What is this ?
The Quansheng UV-K5 and all its current variants is a radio very similar in the line of the various Chinese made radio series available on the market. While there is various controversy about the availability and usage of these radios (even in South Africa) there is something to be said about having a small handheld radio that is cheap enough that I’ll take it anywhere without having to worry that it would get damaged or lost. But why focus on this one?
Well, without going into too much technical details. This radio can have new firmware loaded. It started initially by various people patching the existing firmware with changes. This is difficult and not ideal in terms of wanting to code something new for the radio. But now we have various open implementations available which mean we have a set of source codes that can be compiled into a new firmware that can be loaded onto the radio. Various developers have started developing all kinds of improvements to the original firmware.
Goals
For me this is a perfect opportunity to learn more and also a new fun project to do! (Like I don’t already have enough projects :p)
My initial goals are (1) to go through the process of flashing existing custom firmware on the radio and (2) be able to modify, compile and create my own firmware. I’d like to specifically play with potentially turning it into a kind of data modem as that is where my interest lies, but we will see how far we get.
Load Custom Firmware
For my experiments I have decided to use the egzumer/uv-k5-firmware-custom repository. Its an open collection of source code that has been merged from various other projects. It very popular and there seems to be lots of recent updates.
Before we can get into the nitty gritty details of coding something we first need to go through the process of loading some custom firmware on the radio.
To load custom firmware you need a programming cable and the radio, nothing more. The programming cable is the same type of programming cable that is used for the Baofeng. Their are many various versions available.
To make things easier we will be using the web based flashing tool. The flashing tool can be found here.
Before you can flash new firmware you need to put your radio in Flash Mode. Do this before you connect the programming cable. To do this simply hold the PTT button before you turn on the radio. Nothing will be shown on the screen, but the led on top will be a solid white light.
Now you can connect the programming cable to your radio and computer.
If you have a separate firmware file you want to load then click on browse to select the file, alternatively if you want to flash one of the egzumer releases then use the flash link and it will automatically load the the firmware file.
You can now click on Flash Firmware. It will popup a window that shows all the usb devices.
Select the device and connect.
If all went well then it will start flashing the the radio. While its writing the new firmware the top LED will also be flashing. Once your firmware is loaded it will automatically start again and depending on your firmware used you should see that it has been updated.
And that is basically all you need to do to load a new firmware file on Quansheng UV-K5/K6/5R. In my next post I will show you how to make some custom changes to the egzumer firmware and compile a new firmware file 🙂
73,
Tom – ZR6TG
Hiya, is there software to flash this radio for a Mac OS X user? Haven’t had a Windows computer for about 20 years, hehe.
Any advice appreciated
73, Gaz M7GZM
I don’t use Mac, so can’t make any recommendations there. But everything in the article is browser based so I think it should work fine on Mac as well ?
73,
Tom
Yes, you can just use any Chrome/Chromium based web browser on any operating system.
73 de Max
The only browser that worked for me is Chrome, the others give an error so since this flashing tool is web based, it works on a Mac as well.
I can say that for sure the update works on a Mac. Evidence: I just (literally) reflashed a radio that was ‘bricked’ using the method described above. 73.
i have pushed the cable right into the radio, till it clicks, (like others have said), the mac recognises the cable, the light is on the radio,,,,,but when I press the button to flash firmware it says no data recognised, make sure the radio is in flash mode,,,,which it is, so, HELP.
Can i use a usb cable to flash the custom rom ?
Hi guys.
This is a recent 2024 new Quansheng UV5 (new 2024 V5.00.03) which wont allow FW change or chirp. Any Clues?
Goes into FW mode, then they complain there was a problem and wont proceed. Seems version 5.00.03 returns something other than expected bytes when trying to even use chirp. It complains the version is wrong and wont proceed. any clues how to update the firmware to say egzumer or use chirp with this newest radio. Looks the same as one I purchased earlier and yet that works fine. This one all black and yet other wise is labeled UV-5R PLUS Output power = 8W. (hmmmm) FCC ID-xbpuv-k5.
Used K5prog to backup ok. Trying to use K5prog to upload firmware this is what happens.
————————————————————
listening for firmware update mode packet ..
sending k5_hello ..
firmware version: ‘5.00.03’
has custom AES key: no
is in lock screen: no
challenge: 05 DD 4F 4F
————————————————————
obviously the change in supplied firmware is different from previous.
Surely people are starting to see these around??
Minsik@44uu.net
Hi.
I’m having the same issue.
Stock firmware version 5.00.05.
Unable to use chirp due to the firmware not being recognised (not a major problem as I’ve managed to copy the saved frequencies from a backup from another UV-K5 on K5Prog (hopefully Chirp will include a driver at some point)).
The firmware flashing issue may be linked to this radio having a usb-c connector on it. A previous similar looking UV-5R Plus had no issues flashing firmware, however that didn’t have the usb-c port or this newer stock firmware. I’ve noticed that the usb-connected icon is on screen when the cable is plugged in and screen on in programming mode.
The installed firmware really shouldn’t prevent it being flashed though.
Hi! Exactly the same thing is happening to me. Firmware v. 5.00.05. I thought it was damaged, but I see it’s not only happening to me. I hope someone will find a solution to this problem quickly, or maybe you already know something? It would be a pity – my model (UV5R Plus) has a built-in USB charging port, just like the UV-K5(8), although it still has a blue screen 😉