Quansheng K5Viewer

K5Viewer is a lightweight viewer that displays the live screen output of the Quansheng K5 transceiver (running F4HWN firmware), transmitted via UART to your computer through a Baofeng/Kenwood-style USB-to-Serial cable.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/578c8605-9820-4a2c-90e4-5a93b2be7d2b

Warning

K5Viewer IS NOT A REMOTE CONTROL TOOL.

It simply displays the live screen of the Quansheng K5 on your computer and allows you to take screenshots. It can be useful for illustrating documentation, creating tutorials, or demonstrating how K5Viewer works — whether by screen sharing or using a video projector. It's also a handy tool for development and debugging, especially for display-related features.

🚀 Features

Realtime display of 128×64 monochrome screen via serial connection (UART)
Delta frame updates to minimize bandwidth usage
Capture screen snapshots in PNG format
Switch background color (gray, blue, or orange)
Toggle inverted video mode
Toggle LCD pixel rendering mode
Resize the window (zoom in/out)
Display current FPS in the window title

🛠️ Requirements

Python 3.6+
pip (Python package installer)

📦 Install dependencies:

If necessary, use this command to install dependencies:

pip install pyserial pygame

▶️ How to Run

Connect your Quansheng K5 (running F4HWN firmware v4.2) to your computer using a Baofeng/Kenwood-style USB-to-Serial cable.

Run the k5viewer with the appropriate serial port:

./k5viewer.py -port /dev/ttyUSB0             # Linux
./k5viewer.py -port /dev/cu.usbserial-xxxx   # macOS
./k5viewer.py -port COM3                     # Windows

Note

If no -port is provided, the script defaults to /dev/ttyUSB0.

Alternatively, you can manually edit the script and change the DEFAULT_PORT variable near the top of the file:

 DEFAULT_PORT = '/dev/ttyUSB0'              # Linux
 # or
 DEFAULT_PORT = '/dev/cu.usbserial-xxxx'    # macOS
 # or
 DEFAULT_PORT = 'COM3'                      # Windows

You can also list available serial ports to help you choose:

 ./k5viewer.py --list-ports

🎮 Controls

Key	Action
`Q`	Quit the viewer
`G`	Set background to gray
`B`	Set background to blue
`O`	Set background to orange
`W`	Set background to white
`I`	Toggle video inversion
`P`	Toggle LCD pixel mode
`SPACE`	Save a screenshot as PNG
`UP`	Increase window size
`DOWN`	Decrease window size

Screenshots are saved as screenshot_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.png in the same directory.

📬 Contact

If you encounter issues or have suggestions, feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request. Enjoy building with your Quansheng K5! 📡

3.0 KiB Raw Blame History Unescape Escape