Motorola HT1000 Programming

[house2272]

Can anyone help? I have the software, the ribless programming cable and the radio. Now I'm having trouble putting it together. It started on my laptop and I went and bought a usb to serial port adaptor. This works with all of the other radios I program, but not the HT1000. Any help would be great.
Operating System: XP pro
Program Software is in DOS

 

[mancow]

Yep.... DOS.

You need to be running a true DOS machine. There's a remote possibilitly it could work but for the most part you will have trouble like you have found out so far.

Try to locate a computer capable of plain old DOS and it will probably work.

 

[W2SJW]

I have my MTSX software on one of my USB sticks. I made the stick bootable, and I use my work laptop (which is a 1.8GHz Pentium M). I just boot the laptop off the stick, and away I go.

You CAN'T (let me emphasize that!) use RSS in Windows. Windows takes control over the serial ports resource allocations in such a way that the software will not be able to gain control over the port...

 

[kenisned]

I have an ancient laptop that runs DOS. That's the only way I can program the ht1000.

It's a shame, because the radio is amazingly durable/reliable; but I keep waiting for the old laptop to not start one day!

 

[TonyS]

As already noted, you need to boot into DOS, preferably v6.xx. This is NOT the same as using XP's DOS mode. You need to get a laptop or a computer with a real serial port. Also, I've seen too many radios get toasted using a USB/serial adapter. Your best bet is a PCMCIA serial port card which taps directly into the serial lines in your laptop. I've been using this one for almost two years now with ZERO problems: http://www.siig.com/product.asp?catid=28&pid=225 One caveat, you cannot use this in DOS so it's only good for true Windows programs.

 

[kc8gpd]

HT-1000 RSS "REQUIRES" a 486 or Slower Machine. True MS-DOS. A compatable serial port. HT-1000 RSS "WILL NOT WORK OFF USB STICKS AND/OR USB to SERIAL ADAPTERS"

Period.

 

[W2SJW]

I don't want to start a pissing match here, but the HT1000 RSS runs just fine on my work laptop (and it's specs are the ones stated above), FROM my USB key...

One of my fellow club members has one of the rare VHF HT1000's with the full DTMF keypad on the front, and I take care of changes for him when his 'main guy' is unavailable...

 

[Grog]

Running is one thing, but reading/writing is another. That's where the problems are gonna show up.

I used my winXP laptop to play with MTXS, Maxtrac, & saber RSS last night, but I know I won't try writing with them

 

[TonyS]

I don't want to start a pissing match here, but the HT1000 RSS runs just fine on my work laptop (and it's specs are the ones stated above), FROM my USB key...

I'm not wishing it on you but I hope you have $ to spare. Sooner or later you'll brick a radio and owe the owner for his loss. You're taking a big chance. For more info see the Batlabs forums here: http://batboard.batlabs.com/

 

[mikea7531]

I'm not wishing it on you but I hope you have $ to spare. Sooner or later you'll brick a radio and owe the owner for his loss. You're taking a big chance. For more info see the Batlabs forums here: http://batboard.batlabs.com/

Once the RSS is started FROM the USB key, it is LOADED into RAM and RUNS from RAM - NOT the USB key. There is NO issue with turining the radio into a 'brick'. You may want to review on how an application works on a computer.

 

[TonyS]

Simply, I misread what you wrote. I was thinking about the usb-serial convertors.

You are correct that once the program is loaded, then you should be ok. Just remember to point the RSS paths to the usb drive if your harddrives are anything but FAT16.