The Firmware
The Motorola MC micro radios are run by a Hitachi 6303 microcontroller. Models EVA5 (Command Board GLN7059B) and EVA9 (Command Board GLN6627A) have the program memory located in an external EPROM. In EZA9 radios (Command Board GLN6628B, GLN6984A) this memory resides within the controller (on the chip) and can therefore not be changed without replacing the controller.
The MC70 firmware replaces the original motorola firmware and enables the functionality required for an amateur-radio transceiver.
Features
Basic features are supported by all models. Due to certain differences between them regarding the hardware, there are some things that are not possible with every model (or only after substantial modifications).
The following table gives an overview.
| EVA5 | EVA9 | EZA9 * | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual Frequency input | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Arbitrary Tx-Shift | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 1750 Hz | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CTCSS | o ** | Yes | Yes |
| DTMF | Yes ** | Yes | Yes |
| 25 Memory Slots (Frequency & Shift) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Squelch | 3-Level | 2-Level | 2-Level |
| Selectable Output Power | No | 2-Level | 2-Level |
* - Requires replacing the CPU with the MC70 CPU Board
o - Requires hardware modification for CTCSS
** - From version 12.001, not available in version 1.0.x
Quick Introduction
After powering up the radio, the firmware version and (if configured) the callsign are displayed (default is "DG1YFE"). The transceiver then shows the current frequency and is ready for action.
An arbitrary frequency or TX-shift may be entered directly using the numeric keypad. On control heads missing the numeric keys, both (frequency & shift) can be entered digit-wise.
Further details can be found in the MC70 user manual (PDF, 3.5 MB - Version for model EVA5, only minor differences for EVA9/EZA9 when using control head 3. A revised version including EVA9/EZA9 'specialities' is under way.)
The firmware for models EVA5 and EVA9 is written in assembly language (Hitachi 6303, extended version of the Motorola 6800 instruction set). The firmware for the MC70 CPU Board (used with EZA9 transceivers) is written in C and implements the same functionality.
The firmware is released under the GPL v3, the repository containing the sourcecode can be downloaded from Github:
- Sourcecode for EVA5 Version
- Sourcecode for EVA9 Version
- Sourcecode for MC70 CPU Board (Release scheduled Q4 / 2012)
Further details regarding hardware and firmware can be found here.