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Wednesday 22 July 2015

TYT MD-380 bugs

The TYT MD-380 is a relatively new, cheap DMR radio from China. As with most chinese radios, it has a few bugs. I have had the radio since 21/07/15 and this is all of the bugs I have found so far. It has a lot more bugs than any radio being sold to the public should have! I am used to chinese radios having bugs, but this amount is ridiculous. I wouldn't even call this radio ready for beta testing.

  1. Alert tones still sound if you try to transmit on a channel when someone else is transmitting, even when you have alert tones off.
  2. Alert tones volume is not adjustable. This makes the radio impossible to use with any accessories that go into the ear, as the volume is far too loud.
  3. Radio does not take notice of acknowledgements of text messages. It still tries to send them and then beeps to tell the user that they were not sent, even when they were sent and acknowledged.
  4. Radio still transmits when put in RX only on a repeater channel if you try to use the supplementary features of DMR. (Supplementary features meaning remote monitor, radio check, disable, enable)
  5. Radio does not allow you to add private contacts if a group call with the same ID already exists. (From front panel only)
  6. Repeater slot in FPP is spelt "repeatar"
  7. When on the edge of coverage, on simplex and repeater channels, the radio loops a small segment of the voice when it is breaking up. This can be very loud and unpleasant to listen to. Other DMR radios do not do this.
  8. Signal strength indicator randomly shows signals even when there are none. It is usually sitting on 3 bars all the time.
  9. If you change zone as a channel becomes active, the radio stays in the previous zone but shows the name of the new one anyway.
  10. After failing to resend a message due to being out of range of a repeater and on an RX only channel (but it transmits anyway), the radio becomes stuck in the menu. When trying to exit it shows message not sent. Pushing any button on that screen takes you back to the menu saying resend, forward, etc.
  11. If you press any button while the radio is transmitting, even when not holding the PTT button (for example transmitting a text message, radio check) it plays a DTMF tone.
  12. In text messaging, you cannot type a space unless you switch to chinese mode. In english mode it only writes the number 0 when you press the space/0 button. (Now fixed in update)
  13. Radio sometimes completely misses long transmissions on simplex channels when scanning if the signal strength is not strong.
  14. No warning when the battery is about to die. You will not realise it has died until you try to wake the radio up to talk or do something else in the menu.

4 comments:

  1. I think all problems are solved with at least 2 new firmwares.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Have you sent these to Tytera and if so, did you get a reply?

    ReplyDelete
  3. i have purchased the MD-380 and it was working fine then all of the sudden now i cant hear anything i am able to transmit but dont hear anything on my end at all and i dont receive audio at all.

    ReplyDelete

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