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Upgrading a Baofeng 5RH-Pro radio firmware on Linux (Ubuntu 24.04)

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I bought a Baofeng 5RH-Pro radio which claims GPS and APRS broadcasting features built in so that I could test my other radio and computer APRS setup inexpensively.

Unfortunately, it arrived with firmware 2.0.2, but to get (somewhat) working APRS beaconing you need to upgrade it to firmware 2.0.9.   Getting software for the Baofeng radios is a fraught experiance. There isn’t a “main website” to download it from, you are supposed to go through individual dealers, and the amazon seller provides a personal username / password to download software from a 3rd party website that isn’t sketchy at all…


Plus, I’m not even 100% sure that the CPS programming software (which typically is used to set up the saved channels and settings without having to type everything into the radio directly) can also upgrade the firmware. [Plus, at least one vendor on VirusTotal flagged it as having malware.]

[I really anti-recommend the 5RH-Pro as the out of the box experiance is abismal, unless you need a very inexpensive radio that (with a lot of work) can be made to beacon APRS packets with positions from the built in GPS reeiver.  Buy the K6 instead if you don’t need GPS/APRS, as you can program it using CHIRP on linux without jumping through any hoops and the default firmware on it worked great for me..]

Anyways, before putting in the effort of setting up a virtual box with a windows install just to run this questionable CPS software, which may or may not actually upgrade the firmware, I asked the Baofeng User Group (on Facebook) and eventually found a file  (5RH_engtool_fw_v2.7z) uploaded by “Larry Ficken” which worked for me.

This 7zip archive  contains a “radio.exe” (which does NOT flag in Virus Total, so that’s one point less of sketchyness when compared to the vendor suggested files…although you are still running an exe you downloaded from a random dude on FB, so there is that….)  and a firmware file “BF_5RH_501_v2_0_9.dat” which successfully upgraded my radio to 2.0.9 where the APRS positioning beacon system (mostly) works.

Now, it’s still a windows EXE file, but I was able to run it successfully under Ubuntu Linux 24.04 using WINE and MONO.  To do this I had to:

Linux: Installed wine & mono
Download wine-mono.msi from the official WineHQ site (matching the version of Mono I had on my Linux setup)
run ‘wine uninstaller’ from the command line (choose/install the wine-mono.msi file)

Check that my /dev/ttyUSB0 (USB serial port for my K1 programming cable) was linked to COM4 in ~/.wine/dosdevices

Run ‘wine regedit” at the command line and confirm that COM4 was set up correctly in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wine\Port

(On mine, it was listed as “COM4:” so I removed the “:” from the end and that made things work.)

Finally, I was able to type “wine radio.exe” at the command line and the very simplistic firmware updater tool loaded and successfully ran:

This successfully upgraded my radio’s firmware.  [It may also be possible to use wine to run the CPS programming software under Linux….but I haven’t tried that, because CHIRP works great with my K6 radio, and I really recommend you buy radios that CHIRP supports, especially if you are running Linux as your main OS.]

FIXED: Installing obs-ptz package for Ubuntu 24.04 (But not showing up in the docks menu)

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If you want to use Open Broadcast Software (OBS) on Ubuntu 24.04, you can get it via flatpack, or a pre-packaged deb file.  I used the pre-packaged deb file with the apt package manager.

I wanted to add in the obs-ptz plugin to control my pan tilt zoom camera from within OBS.  I was able to find the obs-ptz.deb file from the author at the official github here: https://github.com/glikely/obs-ptz/releases/tag/v0.15.4

Although it installed without complaints, OBS would not show the PTZ dock. Looking at the error messages in the logs, I found that it was having problems opening the libqt6serialport6 library, so a simple “sudo apt install libqt6serialport6” fixed that issue and I was good to go.

[I’m actually using the IP version of the VISCA control protocol, so I didn’t need a serial port connection…but apparently the plugin aborts if it can’t open the serial library even before configuring cameras…]

Moon photographs from a Meade LX200GPS – 12″ SCT telescope

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High resolution image of the moon showing crater details.

I created this high resolution image of the moon using a Meade LX200 12″ SCT telescope and a Sony A6300 camera. It is a digital composite (panorama) of seven separate images (which you can see here: seven-moon-images zip file ). I also made a pan and zoom video out of this image here:

 

 

Software used: Hugin Panoramic Generator and OpenShot Video editor.

Upgrading the firmware on a Meade LX-200 AutoStar II system

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I recently purchased a used Meade LX-200 telescope, which uses an AutoStar II handbox.  Unlike the  Meade #497 AutoStar controller used on my ETX-125 telescope the LX-200 uses a 6 pin plug for the RS-232 port, and it’s located on the main box, not on the handbox. So if you have a Meade #505 cable (4 pin) it won’t fit correctly. I purchased a Meade #507 cable, which is electrically the same (a RS232 to USB connector) but has the proper 6 pin (larger) plug for the LX200 GPS RS-232 ports.
[Having this cable will also let me control the telescope via software on my computer if I want, so I think it was worth the $20.]


It already had the latest 4.2g (note the lowercase g) firmware from Mead installed (which is good, as Mead is now out of business).  However, I used the starpatch software along with the PatchLX42ggv22.spf and BuildLX4.2g.rom files from the very helpful StarGPS company to patch the 4.2g firmware with a few bug fixes, including the GPS date rollover fix.  [They are very generous in that the trial version of their software will patch all the bugs, although if you want to use it to add in support for a GPS receive to a telescope that doesn’t normally come with it like my LX-200 GPS does, then you have to buy the license key.]


This process took me a full hour of downloading time, because I set the speed to the lowest 9600 baud to give it the best chance of being successful on the first shot. (I ran into issues with my previous firmware upgrade of the #497 handset that was fixed by using 9600 bps.) When it was done, I had the  4.2G (note the uppercase G) firmware installed with patches.  This also enabled the “Smart Mount Technology” option from Meade, which is nice to have available, even if you don’t use it.

Cable(s) needed to connect a Sony A6300 to a DJI Ronin (4/3/2) stabilizing gimbal

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I connected my DJI Ronin 4 to my Sony A6300 camera using a “generic” USB-C to micro-usb cable.  [This is equivalent to the DJI “Multi-Camera Control Cable (Micro-USB)” cable.]

The generic cable allowed the Ronin to start/stop video recording, and adjust the shutter speed and aperture (BUT NOT trigger the shutter to take photographs, such as in the auto-panoramic mode…)

To control the shutter, I had to use the specialized DJI Sony “Multi” cable (labeled for the Ronin 2, but it worked fine for the Ronin 4). This cable allows you to start/stop video recording, trigger the shutter to take a photo, but NOT control the shutter speed or Aperture. So depending on what is important to you, you may need to buy both cables to use a Sony A6300 with a DJI Ronin.

You can compare and contrast the differences between the two cables here:

https://www.dji.com/support/compatibility/rs-4-pro/a6300

If you are interested in knowing what cable you need for your specific camera, this page is very useful: https://www.dji.com/support/compatibility

 

 

DO NOT BUY: KNAGV4LD1H5009159

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We just sold our 2017 Kia Optima Plug in Hybrid to Carvana in Orlando.

(VIN: KNAGV4LD1H5009159 )

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND AGAINST purchasing that vehicle specifically, and possibly all early model year Kia PHEV’s in general.

My wife takes it farther and now has an intense hatred of the entire Kia brand, especially Kia America corporate and refuses to buy ANY Kia of any type ever again.

Gen 1.5 (2013-2017) Leaf vs Gen 2 (2018+) – No major differences

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I own a 2015 leaf, and drove a 2021 S Plus for a week. It’s basically like the first gen leaf but with more range (and a few fancy driver assistance features like adaptive cruse control). Oh yah, and rear USB power outlets….

Three minor things I felt that the 2015 leaf did better than the gen2 2021 leaf:

Driver sunshade did not have the “pull out” tab to extend the shade (and could have used it)

Not a fan of the new center console. Arm rest wasn’t as big, drinks are in a more annoying spot. I mean, it’s FINE….but I liked the 2015 model year better.

Gen 2 has an analog (dial) speedometer in the main cluster. I prefer the heads up digital speed gauge in the 2015. But to compensate, the cruse control tells you what speed it is set to digitally, and that’s basically what I use for all speed control anyways.

So, no major complaints about the 2nd gen plus model, I did really appreciate the adaptive cruse control (e-pedal was fine…not worth upgrading for…) loved the extra range. Dash has a lot more informational options (more than you really need, but whatever…)

ABQ Sunport Wifi doesn’t work with Ubuntu Linux – workaround

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I have a Lenovo X1 laptop with Ubuntu 22.04 on it, and it will not connect correctly to the Albuquerque (ABQ) airport free WiFi.  I’ve tried lots of things to debug/diagnose this, and nothing got it to work successfully.

However, my android phone does connect successfully via Wifi, so I was able to turn on USB Tethering on the phone and access the wifi via a USB cable and my android phone.