MD380 tools

Ham Radio

I have fell in love with Travis Goodspeed’s hacked MD380 firmware after a fellow ham pointed to these guys.  It is certainly worth messing around with if you have a MD380.

The git hub page is here.  At the bottom of the page are installation instructions. It is a real good idea to review this page, and make sure you understand what is going on and you are messing with the correct radio, etc.

The big thing I see is that it allows you to load the entire DMR-MARC into the radio. That way, you see the name and QTH of just about everyone talking.

I also like the microphone bar graph. It gives a decent visual representation of your modulation. Good to find where to hold the radio.

Cosmetically, it makes the radio prettier.

I did the upgrade using Mint Linux.  I basically followed the Ubuntu instructions. This is a re-hash of the instructions on https://github.com/travisgoodspeed/md380tools.

  • sudo apt-get install git
  • git clone https://github.com/travisgoodspeed/md380tools.git
  • cd md380tools
  • sudo apt-get update
  • sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
  • sudo apt-get install git gcc-arm-none-eabi binutils-arm-none-eabi python-usb libnewlib-arm-none-eabi make curl
  • sudo cp 99-md380.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
  • ##Put the radio in programming mode, hold the PTT and the button directly above the PTT as you turn the radio on

  • git pull
  • make flash
  • #after it is done, this is the part I missed until the online directions changed, reboot the radio and let it power up normally
    #for USA folks

  • make updatedb flashdb

The github repository seems very active. Updates to it seem to be being made daily. The next time you want to update the MD380, you would just run the last few commands.

  • cd ~/md380tools
  • git pull
  • ##Put the radio in programming mode, hold the PTT and the button directly above the PTT as you turn the radio on

  • make flash
  • #after it is done, this is the part I missed until the online directions changed, reboot the radio and let it power up normally
    #for USA folks

  • make updatedb flashdb

No warranties expressed or implied. If this mess bricks your radio, burns down your house, ruins your love life, kills your cat, etc, you will not hold me responsible. Keep in mind, you are putting, experiential, hacked firmware on your perfectly good radio, based on some random guy’s on the Internet instructions. Doesn’t sound that smart, does it? But it is pretty fun.

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