New guy with an XTS3000 trying to reprogram for ham radio use

[vk2vlt]

Hi all, Scott VK2VLT from Newcastle NSW, Australia.
I need to ask for some help with reprogramming an old XTS3000 for the 70cm band.
I have bought off ebay an XTS3000 H09RDH9PW7BN radio and a ribless cable from BlueMax and I have installed the ASTRO Saber & XTS3000 CPS software onto my old C2Duo (32bit) PC with a Gigabyte GA-945GCM-S2L motherboard, which I have installed XP pro sp3 onto it to program radios.
The gigabyte motherboard has a serial port which I think works. I have been trying different com port settings: different speeds, hardware control, so far no luck.
I can't get any software to successfully read a radio so far.

I also bought a chinese RLN4008 compatible RIB, however I'm not sure how compatible it is.
I wired up another RIB to Radio cable using the cct diagram from the Batwing Labs site, for the RIB to read my old MTS2000 with the latest MTS2000 CPS but no luck.

On the XTS3000, I went into the service menu and here is the data from it:
R05.60.00
DSP06.05.01
EMC R02.12
KG1 NONE
KG2 DES-OFB
H09RDH9PW7BN
620AZQ0331
1MEG
FLASHCD
100001-
000000-7

I have installed the CPS software but I am not sure if I have to set it up in a particular way, ie codeplugs, system keys, settings other than com port number. I have not tried to write to a radio yet, just trying to read them.

Any help you can give would be very appreciated.

Scott VK2VLT

 

[wgbecks]

Scott,

There are several possibilities, but from your description, my first order of business would be to perform a very simple RS-232
Loopback test on the PC's communications port. By default, older PC hardware with a built-in serial port typically will appear
as COM-1 in the Device Manager.

Open the Windows XP Device Manager to confirm the operating system recognizes the hardware and that there aren't any
driver issues. This check will also identify and confirm the COM port assignment and interrupt vector.

Now that the hardware and driver status are known to be good then proceed to setting up for a loopback test. Assuming that
your PC has a Male DB-9 connector, temporarily connect Pin-2, Received Data (RXD) to Pin-3, Transmit Data (TXD). Now open
a terminal program using the identified COM port number and start typing random characters on the keyboard. The loopback
should result in echoing the keys on the screen as you type them.

The exact communications speed (Baud Rate) selected doesn't particularly matter for the sake of this test, but I would suggest that
you set the terminal program initially at 9600 and then perhaps retest at one or two of the higher speeds. This basic test isn't all
inclusive in that it doesn't verify ort flow control, but it will tell you very quickly if the communications port is functional as a
prerequisite condition to further troubleshooting steps.

Keep in mind that in CPS that you initially select the "Read Device" function and match up the Com Port setting in CPS to the
same setting as was confirmed in the PCs Device Manager.

 

[vk2vlt]

Now that the hardware and driver status are known to be good then proceed to setting up for a loopback test. Assuming that
your PC has a Male DB-9 connector, temporarily connect Pin-2, Received Data (RXD) to Pin-3, Transmit Data (TXD). Now open
a terminal program using the identified COM port number and start typing random characters on the keyboard. The loopback
should result in echoing the keys on the screen as you type them.

Ok, I have ran the test using PuTTY and COM 1 is working. I have a DB9 test cable that I was able to short pins 2 & 3 and when the cable was in the COM port I could see my keystrokes in the terminal window and when I removed the cable it stopped. Thanks wgbecks.

 

[vk2vlt]

ok, some more sucess.... sort of... So I realised that there was a driver not installed for the chipset, installed that.
Now the CPS sees the radio, but, the XTS3000 beeps once and displays: 1 CSQ
Not sure where to go from here.

 

[vk2vlt]

Ok, so now all of a sudden the CPS has read the radio and I can see all of the settings.
COM port works, cable is ok.
Now to learn how to set it up for the Amateur DMR network here in Australia.
Also I want to add in some channels for my local 70cm analog repeaters.
Any tips you guys want to give me will be very much appreciated!! Oh and thanks again to wgbecks for the COM port testing.

 

[vk2vlt]

Oh and do I need to do anything with regards to System Keys? As I have not touched anything in this area as yet.

 

[mmckenna]

Ok, so now all of a sudden the CPS has read the radio and I can see all of the settings.
COM port works, cable is ok.
Now to learn how to set it up for the Amateur DMR network here in Australia.
Also I want to add in some channels for my local 70cm analog repeaters.
Any tips you guys want to give me will be very much appreciated!! Oh and thanks again to wgbecks for the COM port testing.

An XTS3000 won't do DMR. None of the XTS series will.

It'll do analog just fine, so are you using a gateway to get from analog into one of the DMR networks?

 

[vk2vlt]

An XTS3000 won't do DMR. None of the XTS series will.

It'll do analog just fine, so are you using a gateway to get from analog into one of the DMR networks?

Ah ok I'll use my UHF hotspot then. I already have one for my Yaesu FT991A.

 

[vk2vlt]

Thanks for the replies, I have all the answers I need for this radio. I'm just using my XTS3000 for the 70cm band.
ps. if a moderator wants to close off the thread as I have all the info I need.

 

[mikewazowski]

Oh and do I need to do anything with regards to System Keys? As I have not touched anything in this area as yet.

System keys are only used for trunking.

 

[vk2vlt]

Ah cool thanks Mike, I won’t have to muck about with that then 👍

 

[DeoVindice]

Ah ok I'll use my UHF hotspot then. I already have one for my Yaesu FT991A.

Amateur P25 via hotspot is moderately popular as well, I use it fairly often. Your hotspot can be switched over to P25 with just a configuration change.

 

[vk2vlt]

Amateur P25 via hotspot is moderately popular as well, I use it fairly often. Your hotspot can be switched over to P25 with just a configuration change.

I'll give that a go then, thanks.

 

[jaspence]

If you have further problems with the ribless setup, take a look at Kawamall. Their ribless cable plugs directly into the serial port and has given me trouble free service on several XTS radios.

 

[ElroyJetson]

I've had erratic troubles with USB cables. My recommendation is to stick with serial cables when the radio in question and its software were developed pre-USB era.

With an RLN4008B RIB box and Motorola OEM cables, you'll never ever be able to blame programming problems on the programming hardware, as long a the battery in the RIB is strong.

As for a programming computer, I recommend Dell Latitude laptops that came with a DB9 serial port as standard. Run XP or Windows 7 on them. My programming laptop of choice is the venerable D830.

They have a smart card socket in them. I put a smart card to CF card adapter in them and install a CF card of adequate capacity (4 to 16 GB) in the adapter and use this as a backup location for EVERYTHING. I even have an image of the Windows install CD on it along with backups of all radio software and all files. Between these measures and the use of an SSD drive, I can recover from most any error in the field while having little to worry about in the way of hard drive crashes.

 

[vk2vlt]

I've had erratic troubles with USB cables. My recommendation is to stick with serial cables when the radio in question and its software were developed pre-USB era.

With an RLN4008B RIB box and Motorola OEM cables, you'll never ever be able to blame programming problems on the programming hardware, as long a the battery in the RIB is strong.

As for a programming computer, I recommend Dell Latitude laptops that came with a DB9 serial port as standard. Run XP or Windows 7 on them. My programming laptop of choice is the venerable D830.

They have a smart card socket in them. I put a smart card to CF card adapter in them and install a CF card of adequate capacity (4 to 16 GB) in the adapter and use this as a backup location for EVERYTHING. I even have an image of the Windows install CD on it along with backups of all radio software and all files. Between these measures and the use of an SSD drive, I can recover from most any error in the field while having little to worry about in the way of hard drive crashes.

Thanks for the info, I might just order these as a backup. My Blue Max cable is working for my XTS3000 but I still cant read my MTS2000.