ARC396 programming speed

[captaincraig44]

Just curious how long it takes others to transfer data to the 396 using the ARC396 software? Even with the baud rates turned up to the max, it can take over an hour to transfer all my data to the radio. Is this normal and if not, any ideas on a solution?
Thanks!

 

[k9gunner]

I just programmed my 396 with Ohio MARCS and it took 1hr. 20 min.

 

[Butelsoftware]

Programming large systems may take a considerable amount of time because of the way dynamic memory works.
A trick that may help is to reset the scanner before the upload so all memory is cleared,
but before you reset your scanner make sure that you have backups of your data!

Gommert
www.butelsoftware.com

 

[DaveNF2G]

Wow! Even when having ARC396Pro clean out the scanner's memory before uploading new systems, I've never seen the whole process take longer than about 15-20 minutes.

 

[captaincraig44]

Wow Dave. What speed do you have your comms set at? Did you have to play with it to get it to work at that speed, or did it just happen for you "out of the box"? Uniden's software would take about 30 mins for a full program, maybe a little less which is why I was so confused as to why ARC was taking three times as long.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Port speed is 115200.

 

[scanrfan]

I use the Port speed of 11520 and depending on how many Systems in all and how many are Conventional and how many are "Trunked" it can take anywhere from a couple of minutes to 10 or 15 minutes to load the systems. I reloaded all my System (60+) a couple of months ago and it only took about 30 to 45 minutes (a mix of Trunked and Conventional systems).
If you are loading a lot of "Trunked" Systems, yes, it can take longer. Trunked Systems take 2 or 3 times longer to load than Conventional Systems (at least for me). It also depends on how many enteries you have for each system. The more entries the longer it takes. Adding such " bells and whistles" as Priority, Squelch Tones adds to the time required.

 

[XTS3000]

It should not take an hour to load the 396! My 396 is about 75% full of freqs/alphatags/TG's. I'm uploading over 4000 frequencies/TG's - all with alpha tags, and it takes 6 minutes to load. I also have all the WX alert (same) memories filled, as well as all 10 tone-outs programmed. There are 9 trunked systems (3 have 200 TG ID's with alpha tags) in my scanner, the rest are conventional. I expect it to take 10 minutes when I have 100% of the memories filled.

Something is wrong if it's taking that long to load the 396. Try using the FREE software from uniden rather than the Butel (buggy) software. If the free Uniden software is just as slow, then you have a comport setting wrong (besides the baud rate).

Bits per Second - 128000
Data bits - 8
Parity - none
Stop bits - 1
Flow control - none

Advanced tab - make sure "use Fifo buffers" is checked, and move the rx and tx sliders up to max.

I have a 996 programmed exactly the same as the 396, and the 996 takes about 4-5 minutes to load. Slightly faster than the 396.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Fire Tone Out settings don't count. Neither program loads them when sending dynamic memory scanning data to the scanner. That's a different operation.

 

[captaincraig44]

The vast majority of my systems are trunked systems and most of them have 100+ TG's each, so if it truly does take longer to program a trunked system, that could be the major bottleneck with my programming. I'll try the suggested settings and see if they improve the performance when I get back home. Thanks for the assistance everyone!

 

[DaveNF2G]

Well, I just timed my reprogramming and it took longer than I thought. I usually go do something else, so my perception of the speed is not accurate.

Loading a profile with 55 systems, occupying 71% of memory, using "Clear all systems first."

Of the 55, 16 are EDACS, 3 are LTR, 7 are Motorola. The rest are conventional.

The whole clear-and-reprogram process took 47 minutes, 45 seconds.

So, Craig, I guess your experience is not out of line after all.