Chinese RIB's on Ebay

[g8tzl2004]

I have a real Motorola RIB but I want to do the 3 switch mod used for flashing new firmware.

I am a bit reluctant to mod my "precious" Motorola RIB so I was planning to build a homebrew RIB using the Batlabs schematic.

Although building a RIB is relatively inexpensive , I noticed that the Chinese RIB's are very cheap!!

I've researched the archives and, in general, later versions of the Chinese RIB's seem to get OK reviews.

But I have a few questions:

- do all the Chinese RIB's on Ebay come from the same "factory". The pictures all look identical BUT the prices vary by up to 100%!!!

- are the Chinese RIB''s circuit identical to the real Motorola RIB - so its easy to work out where to add the switches for firmware updates?

Thanks

[tuckerm]

I have a RIB from KawaMall that worked out excellent for me. No problems at all.

[Will]

The problems all along have been the piss poor RIB that Motorola made and everyone else copied. If I designed that RIB, I would have been fired....

There is a new schematic coming soon to bring the Motorola RIB design up to RS232 standards.

I have not seen the Chinese RIB yet, but guess that there are simply a copy of the Motorola 'design'.

[g8tzl2004]

Thanks for the feedback

I often wonder why Motorola did not just use a simple RS232/TTL interface built around a MAX232 !!! Also why do they need to keep using different "RIB to Radio" pin outs for different models - I have a box full of diiferent homebrew leads.

At least they use a "standard" RJ45 socket for mobiles so you can use old computer network cables!!! You would have thought that Moto would have used an RJ45 socket with slightly different pins or something!!!

[Will]

Thanks for the feedback

I often wonder why Motorola did not just use a simple RS232/TTL interface built around a MAX232 !!! Also why do they need to keep using different "RIB to Radio" pin outs for different models

The so-called engineer who designed the Motorola RIB knows nothing about RS232.....
Different radios have different connections to the radio's data buss.

[twowaytekk]

I bought one of these Chinese RIBS. It has worked great, maybe even a bit better than the real M RIB.

Mark