Scanning on the radio

[Kris Gainsforth]

Just got my VR-N7500, and I was wondering if the scan function scans all the frequencies in every group, or just the 16 in the current group?

[Joshua Mesilane]

Current group only.

In order to understand why, you need to understand that groups are logical groups stored in the controlling device (your phone or tablet) not the radio.

The actual radio has no concept of groups, just the 16 channels that have been loaded into it.

Sent from my iPhone

On 30 Sep 2023, at 5:55 pm, Kris Gainsforth <kri...@gmail.com> wrote:

Just got my VR-N7500, and I was wondering if the scan function scans all the frequencies in every group, or just the 16 in the current group?

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[Kris Gainsforth]

That's what I thought. Has anyone reverse engineered the serial commands over BT for this radio?

[Michael Stenner]

I don't think Joshua's explanation is exactly correct, although it's functionally correct for the question you asked.  I think the radio itself DOES store multiple groups, and I think you can switch between them using the android app (not totally sure you can).  I don't think you can switch between them using the iOS app.  Why do I think the radio stores multiple groups?  Because I loaded multiple groups onto it using my iOS phone (it asks you which group number to insert the 16 channels into), and then when I connected using brand new android tablet, I could pull those groups off of the radio onto the tablet.  So, it's not quite true that only one group is stored on the radio at a time.  it is 100% true that only one group is ACTIVE at a time. 

So, again, there's no real functional difference from what Joshua said if you only use one controlling device.  If you use multiple devices, it's convenient to push/pull groups from the radio so that you don't need to maintain all your groups in multiple places.  You do need to manually track changes though so you don't overwrite them.  I keep all my groups "stored" in Group 2+, and then just copy them over to Group 1 when I want to use them.

I saw someone on reddit who (several years ago) said he was making some progress on reverse-engineering the bluetooth protocol.  I poked him but didn't hear back.  If you get any leads, please let us know here.  I'm not afraid to roll up my sleeves, but I'm not sure the bang-for-the-buck is good enough if I'm starting from scratch.

-Michael

[Marnoch Standen]

Over the groups that I monitor there has not been any announcements of reverse engineering the radio and the makers have not released details.

The radio stores only 1 group of 16 memories and the android phone can store many groups/blocks of memory.

When started up and connected the radio will send the stored memory block to the phone..

I have never found or seen a 2nd or 3rd memory block in the radio ???? 

Min Standen G0JMS

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[Michael Stenner]

Regarding stored groups,  I'm attaching screenshots from my iPhone and an android tablet (I couldn't figure out how to take actual screenshots of that, so... sorry... I took pictures with my iPhone).

On the iphone, select "Channel & Groups".  That takes you to the screen labeled "Channel Groups".  The  groups listed there (I have 3) are all stored locally on the phone.  However, if you tap the little icon on the right, it will push that group to the radio.  When you do that, you get the "upload to device" screen, and it asks you to choose "Channel Group 1" through "Channel Group 12".  You can copy whichever phone group (eg, "Home") to whichever radio group (eg, "Channel Group 5") you want.  As far as I can tell, there is NO WAY to choose which Radio Channel Group is active from within the iOS app.  All I can do is push a Phone Group into Channel Group 1, at which point it becomes active.

Now switch over to the android tablet.  If you hit "Switch Device Region", you will see "1. Channel Group" through "12. Channel Group".  These are the same 12 channel groups reference above, and they are stored on the radio.  In my case, they were uploaded to the radio from my phone.  On this screen, you can choose which one is active.

I want to reiterate: I programmed ALL THREE GROUPS on my phone.  I have not programed any channel groups on the tablet ever.  AND YET, when I'm using the tablet,  I can use ALL THREE GROUPS on the radio.  That's just not possible unless those three groups were stored on the radio itself.  I can ALSO switch channel groups from the stupid little bluetooth walkie wireless controller.  It's buried deep in the menus.

- you can store groups on your phone/tablet (and name them)

- you can store groups on the radio (Channel Group X)

- you can push groups from phone/tablet to radio (iOS & Android)

- you can pull the active group from the radio to your phone/tablet (iOS & Android)

- you can select which radio group is active (Android and bluetooth handheld, but NOT iOS)

Like so many others, I think it's a crying shame that this radio is so excellent in many ways, but so INFURIATINGLY difficult to use.  I mean, here we are arguing about how to do something as basic and loading different channel groups.

-Michael

[Kris Gainsforth]

I wish I could reverse engineer apk files, because if we could figure out the serial connection over BT, someone else could write a better application, if the vendor won't.