Bricked DM-32

[Log4Jake]

So I have 2 DM-32 radios both I believe to be the standard Chinese ones with the raised tactile sidekeys. As an experiment I successfully flashed OpenDM32 to Radio 2. After playing with it for a bit I wanted to flash back to stock firmware this turned out to be a nightmare for a while. I ended up using the open_uv008 tool to read GD25Q16 from Radio 1 running firmware DM.32.01.01.049 I then copied this flash backup to Radio 2 and flashed the same firmware. I tried restoring my CPS backup aswell. It seems to work except when I turn it on I get a weird Chinese error saying "Model Error" this pops up when turning on and when transmitting. I used Yandex to translate the image. Please someone help me unbrick my radio, Ive tried flashing different firmwares including DM32.00.01.046HRVocoder.bin which did soft brick it upon which I unskrewed the battery and reflashed DM.32.01.01.049 still getting the same error. Did copying the flash mess with something? Edit: my radio is in English that error stays in Chinese

[didotb]

this radio has an AES 256 encrypted set of bytes that's only available for your specific model.
head over to http://infotex58.ru/forum/index.php?topic=1148.0 and read around. RA4FHE has done amazing work on this radio, including intentionally soft bricking it and getting it back to life.

[didotb]

the forum itself is in Russian, but a simple google translate is enough to understand.
There should be a page which he talks about using the OpenUV008 to reflash the encrypted set of bytes back in.

[Log4Jake]

Will try this I'll lyk how it goes! Thanks, I was already reading around that forum a bit.

[Log4Jake]

For documentation these are my radios.

[Log4Jake]

So do I have the less common vocoder?

[maciej123m]

Hi @Log4Jake , I’ve got a DM-32 running DM32.00.01.048 and I’m trying to figure out whether it’s the HR vocoder variant or the “common vocoder” one. Were you able to confirm which vocoder your radios use, and whether DM32.00.xx can be upgraded to DM32.01.xx safely?

[didotb]

I’m trying to figure out whether it’s the HR vocoder variant

The DM32.00.01.xx is the HRVocoder variant. Many people have tried to install another variant for their hardware, unfortunately some of them soft bricked their devices. A re-flash of original firmware got their devices back.

[Log4Jake]

http://infotex58.ru/forum/index.php?topic=1148.msg10486#msg10486
Seems like without a backup I can't restore it unless someone figures out how to bypass license protection, so I guess Ill just be using custom firmware for this radio maybe.

[didotb]

you could still make it work some time soon, there's an opendm32 available, but it's still analog only.

[Log4Jake]

Yeah that's what I had installed I'm gonna reflash it it seemed kinda buggy tho

[didotb]

seems kinda buggy tho

makes sense, it's in an extremely early development

[Log4Jake]

Great news a user modified .049 to disable the ALPU check, I will be flashing and updating soon. http://infotex58.ru/forum/index.php?topic=1148.msg10784#msg10784

[didotb]

that's nice, I might start looking into this

[mindkink]

My apologies for the question, but what does the disable ALPU check actually stand for and do? I'm Australian and our Ham UHF is around 477 Mhtz so I need to mod this (either firmware or otherwise) to be able to send and recieve on these frequencies)

[didotb]

My apologies for the question, but what does the disable ALPU check actually stand for and do? I'm Australian and our Ham UHF is around 477 Mhtz so I need to mod this (either firmware or otherwise) to be able to send and recieve on these frequencies)

DM32-UV's chip is actually capable of TX and RX continuous from 136 through 520 without hardware modification.
The CPS allows this already, but you unfortunately can't save it nor input it until you've set the radio as well.

These steps are what I did, but modified to take the least amount of device change.

1. read from radio using cps (and save if you haven't yet)
2. open Embedded information under tools. password is 374612
3. change frequency mode to Spreading, then start enabling frequency ranges.
4. enable write data and write that to the radio.
5. on the radio, go to vfo mode and go to menu -> scan
6. set your scan v and u (if you're using modded firmware, use that fw's file name as guide) it's usually 136-174 for V, and 220-520 for U
7. save and read radio again to cps and save that new read.

you'll then use your latest read as the baseline for the rest of your expanded rx-tx dm32

[Log4Jake]

It worked! I read the GD25Q16 from my working radio and wrote it to my broken radio overwriting OpenDM32 so that I could boot into firmware download mode using the sidekeys.I then wrote the modified firmware without the license check to my radio and reset it as usual then wrote my cps backup and the radio is perfectly functional and back to usual!

[Log4Jake]

The alpu check is the license key check, if you forget to backup your unique key after flashing unofficial firmware (open-dm32, not sure about the other modified ones) you will overwrite it and it will be unrecoverable. The firmware with this check disabled is the stock firmware with a byte or two of code changed so to bypass the firmware check restoring functionality. If you need to modify your radios range it is possible I've even seen someone convert theirs to a cb radio, although some hardware modifications are required but that's not my area of expertise, I would just read on the forum for that. 

[mindkink]

Thank you so much for the answer!