nicsure posts
nicFW880 ALPHA 15
!!The firmware DOES NOT support sub 300 serial number radios!!
Power Calibration There's a default calibration setup present on starting the RMS. This is based on my radio so you may have to fine tune fo
Power Calibration
2025-08-18 10:11:55 +0000 UTC View Post
There's a default calibration setup present on starting the RMS. This is based on my radio so you may have to fine tune for your own. You may use the earlier release diagnostic firmware to experiment and di...
nicFW RT-880 ALPHA 14
!!The firmware DOES NOT support sub 300 serial number radios!!
Main visible change here is the startup logo, other than that not much else will seem to have been added. But there have been a ton of tweak
Main visible change here is the startup logo, other than that not much else will seem to have been added. But there have been a ton of tweaks, small requests and fixes that have been reported from ALPHA 13.
2025-08-16 09:58:03 +0000 UTC View PostnicFW880 ALPHA 13 Bundle
nicFW880 Alpha 13 :: New Features & Improvements
The thirteenth alpha release of nicFW880 is here, bringing some new features and refinements.
As always, remember that this will wipe all channels, bandplans, skins and fonts so make sure you have backed up to CSVs before flashing.
Manual DTMF & Repeater Tone
Manually send DTMF tones and set a custom repeater tone frequency.
Note:...
2025-08-15 00:05:33 +0000 UTC View Post
nicFW880 ALPHA 12
Firmware wise there's not a great deal changed other than a few tweaks here and there. The main thing about this release is the configurable UI. This took ages to do because as you will see, there's so many things it needs to do.
I put together a very quick video to demonstrate this but I did it on my Linux box, and the screen capture messed up the recording :(
I anticipate a few issues will come to light with this after release due to the sheer complexity. It's doubtful I've acco...
2025-08-13 15:46:26 +0000 UTC View PostRT-880 RMS Progress
Fonts tab done :)
UI Tab almost done.
ALPHA 12 out soon.
2025-08-12 02:35:57 +0000 UTC View PostnicFW880 ALPHA 11 [Release Bundle]
Hey everyone!
This update includes the updated RMS (Radio Management System)! 🎉
📦 What's in the Bundle?
This download includes:
The RMS app – for every platform
Note: The RMS App now has a firmware flasher built in.The Firmware Binary (.bin file)
Hopefully a fix for the flash corruption problem, if not there is a safeguard in place.
Thes...
2025-08-06 08:51:23 +0000 UTC View PostnicFW880 ALPHA08 [and later]
I thought it best to make a new post as the old one is a bit stuffed with releases now.
ALPHA08 now has scanning. This works a little differently to other versions
Setup the scan in the "Scanning" menu category.
Start the scan by long pressing 3 as before, this will start either channel/group scanning or VFO scanning depending on your current mode. For VFO scanning, the values prefixed "VFO" in the scanning menu will be used. This is: "Scan from what's in the menu"
Lon...
2025-08-03 18:44:29 +0000 UTC View PostRT-880 Channel/Group
Wow, getting channels and groups going is linked to so many other functions: long presses, SPI storage, input modes (such as text) and the list goes on, I knew this kind of thing would be the case when rewriting things from the ground, but heck, it's quite brutal how much functionality is implicitly interlinked.
Getting close now, but I did want to drop the long press "shift" function. It was too clunky imo. With the 880 you have all buttons (except up and down), including both side but...
2025-08-01 21:17:26 +0000 UTC View PostRT-880's SPI Flash is weak.
SPI Flash Memory Limitations on the RT-880
One of the big challenges with the RT-880 is its SPI flash memory chip, it has a fairly limited write endurance, rated at just 100,000 write cycles. Once that limit is reached, the radio becomes essentially unusable.
To work around this, I’ll need to take a pretty aggressive approach to minimizing writes to flash. The typical strategy in situations like this is deferred writing: changes are stored temporarily in RAM and...
2025-07-30 22:19:56 +0000 UTC View PostRT-880 Next Alpha Release
Alpha Release Update – Channel & Group System Incoming
The next Alpha release of nicFW880 will be a few days out, I’m deep into rewriting the channel and group system from the ground up.
This new system is a big shift:
26 groups (A–Z), each with 12-character names
Channels range from 1–999, no more banking
Channel nam...
2025-07-30 15:02:09 +0000 UTC View Post
RT-880 Radtel Firmware Extractor
!!THIS IS NOT MY WORK!!
Original site is here: https://www.mikrocontroller.net/topic/558990#7489132
Allows you to extract the raw .bin file from the Radtel firmware update tool. These extracted bin files can be flashed to the radio using my flashing tools available here.
https://...
Another RT-880/UV-98 Flasher
But this one is cross platform.
Tested on Windows and Linux.
Can't test on OSX as I don't have a Mac
nicFW880 Alpha
These are sequential alpha stage releases as functionality is built up.
Obviously, don't report missing functionality, as there is a lot of that at this stage, even if a menu option is there it doesn't mean the function is implemented yet.
(There will be many glitches)
Note regarding Multi Watch (It's no longer Dual Watch as there's three VFOs):
In order for HF to function, an internal relay must be switched. You will hear this relay switching when you move between HF and...
RT-880 1st Draft Demo of new Menu System
Didn't mention in the video, but all menu colors and fonts will be user definable.
2025-07-25 07:19:05 +0000 UTC View PostnicFW880 [very] early build preview
I'm uploading this for progress reporting mainly. The configurable UI code rebuild was MASSIVE and took ages, but is finally mostly done. Now I'm into the menu system, again a massive rewrite but hopefully won't take as long as the configurable UI. The menu system isn't enabled in this preview as it's not stable enough yet.
This has all three VFOs, but no channel modes yet (I haven't written the CPS) you have to enter the frequencies manually (no up/down step yet 'cos no menu) and can a...
2025-07-23 05:49:04 +0000 UTC View PostRT-880 Progress
Another progress post.
The UI code is starting to come together. I know this doesn't really look that different to other versions apart from the third VFO. but trust me, there's a lot of work under that. When you all see how much more flexible the skinning will be I'm sure you'll understand. Even things like the signal bar gradient colours are now user definable. There's no more forced placement, everything is its own element, even the direction arrow for the TX offset, the S9 the +02...
2025-07-20 22:29:41 +0000 UTC View PostRT-880 Default Skin
Since I have four times more flash space than other radios, I'm able to set default fonts, default skin, settings, bandplan etc.. so that unlike the 890 and 900 it'll just work right after flashing.
The image is not final of course, I'm still fine tuning layouts etc.. But there's so many things to consider with this new skinning system it's insane.
Although you cannot tell from the picture, the bottom two VFOs are dimmed.
I've not quite decided on how to address the signal m...
2025-07-20 00:28:03 +0000 UTC View Post
RT-880 Progress
As I've mentioned before, a lot of code is being completely refactored (which is a fancy word for redone), but to show how far along I am, here's a quick video of my coding environment for the 880 firmware.
2025-07-11 06:45:15 +0000 UTC View PostRT-880
Work on the RT-880 nicFW actual is now fully underway. The first thing I'm tackling is the new configurable UI.
Many things in the 880 firmware are rewrites, and while I'm not working from scratch as I have a lot of reference code, it is still a large job. I am noticing a lot of member fall off, I can only assume this is due to what appears to be lack of progress. This does happen when I'm deep into a project, I can go quiet for a while. Users from the old Facebook group should be used ...
2025-07-08 07:53:34 +0000 UTC View PostSkinning Update for the RT-880 first draft
As I previously mentioned, every UI element on the new 880 firmware will be fully customizable, while some elements may have custom properties, all of them will have at least these:
Location X, Y pixel coordinate (relative to parent if any)
Foreground Colour (see below)
Background Colour (see below)
Font (8x8, 8x16, 16x16, 16x24, 24x24 o...
2025-07-06 11:21:56 +0000 UTC View Post
exFW880 V8
New Exploratory Firmware Drop!
Crossband Repeater Edition
Hey folks, I’ve just pushed another exploratory firmware (exFW) release! This one implements a basic crossband repeater, giving me a chance to dig deeper into how the radio’s firmware interfaces with the hardware.
These exFW builds are not full releases; far from it. They’re rough, purpose-built tools to test assumptions, refine my hardware interface strat...
2025-07-05 21:29:07 +0000 UTC View PostRT-880 is very dissapointing
One of the main reasons I really wanted to get my teeth into the RT-880 is because of the dual BK4819 chips. There's so much I could have done with that, but the implementation, frankly, leaves a lot to be desired. This is based on information supplied by Radtel in the form of a schematic diagram which, to be fair, does not look particularly up to date for the recent models, but based on my testing and this schematic I can say this with reasonable confidence.
1. The second BK481...
2025-07-05 05:58:17 +0000 UTC View Post
RT-880 Schematics
Looks like there is a GPIO on BK4819B that acts as the switch between chips; pin 30/GPIO2. This is curious as I have tested all the GPIOs on BK4819B and none of them seemed to do anything. I shall attempt it again. Even if this is the case it's still disappointing as both chips cannot receive AT THE SAME TIME. So listening to signals while the spectrum scope is running that I hoped this dual chip radio would solve? Not possible.
Another odd thing, the GPIOs I already discovered by expe...
2025-07-04 07:34:28 +0000 UTC View PostexFW880 V6
The next exploratory firmware. This time it's a rudimentary simplex VFO. You have bandwidth, modulation, frequency, rssi/ex-noise readouts and simple noise based squelch. Pretty basic but enough to gauge RX/TX performance across the bands.
To the best of my knowledge, the correct TX/RX filters/finals are being engaged.
Controls:
0-9 : Enter new frequency
Menu (Green) : Enter new step
UP/DOWN : Step frequency
* : Toggle Ban...
2025-07-03 20:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
RT-880 Some Assumptions
Reverse Engineering Update: Early Insights and Theories
The reverse engineering journey is in full swing, and here are some early discoveries:
Pins 8 & 9 are clearly multiplexed. One function is the Si4732 data I²C line, but the other labels show both as CODE2-ADIN. I suspect a typo here, they’re likely CODE1 and CODE2, with ADIN hinting at ADC input pins.
Pin 25 (FM-POWER-EN) is probably the...
2025-07-02 11:01:17 +0000 UTC View Post
exFW880 V4
I’m excited to share my diagnostic firmware designed to help probe and identify the functions of various GPIO pins on the device. Using this firmware, I’ve already mapped out the VHF/UHF filters for both RX and TX. However, since I don’t have access to proper HF testing equipment, I haven’t been able to fully verify the HF transmit functionality. If any brave users want to experiment and help figure it out, your feedback would be greatly appreciated! I also do not yet know if there ar...
2025-07-01 13:55:07 +0000 UTC View Post