Batboard

Is there a set maximum for the processor speed required to run Systems Saber Lab?

I have several 148-174 Systems Sabers (CON 5&6) that I need to program a few 145/146 frequencies into, but none of my computers will communicate with the radios, including my IBM Thinkpad 365ED (486). I would really like to get these units working on ham frequencies, but I am at a loss for what to do at this point.

Is there anything that I can do to get my 486 to work for programming out of band, or am I stuck looking for a 286 laptop?

Can you try to turn off any cache in the bios setup? That seems to help on older systems but I had a similar Thinkpad and I never had any issues so I'm not sure what your issue is. Do other programs work ok? Could the comport be bad?

As odd as it sounds I program mine all the time with a 1.1 Ghz Centrino CF-18 Toughbook by booting to DOS through a USB 1Gig thumb drive. It works fine.

done system sabers with a dual Socket 370 pentium III computer had trouble at first, turned out to be the cables.

I will try turning off the cache in the bios and see if that helps.

FWIW, with my same cable and rib setup I can program Systems Sabers just fine with the regular Systems Saber RSS, but that only allows me to go 1 mhz out of band. The Systems Saber lab RSS seems to be very picky about processor speed.

Cacheoff.com will allow it to work on up to 1 GHz/PIII.

Awesome.... I will give that a try.

Josh I sent you another PM, did you receive it?

NSPD wrote:I will try turning off the cache in the bios and see if that helps.

FWIW, with my same cable and rib setup I can program Systems Sabers just fine with the regular Systems Saber RSS, but that only allows me to go 1 mhz out of band. The Systems Saber lab RSS seems to be very picky about processor speed.

As per the Pentium Compatibility Matrix, the latest Systems Saber RSS (RVN-4051F Dec-93) was written with independent timers and *should* not be processor speed dependant, and it does work on much more modern machines. However, the LAB version of it is likely older, uses hardware based timing loops, and IS processor speed dependant. Typically if you get much above 25-33MHz you'll have issues, and sometimes below those speeds, if the RSS version is truly ancient. Turning off the cache often can help, as has been stated by others.

Well, I tried cacheoff.com on the 486 with no luck. Just for $hits and giggles I loaded it onto my PII and went through the process, and I was able to read and write a 144mhz frequency to a 148-174 Systems Saber. I was then able to move a 157-174 Systems Saber down into the ham band (and it works great there, go figure).

Thanks for the help guys!

That's weird. Cacheoff.com lets my Thinkpad A22m (1 GHz PIII) read/write not only with this program but STX too.