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Motorola MT2000 Programming
- Thread starter sam55671
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I have a panasonic toughbook cf-27 with MS-DOS 6.22, a Pentium 3 500MHz processor and 320mb of RAM. MS-DOS is already on the computer, but can I use it to program the MT2000, because some people say it will work with windows 2000 and some people say it will only work with windows 95/98.
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I've never tried it with win 2000 but I use a usb flash drive and boot dos from it on my toughbooks and it works like a champ. You can find all sorts of free downloads to put dos on a flash drive.
Agreed! Exactly what I have done and I have never had a problem.
You'll definitely want to be booted into DOS rather than running it in a emulator. Generally this has to do with how DOS makes use of the computer's serial ports. Some radios, like the P200/HT600/MT1000 series, require a computer with a 286 or 386 processor because they can't handle faster speeds. The MTSX RSS that is used to program the MT2000 is quite forgiving with regard to speed and will happily work on a Pentium processor as long as you boot into DOS. Some say it is possible to program them using emulators, but native DOS is generally safer for the radio and more reliable. I got flamed by someone here previously for providing this information, but most people on Motorola-specific forums agree that this information is correct. Some people think that just because it worked for them, with their specific computer and radio, it must work for everyone and anyone that says otherwise is clueless. Hope I could help!
Thank you for you answer but I need a better answer from someone who knows if I can use it with windows 2000, or if someone uses it with windows 2000 and if it works.
Can anyone else answer my first question.
These radios and the RSS in general can be extremely finicky. I would say that it probably won't work, but stranger things have happened.
What you are saying is that I will be able to program my mt2000 radio using windows 2000 as long as I boot into MS-DOS on that computer?
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Plus it's super nice being able to put all your dos software on one flashdrive and program everything. The only problem with that is if your computer can't boot from dos. But most everything around today can. Also I don't know how well it would work if you're not using a straight serial cable. I doubt usb to serial converters or usb cables would work running from dos because the lack of drivers. I always use serial because that's what my laptop has but maybe someone who's ran into that will speak up if it works. Good luck, just ask if you need any help.
So I have to use windows 95/98 to program my radio?
Thank You
If you're going to go to the effort of using 95/98 you might as well just put DOS on a flash drive and boot to DOS rather than trying to use it through another OS. DOS isn't a program within Windows, it's a separate OS that predates Windows. Microsoft essentially just included a DOS emulator on the earlier Windows systems.
EDIT: Also, with regard to Serial to USB adapters, they have been known to cause problems as well. Always use a regular serial cable into a serial port if at all possible. I'm 99% certain that DOS will not work with an adapter, or at least not without running an emulator and an exceptional amount of time to make it work. Even then, it probably won't work reliably.
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hold up... I think I missed the obvious here. Are you saying sam55671 that your computer has boot option for dos on startup? If so, then yes that should work. I vaguely remember some old versions of windows having a boot from dos option on startup but I cant remember specifically what os's.
I am going to be using a RIB, and the serial port on the computer.
Yes, that is correct.
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Well then you should be good to go then. Sorry I misunderstood you the first time, it didn't register with me that used to be an option. Upon further thinking, I seem to recall on windows 95 (and i think 98) that there was a "shut down and boot from dos" button on the start menu. I'm not 100% sure on windows 2000 as I didn't have it very long but if you have an option when you start the compute to boot in dos or you have the shut down and boot from dos button then it should work just fine. It's just when you open a command prompt dos window from within windows that doesn't work, and that's a real popular question of here. Also for what it's worth my mt2000's aren't very picky on processor and speed. I program mine with my toughbook cf19 with a core 2 duo 1.2Ghz with no problems. In fact I used a newer one with an i5 in it once and didn't have any issues either.
That is ok, thank you for your help, I appreciate it.
N4KVE
Member
The best answer is "it works for some, but not others", so it's a roll of the dice for you. I keep an old Toshiba laptop that's 100% DOS for my older radios. So just try it, & see if you are one of the lucky ones.
The computer I have can either boot into DOS or Windows 2000. It's a Toughbook cf-27
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