I am trying to program two Maxtrac radios. I had bought an aftermarket cable on Ebay and had been wanting to program these two radios. They both give me the same error so I am unsure of what is going on. I am running windows XP and using dos box. The error is error #5 No Power. Which is confusing to me as they both obviously have power. Maybe it is something else?
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Motorola Maxtrac programming error
- Thread starter DatedGore
- Start date
MTS2000des
5B2_BEE00 Czar
Yeah, use a real DOS PC, RIB and cable and you'll have success.
These radios came out when Regan was in office and an 80386 was the fastest PC you could buy, Bill Gates was pushing Windows 2.0. They are that old.
These radios came out when Regan was in office and an 80386 was the fastest PC you could buy, Bill Gates was pushing Windows 2.0. They are that old.
So you do think its a computer issue? I've seen dozens of people program these with windows 7.
MTS2000des
5B2_BEE00 Czar
Uh yeah. The key to success with ancient radios is to use the supported operating systems and hardware. Yes, I know this is challenging, but having serviced these radios professionally for 30 years, experience taught me well. Never had a problem with any Maxtrac/Radius booting to a DOS kernel from a boot disk, run the RSS off a 16 bit DOS partition, used a genuine RIB and cable.
While one can muck around with DOSBOX, cheap cables, one can also waste a bunch of time. The RSS timing is very sensitive about having exclusive access to the serial port. Windows anything interferes with this.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
I'm running an old Windows XP laptop. I use a program called Rufus which sits on a USB thumb drive. I have the laptop set up to boot of the thumb drive first.
I have the RSS on the thumb drive, also.
The laptop has a real RS232 port. I'm using an aftermarket "Ribless" cable to program GM-300's.
Have not had any issues with that setup. I've used the same thing to program old HT1000's
I have the RSS on the thumb drive, also.
The laptop has a real RS232 port. I'm using an aftermarket "Ribless" cable to program GM-300's.
Have not had any issues with that setup. I've used the same thing to program old HT1000's
Ok thank you
I will try this next thanks, I had not seen this message until now
your a lifesaver! its working now
When in a clip, the PL or DPL is enabled and the radio stays silent until a proper signal is received. Once removed, carrier squelch or monitor is enabled to allow the operator to comply with FCC rules about monitoring a frequency before transmitting. I don't recall if that feature can be disabled on those models like it can on more modern ones. See here for probably way more information than you need!: Hang-Up Mechanisms Used By Motorola Hand Microphones
Thank you
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
If you are just using these for receivers, you can make an RJ-45 plug that jumpers pins 3 and 4 (ground and mic hook) and it will act like the mic is on the hanger without the mic being connected. A good option if you need to run PL/DPL on the RX side.
Thank you, I have two of these and I did plan to use one for recieve only, I will have to do this. Once again thank you all for the good information
Ditto, booting Rufus off a thumb drive works fine.
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2021
- Messages
- 690
While its possible to program these on newer hardware, In my service shop I baby our 486 machines for these vintage radios and keep 3 spare dos machines to replace it when it dies. We tried the route of newer hardware and ALWAYS come back to a pure old dos machine with real serial ports and proper UART timing.
Project25_MASTR
Millennial Graying OBT Guy
Newest I use is a Core 2 Duo machine that boots DOS 7.1 (stripped out of Windows 98). Machine dual boots Windows 7 32 bit...
Hi there, I have this Maxtrac 100 with a a usb serial converter for this radio from ebay. I am using dosbox to run the MCS and can not for the life of me get it to connect. I cant seem to get the com port in MCS to change from com1 to com 2 which where the radio is plugged into. any advice is greatly appreciated
You're asking a platform that was mature 30 years ago to work with USB? Seriously?
I'd expect lighting to strike my winning powerball ticket before I'd expect to ever see a Maxtrac dinosaur program over USB.
Just no. I'd expect only failure if attempting that. Radios that were built before USB was invented will always do far better when programmed with a real serial port. (With RIB and suitable cables, most likely.)
I'd expect lighting to strike my winning powerball ticket before I'd expect to ever see a Maxtrac dinosaur program over USB.
Just no. I'd expect only failure if attempting that. Radios that were built before USB was invented will always do far better when programmed with a real serial port. (With RIB and suitable cables, most likely.)
Why are you using MSC programming software to program a Maxtrac. Its totally different software. As said trying to use USB for this will fail.
okay I am new to this and the ebay listing said It was the right cable, can anyone point me in the right direction to find a rib interface and the right software. I did minimal research and was hoping the usb cable was the new fix to program
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