I have a sweet PAC-PL mobile repeater deal, with a big mitrek cable, but want to run it with my spectra.
I checked out the pinouts and compared those with the spectra, but am no closer to doing what I want.
2 and 16 are jumpered, 10 and 17 are jumpered. 8 on each is ground
That leaves pins 6, 1, 21, 19 and a couple shielded grounds to deal with.
So, not too sure what I am to do at this point, am I going to need some sort extra add-on box like in my spectra repeater?
-Josh
Wiring up my PAC-PL
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Josh
- Posts: 1931
- Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2001 4:00 pm
- What radios do you own?: APX4K, XTL5K, NX5200, NX700HK
Well, I could wire it that way too.kf4pxz wrote:Hmm...
Never did a low power remote. The ones I did were on the 110 watt units. I cut & tied into the 25 pin connector. Everything you need is in the front connector - descriminator audio, PTT, mic audio. PM me your email addy and I'll send you some drawings.
crquality at hotmail.com
Hello Josh,
It's in my "sent box" of my email, and it didn't come back to me as unsendable. Not sure why you didn't get it, but I'll do it this way. I wasn't able to find my digram, but you should be able to figure out what I am describing.
This is not real hard to do. You will need a copy of the control head, radio
connector & cable pinouts from Batlabs.
You will find detector audio on pin 9, mic high on pin 12, PTT on pin 1 and B+ on pin 22.
Cut the DB25 connector off of the control head cable and (use the pinouts from Batlabs) resolder the wires back onto a new DB25 plug, one pin at a time. Getting audio from the mobile out to the portable works just fine. It was real easy to set up. Getting the mobile to transmit from the portable is another story completely.
There is no voltage on pin 1. Even when you press the PTT on the mic, nothing happens on pin 1. In fact, nothing will happened on any of the pins when the radio goes from RX to TX as far as a voltage swing.
Apparently when you key the mic the control head tells the radio to transmit via the serial bus on a data level. There is +5 VDC found on pin 24 on the back of the control head - it happens to be apart of the mic connector. It goes to zero volts when the PTT is keyed. Disconnected the wire indicated as spare 1 from pin 16 of the DB25 and connect it to the black/blue wire from the Pac-Rt (the PTT line). Spare 1 goes to pin 28 on the back of the control head. Open up the control head and jumper pin 26 and pin 28 together. That will make the spectra transmit when the PAC tells it to.
It works great. Set up the audio with the service monitor. For a couple of
hours of thought and hacking, You can connect your Pac-Rt to your Spectra and not spend a mint on a VRS.
Standard disclaimers apply. This worked for me, maybe I was lucky. YMMV and you are on your own.
It's in my "sent box" of my email, and it didn't come back to me as unsendable. Not sure why you didn't get it, but I'll do it this way. I wasn't able to find my digram, but you should be able to figure out what I am describing.
This is not real hard to do. You will need a copy of the control head, radio
connector & cable pinouts from Batlabs.
You will find detector audio on pin 9, mic high on pin 12, PTT on pin 1 and B+ on pin 22.
Cut the DB25 connector off of the control head cable and (use the pinouts from Batlabs) resolder the wires back onto a new DB25 plug, one pin at a time. Getting audio from the mobile out to the portable works just fine. It was real easy to set up. Getting the mobile to transmit from the portable is another story completely.
There is no voltage on pin 1. Even when you press the PTT on the mic, nothing happens on pin 1. In fact, nothing will happened on any of the pins when the radio goes from RX to TX as far as a voltage swing.
Apparently when you key the mic the control head tells the radio to transmit via the serial bus on a data level. There is +5 VDC found on pin 24 on the back of the control head - it happens to be apart of the mic connector. It goes to zero volts when the PTT is keyed. Disconnected the wire indicated as spare 1 from pin 16 of the DB25 and connect it to the black/blue wire from the Pac-Rt (the PTT line). Spare 1 goes to pin 28 on the back of the control head. Open up the control head and jumper pin 26 and pin 28 together. That will make the spectra transmit when the PAC tells it to.
It works great. Set up the audio with the service monitor. For a couple of
hours of thought and hacking, You can connect your Pac-Rt to your Spectra and not spend a mint on a VRS.
Standard disclaimers apply. This worked for me, maybe I was lucky. YMMV and you are on your own.
-
Josh
- Posts: 1931
- Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2001 4:00 pm
- What radios do you own?: APX4K, XTL5K, NX5200, NX700HK
revisiting this, I finally set to work..
It seems that my PAC-PL likes the PTT line to be grounded, when it's not grounded the device keys up.
I have something mis-wired as of the moment... I've got Spectra pins 1, 5, 12, 18, and 22 pulled apart from a jumper box I made (straight through 25 pin connectors so I didn't have to wreck my semi-expensive Systems9000 remote cable.
pin 18 is ground and 22 is +13.8v, these are wired to the PAC-PL for power, that's a given.
Pin1.... I dunno what to do with that... when I had it wired to the PTT line of the PAC-PL, the only way I could get the thing to transmit was to press buttons on the control head, noise from it made it transmit for a second while the button "beeped", dunno if any audio got out or not.
pin 12 on the spectra "mic -hi" or audio, is wired to the "mobile receiver discriminator", so audio from the spectra will go out the mic of the pac... so, that's good.
and finally the 'detect' pin 9 is currently wired to the PTT line, I am going to tinker a bit and see if I can't get the radio to transmit while it's receiving...
But if not, damn.... I don't know what to do.
-Josh
It seems that my PAC-PL likes the PTT line to be grounded, when it's not grounded the device keys up.
I have something mis-wired as of the moment... I've got Spectra pins 1, 5, 12, 18, and 22 pulled apart from a jumper box I made (straight through 25 pin connectors so I didn't have to wreck my semi-expensive Systems9000 remote cable.
pin 18 is ground and 22 is +13.8v, these are wired to the PAC-PL for power, that's a given.
Pin1.... I dunno what to do with that... when I had it wired to the PTT line of the PAC-PL, the only way I could get the thing to transmit was to press buttons on the control head, noise from it made it transmit for a second while the button "beeped", dunno if any audio got out or not.
pin 12 on the spectra "mic -hi" or audio, is wired to the "mobile receiver discriminator", so audio from the spectra will go out the mic of the pac... so, that's good.
and finally the 'detect' pin 9 is currently wired to the PTT line, I am going to tinker a bit and see if I can't get the radio to transmit while it's receiving...
But if not, damn.... I don't know what to do.
-Josh
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Josh
- Posts: 1931
- Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2001 4:00 pm
- What radios do you own?: APX4K, XTL5K, NX5200, NX700HK
still no good....
I don't know what it takes to interface the spectra witht the PAC-PL using the instruction given.
The PAC keys up on its own unless the 'blue' wire from the PAC is grounded.... it'll just keep going until time-out otherwise... not cool.
Apparently the radio simply takes unsquelched audio from the discriminator and has at it and transmits real signals, not just static.... that being the case, I guess I don't need a PTT line at all coming into the device from the radio... it decides on its own.
Maybe the issue is that I'm using a trunking spectra A9 to do this with, and settings are different as a result (since the radio sits on a control channel) that being the case, perhaps I should just try wiring a different PAC-PL to my VHF CDM radio, I may just have better luck.
-Josh
I don't know what it takes to interface the spectra witht the PAC-PL using the instruction given.
The PAC keys up on its own unless the 'blue' wire from the PAC is grounded.... it'll just keep going until time-out otherwise... not cool.
Apparently the radio simply takes unsquelched audio from the discriminator and has at it and transmits real signals, not just static.... that being the case, I guess I don't need a PTT line at all coming into the device from the radio... it decides on its own.
Maybe the issue is that I'm using a trunking spectra A9 to do this with, and settings are different as a result (since the radio sits on a control channel) that being the case, perhaps I should just try wiring a different PAC-PL to my VHF CDM radio, I may just have better luck.
-Josh
What I did & sent to you worked well for me. You do have to do some modifing inside the control head, or it won't work. There's always another way and you may have better luck going here:
http://www.pyramidcomm.com/pdf/svrpdf/AN159.PDF
These are the instructions for connecting the Pyramid SVR-200 to a low/mid power spectra. Just use the parts that apply to your project.
You will need unsquelched descrimination audio from the spectra for the pac, PTT from the PAC to the spectra, and mic hi from the PAC to the spectra. You do not need any type of COR from the mobile, the PAC has it's own squelch ckt. that it uses to tell when the mobile is receiving something.
Don't give up, when you are making something do things it was never intended to do there is a little trial & error before success.
http://www.pyramidcomm.com/pdf/svrpdf/AN159.PDF
These are the instructions for connecting the Pyramid SVR-200 to a low/mid power spectra. Just use the parts that apply to your project.
You will need unsquelched descrimination audio from the spectra for the pac, PTT from the PAC to the spectra, and mic hi from the PAC to the spectra. You do not need any type of COR from the mobile, the PAC has it's own squelch ckt. that it uses to tell when the mobile is receiving something.
Don't give up, when you are making something do things it was never intended to do there is a little trial & error before success.
-
Josh
- Posts: 1931
- Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2001 4:00 pm
- What radios do you own?: APX4K, XTL5K, NX5200, NX700HK
Yeah, I'm sorta figuring it out now.
I have it hooked to my CDM, and think that's where it'll see the best use.... if it weren't for its size, It's almost a perfect little device.
I can't seem to get mine to transmit PL, and since it's receiving the unfiltered audio, it doesn't really receive PL encoded stuff either.
but heh, the audio sent out is fantastic and it's very fast to key up and get the radio audio out there.
-Josh
I have it hooked to my CDM, and think that's where it'll see the best use.... if it weren't for its size, It's almost a perfect little device.
I can't seem to get mine to transmit PL, and since it's receiving the unfiltered audio, it doesn't really receive PL encoded stuff either.
but heh, the audio sent out is fantastic and it's very fast to key up and get the radio audio out there.
-Josh