high power spectra programming cable

[MotoPhan]

I made a radio to rib cable for my high power spectra and when I have it plugged into the rib it cycles between "self check" and FL/090. I figured it might have been an issue with my cable even though I used the pinout from this site. Using another rib to radio cable I got the same result. The rib is an aftermarket rib. The cycling occurs with rib power on or off. Anyone else experience this? I have heard from some that aftermarket ribs are better than the Motorola ribs and some say it has to be the Motorola rib. I want to see what others think. If need be I will buy or build a Moto rib. Please let me know. Thanks.

[Jim202]

I made a radio to rib cable for my high power spectra and when I have it plugged into the rib it cycles between "self check" and FL/090. I figured it might have been an issue with my cable even though I used the pinout from this site. Using another rib to radio cable I got the same result. The rib is an aftermarket rib. The cycling occurs with rib power on or off. Anyone else experience this? I have heard from some that aftermarket ribs are better than the Motorola ribs and some say it has to be the Motorola rib. I want to see what others think. If need be I will buy or build a Moto rib. Please let me know. Thanks.

The first question is which of the 2 DB25 connectors are you trying to use? The control head cable should be connected to the DB25 connector closest to the high current connector. The RIB should be connected to the DB25 connector under the radio handle.

The Spectra is not as sensitive to the RIB as are some of the other older radios. Almost anything seems to work for me with the Spectra.

Now when it comes to the computer, that may be a different story. I have used computers with as high a clock speed as 1 GHz. But your pushing your luck. The next thing is that you want to run the software in a true DOS on the computer. Non of this stuff of using a DOS window inside a normal Windows XP operating system or something else. You run the risk of all sorts of issues trying to run the Spectra software inside of a DOS window. Yup, people will say they do it, but I don't recommend doing it. You also may have to run a cacheoff.com program to turn off the cache off in the computer to allow it to run the Spectra software correctly.

You really need to find someone with a computer that is know to program the Spectra radio. If that computer works, then you know your cables, RIB and radio are good. That only leaves the computer.

Now I will say that there is a slight possibility that the software your using is the guilty cause. I have run into a few radios that just don't like some versions of the spectra software. There are a number of versions floating around and you may have to try to obtain another version.

Jim

[MotoPhan]

I just tried conncting the radio to a wall wart powered rib as I do not have a slow computer yet. I am looking for a proper computer like a pentium 1 but I wanted to make sure the radio to rib cable worked. I am using the center DB25 btw. The control head is plugged in just below the high current connector.

[Jim202]

I just tried conncting the radio to a wall wart powered rib as I do not have a slow computer yet. I am looking for a proper computer like a pentium 1 but I wanted to make sure the radio to rib cable worked. I am using the center DB25 btw. The control head is plugged in just below the high current connector.

A wall wart is not heavy enough to power this radio even in RX. The radio pulls like something in the order of 2.5 amps when you have sound coming out of the speaker. Plus you need to supply 12 volt power to the heavy black and red power cable connected to the front of the radio, as well as the control head power feed.

Your much better off finding a power supply that can handle the whole radio. In transmit, the radio will pull about 22 to 25 amps. So you need a power supply in the range of 30 amps to make this radio work.

If you don't have enough voltage and current available, the radio could get hung up on a low voltage reset loop. This can cause all sorts of strange things to happen. The display may just keep blinking, you might see messages flashing across the display. Hard to say with voltage issues.

These radios are hard to screw up. But once you get the radio voltage stable, make sure you read the radio and save the codeplug to a floppy disk or another location other than the normal codeplug location the software uses (archive directory). This way if you mess it up, you can load the old codeplug into the radio again and start over.

Depending on which control head you have, will determine just what features you might be able to use in the radio. The features will also be determined by the version of the MLM board that is in the radio. You will have to open up the radio and pop the metal cover off of the place the MLM board is in. There will be a sticker on the board with the version number on it.

If you haven't already been to the Mike B web site, you need to spend some time there.
http://www.onfreq.com/syntorx/
Go here and read all about the Spectra radio.

Another good place for Spectra information is the repeater builder site.
http://www.repeater-builder.com/motorol ... index.html
Take a look here also for some other good information.

If your still having problems, come back and provide some details on just what they are.

Jim

[MotoPhan]

I meant the rib is powered by the 9 volts. The spectra is powered by a 3 amp 12 volt supply right now. I am going to get or build a decent power supply for it here soon. When there is no rib connected it powers on normally however.

[Will]

The RIB gets +12 volts from the radio. At least it should as that was built into the cable. Pin 12 on the RIB end, some knockoff's do not support the external 12 volts.

http://batlabs.com/images/spechi.gif

Check your wiring.

Now if the radio tries to power up and the jumper for Emergency is not there it will try to transmit.

[MotoPhan]

The good news is that my cable does indeed power the rib. I will have to wait until I can find a slow machine to see if it programs however. I will also try to get a new power supply before long. Thank you all for your help.

[Jim202]

The RIB gets +12 volts from the radio. At least it should as that was built into the cable. Pin 12 on the RIB end, some knockoff's do not support the external 12 volts.

http://batlabs.com/images/spechi.gif

Check your wiring.

Now if the radio tries to power up and the jumper for Emergency is not there it will try to transmit.

To follow up on what Will has said, you need to make sure that pin 13 (EMG) is grounded to pin 10 on the control cable if it isn't one of the molded connectors on the control head from Motorola. If you have one of the molded DB25 connectors, then you might want to investigate to see if the line is grounded at the control head. I could be wrong on this pin, as the RIB indicates this is the BUS- line. There is some differences between the 2 DB-25 connectors on the front of the high powered Spectra units. Don't have the manual in front of me to verify this info.

On all the programming cables I build, I use the switched +12 volt out on the accessory connector from the radio to power the RIB. This way I don't have to worry about a wall wart or battery powering the RIB. If the radio goes bonkers when you plug the programming cable from the radio into it, I would look to see if by some chance the switched +12 volt line is getting pulled down inside the RIB. If it is not a Motorola device, you might have to add a diode on that line inside the RIB or see what is happening to it.

Here is a diagram for a RIB to help you figure out your problem.

http://www.batlabs.com/images/rib.gif

Jim

[MotoPhan]

Good point.I take it I need a regular diode and not a zener? I am going to look inside the rib and see how it is wired compared to the schematic.

[Will]

http://www.batlabs.com/images/rib.gif
Jim

There have been many up dates to the RIB. Some are here, resistor value changes to more correctly match RS232 standards. http://batlabs.com/images/rib_mod.jpg

Also Spectra RSS ONLY runs in REAL DOS. A win 95 or 98 booted to the command prompt works very well. Spectra RSS IS Pentium compatible so you do not need a 'slower computer'.

When the RSS starts it sets up the condition on the data/reset lines thru the RIB. You may have a condition where the software has not correctly initialized the data lines into the Spectra. That may cause the condition you mention.