Structure of Tytera MD-380 .test radio calibration settings file.

Continuing from my previous post, Reading and Backing up Tytera MD-380 calibration settings, here are some notes on the structure of the saved .test file.  I'm trying to decode the layout using hexdump -C.

First here are the screen shot of the data for reference:


Now here is the hexdump -C output.

00000000  0a 96 89 ad 4b 82 7b ff  62 68 6e ff ff ff ff ff  |....K.{.bhn.....|
00000010  91 92 93 90 8d 8d 8d 8f  91 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |................|
00000020  4d 4d 4d 4b 49 45 41 41  42 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |MMMKIEAAB.......|
00000030  5e 74 8b 9c ae bf d0 dd  ea ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |^t..............|
00000040  1c 1a 19 19 19 19 19 19  1a ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |................|
00000050  2d 2a 28 27 27 2c 31 2d  2a ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |-*('',1-*.......|
00000060  35 32 2f 2c 2a 2b 2c 2c  2c ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |52/,*+,,,.......|
00000070  36 34 33 2f 2c 31 36 33  31 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |643/,1631.......|
00000080  03 03 04 04 04 04 04 04  04 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |................|
00000090  25 24 23 22 22 21 20 1f  1f ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |%$#""! .........|
000000a0  2b 2a 2a 28 27 26 26 25  24 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |+**('&&%$.......|
000000b0  37 36 36 35 35 34 33 31  2f ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |76655431/.......|
000000c0  64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64  64 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |ddddddddd.......|
000000d0  1f 1d 1c 1c 1d 1c 1c 1c  1c ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |................|
000000e0  80 80 80 80 80 80 80 80  80 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |................|
000000f0  1e 1e 1e 1e 1e 1e 1e 1e  1e ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |................|
00000100  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |................|
*
00000130  33 2f 2c 29 27 25 23 20  1d ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |3/,)'%# ........|
00000140  5f 5c 5a 58 56 54 52 51  50 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |_\ZXVTRQP.......|
00000150  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |................|
*
00000170  32 32 32 32 32 28 1e 1e  1e ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |22222(..........|
00000180  7f 7d 7b 79 77 70 6a 6b  6d ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |.}{ywpjkm.......|
00000190  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
000001b0  00 35 10 40 00 45 10 40  00 35 10 41 00 45 10 41  |.5.@.E.@.5.A.E.A|
000001c0  00 35 10 42 00 45 10 42  00 35 10 43 00 45 10 43  |.5.B.E.B.5.C.E.C|
000001d0  00 35 10 44 00 45 10 44  00 35 10 45 00 45 10 45  |.5.D.E.D.5.E.E.E|
000001e0  00 35 10 46 00 45 10 46  00 35 10 47 00 45 10 47  |.5.F.E.F.5.G.E.G|
000001f0  00 95 99 47 00 50 99 47  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |...G.P.G........|
00000200  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  |................|
*
00002000

So MD-380.exe, writes out 8 KB, but it looks like only 512 bytes are actually used. the bytes from 512-8192 are all set to 0xFF.

First thing that is easy to spot by eye, the row labeled "Mod1 Partial is all 128 (decimal) which is 0x80 in hex.  A row of '80 80 80' appears at the line with the address 0xE0 (224 bytes into the file). 

There are 9 columns in the GUI and it is easy to see that most of the rows of 16 bytes have 9 values and 7 bytes of 0xFF.  So that's a nice convenient 16 byte per row layout in the file.

Moving up in the screen shot, the first row with data in all columns is "Tx Hight Power" with values of 145, 146, 147, 144 which is hex 91, 92, 93, 90.  This is easy to spot in the second row of the hexdump. 

So there are only 16 bytes before that.  The GUI shows 13 rows before that, but the 11 rows VOX1, VOX10, ..., Freq. Adjust (Low), only have values in one column.  So next step is to locate these values, which are 10, 150, 137, 173, (hex 0a, 96, 89, ad).  Those as easily spotted as the first bytes of the file starting at offset 0.  There are 11 bytes there that aren't 0xFF.

OK so far we know:

• Rows 2-13 (VOX 1, ... Freq. Adjust Low) are stored in the first 11 bytes 0x00 - 0x0a.
• Rows 14-39(?) are stored from bytes 0x10 - 0x18F, as 16 bytes per row using only the first 9 bytes for each calibration value.

That leaves the frequencies that are listed in the first two rows 'Rx Freq' and 'Tx Freq'.  It looks like these are encoded as 4 bytes in the 72 bytes located at 0x1b0 - 0x1f7.

It should be pretty easy to map this into Chirp's bitwise definition.

Hopefully this will be of use to some.
--Rob

Read and Backup Tytera MD-380 calibration settings.

On the Tytera MD-380 Yahoo Group, Stan G4EGH, posted that there is a hidden 'Test Mode' in the MD-380 CPS programming software. in this case 'test mode' is used for reading and writing the radio's calibration settings that are usually done at the factory, but might be changed by someone with a DMR-capable service monitor in the field when recalibrating the radio.  (This 'test mode' shouldn't be confused with any sort of debug mode.).

The important part about this find is that every radio has calibration settings that are specific to it. Think of it as a tuning/fine-tuning step that is done after manufacturing in order to make sure the radio is performing optimally. This step is necessary because the electronic components all have some tolerance (10%, 5%, 1%) for how close they come to their specified value.

Making a backup of your radio's calibration settings is a good idea. The settings are written into flash memory or EEPROM and could become corrupted or lost. If you don't know what the settings are, and don't have the proper test equipment you might have to send the radio in to be recalibrated.

The procedure to make a backup of your Tytera MD-380's calibration data using Tytera's MD-380 CPS v1.30 programming software is:

1. Close the MD-380 software if you have it open.
2. Find the setting.ini file.  On a default install, for Windows 7 (64 bit), the file location is C:\Program Files (x86)\MD_380\MD_380\SoftWare_EN\setting.ini 
3. Edit the settings.ini file with a text editor like Notepad.
4. Locate the line testmode=0 in the [setup] section.  Change the value to 1.  Save the file.
5. Start MD-380.exe.  Starting it through the normal menu/shortcut is fine.
6. Connect the radio with the USB cable and turn it on.
7. Hit CTRL-T, to read the data from the radio.
8. Click "Save Test Data" which will save a .test file with an 8 KB binary of the calibration data. 
9. Put the .test file some place safe where you will be able to find it again when you need it.

Here's are two screen shots from my radio. Unfortunately, I couldn't resize the window to make it all fit:

I've opened an issue in Travis Goodspeed's md380tools github repo to track progress of adding this capability to md380tools.

Hope this helps somebody.