Comments on: VX-8 data cable

By: trixter

trixter — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 03:29:18 +0000

according to Yaesu there are discrete component changes that are required to upgrade the Vx8. With that said I personally think its just firmware that is changed, which is contained at least in part on the cpu itself. They do not want the firmware out for fear of people modding in ways that violate FCC rules. In 1994 Yaesu almost lost their FCC approval for the FT-50 because it was easily modded to “freeband” which was a real freeband, it would Tx anywhere the hardware locked. Their solution was a firmware change in newer radios where the bandplan data is all the same for US models. They do not want a repeat of this, there is too much money at stake, so they make it sound mysterious to upgrade it.

By: EarlJr

EarlJr — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 03:59:31 +0000

In light of Yaesu’s upgrade program being offered for the VX-8R to VX-8DR, I would suspect that the ‘TNC’ is only implemented in software. I have not sent mine in to be upgraded yet, but others I know have already received their radio back, and there seems to be no physical alterations (as far as I can detect) internally or externally. Still, it’s a shame there isn’t an easy way to tap into it.

By: trixter

trixter — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:58:23 +0000

no progress, I have been busy with other things. I am not even certain that you will ever get access to the internal TNC, and for all I know its just a software DSP based one which means that something like soundmodem would work the same. If the software is written only for aprs then it may be that you never have access to the raw data and it would only support one mode, unless of course someone could get access to that code and write in some additional hooks to get the data.

I just dont know at this time.

By: spinningcog

spinningcog — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:01:38 +0000

Any more progress on this? I’m strongly considering getting one of these, but I’d really like to be able to use the TNC.

By: trixter

trixter — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:41:31 +0000

no, I have been distracted and have not played with this radio much lately. I do not know if doing a memory dump is possible, that was one of the things that I wanted to play with and see. Other than serial for cloning and sending gps coordinates I do not know what is available via the serial port.

By: Rabbit

Rabbit — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:46:42 +0000

Do you have a VX-8r memory dump you would be willing to share? I have not been able to get the radio and would like to test some software I am working on?

By: trixter

trixter — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:07:31 +0000

To be absolutely clear, the TNC is in the radio, the speaker mic is just that, along with a pass through of the 3.3v, ground and serial pins for the gps module which may optionally sit on top of the speaker mic. Anyone who claims the TNC is in the speaker mic is wrong.

If you do not believe me, and why should you, go to a ham store and ask to see a VX8. Make sure the gps and speaker mic are not connected. Turn it on, set VFO-B to 144.39, turn APRS on (1200bps will probably be best). If there is APRS acitivity in your area you will be able to see it in the APRS menus. This will let you confirm for yourself where the TNC is and not just take my word for it, and it will let you feel confident in no longer spreading false rumors. You will have to enter a callsign for the APRS stuff to work (although I think it has a default one … that is bad m’kay?) you may have to manually enter some GPS coordinates (it caches the last GPS data it got, if it never had any it will probably be all zeros and it may require some change from that location although technically that is a valid location).

For the record I do not have the speaker mic, I do have the gps, but APRS works without that (obviously you have to manually enter your coordinates). I am able to send and receive messages between my laptop running xastir and my VX8 (using a separate radio of course). I am able to read everyone elses traffic as well.

I do not know who started that rumor, I have seen it too, and the people that were saying it largely were saying it before the device was available. One person claimed to have a pre-release version of it who claimed it was in the speaker mic, and I question if they ever had a pre-release version because it seems unlikely that Yaesu would make a speaker mic with a TNC then take it out and put it in the VX8 just before release. Hardware changes like that cause massive production delays.

By: shadowmite

shadowmite — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:21:26 +0000

Near as I’ve heard the radio actually does not have a TNC built in, the speakermike does… Thus there is no tnc if you connect the radio directly to your computer.