PRO-2051

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richardrosa

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Greetings All,

I recently picked up a PRO-2051 and I am looking for information on the PC Interface protocol.
(Baud rate, commands, etc). Is there a spec sheet available somewhere on this?

Thanx in advance.

Rich
 

richardrosa

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Owners manual


Thanx, but this is not what I need. The owner's manual does NOT have any information on the interface.

What I need is information on the communications protocol used between the radio and a computer.
Things such as baud rate and command codes. ICOM, Uniden, Kenwood all make this information publicly
available for their radios, usually including it in the User Manual. However, this information is absent from this radio's documentation..

Thanx

Rich
 

ab3ai

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The 2051 can be programmed with a computer. I've tried to look for the protocol to roll my own software and didn't have any luck. If your looking to control this radio with software, it's not possible. If you go with a professional software to program the radio, it should be in the code and require no setup.
Hope this helps.
 

richardrosa

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You didn't say what software you will be using.
Probably depends on what software you will be using, check their documents and/or help files.

The "software" will be what I create to communicate with the radio.
In order to create this software, I need to know the command set for the radio and RS-232 parameters.

Maybe I should be a bit more clear:

I want to create a program to communicate with this radio. The reasons for doing this are:

1) This Radio has 1000 channels. 1000 channels is a pain to program manually.
2) I run Linux exclusively and the currently available programs do not.
3) I am an experienced Programmer & Engineer and want to entertain myself.

In order to do this, I need to find a specification for the communications protocol between the radio and a computer. Specifics of this protocol would include RS-232 baud rate, number of bits, parity, and possible flow control (if any). In addition, there is most likely a set of commands issued over the RS-232 port that will modify the contents of the radio's memory. These commands may be in ASCII format, terminated by a CR, LF or Both. If these commands are similar to the ICOM protocol, then they would be in binary or BCD format.

I would assume that somewhere there is a specification for this protocol.. Or is this a deep dark secret locked away in an underground bunker surrounded by armed guards?


Rich
 

pro92b

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Radio Shack historically has not released protocol for its scanners since they often sold licenses to for profit software vendors who write such programs. The PRO-2051 was never particularly popular and is supported only by Scancat as far as I know. The Scancat site indicates the radio had two firmware versions that need different program timing. Baud rate is 9600 bps according to info on the Scancat site.

If Scancat has a free demo version you can use a serial port monitor to learn the commands by running the demo. The radio also has a clone mode that may provide another way to reverse engineer the protocol using a serial port monitor. Maybe all this would be more entertainment than you bargained for but I don't expect you will find the protocol spelled out in a file on the web.
 

richardrosa

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Radio Shack historically has not released protocol for its scanners since they often sold licenses to for profit software vendors who write such programs. The PRO-2051 was never particularly popular and is supported only by Scancat as far as I know. The Scancat site indicates the radio had two firmware versions that need different program timing. Baud rate is 9600 bps according to info on the Scancat site.

If Scancat has a free demo version you can use a serial port monitor to learn the commands by running the demo. The radio also has a clone mode that may provide another way to reverse engineer the protocol using a serial port monitor. Maybe all this would be more entertainment than you bargained for but I don't expect you will find the protocol spelled out in a file on the web.

I was afraid that was the case, as a thorough Internet search turn up nothing.

I'll see what the Scancat demo looks like, if it can be run on Wine.


Thanx for the suggestions.

Rich
 

ka3jjz

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Never use Scancat unless there isn't another choice - and there is. ARC433 from BuTel (sold thru Scanner Master) supports the 2051

Mike
 

kruser

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I was afraid that was the case, as a thorough Internet search turn up nothing.

I'll see what the Scancat demo looks like, if it can be run on Wine.


Thanx for the suggestions.

Rich

Yep, I'd try what pro92b said and just build yourself a little serial breakout box and try and sniff the serial data. Run a program like Scancat or ARC433 (much better) and run it through all the possible keystrokes and other commands while you capture the sniffed data.
That should provide enough info to get you started with building up a command set list. Serial is very easy to sniff the data from.

That model uses the typical PC/IF interface which I think is actually TTL level at the radio so keep that in mind if you decide to try and sniff the data. It may be easier to use something like one of the Icom CT-17 CI-V clone interfaces as they convert back to RS232 levels at the computer end plus the TX and RX lines are available separately at the computer end.
For simple data sniffing, the TTL/RS232 voltage difference should not really be an issue though as long as whatever you are using to isolate the sniffing wire from the actual rx/tx wire can detect the voltage swing so it can detect 1's and 0's (high and low voltage swings).
TTL will generally be a lower voltage than RS232 so no harm should be done by your sniffing interface as you won't be injecting any voltage back onto the TTL level bus.

You should also be able to confirm the baud and serial protocol used with a sniffer tap and a decent terminal program where you can select the protocol and baud rate.

I don't know if Mac has a serial terminal program but I'd imagine you can find something that will run on Mac or Linux.
I use Symantec's Procomm Plus on a Win machine for my serial needs.
I found it a lot easier to customize compared to the older versions of say Hyperterminal. Telix was also another favorite of mine back in the DOS days but I never liked the Win version of Telix. So I got hooked on Procomm which I think was written by another company, in Columbia, MO, before Symantec bought them. I don't recall if there was a DOS version of Procomm before Symantec messed it all up.

Any decent serial terminal program should work fine though as long as you can capture and log the data once you get the baud and protocol set correctly. Then run whatever control software you can find through all it's commands and see what shows up when you send commands to the radio!
I also believe what pro92b said to be correct about the baud rate being 9600.

There was also a problem with some of the data ports on the PRO-2051's.
I think that has to do with what pro92b was saying about two different firmware versions. Possibly fixed with the newer FW version?

Here is an old short thread about the issue: http://forums.radioreference.com/radio-shack-scanners/25275-pro-2051-computer-interface-issue.html

Good Luck!
 

richardrosa

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Jun 22, 2006
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Thanx to all for the suggestions.

I already have a converter for the single wire interface that I built for my ICOM radios. Plus I have an
old OptoLinx hanging around that also seems to say hello as well.

As for a serial port sniffer, My Linux distro provides a couple of different software sniffers that work quite well.

I tried both suggested programs (using the demo versions) under Wine. Neither one was able to get very far
with reading the contents of memory. ScanCat actually did better, but they both died with T-Err displayed
on the Scanner (I assume that means Transmission Error). I'm not sure it this is a function of running
on Wine, or the aforementioned Firmware problem.

However, I did manage to figure out a little about how this radio communicates. It looks a bit like the
ICOM protocol: Mostly binary or BCD codes. This was a surprise as most of the information I could
find said that this was a Uniden design.

Based on what I can deduce so far, without a spec sheet, this will probably take more effort than I care to put in.
Since I did not pay a lot for this radio (traded it for a favor), it will probably go on the shelf until I get REAL bored...

Thanx again to all responders...

Rich
 
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