Baofeng *Even more* basic DM-1701 programming question(s)

[kl7hny]

Hiya, all.

Like others here, I also purchased a new DM-1701 recently.
I figured that, at 73 (and with 64 years as a licensed ham) it was about high time I finally learned something new after years of CW & SSB on HF, and just vanilla FM above 29 MHz.
It arrived with F/W v002.006, CP Ver 01.05. I dutifully downloaded the factory CPS through Radioddity, my source for this radio. Then, with DMR # in-hand, I tried to read the stock config from the radio.
No dice. Despite my >50 years as a commercially licensed two-way tech, and several years' experience setting up & maintaining commercial MotoTrbo & P25 systems in Alaska & northern Idaho, I'm hitting a brick wall.
Granted, the gear I used to work on was mostly /\/\, Harris, and Tait, have (had?) decent, genuine English documentation. The Chingrish "manual" with this Baofeng might as well be an Asian fusion restaurant's menu -- and I'm only bilingual en español.
My experience (for whatever that's worth in this case) is that there might well be some sorta key combination to hold down with finger(s), ear lobe, nose tip, and some other un-named appendage (all whilst powering on) and waiting for the Super Mario theme to finish playing in order to put this wee beastie into Programming Mode.
Such feature does not appear to raise its ugly head in the.....well, I'll generously call it an "instruction book."
Somewhere on the Radioddity site there *was* an apparent link to a document they called "Programming Instructions." That was a dead link, two weeks ago. And now I can no longer even find that link pointer on their page.
So, at this point, my questions are two, which I shall annotate as "1" and "B" in the manner of the Tommy and Ray (RIP) on "Car Talk."
1) Can anyone perhaps point me to a working link for said "Programming Instructions" or, failing that, just tell me how to activate the mode to allow reading & writing the code plug?
AND
B) Can anyone advise just what fearures/parameter(s) the "Open GD-77" (if that's the name) F/W version does for this radio?
My usual custom is to verify proper functioning of *any* piece of gear in stock config prior to going futzing around (please forgive my technical jargon there) with the operating system.
For anyone out there who has made it this far, many thanks for your patience. Back when I was an LEO, one District Attorney impressed upon us that, "If it ain't written down, it didn't happen."
tnx es 73 de Barney KL7HNY
diddly dahdidah
dit dit
(ex-WN4ANT, WN2NBS, WB2NBS)

 

[Alarms50]

Congratulations on attempting to enter the DMR world. I do not have the DM-1701 (have an Anytone 878UV). I found a link for your radio here: Baofeng Download Area

It is easier to program utilizing the CPS. From there it is still a learning curve, but it is surmountable.

 

[kl7hny]

Thanks for the very quick response!

After a thorough perusal of the docs on the linked page, however, I'm still hitting the same wall, seemingly right out of the gate. The programming cable works fine with the same laptop and other makes & models of radios, including other Baofeng versions (and Wouxun, TYT, etc.) So my USB cable's driver appears to be correct.

This reminds me of wa-a-a-a-a-y back, when I was attempting to reprogram a Motherola Minitor III, I had to be shown about putting the receiver on the right channel and holding down the monitor/reset button as I powered it on, to get the thing into the Programming Mode.

One of the youngsters in my club (he's only like 56) suggested there was likely some key combination to hold, but he, likewise, doesn't have one of these radios.

So, ever eager to learn new stuff, I guess my original question remains. Mind you, all of this *might* be attributable to my advanced (and ever advancing) years, but I.....ummm......uhhh......dang it, I had something there......{fizzle}....

diddly dahdidah
dit dit

 

[N4KVE]

The GD77 FW, & CPS turns your radio from Clark Kent into Superman. Here’s the instructions booklet.

OpenGD77_UserGuide/OpenGD77_User_Guide.md at master · LibreDMR/OpenGD77_UserGuide

Contribute to LibreDMR/OpenGD77_UserGuide development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[lamarrsy]

The GD77 FW, & CPS turns your radio from Clark Kent into Superman. Here’s the instructions booklet.

OpenGD77_UserGuide/OpenGD77_User_Guide.md at master · LibreDMR/OpenGD77_UserGuide

Contribute to LibreDMR/OpenGD77_UserGuide development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

I would say it is the *Open*GD77 FW & CPS that turns the radio from Clark Kent to Superman, because the original FW & CPS is… just a plain Clark Kent.

 

[nv2m]

kl7hny, In your message above you mention:​

>>The programming cable works fine with the same laptop and other makes & models of radios
Are you sure you are using the right cable and driver?

I'm new to DMR but I have tyt md-380, md-uv380, and DM-1701. The TYT's use 1 cable and the baofang uses a different cable. Both of these radios use a derivative of the STM driver. The odd thing about this setup is that you need to have the windows driver installed, and then plug the usb cable to computer/radio, and then turn on the radio. Only after turning the radio on does windows recognize the STM device. When you turn the radio off, windows loses the connection. If you have sound turned on, you will hear windows make a chime when you turn the radio on and off; the chime indicates windows registering and de-registering the USB device. But I will repeat here, these radios all use their own cable. When you have the right cable combo and radio turned on, the CPS software will just find it and read/program with ease.

I also started playing with openGD77 recently. Unfortunately my uv380 seems messed up so I'm about to try it on my 1701 which I know is new/good. In any case, even being new to DMR, I can tell you stock vs openGD77 is like night and day. There's lots of good features, but it just seems to make DMR more sensible. On the stock CPS you burn a channel for every frequency/contact you want to program. On opengd77 you program your contacts; when you set up channels, you can just associate groups of contacts with a channel. So for example you have a pi-star at 449mhz an your friend has one at 448mhz and you have 100 contacts ... with stock firmware you burn 200 channels. On opengd77 you create 2 DMR channels, and associate your 100 contacts with both.

Anyway I'm going to program my 1701 in the next day or so .... let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[kl7hny]

kl7hny, In your message above you mention:​

>>The programming cable works fine with the same laptop and other makes & models of radios
Are you sure you are using the right cable and driver?

I'm new to DMR but I have tyt md-380, md-uv380, and DM-1701. The TYT's use 1 cable and the baofang uses a different cable. Both of these radios use a derivative of the STM driver. The odd thing about this setup is that you need to have the windows driver installed, and then plug the usb cable to computer/radio, and then turn on the radio. Only after turning the radio on does windows recognize the STM device. When you turn the radio off, windows loses the connection. If you have sound turned on, you will hear windows make a chime when you turn the radio on and off; the chime indicates windows registering and de-registering the USB device. But I will repeat here, these radios all use their own cable. When you have the right cable combo and radio turned on, the CPS software will just find it and read/program with ease.

I also started playing with openGD77 recently. Unfortunately my uv380 seems messed up so I'm about to try it on my 1701 which I know is new/good. In any case, even being new to DMR, I can tell you stock vs openGD77 is like night and day. There's lots of good features, but it just seems to make DMR more sensible. On the stock CPS you burn a channel for every frequency/contact you want to program. On opengd77 you program your contacts; when you set up channels, you can just associate groups of contacts with a channel. So for example you have a pi-star at 449mhz an your friend has one at 448mhz and you have 100 contacts ... with stock firmware you burn 200 channels. On opengd77 you create 2 DMR channels, and associate your 100 contacts with both.

Anyway I'm going to program my 1701 in the next day or so .... let me know if you have any other questions.

-------- Forwarded message ----------
Great info -- thank you for the detail. It seems that perhaps I'm using an incorrect cable. I'm using what came with the radio, but it wouldn't be the first time that I received a "kit" or "assembly" that had some wrong component in the package.
I've got a support query in to Radioddity with that conjecture. I'll have to see if they respond now that the weekend is ending.
And I'll look forward to hearing how yours works out.
tnx es 73 de KL7HNY
diddly dahdidah
dit dit
-- Barney --

 

[nv2m]

The cable that came with your radio should be the right one. But I will admit, on mine the cable has no useful markings. See the pic here for reference. I "lost" it several times so you'll note that I wrote 1701 on it in pen to differentiate.

My linux machine sees the device when the radio is on. I think Windows machines might have the STM driver already. I don't remember if I needed to load the drive (maybe I did).

The full 1701 driver and doc is found here: Baofeng Download Area
See the programming guide there, sec 1.1, if you need the driver it tells where to get it. But more importantly, see the docs, there is a windows device driver manager screen shot there. Again, make sure the USB is plugged in, the other end firmly plugged into radio, and then turn the radio on. Check windows device manager it should be there ... if not, that is what you need to fix.

 

[Razorback55]

I figured that, at 73 (and with 64 years as a licensed ham) it was about high time I finally learned something new after years of CW & SSB on HF, and just vanilla FM above 29 MHz.

Hello,

You have detailed your professional background but you forgot to specify your background and degree in Freemasonry, since you use the Freemasonry logo

Could you specify on which windows you use the CPS baofeng? because on windows 10 or 11, once the cable is plugged in and the radio turned on, a COM port appears. but on an older version you have to install the driver otherwise the COM port will not be properly recognized.

Take a screenshot of your COM port and post it here (with DM1701 turn on and connected).

If the COM port is correct, you can read and write your codeplug to the DM1701's memory directly.

Be careful with OpenGD77, back up the memory of your DM1701 (with the Opengd77 CPS) because once Opengd77 is installed, if you don't have a copy of the original memory, the Baofeng CPS will not want to work anymore.

If the COM port is recognized, you don't have to press any keys simultaneously. Pressing simultaneous keys is only required to flash the DM1701 with another firmware version or with OpenGD77 firmware.

To program the DM1701 you just have to create your analog or digital channels in Channel information.
You configure the RX and TX frequency there.

Then switch your channels to Zone1 (or another zone you create).

For digital channels you create a contact in Digital Contact (you choose private call, group call or all call) and you choose it in Contact Name on the channel in Channel information.

To communicate with another person in DMR, the Color Code must be the same between the two and you must have set up their DMR Call ID in Contact.

To communicate with a group, you create the group number in Digital RX Group Call or you put all the contacts that are part of the group in GroupList1.

You write the codeplug in the radio and in the DM1701 with the menus you choose the zone you have created.

 

[Razorback55]

Note that to learn DMR it is much easier to have two DMR radios, so you can check if the programming of your codeplug is correct and that the radios communicate well with each other.