Motorola APX CPS, MacOS, M1/ARM and Virtual Machines

[otobmark]

I received my asus CP500 dongle and linked it to my windows VM after turning off Mac BT. I had to disable the Mac device on windows. Then I installed the driver from asus. It tried to connect to my APX6000 after joining to a PAN but quickly disconnected and even caused a power cycle on my radio.
NO JOY! What is the smallest simplest PC I can use to shoot apx radios??

 

[wa8pyr]

I received my asus CP500 dongle and linked it to my windows VM after turning off Mac BT. I had to disable the Mac device on windows. Then I installed the driver from asus. It tried to connect to my APX6000 after joining to a PAN but quickly disconnected and even caused a power cycle on my radio.
NO JOY! What is the smallest simplest PC I can use to shoot apx radios??

I use Mac for nearly everything, and I've never had an issue with an Intel Mac, but running a VM on my M1 mini has been problematic due to USB issues. To avoid issues I've always used a Windows Toughbook for stuff like this. I found a CF-53 on eBay for less than $150 and it works like a charm. Save yourself the headaches and get a Windows box for this sort of thing.

 

[otobmark]

My M4 MB VM Win11pro arm will run APX cps 16-33, Armada, Mototrbo 16 & 2.0, and Unication at least so far. I CANNOT use usb except on Unication pager. I can WiFi connect/use armada on my VP8000. None of my APX'S have wifi. I would like to know if possible with wifi equipped APX radios. I have not tried NX5000 series for fear of losing a cps license. Also have not tried amateur cps or radios. I use Barrett HF radios and will eventually see if I can run cps and connect to radio through usb/serial adapter (rs232).
Double computers is only a problem when I go on vacation and try to travel light. One option for APX is to find someone to let me put cps on their computer just to shoot my radios. On EM assignments I take anything I might need but could run with just a basic PC usually. All I do is program radios (usually cashe APX'S and Kenwood DMR) run spreadsheets, mail programs, basic photo/video editing, Zoom-Teams, digital modes for HF (SHARES), and logging programs---all possible on i5 or better machine. Would want a good enough video card to fire up a large 2.7k or bigger monitor/TV for working with programming spreadsheets.
What exactly did Apple gain by going "Apple Silicon" over Intel??

 

[marcotor]

What exactly did Apple gain by going "Apple Silicon" over Intel??

Production of most of the widget (including chip design) in house. Helps streamline the code base of OSX between the various Apple devices. ARM reference designs are more power efficient, run much cooler, easier to integrate a SoC design, and not tied to a single vendor since the chips can be fabbed by any competent vendor. The ARM reference designs offer a lot over Intel, more than enough to overcome the inconvenience to a few users who demand 100% WinTel combability - which Apple never promised anyway.

Did you think MS made Windows 10 and 11 ARM versions just for running in a VM on a Mac? Intel is dropping the ball left and right, and the ARM march is on. Time will tell if intel can get its groove back, but for the time being, it's ARM. Look around, there are lots of vendors who rushed out Snapdragon processors running Win11ARM. And now that exclusive contract is over, you will see all sort of processors out there based on the ARM reference. Also, MS deserves credit for really doing a fine job with the x86 emulation layer in Windows, it's pretty painless and seamless.

If you wanna complain, stop questioning Apple or Microsoft, and ask the vendors why they haven't yet made compatible drivers.