If you are sending in your unit for the Legacy Upgrade - PLEASE READ

[SCPD]

I heard it was a CPU swap, but either way the same method should work.

The Pro-96 was my baby with the help of a few other very talented people. We made a xls list of 200 complaints against the Pro-93/95 and tried to fix as many as possible while adding the digital capability. Still have the prototype in a shelf.

It was a OTP CPU so they decided on a board swap program because the desoldering would not make sense. That said I carted around soldering equipment and a 3D magnifier and halogen light with other RF equipment to hotel rooms when developing, probably replaced 20 CPUs. I pressed for the flash CPU, based in the success of my flash based DSP design for a good year before they approved that project.

Those were some fun days I'll never forget. Was neat hearing some of the first 9,600 baud control channels when no other scanner did it.

Kind of like being the first to release Moto phase2 even when GRE was already in the process of closing their doors. We did it in two months.

 

[milcom_chaser]

The facts and timeline are being changed and emotions are running high. The radios in question are **legacy radios** from a failed company, RadioShack, with no hope of new support. I have it on good authority that Whistler all along intended to offer this upgrade, as they are now.

The part of the timeline many here want to gloss over is that two hackers choose to reverse engineer encryption methods and publish to the general public tools and URLs to a firmware repositary to allow non purchased firmware to be loaded onto these legacy radios, while the hackers are adamantly not accepting any responsibility and are stirring up a protest. If indeed the recent observations are correct, it seems Whistler removed the unauthorized DMR upgrade but left all other beneficial bug fixes and enhancements intact. I would not call that "disabled".

People who choose to ignore the warnings, mine included, may not be able to take advantage of the $60 upgrade but their **legacy radios** are still much better off.

Those who choose not to use the hacker tools to load unauthorized firmware to their radios are able to pay a very nominal fee to become fully current.

To me this is great support and otherwise a bunch of irrational complaints from those who took the risk. Enjoy your legacy radio with all the new bug fixes and capability! Maybe next time consider not supporting hacks, step back and consider that the person you praise is the reason you have a legacy radio that may not have DMR capability.

If we remove the purposeful reverse engineering and proud public release of tools and a firmware repository, everyone's radio would be able to upgraded! Seems like a simple cause and effect relationship to me if emotions are set aside.

"I have it on good authority that Whistler all along intended to offer this upgrade, as they are now. "

One would ask you to elaborate on this, but you'll tell us that you've already disclosed too much, and that the oversized alien ships that descended upon the White House in the movie Independence Day, are now hovering over your backyard...

 

[SCPD]

"I have it on good authority that Whistler all along intended to offer this upgrade, as they are now. "

One would ask you to elaborate on this, but you'll tell us that you've already disclosed too much, and that the oversized alien ships that descended upon the White House in the movie Independence Day, are now hovering over your backyard...

No ailen ships here Sure, I'll elaborate some.

As you might imagine if you read my historical posts, I helped facilitate the GRE to Whistler technical handover as I was the head GRE USA engineer since Nov 2001. As a courtesy, the very experienced and capable Whistler contact sent me an email noting this intention to add DMR to the legacy radios, including negotiations with RS for the same before their failure, which I have no reason to doubt.

The people I worked with at Whistler to help transfer the GRE IP, after it was proven to me that the GRE CEO, father and son, (I knew personally and broke bread with) had approved of the transfer.

If you want to dismiss all of this as fokelore-bloviation that is your choice. I'm just trying to bring some reason to what's going on.

Like UPMan, who I used to work with before he went to Uniden, neither of us have hid our identity.

 

[milcom_chaser]

No ailen ships here Sure, I'll elaborate some.

As you might imagine if you read my historical posts, I helped facilitate the GRE to Whistler technical handover as I was the head GRE USA engineer since Nov 2001. As a courtesy, the very experienced and capable Whistler contact sent me an email noting this intention to add DMR to the legacy radios, including negotiations with RS for the same before their failure, which I have no reason to doubt.

The people I worked with at Whistler to help transfer the GRE IP, after it was proven to me that the GRE CEO, father and son, (I knew personally and broke bread with) had approved of the transfer.

If you want to dismiss all of this as fokelore-bloviation that is your choice. I'm just trying to bring some reason to what's going on.

Like UPMan, who I used to work with before he went to Uniden, neither of us have hid our identity.

Thank you for elaborating on this, helpful to know, to give perspective. Nice engineering work. Being that, is this an actual LCD Failure, or a solder pad/pcb trace issue? I already cleaned the ribbon cable at the connector on the underside of the logic board.

https://forums.radioreference.com/whistler-scanners/356252-lcd-display-oh-bummer.html

Thank you again.

 

[willtorres918]

So this may be a dumb question but I'm going for it anyways. Would it be legal to find a way to I guess for lack of a better term"hack" or reverse engineer the scanner back to factory specs (like a rooted Android phone) or is it truly irreversible? Please forgive me if this has been answered.

Sent from my SM-J700T1 using Tapatalk

 

[SCPD]

Thank you for elaborating on this, helpful to know, to give perspective. Nice engineering work. Being that, is this an actual LCD Failure, or a solder pad/pcb trace issue? I already cleaned the ribbon cable at the connector on the underside of the logic board.

https://forums.radioreference.com/whistler-scanners/356252-lcd-display-oh-bummer.html

Thank you again.

I sent you a PM. For all, I'm not in a position to provide Whistler customer support, am pretty busy with my new post GRE client. Craig

 

[milcom_chaser]

I sent you a PM. For all, I'm not in a position to provide Whistler customer support, am pretty busy with my new post GRE client. Craig

Got it thanks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SCPD]

Got it thanks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Also replied to that thread. Gentlemen, it is late and I need to run

 

[Fasteddy2]

Pro-688

So this may be a dumb question but I'm going for it anyways. Would it be legal to find a way to I guess for lack of a better term"hack" or reverse engineer the scanner back to factory specs (like a rooted Android phone) or is it truly irreversible? Please forgive me if this has been answered.

Sent from my SM-J700T1 using Tapatalk

I think there is a way to do it but .....will they is the real question.My guess some one would have to make a new tool like Eric cottell did...but he said he will not do that any more.Maybe we can send our scanners to Eric for $60 instead of Whistler ...It is our scanner once we buy it we can do what we want with it...

 

[mancow]

So this may be a dumb question but I'm going for it anyways. Would it be legal to find a way to I guess for lack of a better term"hack" or reverse engineer the scanner back to factory specs (like a rooted Android phone) or is it truly irreversible? Please forgive me if this has been answered.

Sent from my SM-J700T1 using Tapatalk

Everything is illegal if you are a private citizen.

 

[willtorres918]

I think there is a way to do it but .....will they is the real question.My guess some one would have to make a new tool like Eric cottell did...but he said he will not do that any more.Maybe we can send our scanners to Eric for $60 instead of Whistler ...It is our scanner one we buy it we can do what we want with it...

If that would be the only way and he's willing to do it then yes, I'll do it, lol

I won't blame anyone but myself. I knew the risk. Just being curious I guess.

I was going to send in my 668 this payday but I guess I will hold off for a while and hope it's not too late. Either way my 668 is working better than ever. I have no complaints here.

Sent from my SM-J700T1 using Tapatalk

 

[willtorres918]

Everything is illegal if you are a private citizen.

Sad but true in many ways.

Sent from my SM-J700T1 using Tapatalk

 

[KC4RAF]

So much for planning on buying the 668. The Uniden looks much better (the 536) now.

 

[EricCottrell]

Eric,

I sent you two PM's which have no reply to try to bring some respectful common ground to this in a non public form. Yes you are a huge part of the problem which would not exist without your efforts, and not just to be personally satisfied with your accomplishment but, to make tools and post for all.

That said, I have always complemented your talent and know you are not the kid in the bedroom, never even implied that.

Did you see that I reached out in a professional manner via PM, explaining more about the deeper concern? Quite frankly part of my motivation was to facilitate an introduction to Whistler which might be beneficial to both in some way.

Hello,

I was going to answer via PM, but I was able to put my thoughts in the public forum. You seem to turn everything as a negative. I do not know how to meet you halfway as there is no issue. The experiment was over when Whistler offered the upgrade. Whistler has never bothered to communicate their concerns to me. I guess they have the same opinion as you.

You seem to also forget the PSR-800.

73 Eric

 

[scan18]

I've been trying to absorb all this info over the last couple of days... so is the consensus that if you have a Pro668 with CPU 4.6 and DSP 3.1 and the "Trojan Code" has been triggered to disable DMR, you are SOL as far as the official upgrade is concerned? Is that what they are considering to be "locked"?

 

[Fasteddy2]

pro-668

I've been trying to absorb all this info over the last couple of days... so is the consensus that if you have a Pro668 with CPU 4.6 and DSP 3.1 and the "Trojan Code" has been triggered to disable DMR, you are SOL as far as the official upgrade is concerned? Is that what they are considering to be "locked"?

That is spot on ,why we need ERIC COTTRELL to help us again..We can donate $60 to him to undo this mess .

 

[scan18]

That is spot on ,why we need ERIC COTTRELL to help us again..We can donate $60 to him to undo this mess .

So no-one with 4.6 / 3.1 and "Trojan Code" triggered has successfully had their scanners upgraded via Whistler's mail in program? I just mailed mine in today with 4.6 / 3.1, but I don't know if the "Trojan Code" had triggered since I don't listen to any DMR in my area. Guess I'll see what happens.

 

[Fasteddy2]

So no-one with 4.6 / 3.1 and "Trojan Code" triggered has successfully had their scanners upgraded via Whistler's mail in program? I just mailed mine in today with 4.6 / 3.1, but I don't know if the "Trojan Code" had triggered since I don't listen to any DMR in my area. Guess I'll see what happens.

Glad i didn't send mine in...

 

[EricCottrell]

Hello,

One suggestion to Whistler, google Sony BMG Rootkit. I am not saying this rises to that level, but you might learn something.

To other posters on the thread. I might be able to fix the problem, but this will likely raise the ire of Whistler. I am limited in what I can distribute. I can not distribute copyrighted code even if I could access the Renesas Flash Loader. I would have to code an original boot loader that would be compatible with the GRE bootloader.

Whistler should be able to fix the problem easier since they know the hardware. It may involve disassembly, removing a couple of shields, and connecting a USB-to-TTL Serial Port and a jumper. It could be the repair person does not have the tools to use the Renesas Flash Loader. It seems to indicate that the upgrade is done by loading a CPU application that updates everything to the legacy firmware and boot loader.

73 Eric

 

[Fasteddy2]

Pro-668

Hello,

One suggestion to Whistler, google Sony BMG Rootkit. I am not saying this rises to that level, but you might learn something.

To other posters on the thread. I might be able to fix the problem, but this will likely raise the ire of Whistler. I am limited in what I can distribute. I can not distribute copyrighted code even if I could access the Renesas Flash Loader. I would have to code an original boot loader that would be compatible with the GRE bootloader.

Whistler should be able to fix the problem easier since they know the hardware. It may involve disassembly, removing a couple of shields, and connecting a USB-to-TTL Serial Port and a jumper. It could be the repair person does not have the tools to use the Renesas Flash Loader. It seems to indicate that the upgrade is done by loading a CPU application that updates everything to the legacy firmware and boot loader.

73 Eric

I trust you with my scanner now more than Whistler ....I would rather give you my money because you are more trust worthy in my book,you take pay-pal SIR?