Batboard

I have rig control software for my icom ham radio, and thought wouldnt it be nice if there were a program out there that would let you activley control you motorola rig in real time via a laptop or desktop pc. Is there such a windows based program out there.It sure would increase the popluarity of using commercial radios for amature use if you could scan around the dx band without having to redo a codeplug all the time.

Not that I've ever heard of... but would be neat if it could be done.

There is the virtual control head software that was discussed on here recently. But that just allows the computer to take the place of the control head for normal operation of the radio.

It won't make it frequency agile.

However, Piexx makes a really cool computer interface for the old Syntor and Syntor X, makes it completely frequency agile from your computer.

Yep, the Piexx is the only thing I can think of that's close to what you seek. And as NLY said, it's only for the old Syntor and the X. I never got that setup so I can't comment on it but Piexx is good stuff overall.

Virtual Radio Contorl Head VRCH

Supports, Spectra, Astro Spectra, MCS2000

Need RIB and appropriate cable.

Any chance anyone could send a copy of the VRCH software my way? I want to look at the protocol, and see if I can figure out how the interpret the data that represents a busy indication on the display, and give a logic output to get around having to mess with transistors on the speaker lines, etc. as has to be done now to interface the radio. This would be done with a single chip PIC micro, so it truly will be much simpler. "pushing panel buttons" via state changes on IO pins of the PIC might also be a cool side effect. No RIB necessary because the PIC can do inverted logic level serial directly.

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Thanks. and This IS NOT a request for RSS or anything else that /\/\o/\/\ didn't give away.

My understanding is that everything is done by the SB9600 lines. There has been quite a bit done looking into it, but not too much has come of it. Motorola does (did) publish the specs on it, however I hear its quite expensive to obtain.

The Systems 9000 serial data bus has nothing to do with the PIC inverted logic level serial connections. Systems 9000 in the Syntor X 9000 and Spectra is a 9600 baud, differential, bidirectional, asynchronous serial data communication bus. It is not RS-422 or RS-485. It is more like a CAN type dominate/recessive 0 to 5 volt bus. A dominate/recessive bus only actively drives the dominate state. This means an opposite polarity data collision does not produce a serial bus driver short circuit like RS-485 does.

You can use a RIB to hook up a PC to the Systems 9000 bus and read the data (9600 baud, no parity one stop bit). For Windoze users Hyperterminal does not work correctly for binary data capture. Use a program like Bray's Terminal (Google Bray Terminal). Then you can isolate and recognize just the ready light serial data stream control bytes. It can be used as as a recognition pattern for your micro.

Since you are receive only you do not need the ability to drive the Systems 9000 bus. This also means you cannot NACK any bad data. If your processor has a high impedance USART input pin you can tap the appropriate BUS+ or BUS- pin (you need the correct USART idle voltage state). However, you have to be careful about unbalancing the Systems 9000 bus (noise pickup and all that stuff) if you add a long wire connection on a single BUS line. You may also want an input voltage protection circuit for your processor. If there is room inside the radio or control head you might be able to piggyback the Motorola USART Rx connection with your micro USART Rx. This gets you back to a single ended non-differential serial data signal with over voltage protection. Because the Systems 9000 bus is bidirectional the USART Rx pin loops back the USART Tx signal, so you will see all the Systems 9000 bus activity.

Good info. Can anyone out there send a copy of it my way? Does the software have any control functions such as channel or function change? I'd still like to play, and see what I can come up with. Thanks.