and load your hard work...

To save your work, File, then "Save".

"Save As" didn't work for me.








 



It looks like an old Windows 3.1 interface,
so finding the directory you want is a bit clunky...but it works.


And just type in the name. (.dat) 








 








That gibberish means it saved correctly. 

To open a file it is the same clunky menu system.



But this time just select the file you want.

And this means you correctly loaded it.









For editing the memories etc...you are on your own, I copied the ones from my other radios, and had to edit them with excel in a format that matched what I downloaded from the radio using CHIRP. (save as csv...then after you are done editing IMPORT back into CHIRP.

I only used the VIP software for changing the power on message.

Buffalo HS-DH500GL Hard drive swap

(note: this was in the draft folder for some reason...I did this project over a year ago...)

I picked up the Buffalo HS-DH500GL GigaBit LinkStation a few years ago...I was using it as a portable FTP server for a IP camera capture.

And haven't used it since. So I fired it up and started to use it...and immediately filled the drive. 500GB just doesn't go as far as it used to.

On clearance I picked up a pair of 1.5TB WD My Book Essential USB drives. I figured I could plug them into the LinkStation for more space. Bad idea. Twice the drives went blank...just lost the data, and then both started creating nested directory copies...apparently infinitely. And because of this activity the LinkStation kept overheating and shutting down.

So I had a great idea...I would use those 1.5TB drives for something else. I thought about using them in my ReadyNAS NV+...but they weren't on the approved HD list.

So then I had the bright idea of putting one of the 1.5TB drives into the LinkStation...how hard could that be?

I won't get into disassembly of the LinkStation...there are web sites with that...but it is one screw for the front cover, pull a cable, two screws and slide the drive out, then two screws to remove the interface. The WD My Books are snap together plastic with two screws holding the electronics to the drive.

Needless to say I did a lot of research before I attempted this...and much of it was wrong.

I used a HD to USB adapter to do all this. Specifically the Apricorn Drive Wire Universal HD adapter. (SATA, IDE, laptop IDE)

I used partimage on Ubuntu to make an image of the first two partitions (in my case sde1 sde2).

I ALSO wrote down what partitions were where, what kind, and how big.

I then swapped drives and ran Gparted on the 1.5 TB drive. I deleted any partitions on it.

I made the following partitions in order so they would match the original. And I made them all slightly larger so that partimage wouldn't complain later (it still did once).

sde1 - 206MB EXT3
sde2 - 520MB XFS
sde3 - 10MB ext3 (it didn't show in the original, but I wanted (needed?) to make the partition numbers match

sde4 - then I made an extended partition for the rest of the drive (1.4TB)

sde5 - 140MB linux swap
sde6 - the rest of the drive XFS (1.4TB)

Then I used partimage again to write sde1 and sde2 to the drive.

Then I put it in and turned it on...it worked right away.


Of course it was attempt 5 that actually worked right away...I tried just doing one partition and then a firmware update (wrong) the first time I tried to copy the sde2 back over the partition was too small...even though it was larger than the original...so I had to re-partition the rest of the drive again...1.5TB...and the last attempt after re-partitioning...I forgot to copy the sde1 and sde2 over.

So this took me a couple of days until I got the right procedures (I had to screw the interface back to the drive every time I wanted to test it...then it took about 2 hours.

And I have a 1.5 TB NAS. BTW, the reverse was easy, I put the 500GB drive in the WD My Book, and it wiped it and reformatted automatically.

iPhone 3GS 5.1.1 Jailbreak Unlock

Anyone who follows this blog probably knows why I have a 3GS (still).

So I will get to the hacking.

Once again it was time to upgrade, this time from 5.0.1 to 5.1.1, mainly because an App I use needed the upgrade.

It seems like everytime I do the Jailbreak I have to re-research it, and it changes a little bit.  I even look at this blog to see what I did last time.

Well to be honest I don't know if much changed, it seems the JB tools out there (sn0wbreeze, redsn0w) have improved quite a bit and most of the task is automated.

Quickly here is my setup.  I have a 3GS with the old bootrom (digits 3-5 of its serial number are 926).  I have the 5.13.4 baseband.  Keeping my current baseband allows easy unlocks.

So now the fun...btw this took 2 different computers and 3 cables.

First on my laptop with 2gig ram I downloaded the 5.1.1 ipsw file from here and redsn0w 9.14b2 from here.

I ran redsn0w and  clicked the Extras button, then Custom IPSW...loaded up the 5.1.1 ipsw that I downloaded and selected preserve Baseband.

On my laptop at around this point, redsn0w would fail with a out of memory error. (I did some more fooling around at this point, but won't bore you with the details)

Now I tried the same thing with my Desktop (4gig) this time it generated the no baseband ipsw for me.

Again using redsn0w and selecting the Extras button I then selected Pwned DFU to put the 3GS into a recovery mode.

Now open iTunes, it says you have a phone in recovery mode blah blah blah.  Ok that message, and hold the Shift key while clicking the Restore button.

If you are like me, you will get errors such as 2500 (I think) and or a 1600 or 1601.  The 2500 means you have a cable problem...so use a different cable.


The 1600 or 1601 is because iTunes looks something up on the internet, and doesn't like what it sees.  The fix is to edit your HOSTS file.

This file is located at (Win7, but probably all versions)...

C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/

You will see some commented out items (a line with a # in the front is considered commented out).

Find the line with gs.apple.com at the end, and either erase the line, or put a # at the beginning of the line...like this...

#74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com

then save the new hosts file.   If you are like me, you will have to save it on your desktop, delete the one in the folder, and paste the one from the desktop to the folder (due to administrator privileges and other protections)


So the restore finally finishes (after you start it again).  Don't bother setting up your phone, just start redsn0w again and this time hit the Jailbreak button.

The next screen opens up with Install Cydia selected and nothing else.  I didn't change a thing and started the process.

Just follow the directions...BTW I did this with the sim card removed...I don't know if it was required, but it worked.

After the phone reboots, you will have to do the initial setup, I then let iTunes reload my backed up apps and settings, and after a bit I started Cydia.

In Cydia, I let it do its updates, then searched for Ultrasn0w.  Clicked on the item and installed it.  That was the unlock.

After that I just let the rest of the apps be restored, and my previous Cydia items...I think after I ran Ultrasn0w I installed the SIM card, and all was well.