Motorola CM200 & Commercial CPS Error 514

[FFHam]

I would have simply added this information to the end of other threads about the CM200/300 and CPS Error 514 but they are YEARS old and hence locked...

I've been trying to program CM200's and CM300's for days using an aftermarket cable and the Commercial CPS. No matter how I went about it, I always received the ubiquitous "Error #514". Searches of this and other forums found threads about selecting your cable's COM port and different sequences of connecting the cable to the radio and the computer. Discussions also swung between using Motorola cables/adapters rather than aftermarket cables and whether aftermarket cables needed an adapter or not. After finally getting consistent successful results, here is a summary of my setup...

1) Windows 10 64-bit; both Home and Pro
2) Commercial CPS R05.16 & & R05.18 running as installed (no Compatibility changes)
3) Aftermarket FTDI programming cable from KJ6ZWL; Motorola 4 in 1 (although it has 5 connector options). KJ6ZWL assured me, which I confirmed through testing, that this cable and the other one he sells just for the mobiles will do both the CDM and CM radios WITHOUT the adapter required with Motorola cables.
4) A few different models of CM200/300
5) COM Port selection... here is the key to it all!

The CPS will allow you to select whatever COM Port your cable has been assigned. Mine initially was assigned COM Port 17. I got Error #514 regardless of the order things were connected/started. After some patient back and forth with KJ6ZWL he noticed my COM Port number. He said that even though the Commercial CPS will let you select from whatever COM Ports your computer has in use, it won't work with anything higher than COM Port 10. I'm a "read the book" kind of person and didn't see this critical little detail anywhere! Low and behold, dropping the COM Port number to 10 or less worked like a charm.

Hopefully this helps others with what can be a rage inducing problem.

 

[a417]

it won't work with anything higher than COM Port 10. I'm a "read the book" kind of person and didn't see this critical little detail anywhere! Low and behold, dropping the COM Port number to 10 or less worked like a charm.

Ugh, yes.

Somewhere, I'll never put my finger on it now, there was either an addendum or errata released by Moto for one of the early XP version CPS releases that tells you to use COM ports <8. I swear there was something, but it's so long ago now that I probably hallucinated it.

It was never really fleshed out by them, but my guess is it's a holdover from DOS days where most systems didn't have more than a few COM ports and most software handled lower COM ports better as coders never could have foreseen an OS having 17 or 22 virtual (or real) COM ports. The ways of DOS probably migrated into the earlier versions of Windows CPS, until it became more common with systems having dozens of either Virtual or USB COM ports, and the ways & methods of coding had to adapt to it.

I remember the first time I installed a blackberry virtual COM driver on my computer and it issued itself a COM port in the 60s, and half the programs that could address a COM port in a dialog box just didn't show it...because, really..who would need (or have) 60 someodd COM ports.

 

[FFHam]

A local 2-way radio shop sells a number of different brands. Their racks and boxes of OEM programming cables approaches the absurd. You can only imagine what it's like to balance that number of COM Ports against the range and ages of software they use just on their main computer. They even still have XP and DOS machines in the mix for some old but rock solid equipment.

"Back in the day" computers had true serial/COM ports... usually not more than a couple. A machine having more than 2 was pretty unusual and typically purpose built. On today's Windows 10 machines, COM Port choices range from 1 - 256. Can you imagine the look on a programmer's face back in the days of XP (or earlier) if you told them to plan on that many? They would have thought you were joking and/or dropped like a fainting goat!

Not seeing CM's or CDM's that often, it's easy to forget (or not know) the software will let you pick COM Ports which won't work. Not mentioning that limitation in the error pop-up or help files is frustrating. I suppose radio pros of the day just picked that up in their training or through experience. Meanwhile, in our current era, the new fun thing is Motorola radios like the XPR line that add a new "network" to the computer every time you connect one for programming.

 

[com501]

All our cables use Com1 regardless of brand/type. IT take some time to configure the OS for this, but it saves a lot of hassles.

 

[FFHam]

While on it’s face that sounds convenient, how do you deal with the conflict created when two different cables are used on different radios plugged in at the same time?