PRO-164 PC Interface Protocol Documentation?

[maddog39]

Hello everyone,

So I've been searching around for any kind of documentation discussing how the programming protocol functions and havent been able to find much of anything. I did come across some very basic Pro-64 stuff from a long time ago but that was about it. The reason I ask is because I'm a Linux user, I dont want to pay for something thats not natively supported on my platform, and I wasn't altogether satisfied with the options currently available on windows (of the ones I tried). In addition, I feel that there ought to be a free and or open source alternative for those who would like it or need it such as myself.

Worst case, I am prepared to reverse engineer the protocol for the 164, since its the radio that I currently own. Though I ask the greater community for any help/information you could possibly provide. I figure the documentation for this type of stuff must be lying around somewhere otherwise I presume we wouldnt have nearly as many software vendors to choose from.

Thanks in advance!
maddog39

 

[Keith_W7KEW]

There is no documentation released by GRE or Radio Shack. You would have to enter into a NDA and be a serious programmer with references to get such a NDA and the documentation. People have backward engineered the protocol. Look up the tk92 TCL program.

 

[K9WG]

W7KEW is correct. Even though GRE says the protocol is available to the hobbiest in the manual they will not give it to you. In fact they will ignore you... ;(

 

[maddog39]

Hmm interesting. Well I figure I can load up trial versions of the clients currently out there in a windows VM and use a USB packet capture program on the host (linux) to watch its communication with the radio. Now, I am not sure what the legality of doing something like this is, though presumably it would be okay because I'm never decompiling any code or trying to reverse engineer the software itself, I'm simply looking at the bit stream going back and forth to the radio. Which is equivalent to watching unencrypted internet traffic on your local network presumably. Thoughts on this?

 

[K9WG]

maddog39 -

I am not sure about your specific setup, but the PSR600/PSR500 (and the RS equiv) uses a RS232 emulator to interface with the USB port. You can intercept the RS232 stream with various software products.

 

[maddog39]

Well right, my understanding is that it simply uses an RS232 converter and the RS232 chipset simply acts as a pass through into or out of USB. I speculate this because I was able to use a similar packet capture technique when writing a library to use manufacturer specific OBD-II commands and it just so happens that my OBD-II to USB converter uses the same exact RS232 chipset found in the radioshack PC interface cable. So I guess my point is, I believe that intercepting USB in this case is the same as intercepting the RS232 stream itself (before being sent over USB).

Well, I will test my theory and post back here what I am able to find.