Archive for October 29th, 2023

Modified Baofeng UV-17 Pro CPS software 1.2.4h

Continuing my series of modified CPS releases, 1.2.4h was released on the Miklor.com web site today. It adds a working picture upload tool and a major redesign of the channel list visual style as well as a number of bugfixes and tidying up of loose ends.

Here is a complete list of new features and changes in 1.2.4h:

  • Restore “Upload startup picture to radio” in the Tools menu, as it has been fixed.
  • Two different Baofeng logo startup pictures have been added – the original one shipped with the radio and an alternative version.
  • The visual style of the channel list has been redesigned to make it easier to use. The specific design elements are:
    • Channels are now highlighted in a 2-color format when selected, instead of all selected channels being highlighted in Moccasin. The new 2-color format will follow the currently selected Windows theme, such as the high contrast theme for the visually impaired.
    • The contrast between alternating rows of channels has been increased.
    • The column header text background is now Light Gray instead of Moccasin.
    • Use the system Sans Serif font throughout the CPS. Previously, the radio bands, channel list, and about box used a variety of harder-to-read fonts.
    • Use the system theme for the scroll bar instead of forcing the scroll bar to always be blue.
    • The QT/DQT values are now centered in their columns.
    • The QT/DQT dropdown menu background colors now correctly match the background color of the channel.
    • An obsolete library is no longer used, saving over 5MB of disk space in the installed CPS.
  • The settings in the Settings toolbar dropdown (COM port number, CPS language, and default Scan Add behavior) are now saved and will be restored whenever the CPS is started. Note: The saved COM port is not shared with the “Upload startup picture to radio” applet. You will need to select the correct COM port each time you upload a startup picture.
  • Correctly preserve the GPS time zone setting when reading / writing the radio and when opening / saving .dat files. Note: .dat files written with CPS versions prior to 1.2.4h have the time zone set to -12.
  • Add “GPS Time Zone” combo box in the Radio Function window to allow configuring the GPS time zone.
  • The first option name in the Radio Function window item “Backlight” has been changed to “Always On”.
  • Tabbing between fields in the Radio Function window now proceeds as expected instead of sometimes jumping between different areas of the window.
  • Items in the Radio Function window are now spaced evenly instead of having variably sized gaps between them.
  • Items in the Radio Function window have been rearranged into more logical groups.
  • Some Radio Function window items have been renamed to more accurately reflect the radio’s menu naming.
  • The ability to configure the radio for Chinese menus / voice has been restored. It was broken in 1.2.4f and 1.2.4g. Note: This refers to the setting in the Radio Function window. The CPS has its own language option, but most CPS messages are English-only. Translation assistance is welcome.
  • A new setting, “Voice Prompts”, has been added to the Radio Function window. Previously, this setting could be changed on the radio but not in the CPS.
  • The Radio Function window item “Send ID Delay” (“PTT-DLY” on the radio’s menu) has been corrected to support the full range of settings supported by the radio (100 ms to 3000 ms in 100 ms increments).
  • The Radio Function window item “Beep” now only allows the “OFF” and “ON” settings provided on the UV-17 Pro GPS radio.
  • The VFO Mode window items “VFO A Step” and “VFO B Step” have had the missing 100KHz setting added.
  • Correct the handling of CSV data with unexpected uppercase / lowercase formatting.
  • Add a “Cancel” button to Paste Error message boxes.
  • Entering a frequency with more than one decimal point in a channel no longer generates multiple “Error in frequency format” error messages.
  • Entering an invalid frequency in a channel no longer deletes the existing channel settings after displaying the error message.
  • The CPS can now be used with Windows “Open with…” dialogs.
  • The setup program offers to optionally associate .dat files with the CPS.
  • Unique error codes are now reported when a communication failure is encountered while reading from or writing to the radio. This should assist in locating places in the communication process that are prone to errors.
  • A bug that caused the program to exit with no message after a new / write sequence has been fixed.
  • A radio communication handshake error no longer causes the program to exit with no message. Instead, a message box requesting the user to report the bug is displayed.
  • An attempt to read from or write to a radio using an incorrect COM port or with a cable that is not completely inserted in the radio is now detected and generates a useful diagnostic message.
  • An attempt to read from or write to a radio with a cable that is not completely inserted in the radio now generates a useful diagnostic message when using certain programming cables. Note: This condition can not be detected on all programming cables. Some cables will report the generic COM port / cable error message.
  • The radio read / write progress bar now properly auto-closes after the user clicks “OK” on an error message.
  • A bug that prevented pasting lines with channel names containing Unicode text has been fixed. Note: The radio only has font characters for English and Chinese. Other characters will be displayed as a blank space.
  • Pasting channel data into apps such as Notepad in older Windows versions no longer pastes as one long line of text.
  • Trailing CR/LF characters are now added to the last line of cut / copied text.
  • The README (this document) is now available from within the CPS via the Help / README for Modified CPS toolbar dropdown.
  • The default channel list (generated when clicking the (Default) button in the Channel Information window) now auto-fills the GMRS/FRS channels instead of factory test channels. Note: This data is provided as an example only – the radio is not type approved to transmit on these channels in the US, and these frequencies may be used for other purposes outside the US.
  • The default value for the Channel Information column “Scan Add” can now be set via the Settings / Default Scan Add behavior dropdown.
  • Various checks for corrupted data have been added when loading a .dat file.
  • Various checks for corrupted data have been added when doing a cut or copy operation.
  • Unused code has been removed from the CPS build.