Batboard

First off, I want to say that I have heard Monty's opinion on this subject and I am not trying to trash his insight. However, I want to get a variety of input. I have been given many horror stories about using RIB's and
programming cables that are not manufactured, sold, and approved by
Motorola to program their radios. However, I can't see paying around
$300 for their approved units. I refuse to believe that these units,
manufactured by some Korean making 25 cents an hour, are that much
better than those by made by hobbiests in the good old USA. What have
been your experiences, if any, with these units. By the way, I will
be programming a M1225. Here are two examples that I have found:

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Pit/ ... bPage.html

http://users.osagevalley.net/hahnenem/i ... bpage.html

i live 2 blocks away from Sandy G.
( http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Pit/ ... bPage.html )

I purchased the hardware from him, and paid extra for him to put it together... I own the following radios, which were all programmed by the RIB i got fron Sandy: Motorola HT1000, MT2000, Visar, Saber III, Astro Saber III, and my Systems Saber.

Im using a Digital Brand (now compaq, which is now HP) i486DX-50 w/ 64MB RAM running DOS 6.22 on a 2GB harddrive. External Cache is disabled. COM1 is for my RIB and COM2 is for my UPA (pagers)

BTW: ALWAYS use both a battery AND ac adapter, a weak battery can kill your radio, and a poweroutage during programming can kill your radio... (I personally have a seperate UPS system for my Motorola stuff)

Hope this helps...

Chad

I remember having to change a couple of resistors in the genuine Motorola RIB because it was flaky on some computers. I think if you have a good solid circuit design that meets the RS232 protocall and outputs 0 to 5 volt swing to the radio then you should not have any problems.
Some radios require a inverted "BUS-" in addition to Bus+ and Busy. The adaptor should provide the signals as well.

I have been using a "Poket RIB" (their spelling) for about eight years now.

The unit is built into a DB9 to DB25 adapter using solid SMT construction. I have had nothing but good experiences with the unit, having done multiple thousands of programmings, on a wide range of radios, over the last eight years.

The only down side to the unit is that for power it uses a 9V battery that plugs into the unit using a coaxial power plug. Although I used it for many years without a problem, after reading the horror stories and warnings from the experienced technicians on this board, I removed the jack and soldered the power leads straight to the board.

If you are looking for an affordable quality alternative to the genuine Motorola RIB, these run around $100, and can be found a hamfests or on eBay. I'm not sure about the original manufacturer, but if I can find it, I'll pass it on.

Having said that, you can't go wrong with the genuine article.

Also, don't be shy about building the cable yourself , if you have decent basic skills. Take a look at the Batlabs.com page. It's just three conductors (two if you skip the boot control line) and a jumper.

I also want to share my radio programming experience using RIB diagrams found mostly on the Internet, which some are accurate info but some just cause disaster!
I fried 2 GP300 PA by programming mistake,since I was too excited to try my home brew programmer, connect it to computer and radio but the radio will not acknowledge but instead of using a stable supply of 7.5 VDC to supply a radio, I just used an adjustable voltage converter set to 7.5 VDC which is not regulated. Thinking that the supply to the radio is to low I intentionally increased it to 12VDC! and fry its PA!
It takes me 2 PA to fry before I figure out that the culprit is the LED connected to Bus line of the programmer which comsumed all the neccessary voltage for proper programming of the radio.

HI:

With all due respects to the Volume
of Professional persons in the Two-Way
field that use Clones and the like, always
keep in mind, there is a large seperation
between the Professional, and perhaps
a [ "Newcomer "] to programming radios.

The Pros's knows !!

The newcommer may be in a super rush, buy a
small PC Board, purchase / remove componets
from a scrap board, use his XP Laptop ( and
by-pass reading the RSS Manual ) and Boom
no more radio !

Why Motorola made these things so sensitve
is a mystery to me

All in all , as I have supported, many Clones
do infact work when in the hands of
a person knowing the [ ropes ] sorta
speak.

I would still urge caution to others, that
having a { External 9 Volt pigtail } battery
support is really not a good idea. The
Strands in those [ RS ] style battery
connector will at sometime break away
and be a source of trouble especially
when " hanging' from a solid source.


If the wire or battery breaks away during
the write process, you can write your radio off !
( or a hefty check )

I am surprised the fellow did not add the
[ .25 cent battery clip ]

At least the other one ( Sandys ) has a SOLID
BATTERY Compartment ! Also, Exposed
Componets is not a great idea either. However
at least you can get a powdered coated box
for Sandy';s Model, but all the [ Extras ] will
raise the costs of your project
=========================

The [ Real ] issues on the Rib Boxes
are focused on the [ CA3140E ] IC.

I believe you can find the details
here on Batlabs.
=========================

Also, there is a Printed Circuit Diagram [ On Batlabs ]
for those who wish to [ Build their own]

One final thought...If you do some hunting
and have patience, you can find Factory Motorola
Rib Boxes anywhere between 75.00 and 175.00
all over the place, so you really do not have to
spend 300.00 for a Factory Set up.

You then can [ build your own cables ] and save
many bucks if you are savy at construction.

If not, there are many perosns who make Premuim
Grade Cables and aftermnarket equipment.

Unfortunitely, as a (M) Two-Way Tech, I have ran
into case after case of Programmig issues
with Clones over the past 10-15 years. I just say,
get a original, be done with it especially if
you do not have the time to make your own.

Don't waste a 500.00 / 1000.00 radio over a missing
[ .25 cent ] Battery Clip, or 10.00-20.00
Enclosed Box.

I have Restored many a batbaord members Motorola
Radios lunched by a varity of hardware issues from
poor / intermittent cables, Computer OS's to Clones.

I guess I am running short on Midnight Oil.


MS

Nand wrote:
For security, at least read the code plug and save it to disk before you program the radio though. This way you can at least recover any problems you may run into.

Nand.

Would anyone care to enlighten this newbie as to how this is accomplished? Is it done via the RSS?

Yes the codeplug save is done via the RSS software. Before you do any programming to your radio you should read the codeplug data, with the RSS program, first and then save it to disk. That way if their is a power loss or other unforseen event you will have your codeplug saved and can write it back into the radio.

BTW I have used the 2wayprogramming.com RIB for about a year. Mind you I have only used it on a Syntor X9000 and a few Maxtrac's and Radius' but I havent had one problem. But I did rubber band the battery to the case of the RIB because the battery leed did break under the weight of the battery. Thank GOD I wasn't programming at the time. Just replaced the battery conn. with Radio Shack quality, and no more worries.

I hope any of this has helped.

I have been using the Polaris rib and cable for several M1225's. The only glitch I have found is the radio goes in to TX mode when hooked up and not being programmed. I always hook an antenna or dummy load to the radio being programmed. If on an antenna, I select an unused frequency.

I also have been using the "Poket-RIB" that Humhead spoke of. I haven't had any problems at all. I threw away the 9 volt adapter and use a 9 volt power adapter with a 9 volt battery back-up. It really did like to eat batteries if you forgot to unhook it after you were done.
Scott

I use a Polaris Model III RIB, it does the job nicely, and yes, I guard it very carefully as I've seen the less initiated with a "proper" RIB trash some seriously expensive radios with them and then blame it on the RIB.As the man said, the Pro's know what works, how they work and what to do with them.
mear.

I am not lucky enough to own a genuine Motorola RIB, so I obviously I am using aftermarkets. I have used models made by Polaris and another made by Direct Communications, as well as a "no name" manufacturer. The only one that gave me trouble was the one made by Direct Communications. It would only program some radios. I could program Sabers (I, II, III's), Radius mobiles (CDM 1250, M120) and MT1000's and HT600's. It would not program Jedi's,Spectra's or MCX1000's. The other ones worked fine with no problems.

73 de Jerry

UPDATE

I used Sandy's RIB:

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Pit/ ... bPage.html

It programmed my M1225 just fine. I used both redundent power sources for the RIB as well as a UPS for the computer. Also, I powered the radio for programming using a 300 Watt computer power supply that puts out 12 Volts DC at 14 amps.

VolFirefighter911 wrote:UPDATE

I used Sandy's RIB:

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Pit/ ... bPage.html

It programmed my M1225 just fine. I used both redundent power sources for the RIB as well as a UPS for the computer. Also, I powered the radio for programming using a 300 Watt computer power supply that puts out 12 Volts DC at 14 amps.

i used sandy's RIB on over 30 different radios, over 200 times total - never had a problem

chad

I personally have been using a Polaris programmer for the last 6 years to program several hundred Maxtracks, Radius's, Maratracs, SM50's, SM120's and handhelds with absolutely no problems.

It does help if you have previous experience and know what you are doing.

With all due respect, I think Monty may be reading to much Motorola propraganda literature. (WARNING - USE ONLY GENUINE MOTOROLA REPLACEMENT PARTS)

Art - KC7GF