Motorola MCS2000 Not Connection To PC

[CSRadiation]

I have been looking for weeks to find a solution to my problem but to no avail. My equipment is listed below:

2 x Motorola MCS2000 radios M/N M10HX+725W (New Old Stock)
Aftermarket SRIB M/N:RPC-MRIB For: Saber/HT1000.. (This is the one that came up for MCS2000)
Flashport Head: HCN:1170 234/95 CAM050LFV
Flashport Cable:RPC-MCS2K/2
Native rs232 connection on PC to com1 9600 8/n/1
MCS2000 software

Ultimately this is going to be for GMRS repeater to fill in a gap in the state network. My problem is that I cannot get the PC to connect to the radio and the radio boots and only comes up with "Z1 Chan 1" with no other options.

Any help that I can get making this connect to the PC for programming would be greatly helpful and appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[a417]

2 x Motorola MCS2000 radios M/N M10HX+725W (New Old Stock)

M01SKN9PW6AN is the more common ID # for that unit, the model numbers are harder to decode.

Aftermarket SRIB M/N:RPC-MRIB For: Saber/HT1000.. (This is the one that came up for MCS2000)

This looks like knockoff garbage, are there indicator lights on it that let you know if it's actually doing something? This would be my first suspected point of failure.

Flashport Head: HCN:1170 234/95 CAM050LFV
Flashport Cable:RPC-MCS2K/2

??? If this is NOS, and you're only looking at doing GMRS, almost any radio should do stock conventional analog..don't diddle with the flash upgrades.

Native rs232 connection on PC to com1 9600 8/n/1

Ok, that's good.

MCS2000 software

Which software? What operating system?

The MCS radios don't connect to computers like the decades later radios like the XTLs or APXs do with maintenance mode/remote mode...they only respond to correctly configured serial commands via the RIB. I think your biggest issue lies therein.

"Z1 Chan 1" sounds like Zone 1 Channel 1 that i would expect to see in an unprogrammed radio.

 

[MTS2000des]

More importantly, what RSS/CPS is being used? What operating system?
DOS RSS needs a true DOS environment.
If your running MCS/MTS2000 CPS, needs to be a 32 bit version of Windows XP/7/Vista- these are the only SUPPORTED versions. It may work on newer 32 bit Windows but not guaranteed.

 

[N4KVE]

I had 2 MCS‘ years ago. A front mount, & a hi power trunk mount. The front mount would program through the mike jack. So I knew my equipment was good. The trunk mount would not, so I had a cable made to program it through the acc jack on the bottom of the brick. Rather than beat my brains out to figure out why it wouldn’t program through the mike jack, I always used the acc jack.

 

[BrhatWeed]

Just FYI from a long time MCS owner/user; they're best programmed with the Motorola RLN-4008 but you can use the Polaris in a pinch however not recommended. You will also need to run Win XP/Vista/7 x86 and make sure your COM-1 port is configured correctly in BIOS. I've been running a type-3 VHF and type-2 UHF 100 watt system for years and have made countless changes using this configuration, I also bricked one trying to run the CPS in a 64-bit environment and had a crash during the write cycle.

Please whatever you do DON'T use the SRIB for these, the MCS requires a specific cable.

 

[CSRadiation]

M01SKN9PW6AN is the more common ID # for that unit, the model numbers are harder to decode.

This looks like knockoff garbage, are there indicator lights on it that let you know if it's actually doing something? This would be my first suspected point of failure.

??? If this is NOS, and you're only looking at doing GMRS, almost any radio should do stock conventional analog..don't diddle with the flash upgrades.

Ok, that's good.


Which software? What operating system?

The MCS radios don't connect to computers like the decades later radios like the XTLs or APXs do with maintenance mode/remote mode...they only respond to correctly configured serial commands via the RIB. I think your biggest issue lies therein.

"Z1 Chan 1" sounds like Zone 1 Channel 1 that i would expect to see in an unprogrammed radio.

The RIB I have is a third party one and it does have LEDs that show power and com traffic. When I use putty to check the connection, I do see brief LED flashes on the comm indicator. The RIB is connected to the Flashport head mic jack,. I can certainly try to connect via the aux port on the bottom of the brick. I am using MCS2000 CPS v R02.03.00 on a 64bit Win 10 Pro machine. If I need to use a 32 bit OS, do you think that a 32 bit version of XP on a VM would work?

 

[BrhatWeed]

Not sure I'd take the chance of corruption with the emulator. Do you have an older PC that you could run say Windows 2000 or XP under just for dedicated programming? I've never successfully programmed my MCS or Astro anything under Win10 pro x64 and instead keep an older Dell E4310 notebook and port replicator dock just for the RSS. It's a dual boot DOS & XP SP3 running on a lower capacity SSD with 2GB of RAM running with the virtual memory (pagefile) disabled.

 

[CSRadiation]

I’m fairly certain I can find an old 32 bit machine lying around. Do you happen to know what pin on the aux plug is the rs232 Rx? I found Tx, cts, and rts. I’m assuming it’s pin 19 but I’m not sure.

 

[a417]

I’m fairly certain I can find an old 32 bit machine lying around. Do you happen to know what pin on the aux plug is the rs232 Rx? I found Tx, cts, and rts. I’m assuming it’s pin 19 but I’m not sure.

This is from google.

I've programmed via emulation before, but considering the experience I have with it...I will not advocate for you to try.

 

[CSRadiation]

I had 2 MCS‘ years ago. A front mount, & a hi power trunk mount. The front mount would program through the mike jack. So I knew my equipment was good. The trunk mount would not, so I had a cable made to program it through the acc jack on the bottom of the brick. Rather than beat my brains out to figure out why it wouldn’t program through the mike jack, I always used the acc jack.

Do you remember what pins on the aux port were used for rs232?