Super Simple Minitor III/IV (Probably V too) interface box
Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2005 6:35 pm
After studying the schematics available on this website for these interfaces I determined that the extra comparators and 1.5v supply were not necessary for the Minitor III/IV since they run on 3v and the sole purpose of the comparators seems to be to drive the blinky green light. So this evening I had success in adapting my old homemade Midland radio programming adapter to a factory-made programming nest and sure enough, it works. And it will still program Midlands if I want to.
The gist of it is this: I just built the programmer as drawn but powered it from a 5v wall wart and ran the TTL level TXD and RXD straight from the MAX232 to and from the pager nest.
The pinout for the modular 4-pin on the end of the cord was a little hard for me to figure so here it is in case somebody wants to know. Looking into the modular connector on the back of the nest, left to right:
Leftmost: data FROM MAX232 TO pager
Left of center: data FROM pager TO max232
Right of center: common ground
Rightmost: no connection (used for +1.5v to power consumer pagers but fire pagers are 3v and have their own batteries.)
Birken
The gist of it is this: I just built the programmer as drawn but powered it from a 5v wall wart and ran the TTL level TXD and RXD straight from the MAX232 to and from the pager nest.
The pinout for the modular 4-pin on the end of the cord was a little hard for me to figure so here it is in case somebody wants to know. Looking into the modular connector on the back of the nest, left to right:
Leftmost: data FROM MAX232 TO pager
Left of center: data FROM pager TO max232
Right of center: common ground
Rightmost: no connection (used for +1.5v to power consumer pagers but fire pagers are 3v and have their own batteries.)
Birken