Is anyone actively working on tweaking this firmware to work with the new PY32F030 chip that comes with UV k5(8) v2.0 models?

[enforcer2000]

I recently tried to flash this fantastic firmware (v0.22) to a brand new Quansheng UV K5 (8) - but only ended up bricking the radio and having it left with a blank screen on power up. I managed to salvage it to factory firmware and then I started to discover that there have been some changes with the radio since the last one I purchased.

I have previously flashed Egzumer to an identical looking one with no issues. From a lot of digging it turns out that they have tweaked the chip in the unit to a PY32F030 which is incompatible with the majority of custom firmwares out there including Egzumer. Is there anyone on here smarter than me that is actively looking to port the firmware to this updated version of the radio? I have not seen this question anywhere else on the forum and development seems to have stopped a while ago.

Thanks - and to the devs - great work and I hope you are on the case as I would love to get this on my new radio.

[OlivierGagnon]

Hello @enforcer2000 , how were you able to recover from the bricking? I had the exact same issue, been trying to recover it for an hour.
Mine says it's a v3 under the battery.
Thank you!

[enforcer2000]

Hello @enforcer2000 , how were you able to recover from the bricking? I had the exact same issue, been trying to recover it for an hour. Mine says it's a v3 under the battery. Thank you!

Hi - I had V2 - I got it back by flashing the original Quansheng firmware (a quick google for k5_py030_v1.02.01.bin and you should find it - I can't remember where I got it from - there is also a k5_py030_v1.01.07.bin that might work if the first one doesn't work).

Hopefully the base chip is the same in V3 - in which case that firmware should work - fingers crossed!

I used the K5Tool v1.8 to flash it - this got my radio back to the original firmware and working. There was a really good reddit post with all the instructions and links to the firmware mentioned above but can't find it again now - hopefully the info above though and the basic instructions for K5Tool should get you there as it was not too complicated.

After that - I found a version of F4HWN firmware 4.2 that was built for the V2 hardware - It is a great firmware but doesn't support bandscope and FM radio at the same time as it comes in 4 different flavours to allow different features with the limited memory in the Quansheng - the Egzumer version obviously supports bandscope and FM at the same time which is what I really wanted as a backup emergency radio to allow a visual scan of the bands but also have access to commercial radio stations.

I believe the v4.2 firmware I used was at the link below but if that doesn't work then you can always go back to flash the original firmware again:

https://github.com/muzkr/uv-k5-firmware-custom/tree/7f692aec4e86b270eccce0b235416e080f455e5b/archive_V2/v4.2

Again - I used K5Tool to flash it.

I ended up installing the game version of the F4HWN firmware as it was actually a gift for a family member and felt they would prefer a more fun version to play with - it comes with breakout/arkanoid to play :) .

Hope that helps and good luck - would love to hear if you get it back up and running or feel free to ping another post if you need more help.

[OlivierGagnon]

@enforcer2000 , thanks for the answer!

So over the past few days, I've done a lot of troubleshooting and testing and redditing.
What seems to be happening is that the v3 has some hardware differences, and also the bootloader version is 7.00.11

It appears that every firmware our there available are either for v1 or v2. It looks like nobody has been able to dump the v3 firmware yet.

So as it stands, there is no way to recover it. All of the firmware available give a version error when trying to flash.
Also a reddit user is suggesting that current flash tools actually don't work on the v3 and simply corrupt it.

So I stored the radio in a box until maybe some day someone figures out how to get the firmware dump and new tools!

[enforcer2000]

@OlivierGagnon

Have you tried Quansheng's own website for the stock firmware and used their firmware updater? I had a quick look and they seem to have a v3 firmware listed alongside their flashing tool and a flashing instruction video and a word doc of instructions all bundled in their firmware download zip file:

https://en.qsfj.com/support/downloads/3002

(Note the V3.00.18 firmware file - hopefully that is referring to the v3 hardware)

The file I downloaded and looked at was 36.07 MB and had it all in the one zip.

Apologies if I am stating the obvious but thought it was worth checking. There might not be a custom firmware available yet for V3 but if that works at least your radio will be running again.

[OlivierGagnon]

Hello @enforcer2000 . Good news, I've been able to recover the radio.
Unfortnately none of those firmwares worked since they're for a different CPU

For the v3, the CPU was changed to a PY32F071, here's the original V3 firmware:

https://github.com/armel/k1-teardown/blob/main/openocd/K5_V3_PY32F071_firmware.bin

And here's an updated flash tool that supports v3:

https://armel.github.io/uvtools2/

This restored it

Thanks to Certain_Smile_9516 on reddit and Armel FAUVEAU. And of course you for helping as well!

[enforcer2000]

Awesome news - hopefully this thread will help others and the custom firmware devs will refresh their firmware to support V3 soon! F4HWN certainly is a promising firmware - just wish they could squeeze the bandscope and FM radio into one firmware like Egzumer.

[OlivierGagnon]

@enforcer2000 , Armel said in one of his video that since the v3 has a new cpu, it has double the space. He said the v4.3 firmware would be all in one since there's so much more space available

[enforcer2000]

Awesome - thanks for the insights - shame it is still pot luck which version of the UVK5 you get - I only bought one a month or so ago and it was the V2. Love these radios though for their moddability and airband reception.