BTECH F8HP vs BTECH uv5x3 vs other

[TerriKennedy]

3 hours ago, WRXB215 said:

@TerriKennedy just curious, what programming language did you use?

The main CPS is in Visual Studio 2019 C# + .NET 4. That was as modern as I could go and still maintain support for Windows XP and 32-bit operating systems. Since CHIRP now requires Windows 10 and newer, 64-bit only, we needed to have something available for users of older Windows versions. I'm pleased that I could extend support back that far. Visual Studio 2019 will be supported and receive fixes from Microsoft well into 2029.

The helper programs vox and devox (used to convert to/from the radio's voice prompt format) are in regular C, also built with Visual Studio 2019.

ffmpeg uses its own toolchain with many local modifications. That was the hardest thing to build, both because it dropped support for XP and 32-bit binaries years ago, and I had to put it on an extreme diet to get the executable (without needing shared libraries) down to less than 2% of the normal ffmpeg size. Since ffmpeg is a GPL program, it is built as a standalone executable. The CPS installation provides the GPLv3 license, ffmpeg build script and links to request the complete source + toolchain. They aren't included by default because they weigh in at around 4.4GB.

The installer is Inno Setup 5.6.1. That version was chosen because it is the newest version that still supports Windows XP.

All of the CPS executables including the installer and uninstaller, except for vox, devox, and ffmpeg, are digitally signed with my Windows code signing key, issued by DigiCert.

[TerriKennedy]

1 hour ago, WRYS709 said:

Nicecwork!

I remember when the BTech UV-5x3 was released, it had more robust CPS features than my UV-5Rx3. 

Were you responsible for these too?

Thanks!

No, I came on-board for the BF-F8HP Pro project. A lot of the older Baofeng software was called VIP instead of CPS and was built using a different development environment - I'm not sure which one.

I believe (but don't hold me to it) that the BF-F8HP Pro CPS is the first BTECH CPS to be done entirely by a contractor, as opposed to using the factory CPS, possibly with some BTECH-specific customizations. I think it has worked out well for customers, BTECH, and myself.

If you download the BF-F8HP Pro CPS manual, Chapter 4 tells you about all of the differences between my CPS and the H802 that Baofeng has been using for almost all full-color analog models. I believe in telling users everything that was changed, not just the "fixed a couple of bugs, added some new features" that you usually get. The same level of detail is available in the firmware release notes, which I also wrote.

[WRYS709]

“Full-color”??

[TerriKennedy]

10 minutes ago, WRYS709 said:

“Full-color”??

Yes. "Classic" Baofeng analog models have an LCD screen with a backlight that can be programmed to display different colors when the radio was transmitting, receiving, or idle. Like other screens of the era, they could only display pre-programmed symbols, with a dot-matrix area for the frequency display.

Starting with the H802 (which was a development platform and never sold to end users), Baofeng switched to a pixel-addressable full-color screen - in the case of the BF-F8HP Pro, 160 pixels wide by 128 pixels high. That lets firmware display anything it wants (like user-customizable startup images). It also means that new firmware versions can display new symbols. For example, firmware V44 added a new antenna icon to make it more obvious which of A or B would be used when transmitting when Dual Watch was on.