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

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JustLou

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4.6 and 3.1 work fine too
I tested 4.6 on my 668 along side my Whistler and it was skipping a lot of transmissions that the Whistler was picking up. I went back to 4.5, and they were back in sync. Of course YMMV.

Sent from my SHIELD Tablet K1 using Tapatalk
 

biomedbob

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Just got my 668 back from Whistler. The downloaded software doesn't see the scanner on a COM port.

Does the SD card have to be installed in the scanner or not?

Device manager doesn't see the scanner on a COM. It shows a WS1080 as another device with a yellow triangle with a question mark in it.

What else might I try?

Thanks.
 

Wackyracer

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Just got my 668 back from Whistler. The downloaded software doesn't see the scanner on a COM port.

Does the SD card have to be installed in the scanner or not?

Device manager doesn't see the scanner on a COM. It shows a WS1080 as another device with a yellow triangle with a question mark in it.

What else might I try?

Thanks.

The sd card needs to be installed for it to read your programming data.

Because your scanner is now a whistler ws1080 you need to install the driver for the ws1080. If your using windows 8-10 you need to follow the "ALLOW UNSIGNED DRIVER" procedure. See whistlers website for the diver and instructions.
 

CycleSycho

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Just got my 668 back from Whistler. The downloaded software doesn't see the scanner on a COM port.

Does the SD card have to be installed in the scanner or not?

Device manager doesn't see the scanner on a COM. It shows a WS1080 as another device with a yellow triangle with a question mark in it.

What else might I try?

Thanks.

:wink: Do what Wackyracer instructs WITH ONE ADDED STEP. :wink:

The sd card needs to be installed for it to read your programming data.

Because your scanner is now a whistler ws1080 you need to install the driver for the ws1080. If your using windows 8-10 you need to follow the "ALLOW UNSIGNED DRIVER" procedure. See whistlers website for the diver and instructions.

;) After disabling the unsigned driver and installing the driver, RE-ENABLE THE UNSIGNED DRIVER FEATURE (there are instructions posted, do a forum search). I'm not an advocate of leaving a security feature disabled on any OS. :wink:
 

biomedbob

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Thanks for all your suggestions.

The laptop I'm trying to use is running Windows Vista home basic.

The device manager sees the WS1090 as another disc drive.

When trying to load the driver I just get a little icon that keeps spinning around but never loads the driver.

Any ideas?
 

Wackyracer

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Thanks for all your suggestions.

The laptop I'm trying to use is running Windows Vista home basic.

The device manager sees the WS1090 as another disc drive.

When trying to load the driver I just get a little icon that keeps spinning around but never loads the driver.

Any ideas?
2 different drivers are needed for the scanner. You have one installed as the computer sees it as a disc drive.

The other driver needed is the COMPORT driver. It is needed for the clock and all firmware updates. Go to whistlers website to download the ws1080 driver. https://whistlergroup.com/products/ws1080-ws1088-pc-driver
 

trp2525

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Current DSP 3.1 MAY break P25 and DMR reception...???

Over the weekend I was getting my PRO-668 ready for shipment to Whistler for the official upgrade. I figured I would give Whistler a month to get the process streamlined before sending my unit in.

To satisfy my own curiosity before shipping my unit, I decided to do some further experimentation with various CPU and DSP firmware versions over the weekend to see if I could hear any noticeable differences using the various combinations. I have been using CPU 4.6 along with DSP 3.0 since they were available with Eric's tool and they have been working OK.

Yesterday (07-02-2017) I upgraded the DSP to 3.1 from the Whistler update server using the Whistler EZScan program. After doing that I lost reception of my local MotoTRBO trunk system and P25 so I figured I would roll back to DSP 3.0. I had a saved CONFIG__BIN file which contained DSP 3.0 and loaded that back into the scanner. I still did not have DMR or P25 reception after going back to DSP 3.0. (The EZScan software confirmed my DSP version was in fact back to 3.0.)

At that point I decided to use Eric's tool to re-load the CPU 4.6 back into the scanner thinking that it may have become corrupted. I found out that I could no longer use Eric's tool to load any firmware into the scanner. I would get "Timeout while updating scanner. Please reset scanner and try again. CPU Update Error." This happened while trying to install CPU 3.8, CPU 4.4, CPU 4.5, CPU 4.6 and even while trying to go back to the Radio Shack stock CPU 2.4 firmware. I even tried ALL of the versions of Eric's tool with the same results. I also used a Windows XP and a Windows 10 computer with the same negative results.

I can't confirm this for everyone, but in my experience the current DSP firmware version 3.1 update broke my DMR and P25 reception and also made all of Eric's versions of his tool no longer able to load any of the various CPU versions into my PRO-668. And yes I have all of the necessary drivers installed on my computers; I can set the time on my scanner using EZScan and the comports are all working OK and show up properly in device manager.

I felt this would be some important information to post for those choosing to stay at CPU version 4.6 and not send in their scanners for the official Whistler upgrade. If your scanner is receiving DMR and P25 OK with CPU 4.6 and DSP 3.0, update to the current DSP 3.1 at your own risk. YMMV
 

pro106import

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The DSP is just a file named CONFIG__BIN (as you noted) located on the root of the SD card. You can replace it by going to the SD card folder on windows explorer with the radio turned off and connected to the USB. This file should not affect anything to do with loading the firmware into the radio. I am guessing there is one step you might be missing in doing the tool procedure.
I also have been using 3.0 for quite sometime now and used it throughout all of the previous "tool" firmware updates with no problems. I find 3.0 to have the best results with the DMR audio.
 

trp2525

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The DSP is just a file named CONFIG__BIN (as you noted) located on the root of the SD card. You can replace it by going to the SD card folder on windows explorer with the radio turned off and connected to the USB. This file should not affect anything to do with loading the firmware into the radio. I am guessing there is one step you might be missing in doing the tool procedure.
I also have been using 3.0 for quite sometime now and used it throughout all of the previous "tool" firmware updates with no problems. I find 3.0 to have the best results with the DMR audio.

Have you actually loaded DSP firmware 3.1 into your scanner, had DMR and P25 functon properly, and then been able to go back to DSP 3.0 and still have P25 and DMR function?

Everything worked fine for me with CPU 4.6 and DSP 3.0 until I loaded DSP 3.1 into the scanner yesterday. I "suspect" that something in the current version DSP 3.1 that I downloaded yesterday now makes the firmware check to see if you have a genuine WS1080 before allowing P25 and DMR reception. I also "suspect" that this check for a genuine WS1080 sticks around somewhere in the firmware even if you load a previous version of the DSP (like I did by successfully loading the previous CONFIG__BIN file to get DSP 3.0 back). Finally this same check mechanism "may" be preventing Eric's tools from continuing to work. These are all hypotheses on my part.
 

pro106import

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You can see or edit the DSP version by going to your SD Cards folder. After you connect up your USB, watch your windows explorer and see which letter pops up. The radio has to be turned off. Now, click on that letter to open the folder. You can put all of the DSP's in there. Just change the extension from .BIN to maybe V3.0 or V2.3 or whatever. The radio will only use the DSP that has the .BIN extension. I have them all in my radios SD card, yes including 3.1, and did experimenting with which one worked best just by adding the .bin extension to the one I wanted to try. I never had any adverse effects and the radio worked through all of these experiments and continues to work.
 

trp2525

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You can see or edit the DSP version by going to your SD Cards folder. After you connect up your USB, watch your windows explorer and see which letter pops up. The radio has to be turned off. Now, click on that letter to open the folder. You can put all of the DSP's in there. Just change the extension from .BIN to maybe V3.0 or V2.3 or whatever. The radio will only use the DSP that has the .BIN extension. I have them all in my radios SD card, yes including 3.1, and did experimenting with which one worked best just by adding the .bin extension to the one I wanted to try. I never had any adverse effects and the radio worked through all of these experiments and continues to work.

Well if that is the case perhaps Whistler has made some further revisions to the DSP 3.1 firmware file just recently. I know that DSP 3.1 has been out for a while. Perhaps DSP 3.1 was modified further to include this check for a genuine WS1080 when Whistler started offering their official upgrade.

I can only report what happened when I downloaded and installed the DSP 3.1 firmware file yesterday from the Whistler update server and what has happened as a result. I can no longer receive DMR or P25 with either DSP 3.1 or by successfully rolling back to DSP 3.0 (both running with CPU 4.6).
 

trp2525

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Hmmm. Do me a favor and go into the SD Card contents and see what the file size is for the Config.BIN file. It will be either 85, 89, or 90K Bytes.
85K = DSP V2.3
89K = DSP V3.0
90K = DSP V3.1

DSP version 3.0 is currently loaded in the scanner and it is showing 89 KB. The DSP 3.1 BIN file that I saved yesterday (which is not currently loaded in the scanner) is 90 KB just like you posted. The original Radio Shack DSP 1.3 BIN file size that I have saved (from the original Radio Shack SD card) is 82 KB.
 

Wackyracer

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I suspect you have a corrupt file. I have used dsp 3.0 and 3.1 with CPU firmware 4.5 and 4.6 and noticed NO difference in DMR reception....that is they both received dmr very well. I also could change firmware at will with the grefwtool with either the above cpu firmwares but I never tried to rollback the dsp.
 

trp2525

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I suspect you have a corrupt file. I have used dsp 3.0 and 3.1 with CPU firmware 4.5 and 4.6 and noticed NO difference in DMR reception....that is they both received dmr very well. I also could change firmware at will with the grefwtool with either the above cpu firmwares but I never tried to rollback the dsp.

Which file do you believe is corrupt? The GREFwTool from Eric? The 3.1 DSP update file from Whistler?

This current behavior after loading DSP 3.1 yesterday reminds me of what happened when we tried to previously load any CPU firmware above 3.8 (before Eric revised his tools). DMR and P25 would not function even though the CPU firmware above 3.8 would load into the scanner.

It's really a moot issue for me as my PRO-668 is being sent out to Whistler today for the official upgrade as I planned to do before even trying DSP 3.1. That will allow me to go from CPU version 4.6 to CPU version 4.8 right away (and also include any future updates) and get a current working version of the latest DSP 3.1 (and any future versions).
 
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Wackyracer

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Which file do you believe is corrupt? The GREFwTool from Eric? The 3.1 DSP update file from Whistler?

This current behavior after loading DSP 3.1 yesterday reminds me of what happened when we tried to previously load any CPU firmware above 3.8 (before Eric revised his tools). DMR and P25 would not function even though the CPU firmware above 3.8 would load into the scanner.

It's really a moot issue for me as my PRO-668 is being sent out to Whistler today for the official upgrade as I planned to do before even trying DSP 3.1. That will allow me to go from CPU version 4.6 to CPU version 4.8 right away (and also include any future updates) and get a current working version of the latest DSP 3.1 (and any future versions).

You get everything EXCEPT the cpu firmware updates without sending it to whistler. Meaning dsp firmware has always been updated via ezscan even with the hack.

Any file could get corrupt either on your computer or in the scanner itself. Uninstall and redownload them all including ezscan and all of ezscan's files in your documents folder, then start fresh by redownloading and reinstalling them all.
 
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