Batboard

I can not get my P-200s to communicate with the computer. I've tried all the serial ports and can not read it. I have the official software, interface and rib box ? I've spent many hours trying everything I can think of? Any suggestions I have used the same computer & rib box and serial cable to program P-100s Any help would be appreciated!

Just doing some troubleshooting 101 -

From what I interpret from your post it appears that the PC and RIB you have work with the P100's, so the difference would be the P200 software and the rib to radio cable.

Provided you have the correct software for the P200's, I would check the rib to radio cable and make sure it is wired properly.

You also state you have tried all of the com ports, the P200 software only supports Com1 or Com2, so it shouldn't take too long to test the Com ports

One other suggestion would be to clean the contacts on the P200 accessory connector with a soft pencil eraser or, if you have it, DeOxit gold. Then reinstall the programming connector and try again.

P200/HT600 RSS only runs in DOS, won't work in Windows.

In the RSS config screen there is a 'COM TEST' that checks serial communications with the radio.

make sure the guts are really a p200.

I have MT1000's in P200 cases and vice versa just because I was bored and wanted a different case.

A 99 channel low band P200 was never made as far as I know so I swapped cases, as a result my low band 6 channel P200 is now in a MT1000 case and the 99 chnl low band lives life as a 99 chnl P200.

I your radios are recently purchased someone could have done the same swap of cases.

Look at the solder on the pins from the top plate to the circuit board. The solder is often cracked.

There is another possibility if the above suggestions do not help you. What is the processor speed of the computer you are using? I ask as I had the same thing happen to me with P200 software. My older computer has a 50Mhz processor and of course it works fine. My newer programming computer has a Pentium processor @ 200 Mhz. When I copied my P200 software over to the newer faster computer, it would not read a radio even though the radio was fine. I too scratched my head as this same newer computer read HT50/P100's with no problem. Meanwhile, the identical HT600 software worked fine in the new computer. This lead me to do a side by side comparison on Dos to see what the difference was. It turned out that the HT600 software had a Readme file that the P200 did not. It appears that Motorola found this problem out from use in the field as the following is as stated in the file:

Release notes:
Previous Symptoms:
Version R02.03.01 would not communicate with radios from a 166 Mhz. Pentium.

Diagnostics revealed that a hardcoded software loop to accomplish a cable delay was too short for a 166 Mhz. Pentium. This beta version implements a delay that is not machine speed dependent.

This version ( R02.03.02 ) has been tested successfully on the following machines:
486 100 Mhz., Pentium 200 Mhz., Pentium 60 Mhz., Pentium 150 Mhz., 386 25Mhz.

What I do is program my P200 with this version of the HT600 software that works fine on the newer computer. My guess is that Motorola patched only the HT600 software as it can be used for either HT600's or P200's, so there was no need to do both. I hope this helps. Good luck.

Shaun

Stage 2 wrote: What I do is program my P200 with this version of the HT600 software that works fine on the newer computer. My guess is that Motorola patched only the HT600 software as it can be used for either HT600's or P200's, so there was no need to do both. I hope this helps. Good luck. Shaun

Exactly what we have been doing for years.

Will wrote:

Stage 2 wrote: What I do is program my P200 with this version of the HT600 software that works fine on the newer computer. My guess is that Motorola patched only the HT600 software as it can be used for either HT600's or P200's, so there was no need to do both. I hope this helps. Good luck. Shaun

Exactly what we have been doing for years.

Actually I put this out there for the fellow who asked the question rather than those of us who already know. I hope I didn't step on any toes by sharing our secret.

Stage 2 wrote:Actually I put this out there for the fellow who asked the question rather than those of us who already know. I hope I didn't step on any toes by sharing our secret.

No problem, hope he gets his radio working.