Pro-668: Radio Shack PRO-668 loaded with Whistler DMR firmware

[Joseph11]

Thank you, Eric, for working so hard on this and releasing it!

It appears the issue is with the CPU firmware itself, not DSP. After updating my PRO-668 to the WS1080 CPU firmware 4.4 but not touching the DSP, I can no longer receive P25 digital.

How can we get older firmware for the WS1080?

 

[AtlasFBG2]

Thank you, Eric, for working so hard on this and releasing it!

It appears the issue is with the CPU firmware itself, not DSP. After updating my PRO-668 to the WS1080 CPU firmware 4.4 but not touching the DSP, I can no longer receive P25 digital.

How can we get older firmware for the WS1080?

Same thing with mine.

I updated to the 1080 4.4 cpu firmware and left the dsp alone.It would not pick up any p25 phase 1 transmissions.

I then updated to the 3.0 dsp and still nothing.

Went back to the 668 firmware with 3.0 dsp and p25 phase 1 works fine.

Perhaps the tool could work with the 4.1 or 4.2 cpu firmware?

 

[trp2525]

OK after reloading the Pro-668 firmware back into the radio, everything works fine- P25 sounds good, even though I did not touch the DSP. But the interesting thing is it still shows the DSP is version 3.0.
So it actually did load 3.0 in there (I guess?) but it doesn't work with the 4.4 WS1080 firmware apparently. Then I went to the Pro-668 EZScan and sure enough, it shows that there is DSP version 3.0 in there and you have to over ride the prompt stating that you have a newer version in the radio than the V1.4 that is the latest available. So I shot the 1.4 back in for the heck of it.

I ran into the exact same issue. DSP didn't function, couldn't/wouldn't decode any digital transmissions. Scanner wasn't even showing connected to a site in Pro96com. Flashing back to the RS v2.4 firmware and DSP v1.4 wasn't an issue, took a whopping....however long it takes the utility to flash firmware, short period of time. No harm, no foul. I doubt this issue will be a huge problem to address. Thank you for your work, Eric.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

Just as an FYI, the latest/current version of the DSP Firmware for the PRO-668 is version 1.3 (not 1.4). The DSP Firmware version 1.3 was the initial release for both the PRO-668 and WS1080. The "genuine/official" PRO-668 DSP Firmware has never been updated past 1.3 but the WS1080 went to version 2.1 when DMR was released in May 2016 and to version 3.0 on 12-15-2016 when "Add support for NXDN" was added per the release notes.

 

[trp2525]

...I don't recall what version the DSP firmware was before NXDN support was added but I think it was DSP Version 2.3. I don't know how one could get that version being as the PC App downloads and installs it unless an older version of the PC App would only allow DSP Version 2.3 to install...

I have the older versions (version 2.04 through version 2.17) of the PC application .exe files for the WS1080 all saved on my computer but they do not allow you to install an earlier version of the CPU firmware or DSP firmware. When you do an update check with any version of the PC application software it goes to the Whistler update server and automatically gives you the very latest version of each item to download and install (PC Application, CPU Firmware, DSP Firmware, Library Database and Location Database).

 

[pro106import]

OK I have a few older .bin files saved on my computer. I downloaded them from the server back in the day when it was open, but they are version 2.6, 2.5, 2.4
File name is WS1080e_U2.6.bin
I was able to point to them when doing the upgrade using the tool. IT WORKED!
The tool reads my radio now as Version WS1080 Boot 1.1 CPU 2.6 DSP 3.0 Voc 1.6
That is the good news. P25 works fine. But the bad news is DMR wasn't released until version 3.3 and most of the bugs were fixed by about version 3.7
So we need a .bin file from about that era

 

[trp2525]

...CPU 4.1 and DSP 2.2 did work in my Pro-668...

...DMR wasn't released until version 3.3 and most of the bugs were fixed by about version 3.7
So we need a .bin file from about that era

It seems (?) that specific versions of the CPU Firmware will only work correctly (providing P25 and DMR functionality) with certain versions of the DSP Firmware. Eric has posted in this thread that his PRO-668 scanner that had DMR working was loaded with CPU 4.1 and DSP 2.2. He posted yesterday in another RR thread, however, that he tried CPU 4.1 with DSP 3.0 and it did not work: http://forums.radioreference.com/ra...r-668-post-your-results-here.html#post2683682

For informational purposes the following is a list of CPU Firmware and DSP Firmware versions for the WS1080 that were both released on the same date per the respective release notes:

1. 05-31-2016 CPU 3.3 and DSP 2.1 (initial DMR release for the WS1080)
2. 06-16-2016 CPU 3.4 and DSP 2.2
3. 12-15-2016 CPU 4.4 and DSP 3.0

 

[InlandAZ]

Thank you, Eric, for working so hard on this and releasing it!

It appears the issue is with the CPU firmware itself, not DSP. After updating my PRO-668 to the WS1080 CPU firmware 4.4 but not touching the DSP, I can no longer receive P25 digital.

How can we get older firmware for the WS1080?

Maybe I missed something, released it?

 

[trp2525]

Maybe I missed something, released it?

See this RR post from yesterday (12/18/2016): http://forums.radioreference.com/ra...aded-whistler-dmr-firmware-2.html#post2683372

 

[br0adband]

Ok so at this point in order to get full working P25 and DMR on the Pro-668 Eric's recommendation is to not use the tool he created at all at this point because it needs some more testing and perhaps an update/fix to ensure it will, am I reading that correctly? From those posts it appears there could be a specific combination of the DSP and firmware that works (older versions, perhaps?) and that it's best to just wait and see for a verified fully working combo instead of potentially doing something that could wreck things and require even more tooling to fix. That sound about right?

Still haven't picked up that Pro-668 I have on layaway and was thinking about getting it today if things work out but based on what I just read in the posts above it seems this isn't working as well as hoped, at least not at this exact moment (as of Monday morning December 19th).

 

[NYG]

Ok so at this point in order to get full working P25 and DMR on the Pro-668 Eric's recommendation is to not use the tool he created at all at this point because it needs some more testing and perhaps an update/fix to ensure it will, am I reading that correctly? From those posts it appears there could be a specific combination of the DSP and firmware that works (older versions, perhaps?) and that it's best to just wait and see for a verified fully working combo instead of potentially doing something that could wreck things and require even more tooling to fix. That sound about right?

Still haven't picked up that Pro-668 I have on layaway and was thinking about getting it today if things work out but based on what I just read in the posts above it seems this isn't working as well as hoped, at least not at this exact moment (as of Monday morning December 19th).

You can use it. Just don't download and use the latest 4.4 firmware. It doesn't work properly on the 668. You can use the tool to load other versions of code.

 

[Wackyracer]

You can use it to dump an older cpu firmware off your scanner so you can share it with the rest of us.

 

[pro106import]

You can use it to dump an older cpu firmware off your scanner so you can share it with the rest of us.

there is no way to extract the firmware from the scanner that I know of

 

[robnj74]

Perhaps one of these will work ?

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Rob

 

[Wackyracer]

there is no way to extract the firmware from the scanner that I know of

The tool Eric made does it. saved my firmware before it erased it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2DTf80q8MnIZnQ5Nkc0RC1raFU/view

 

[Wackyracer]

We need the ones that include DMR which I think starts at ver 3.3

 

[pro106import]

The tool Eric made does it. saved my firmware before it erased it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2DTf80q8MnIZnQ5Nkc0RC1raFU/view

I know what program you are talking about, but I don't see where it can download from your radio. It only downloads from the FTP where the latest software is stored and puts it on your hard drive. Could you give us step by step instructions on how to get it off the radio please?

 

[Wackyracer]

We need firmware with DMR and that started at ver 3.3

 

[Wackyracer]

I know what program you are talking about, but I don't see where it can download from your radio. It only downloads from the FTP where the latest software is stored and puts it on your hard drive. Could you give us step by step instructions on how to get it off the radio please?

I'm thinking Eric's program does it automatically, you can check by going thru the steps to change the firmware, it will list all the bin files and ask you to select which one to install, one of them is the file that was on your scanner so you can roll it back if needed.

Basically don't use ezscan or the whistler update program to update your firmware. use Eric's program and it should save what is currently on the scanner.

 

[Wackyracer]

I have verified this works with firmware 3.8. I now receive DMR on my pro-668

 

[sibbley]

Will also confirm firmware 3.8 working with dsp 3.0 on the PSR-800.