After doing some updates of my Anytone D878UV and D578UV DMR radios I had an annoying problem where the talkgroup field was empty in the last call list as well as in the last call “ticker” scrolling by on top of the screen, just showing an empty “TG:”.
It turned out the problem was caused by the digital contact list that I had generated on radioid.net. I had generated the list with the “TG” checked which generates a contact list including all Brandmeister talk groups. Seems very practical but the problem is that the name field for the talk groups are empty and it seems that Anytone has priority to display the talkgroup info from digital contact list, if it exists, above the info from the talk groups list.
Solution was to generate the digital contact list from radioid.net without checking the TG.
Radioid.net digital contact list generator without the TG checked
https://media01.nerdia.net/uploads/IMG_20220708_143917.jpg23041728Stefan Helanderhttps://media01.nerdia.net/uploads/nerdia-logo-340x156.pngStefan Helander2022-07-09 09:15:472022-07-09 09:15:49Anytone D878UV/D578UV last call talkgroup empty
I wanted to make a “stealth installation” of my Anytone AT-D578UV radio in my Toyota Prius (2008) so I don’t have to worry so much for burglars when parking the car. Below the FM-radio is a compartment, when removed, leaves a space big enough for the radio.
There is plenty of space behind the compartment. I was a bit worried about that issue becase the radio is longer than the depth of the compartment, but it turned out there is enough empty space behind it.
I installed the radio with the programming cable connected as it will be very hard to connect it after the radio is mounted in the car. The microphone is extended and connected using a flat straight ethernet cable and both cables are dropped downwards and pulled out from behind the panel. That way I can easily hide the microphone when parking the car.
When the compartment under the radio is removed (and saved to be reinstalled when selling the car), the space between the metal plates is to wide, so I took a 5 mm nylon cutting bord that I cut into pieces and glued them together to form a suitable spacer and drilled a hole for the mounting screw. I did not use the mounting screws that came with the radio, instead I used one M4x20 mm and one M4x40 mm. On the right side of the radio I used 2 nylon pieces and on the left side 5 or 6. The screws went into the rear holes on the radio and to get some support for the front I used zip tie straps around the radio through the holes in the metal plates.
The GPS was just tucked up behind the navitor screen, just to the right of the speaker. A note about the GPS antenna connector. After about 6 months after installation, I had no GPS signal on the Anytone AT-D587UV. It turned out that the SMA-connector, that I tightened by hand, hade shaken loose by the vibrations. So do tight it a bit with a small wrench, not overtightening it but enough to keep it from getting loose.
For power, I routed two 6 mm2 wires directly from the battery (with a 30A fuse close to the battery) and routed them through the left trunk panel and inside the side panels below the doors to the front. The antenna cable went the same way and I didn’t want to drill a hole in the car so I used a trunk lid mount even though the performance for those are often not as good.
Work in progressAT-D578UV under radioAT-D578UV screw and zip tieAT-D578UV zip tieAT-D578UV GPS-antennaAT-D578UV installed under radioAT-D578UV invisibleAT-D578UV programming cable and mic extensionTrunk lid antenna mountTrunk lid antenna mountStealth installation of Anytone AT-D578UV in Toyota Prius (2008)
Useful videos
These are some useful tutorial videos as you need to uninstall and reinstall the stereo in order to install the Anytone AT-D578UV below it.
Car stereo removal
How to remove trunk interior, left side, for cable rerouting. Use parts of this video. You don’t have remove all interior as the video shows.
Car stereo removal, parts of this video is very useful
https://media01.nerdia.net/uploads/IMG_20211007_172828-scaled.jpg19202560Stefan Helanderhttps://media01.nerdia.net/uploads/nerdia-logo-340x156.pngStefan Helander2021-10-09 11:59:282022-05-27 07:49:24Anytone AT-D578UV stealth installation in Toyota Prius (2008)
With the number of assigned DMR ID:s on radioid.net going over 200.000 we are over the limit of the capacity for the Contact List on the older Anytone models. Anytone:s under estimation in design is not the first in history. Remember Bill Gates saying that no-one, ever, is going to need more than 640 kB RAM?
So we need to select which regions of DMR ID:s to incluide in our contact lists in our Anytone radios.
In addition to that it is a good idea to enable Talker Alias to sort of increase the chance of just not seeing a DMR ID in the display. Not all repeaters supports it though.
Make sure your own Radio ID Name is set in the form “CALLSIGN Name” (your callsign and first name separated with a space). Set your radio on a DMR channel, then MENU -> Settings -> Chan Set -> Radio ID -> select your ID -> Option -> Edit Name -> Confirm
MENU -> Talk Group -> Talker Alias -> Alias Tx Set -> On
MENU -> Talk Group -> Talker Alias -> Alias Rx Dis -> Contact First
https://media01.nerdia.net/uploads/talker_alias-scaled.jpg19202560Stefan Helanderhttps://media01.nerdia.net/uploads/nerdia-logo-340x156.pngStefan Helander2021-10-08 06:32:322021-10-08 06:32:33How to enable Talker Alias on Anytone AT-D878UV / AT-D578UV
