Wouxun KG-805G Stopped RX-ing/TX-ing after using CHIRP.

[MozartMan]

Wouxun KG-805G Stopped RX-ing/TX-ing after using CHIRP.

Hi everybody,

I received my Wouxun KG-805G three days ago from BuyTwoWayRadios.com. It is a great small radio. Sound quality is great. I downloaded and installed Wouxun factory software and programmed the radio. Everything was working fine.

Then yesterday, after reading multiple posts on this forum where some people said that they used CHIRP and 816 profile to program 805G, I tried to do that. After uploading file from CHIRP to 805G this happened:

• All voice commands switched to Chinese language.
• Radio stopped transmitting and receiving. Display shows that it transmits, but my GMRS-V1 doesn’t get any signal on the same channel. And when I transmit from V1, 805G does not get anything.

Then I used factory software and their default codeplug file to restore 805G, but it did not help.

I called BuyTwoWayRadios.com customer services and described everything. They said that this was problem between CHIRP and 805G, and that this was not warrantable.

I search Internet and found post from October 2020 in this thread:

https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/wouxun-kg-805g.414204/

Quote from that thread:

Quote

Update: turns out that the CHIRP read embeds certain defaults into the radio, including Chinese voice, 60 sec TOT and several other things. I tried unprogramming and reprogramming the radio without success and I can't get it to stop doing these things, so for the moment, DO NOT use CHIRP to program the radio. Sorry I posted this and hopefully people will see this before they try it. Just wanted to make sure folks were forewarned and I apologize for not discovering and posting the problem earlier.

It looks like I am stuck with $80 brick.

Any suggestion appreciated.

[WROS490]

Thanks all. I've put the radio in ziploc bag with two big dessicant bags in front of my wood fired stove for a couple of days and it still won't receive and transmit. It was in my friend's pocket which had water leak into it and created a puddle. He didn't notice for a while and it was on while sitting in the water, exhibiting some crazy display behavior. Ah, all of these California rains we've been getting.

I regret not testing transmitting/receiving before I started mucking with the programming but when I saw that someone was having RX/TX issues after CHIRP programming I figured I'd give that fix a shot. 

It's a bummer that the code plug from MozartMan didn't do the trick. I'll see if I can track down a working CHIRP config  somewhere to cover all the bases but I'm guessing the Wouxun config would have fixed it if it was a software issue.

Worst case I've got a spare battery and charger for another KG-805G.

 

 

[wayoverthere]

1 hour ago, WROS490 said:

Thanks all. I've put the radio in ziploc bag with two big dessicant bags in front of my wood fired stove for a couple of days and it still won't receive and transmit. It was in my friend's pocket which had water leak into it and created a puddle. He didn't notice for a while and it was on while sitting in the water, exhibiting some crazy display behavior. Ah, all of these California rains we've been getting.

I regret not testing transmitting/receiving before I started mucking with the programming but when I saw that someone was having RX/TX issues after CHIRP programming I figured I'd give that fix a shot. 

It's a bummer that the code plug from MozartMan didn't do the trick. I'll see if I can track down a working CHIRP config  somewhere to cover all the bases but I'm guessing the Wouxun config would have fixed it if it was a software issue.

Worst case I've got a spare battery and charger for another KG-805G.

 

 

had this on my mental to-do list today, as i saw this post this morning, but needed to dig out the stick PC i've done most of my programming with (slowly transitioning to a recently acquired laptop).

I think this is the latest version i had loaded, rather than a fresh read from the radio...chirp seemed to limit channel names a little more than the factory software, so i did another read/write with the factory software and poked at the names a little after this.

sharing this with the disclaimer that it wouldn't be a 95e compliant configuration, since there's some 70cm stuff in there.  i didn't find a clean factory gmrs configuration file, but i may be able to make some time this weekend to flash it back to stock and read that out if that configuration is preferred.

Wouxun_KG-805g testing20211224.img

[Sshannon]

12 hours ago, Lscott said:

As a side note if you have to deal with industrial equipment water, even water vapor, has corroded electronic components. This was particularly true of leaded types, not SMD. The leads are cheap steel wire which are copper plated. Crack or otherwise break the copper plating then the steel wire underneath starts corroding. I've seen enough PCB's where the parts have fallen off due to this.

Amen! We had a case of P&B control relays which were designated to be used in automating a hydroelectric plant which we had to replace because mice urinated on them. Plus, a lot of times when an electronic device is submerged the water has contaminants in it that become deposits as the water evaporates.  All that must be cleaned off in order to assess damage and possibly restore functionality.

[WROS490]

13 hours ago, wayoverthere said:

had this on my mental to-do list today, as i saw this post this morning, but needed to dig out the stick PC i've done most of my programming with (slowly transitioning to a recently acquired laptop).

I think this is the latest version i had loaded, rather than a fresh read from the radio...chirp seemed to limit channel names a little more than the factory software, so i did another read/write with the factory software and poked at the names a little after this.

sharing this with the disclaimer that it wouldn't be a 95e compliant configuration, since there's some 70cm stuff in there.  i didn't find a clean factory gmrs configuration file, but i may be able to make some time this weekend to flash it back to stock and read that out if that configuration is preferred.

Wouxun_KG-805g testing20211224.img 8.17 kB · 0 downloads

Amazing. Thanks so much!

With this CHIRP image I've confirmed that the RX/TX circuitry still works. I noticed that the image according to CHIRP was for a KG-UVD1P instead of KG-816 - I guess the KG-805G is compatible with a few different Wouxun radios.

I didn't know that the KG-805G can be unlocked to TX on the 70cm HAM band, interesting. 

What I can't figure out now is that I'm now in what seems to be VFO/frequency mode and I can't figure out how to get into channel mode.

@wayoverthere - do you (or does anyone else) have any thoughts on how to get to  back to the channel mode? If you flash a KG-805G with the supplied image, do you end up in VFO/frequency mode?

 

 

[WROS490]

11 hours ago, Sshannon said:

Amen! We had a case of P&B control relays which were designated to be used in automating a hydroelectric plant which we had to replace because mice urinated on them. Plus, a lot of times when an electronic device is submerged the water has contaminants in it that become deposits as the water evaporates.  All that must be cleaned off in order to assess damage and possibly restore functionality.

Oh wow, mouse urine - that's probably a great conductor for shorting circuits.

This KG-805G was basically in rain water - which is... pretty much distilled water? Anyway, RX/TX seems to be working - I'm thinking I'm just dealing with programming/CHIRP issues at this point

[wayoverthere]

1 hour ago, WROS490 said:

Amazing. Thanks so much!

With this CHIRP image I've confirmed that the RX/TX circuitry still works. I noticed that the image according to CHIRP was for a KG-UVD1P instead of KG-816 - I guess the KG-805G is compatible with a few different Wouxun radios.

I didn't know that the KG-805G can be unlocked to TX on the 70cm HAM band, interesting. 

What I can't figure out now is that I'm now in what seems to be VFO/frequency mode and I can't figure out how to get into channel mode.

@wayoverthere - do you (or does anyone else) have any thoughts on how to get to  back to the channel mode? If you flash a KG-805G with the supplied image, do you end up in VFO/frequency mode?

 

 

I grabbed that out of my folder of radio images, so that may have been a work in progress file (the base read, post reset). I'll try to pull a fresh read from the radio this evening, or I can reset it to stock and read that.

In terms of the radio, it isnt actually limited itself, but the combination of it normally having no vfo access in the menu and the software only allowing programming within bounds for gmrs are the limiting factors. It does go into VFO mode when you factory reset in the wouxun software, but thenwouxin software would normally prevent loading any tx channels not in bounds.

[WROS490]

The CHIRP config from @wayoverthere got me to where I could RX/TX again but had me stuck in VFO mode.

Someone at my local ham club Slack (who I bought the KG-805G from) had a Wouxun config that I subsequently wrote to the radio.

I think I'm back in business now.

I'm uploading the stock KG-805G config now.

I wonder if going into the KG-805G programming software from Wouxun and creating a new config and writing it to the radio would have gotten me back to working after @wayoverthere's CHIRP config - I guess we won't know. I don't really wanna chance killing this radio trying to take it through this cycle again.

Thanks for the help and ideas, everyone.

KG-805G stock.tw

[wayoverthere]

2 hours ago, WROS490 said:

.

I'm uploading the stock KG-805G config now.

I wonder if going into the KG-805G programming software from Wouxun and creating a new config and writing it to the radio would have gotten me back to working after @wayoverthere's CHIRP config - I guess we won't know. I don't really wanna chance killing this radio trying to take it through this cycle again.

Thanks for the help and ideas, everyone.

KG-805G stock.tw 5.04 kB · 1 download

Glad to hear you're back in business! I'm thinking a fresh flash from the software would've done the trick...there's just something in the base 816 configuration the radio doesn't like, so that read first is pretty critical .

[WSAA635]

I noticed that the KG-818 and KG-UVD1P profiles in chirp legacy also work with the KG-805G but none of them give me anything in the Settings Tab.  Since Wouxun makes a MURS version of this radio us there anyway to unlock it to do VHF for MURS frequencies and even possibly NOAA? 

[dwmitchell61]

Considering the software BTWR supplies, from the manufacturer keeps getting flagged by Windows 11 Security as containing the Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.B!ml, maybe they should supply a download of CHIRP and the factory code plug for CHIRP? 

There is a problem when we and the Chinese are in a state of hostility, and they manufacture nearly EVERYTHING we purchase. But our government and the management of the large corporations  deem the savings in labor costs are well worth the risk, I guess. "Most Favored Nation."