Batboard

Just a question for those in the know. I see alot of these 2 brands. Is one better than the other or not or is there another brand I should look for? I'm getting the stuff together and need to start reading existing radios. Please help, Thanks.

Bill

Hi Bill -

Do a search for both here on batlabs. You'll probably find the answers to the question your looking for.

-Alex

I purchased a RIB and GP300 programming cable from 2wayprogramming. What a pieces of crapola. I've had them maybe 2-3 months now, and they both worked fine the first couple programmings, however, the craftsmanship and quality of the parts used is ridiculosuly cheap.

The first problem I encountered with the RIB was the connection that goes from the Serial port to the rib is connected via a telephone modular jack. After some time the pins on the modular jack connection (female), became bent or something, and would not make contact with the male end, and it wasnt due to normal wear and tear, because I hardly ever unplugged it.

The next RIB problem I encountered was the negative lead form the external 9V battery connection came out of the connector. That is, the negative line that runs into the connection which snaps onto the top of the 9V battery, slipped out somehow. This piece does get normal wear and tear from disconnecting and reconnecting batteries, however, it is normal wear that should be expected.

Both problems were easy fixes, by bypassing the modular jack all together and crimping wires together with some good wire heat shrink, and purchasing a new 9V battery connection from the neighborhood electronics store. However, this is hardly the expectations I had when spending my 100 dollars or so.

In terms of the GP300 cable, they use three aligator clips, two for the possitive and negative battery terminals, and one for the programming plate. How are you suppose to position an aligator clip to attach itself to a flat surface with no edges? Well it didn't take long for the clip to fall off the wire (due to flimsy cabling and terrible soldering) because of all the different angles I had to use in order to tape this thing down. But now it is ok becuase the bear wire is easier to tape down onto the plate, haha. But that is besides the point, and I had a ton of GP300's to test on, and could afford to lose one to the land of paperweights. However, for the consumer who doesn't have the equipment or money to play with, I would never purchase this cable from them.

I also use a Saber RIB to Radio cable purchased from Polaris. This cable is made very well, looks solid, and makes very good and exact contact with my Saber accesory pins. Never had a problem with this, and now wish I had purchased a Polaris RIB based on my experience with their cable.

-Louie

Hi:

If you should decide to give up on the Clone / Nip Clip
approch, I do have some Factory Motorola Rib Boxes,
Power Supplies, Rib to Computer Cable, etc.

More expensive than the clones, but you will not have to worry about the On/off Switch as the [ 2way model does not have one ] you have to remove / reconnect the battery every time you
wish to use it.

NOT all clones are bad, just many of them lack the quality
and performance of the real thing, and if you plan to program
some early series radios like the x9000, the circuitry is not
there for them.

Cheap China style Battery connectors, and the use of the
removal of the battery to turn it off and on, and the wires
hanging out of the box all are not good ideas. The polaris
box is perhaps OK, but they WILL NOT give you any support
material if it should develop a problem, and the DB25 is connected
right the the PC board, and over time, the Connctor may break
away causing a intermittent condition.

This is something YOU DO NOT WANT during a write process, especially in view of these later model radios.

Maybe Ok for short time use, but everyday use can be a issue.

Monty

I've been using polaris now for quite some time. I have never come accross a radio that I can't program. Price is very fair and never had a problem with quality, durability or craftsmanship.

You're doing well then.... the polaris PA2 I had would not program an HT600 or P200 to save its life..... decent box but not 100%


YMMV

The RIB that I grab first when doing a job is my PAII and there is nothing that I have run across that it won't program. That being said, I had to return it and have it replaced because it wouldn't work on GM300's. But they replaced it, no questions asked and promptly. Compared to some of the other knock offs, it seems like a nice high quality piece. We have some /\/\ ribs at work that won't work on some things, so it seems a problem common to all.

Thanks for all the info. The more the merrier. I'm very close to purchasing something. Monty, I respect your views and value your opinion. My only issue is the price. I know, I know ya get what ya pay for. I'm a huge /\/\ fan and user but we/I have a VERY limited budget and it would be difficult to pay $235.00. If it comes down to that at least I know where to find you and I thank you for that. Thanks again everyone.

Bill

The Motorola rib is your best bet, if you run across a radio you can't program chances are there is a problem in you rib. The rib is very simple to troubleshoot and fix. I can help if you need it. I have 7 motorola ribs and the are used very much and from time to time one of the shunt diodes on the i/o pins goes or just a simple transistor. I'm sure your polaris suffers the same problems the mot does.

Aaron

Its never been a intention to force someone
into going the Factory route/, if you should be
one of those who is just stuck with a tight budget,
Sandy's Rib has been a very popular one and
I have herd some good results.

At least the Battery will not fall out of that one.

Th idea is to help those who may be caught
a little off gard in the Clone World. Many Professionals
still use them today, and they are savvy enough to know
where the pitfalls maybe, and how to watch out for them.

Its just the Rib is only a part of a Stable Program Platform,
and the other pieces are just as important.

As a Tech, I guess I am just getting tired of explaning
why it may cost the person 75.00~150.00 to restore
a radio, and getting them alive again is really pretty easy,
the alighnment of the entire transmitter is another issue.

But I do respect those who wish to build there own, and
I will even help supply the correct parts if they have trouble
locating the IC's as I have many of them. I can even supply
the special 90 degree connectors for the interface if needed.

The Batlab forum even has a Printed Circuit Layout
if you are the building type !

Always around if you should decide to go the Factory
Route.

As far as the Polaris Ribs are concerned, I just was not
a Happy Camper when I was told they would not even
supply a diagram for their product so a customer would
be able to service their own if desired. If there Rib fails
and its outside the Warrantee Period, well, be prepared
to fork out 100.00 ( which is about the same for a New one )

Great customer service !



MS

I had a Polaris PA-II that failed about a month after the warrenty ran out and replaced it with a PA-III that has been working flawlessly for three years. But a new high power spectra programming cable bought from Polaris had an intermittent 'radio reading' problem that turned out to be a meandering wire inside the 25 pin radio connector. After looking at the glue and tie-wraps holding the cable in there, along with the poor soldering jobs, I replaced some cables with Monty's 'clones' and investigated his soldering job. I was pleased with Monty's professional jobs and have since 'copied' his handy work and repaired all my polaris clone cables. Just be aware that if you start to mix and match, some [at least the M1225] Polaris cables must be modified to work with the original 'M' rib box.

If you spend 80.00 on Ed's RIB (2wayprogramming) and then 125.00 to Monty to resurect your brick after Ed's RIB fell apart during programming (battery snap , etc.), you will see that for only 30.00 more you could have had an original Motorola RIB.


Been there, done that, have the brick.

On a serious note. I had Ed's RIB and it worked for several months before it had it's share of problems. I now have the Motorola RIB from Monty. Should have done it from the start.


Bob

i'm using the Polaris PA1 & and HT1000 cable. Nothing to say about this product.. it's not Motorola but suffisent for me.

i purchased on of ed's programming ribboxes. It worked great for
3 months. it then started to smoke and did not work. I took it apart
and found a transistor had burned up, i tried like hell to find a
compatible one using the number on the transister. I had no luck.
I contracted ed via email and a voice mail and asked for a
compatible transistor to replace it with. He has not contacted me and
it has been 3 months.

None of these socalled RIBs comply with the RS232 standered, we just finished a engineering project looking at the RIBs available and well like one said "crapola" for sure.
We did come up with some mods, even to even the imfamus M RIB, to make them more complyant with the full RS232 spec.

Accually after the mods, the 2wayradioprogramming.com box worked very well.

Jon is working on a new circuit board for a better RIB that fully complys with the RS232 and the logic levels on all M radios. But it may be late summer before it is finished.

I have the simple mods available if anyone wants them, even the M mods.

A friend of mine has the 2wayprogramming RIB..

It's never given either of us any problems, except for the battery clip (which can be easily fixed).

As well, I noticed it sucked back a LOT of juice from a battery...you'd be lucky to get maybe 10 programmings done before the battery would die.

Well, I opened it up after it stopped working...seems the 78L05 5-volt regulator was just too small to handle the requirements of the RIB, so I put a higher-power one in, and it's never been a problem since. In fact, it doesn't kill batteries as much now either


-M