XTS5000 Tuner and serial port adapter

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F800
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Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2014 7:22 pm
What radios do you own?: XTS5K, XPR7ks, XPR5Ks, CDM1550

XTS5000 Tuner and serial port adapter

Post by F800 »

I have been unable to connect ASTRO 25 Tuner R05.04.04 to any XTS5000 portables even though I have no problems with ASTRO 25 Portable CPS R20.01.00 reading and writing the same radios. I'm running Win7-64.

I have tried two different USB-to-Serial adapters (my laptop does not have a real RS-232 port) - an IOGEAR GUC232A and an ATAC Tech UC-692X (FTDI chip). Again, both work flawlessly with CPS, but both return the same error with Tuner:

"Communication with the radio failed. Please Read the Radio Again!"

I took the same software to an old desktop with Win7-64 and a real RS-232 port and Tuner successfully connects to the radios and reads them. Obviously, the serial port is the problem.

My searches only come up with CPS-related conversations, so I've brought my question to this group in hopes that someone might have some insight or suggestions they are willing to share. Thanks in advance for any help offered.
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Bill_G
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Re: XTS5000 Tuner and serial port adapter

Post by Bill_G »

I've run into similar problems with USB serial adapters that worked with some radios, but not others, or worked with their CSS, but not their tuner app. The only solution I've found is to keep trying different USB adapters until one works. I even tried com port assignment in the device properties thinking the application couldn't go higher than COM4, but that didn't work. I eventually landed on a Belkin product that worked with everything I touch ... so far.
F800
New User
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2014 7:22 pm
What radios do you own?: XTS5K, XPR7ks, XPR5Ks, CDM1550

Re: XTS5000 Tuner and serial port adapter

Post by F800 »

Thank you, Bill_G. If you could share the Belkin product model/code/name I'll try to buy one.
F800
New User
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2014 7:22 pm
What radios do you own?: XTS5K, XPR7ks, XPR5Ks, CDM1550

SOLVED: XTS5000 Tuner and serial port adapter

Post by F800 »

In the interest of hoping to make a meager contribution to the knowledge base, I'll try to compile what I've learned from my searches and experiments.

My laptop is a ThinkPad X220 running Win7 Pro 64bit on an Intel i5-2410M.

Many of the more technical threads I found in my searches indicated that adapters that use one of FTDI's chips were more likely to work with Motorola's software. I purchased an ATAC UC-692X which uses an FTDI chip and drivers from FTDI's own website. This adapter installed at COM40 and it worked quite reliably with ASTRO 25 CPS R20.01.00. I could not get it to connect to XTS5000 radios using Astro 25 Tuner R05.04.04.

I came across a thread that indicated that someone had had good luck with an IOGEAR adapter, so I went to Best Buy and purchased an IOGEAR GUC232A USB-to-RS232 adapter. This particular adapter does not appear to use the FTDI chip and my luck with CPS was hit-or-miss.

I tried the ATAC FTDI-based adapter with ASTRO 25 Tuner without success using no handshaking, XON/XOFF, and CTS/RTS hardware handshaking.
After resurrecting an old desktop with WIN7 PRO 64bit and a real RS-232 serial port, Tuner worked. Using the FTDI-based USB-to-RS232 adapter on the desktop also worked with both CPS and Tuner.

I noticed that the RS232 port on the desktop was COM1 and the USB adapter appeared as COM2. I connected the adapter to my laptop again and changed the configuration of the virtual comm port to COM1. ASTRO25 TUNER works! It seems that CPS is more flexible about the comm port enumeration than Tuner. Apparently, Tuner requires that the com port enumeration put it on one of the lower com ports.

May this will save someone some time in the future.
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