Has anyone been able to make the Chicom KFDTool mini clone work?

[Mogman]

If you buy everything you need from one of the above vendors, things will just work, or you’ll get help to make it work as sold. Accessories will also typically mix-and-match across vendors.

However it sounded you like were going to cannibalise the cables you bought elsewhere to try to make them work; so without knowing your level of skill, the luck may be needed – hirose connectors are a pain!

Note that many (no idea if all) of the knockoffs use 17mm TRS connectors. The ones I sent above have all de facto standardised on 14mm.

37 years as a communications specialist for a major pipeline company, mostly dealing with Motorola radios, I think I will be OK, I cut my teeth on Twin Vs and Motran/Motrac radios and DOS, I have however not had much experience with Arduino so the lingo is not familiar to me.
An yes hirose are a PITA but the chicom accessories and the micro use mini phone plugs only a little different, I re-pined/wired cables for my KVL3K, somewhere I have the pin outs for all the cables I need.

 

[K7UDZ]

Great, then since you're already an expert on all this, I'll stop trying to help and just let you get at it!

 

[Mogman]

Great, then since you're already an expert on all this, I'll stop trying to help and just let you get at it!

Well actually I just told you I was not an expert in Arduino based devices, why I was asking for help, I said I would be OK with the wiring issues.
I never said I was an expert at anything, anyone that does is a fool.

 

[Mogman]

As an example in anticipation of receiving the micro I downloaded 1.8.8 from the W3AXL website and it will not open on my 64 bit Win 7 machine, I am used to seeing requirements listed with software IE what operating system it supports etc, this is all new to me.
All the versions up to 1.5.0 that I have tried actually installed into the machine, everything 1.5.4 on up wants to run stand alone.
Maybe I am just getting too old for this.....

 

[K7UDZ]

I can't speak to any sort of software you may have downloaded from W3AXL's site (I didn't think there was any on that site), but the latest release of the AVR KFDtool is located on GitHub here: Release 1.8.8 · omahacommsys/KFDtool

The software is open-source, and all contributors are volunteers. I can't speak for others, but I personally test my changes to the software on Win10 or Win11. Since Windows 7 was officially end of support 6.5 years ago (Windows 7 - Microsoft Lifecycle), nearly 2 years before the first release of the AVR KFDtool, I doubt that any contributors go out of their way to test on it.

You may be able to get it to work by manually installing .NET Framework 4.7.2, as you should see prompted when trying to open KFDtoolGui.exe - maybe someone else on this forum also uses very old computers too and can tell you if that works.



If you decide to do the testing to find out the minimum requirements, please submit a Pull Request (change suggestion) on GitHub to add your findings to the readme! That's a great way to give back to the rest of the community

All the versions up to 1.5.0 that I have tried actually installed into the machine, everything 1.5.4 on up wants to run stand alone.

Yep! This is explained in the readme document on the home page of the software, which has some useful information about how to use it: GitHub - omahacommsys/KFDtool: Open Source P25 KFD (Key Fill Device/Keyloader/KVL)

 

[K7UDZ]

Looks like it's your lucky day, Microsoft states that .NET Framework 4.7.2 should be installable on Windows 7: .NET Framework system requirements - .NET Framework

 

[speedway_navigator]

Can I sell you a cheap pager made by MOSSAD?

do you sell in bulk so the user gets more bang for their buck?

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

do you sell in bulk so the user gets more bang for their buck?

They come with a lifetime warranty.

 

[surfacemount]

I can't begin to tell you how many hundreds of dollars I spent on knock-off RIBs back in the day. Bought a real one and never had a single issue. You get what you pay for.

at the risk of further derailing this thread, my first personal moto rib was a kit from... sandy ganz? I was shocked it actually worked...

 

[K7UDZ]

@Mogman did you get your setup figured out?

 

[Mogman]

No, I am waiting for the micro to get here, I think the Chicom one would work if I could figure out how to change the firmware but the directions I found do not work.
I have also purchased a win 11 machine for this project
Have to say I am not real excited about W3AXL's customer service, I purchased it last week, I paid EXTRA for 3-4 business day shipping and as of today USPS still reports only a shipping label has been printed, I also asked a question last week and have not received an answer.

 

[K7UDZ]

Ah, okay. Sorry to hear you're having some sort of delay there, hopefully nothing major going on.

 

[Mogman]

Ah, okay. Sorry to hear you're having some sort of delay there, hopefully nothing major going on.

UPDATE, it is now moving through the USPS system, so probably nothing major going on.
I thought I put a smiley face up after the all caps EXTRA, it was only like a buck more, I will be very happy as long as I can make it work.
The chicom cables I have use a 4 conductor 3.5mm audio plug, the W3AXL uses a 3 conductor 3.5mm audio plug. so no big deal.

 

[K7UDZ]

Great. At least in my neck of the woods, USPS is a mixed bag the last few years, either is early or takes weeks for no reason.

 

[speedway_navigator]

A letter mailed in Indy took 7 days to make it to the next county west, most of my neighbors got it last week.

 

[Mogman]

It did come in, but looking at the github stuff with DOS/Windows grey matter is not doing so well and although it was delivered I still have not received an answer to my first simple question from two weeks ago so I don't see any hope of getting any tech support coming from the seller.
I am not even clear if I need to load the firmware or what ever it is called in Arduino lingo
Oh yes Windows 11 sucks also.

 

[K7UDZ]

Unless something changed, the devices should ship with the latest firmware. It should be plug and play.

At least the ones I sell are.

 

[Mogman]

Still a no go
I purchased a micro from one of the suggested vendors.
I purchased a "new" windows 11 machine just for this project.
I downloaded the .1.8.8 software and extracted it to a file folder.
I put the folder in the download folder in the win11 machine, I see an application file but it does not show an EXE extension.
I expected when double clicked it would install a program to my pc but instead it simply opened the program.
I can see the micro on com 9, I select com 9 in the program then try to do a self test and get the same damn "timeout waiting for a response" I got with the win 7 machine and the Chicom board.
If I look at the files on a 64 bit win 7 machine I see the EXE extension and when double clicked it asks if the program can make changes which tells me it is trying to add a program not simply opening the application, but since I have no intention of using it on that machine I do not allow it to go any farther.

 

[K7UDZ]

Make sure the KFDmicro is definitely COM9, and that Device Manager shows it has the correct drivers. I believe the current generation of those uses a CP210x chip, which should come with Windows, but if not you can google for the official driver. It should say in Device Manager whether it is working correctly.



Also make sure you have type set to KFDshield / other in the software:



After you do that, click Device > COM<x>



And then you should see the hardware information pop up in the bottom of the program. If it doesn't immediately, try selecting the device a second time, there's a known issue on some computers where the first attempt will time out.

 

[K7UDZ]

instead it simply opened the program

This is the expected behaviour - you can copy the extracted files to wherever you want on your computer (desktop, Program Files, whatever) and use them. This is detailed in the README for the GitHub repo:

The software distributed with the KFD-AVR release is "flat pack", meaning there is no installer supplied - all you need to do to run the software is unzip the Software zip and run KFDToolGui.exe. You may see an "Error - timeout while waiting for data" when first opening the software. This is completely normal, especially if you have many COM ports on your system. The warning will be suppressed in a future release. Select the COM port corresponding to your KFD, and you should see information populate in the bottom bar of the screen indicating that the KFDTool software is connected to your device.