GM300 Programming

[54D18]

I have a couple GM300 radios and would like to program them for use on 2m.
I have been able to find the software, but the cable seems to be complicated,
I've read about using RIB and also about Ribless, it should be easy enough to
make a cable from DB9 to RJ45 with the right pinout, trouble is that I haven't
been able to find the "Ah Hah" pinout for this task, does anyone have a known
working pinout, or even a known working cable for the GM300?

Thanks,

T

 

[N4KVE]

Here’s a ribless cable.

USB Programming Cable for Motorola GM300 Car Mobile Radio 8-PIN RIBLESS | eBay

RIBLESS design (RIB box not required). Desktrac, GM140, GM160, GM300, GM328, GM338, GM339, GM398, GM399, GM340, GM360, GM380, GM640, GM660, GM950, GM950E, GM950I, GM1280. Desktrac bases or repeaters.

www.ebay.com

 

[mmckenna]

You need the RIB. "RIBless" cables just have the RIB built in rather than the external Motorola RIB. It's not a straight-through DB-9 to RJ-45 connection that you could make yourself, you need to have the RS-232 to TTL adapter function that the RIB or the internals on the "RIBless" cable provide.

You can build your own RIB: The RLN4008B Radio Interface Box (RIB)
You can build your own RIB to Radio interface cable: http://batlabs.com/images/maxpin.gif

 

[54D18]

I ordered this ribless serial cable
RIB-Less Programming Program Cable for Motorola GM300 GM340 GM339 GM380 | eBay
I read somewhere that if you have a pc
With a serial port, it's best to use it rather than a USB, not sure why, but we'll see.

I'll try it out when it comes in and post back.

Thanks

 

[N4KVE]

I ordered this ribless serial cable
RIB-Less Programming Program Cable for Motorola GM300 GM340 GM339 GM380 | eBay
I read somewhere that if you have a pc
With a serial port, it's best to use it rather than a USB, not sure why, but we'll see.

I'll try it out when it comes in and post back.

Thanks

That’s actually the better cable to use instead of the USB one I linked to. And also because you’ll need an older laptop with a real serial port vs using an adapter to run the ancient software.

 

[54D18]

Hopefully I can make it work, as for the software, I haven't installed it yet, but I found a download somewhere, going to install on a freshly formatted pc with a fresh XP install, which will be my radio puter.

 

[mmckenna]

Hopefully I can make it work, as for the software, I haven't installed it yet, but I found a download somewhere, going to install on a freshly formatted pc with a fresh XP install, which will be my radio puter.

It'll only run under true DOS. There's a program called Rufus that you can download and put on a thumb drive. Then set up your PC to boot up off the drive into Rufus, and that will give you the true DOS you'll need. I've been using that on an old laptop that normally runs Windoze XP and had a real serial port. Has worked with an aftermarket GM-300 "ribless" cable as well as with a real Motorola flavored RIB and HT1000, HT600's and other DOS only versions of RSS.

 

[54D18]

I've used Rufus before, to make a bootable thumb drive, I'll check into it, thanks...

 

[900mhz]

It'll only run under true DOS.

I still run an old (very old) machine DOS/Windows 95 dual boot 25 MHz machine. Runs Maxtrac, Radius, Maratrac, Spectra, and GM 300 like a champ with a just as old rib box...brings back memories.

 

[mmckenna]

I still run an old (very old) machine DOS/Windows 95 dual boot 25 MHz machine. Runs Maxtrac, Radius, Maratrac, Spectra, and GM 300 like a champ with a just as old rib box...brings back memories.

Yeah, this old HP X61 I have has been around for 20 years I think. The WiFi and Ethernet connections no longer work at all, so it's got the all important "air gap", so pretty secure.
The battery is totally shot, but not a problem I just plug it in.
That thing will not die. I keep expecting it to fail at some point, but it just keeps running. I think it still has a floppy drive in it. Used to be my primary computer at work. The ones that replaced it have all long since failed and be e-cycled.

 

[a417]

With a serial port, it's best to use it rather than a USB, not sure why, but we'll see.

timing.

In some cases, the older software for many of those radio lines was written pre-USB. USB came long, a whole hardware abstraction layer was inserted between the hardware involved and the data transfer timing was distorted. In other cases, the software literally ran too fast to talk to the radio in a manner that it could talk back.

Serial was how those radios were designed, and serial was the oft-preferred way of doing programming up until the Pro series (junk) came out (and you could literally use either) and then USB became the preferred interface. Your radio predates that, so serial is preferred.

 

[54D18]

A few years back I worked at a Paper Mill, and one of the monitoring systems was based on older PC
speeds for connecting, whenever it had to be rebooted, we would have to go into the BIOS and basically
dumb it down because the speed was too fast, pretty much the same scenario here.