CHIRP

From the keypad layout the UV-85 would be a variant of the UV-82 (except having a singe PTT button). From the case style it would appear to be a variant of the BF-A58S (except only having 2 bands). From the programming software, the "magic" string used to initiate cloning ("\x50\xBB\xFF\x20\x14\x04\x25") is not be present in CHIRP which should make it not supported by CHIRP. The radio apparently must also recognize the UV-5R's "magic" string ("\x50\xBB\xFF\x20\x12\x07\x25"). This model should probably have its own Vendor/Model selection.

After successfully downloading from CHIRP and then closing CHIRP, would you add the debug.log file to this issue? Also, would you save the tab and add the CHIRP Radio Images (*.img) file?

Jim KC9HI

I also would like to add that this model also has band 200-260mhz which is called the TV Audio Radio I believe

Andrew Barrientos wrote:

Chirp can't seem to read the radio at all using the Baofeng UV-5R model config. (failure)

This makes sense. My original comment was based solely on your description of the radio and the fact your were using a model selection based on a tri-power UV-5R. It was prior searching for for the Cignus UV-86 on-line to see what model it resembled.

Reading the radio as Baofeng A58 or Baofeng A58S makes CHIRP report that the drivers are in "BETA" (expected) and can't seem to write changes from the "Advanced Settings" (unexpected)

The "BETA" for these drivers just means that nobody has bothered to update the driver to remove the notice. The Baofeng drivers are probably the most tested drivers available in CHIRP.

Any settings that won's write using the BF-A58 selection won't write on the BF-F8HP selection either. The only difference between the two is that for the BF-A58S like models all of the Settings->Advanced Settings that have a corresponding setting in the radio's menu system were moved to the Settings->Basic Settings tab. The settings that remain on the Settings->Advanced Settings tab are only settable using programming software. How these settings get stored into the radio is the same. The must both work the same as far as being written to the radio regardless of which model was chosen.

Meanwhile reading it as a Baofeng BF-F8HP works normally and doesn't seem to have any problem reading and writing any settings. (expected)

Reading and writing: True
Setting TX power levels: I would expect this to not work as expected. You would have to select Med in CHIRP to select LOW in the radio. Selecting Low in CHIRP will most likely still be HIGH in the radio.

My reasoning for this ticket is a lot of people are buying this radio model and doesn't know if CHIRP supports it since it's not listed as one.

Then this thicket would be the wrong place to let people know. Mentioning it in the [chirp_users] mailing list would reach more people.

My reasoning is to match the best model selection for the radio or even add a selection for the UV-86. From looking at the images provided, for the time being the closest/best match would be the BF-A58S.

Not sure if there's a difference but I'll include all the *.img files from the 3 model config CHIRP can read the radio, and the debug.log

Although the data is basically the same, including them all was very helpful. Thank you.

Jim KC9HI

Andrew Barrientos wrote:

I also would like to add that this model also has band 200-260mhz which is called the TV Audio Radio I believe

This makes sense. The attached CHIRP Radio Images (*.img) files show that the Cignus UV-86 memory layout has band limits in it for all three bands. This is the reason that I feel that the BF-A58S is the best selection.

But I do see a bug in the driver used for the BF-A58S. It has support for 3 TX power levels on models that have 3 bands. If a Baofeng like radio model has 3 bands, it has 2 TX power levels. If a Baofeng like radio model has 3 TX power levels, it has 2 bands. It would have the same issue with TXP that you should be having by using the BF-F9HP model selection. This driver needs to updated accordingly.

Jim KC9HI