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Oh my, the response to the Baofeng UV-5R manual release has been somewhat overwhelming... We didn't expect much at all, let alone almost 250 downloads in the first day.
Thanks to all those who've downloaded, provided feedback and donated. It's really rather encouraging to see when things get appreciated.
Posted by xles on Nov 11th 2012It's been a long process, but we're finally here. Version 1.0 of the Baofeng UV-5R user manual by The (Chinese) Radio Documentation Project is now available for download, in PDF formats optimized for print, and one optimized for iPad, as well as other electronic reading devices.
Other formats such as Kindle, EPUB and online HTML will have to wait for when we develop the toolchains needed to produce them. Be assured that they will be coming however.
Posted by xles on Nov 10th 2012Due to personal reasons work on the manual has slowed down considerably, for the moment. The manual will however be completed and released, that is guaranteed. Unfortunately this means that the release will have to be pushed back yet again. We're very sorry for all the delays.
Currently we're hoping for a release sometime before November 10th.
Posted by xles on Oct 18th 2012Finally, after a long wait, the Baofeng UV-5R (and programming cable!) found its way here. Now the real work begins: Figuring out how the radio really works.
A solid week of experimentation should do the trick, rewriting what we've got as we move along. Stay tuned...
Posted by xles on Sep 24th 2012Thanks to donations from some very generous individuals, a brand new Baofeng UV-5R has been ordered. With any luck it'll get here some time next week. Which is good, considering we're running out of things to write without a reference unit.
We've also decided to go with the new release strategy. The Baofeng UV-5R manual will get released when it's deemed finished. Estimated about a week after we get the reference unit.
Posted by xles on Sep 14th 2012Recently we've come to reconsider our planned release strategy. The unfinished product looks great, that's not the problem. The problem is that, we're feeling that we don't want to release a half finished product to the public.
What's currently under consideration is this;
Scrap that version number nonsense. Previously v2.0 would be final release, and also first release.
Posted by xles on Sep 11th 2012Huzzahs and hail baby. The project website is finally done-ish.
Well I suppose I should write something here, marking our first post. Updates would be in order I think.
The progress so far on the Baofeng UV-5R manual is coming along great! We have several chapters "done" and more to come. The idea is still to push version 1.0 when the content of the original manual has been converted, adding more data in consecutive versions.
On that note, previously we figured that we'd release a gritty 0.9 version to the public until we got all the image rendering in the toolchain working correctly. This has since been scrapped. The current goal is: Get v1.0 ready and out the door on the primary target, i.e. PDF for print. Worry about e-books later.
No worries, you e-book users out there. Optimized versions are coming. Meanwhile we've established a path in the toolchain to produce iPad-optimized PDFs in addition to the print-optimized PDFs. So if you planned to read your manual on your favourite slate computer system, we've got you covered.
Posted by xles on Sep 6th 2012