Bidirectional Repeater GM300 prog cable-software DosBox


Bidirectional Repeater GM300
This article shall cover the prog cable, prog software running on dosbox and the bi-directional interface to build a GM300 motorola repeater

The Uni/Bidirectional cable

 Cable/interface Schematics @ Click Here
The Programing Cable

used an CH340 USB to TTL dongle with a simple prefabricated network cable having a RJ45 connector at one end. using a standard network patch cable with a 568B scheme

connect the TXD and RXD to RJ45 orange and GND to Blue as shown below, the diode didnt work for me.

 Courtesy George Smart – M1GEO


 

The programing cable is ready, have tested this with the DOS program as well as the GM300 Radio doctor software, there are some COM port settings that need to be done before it starts to work, the setting are described below
 

Getting Setup to Program the Motorola Radius

Courtesy kk6jyt
The first thing you need to do is get your hardware setup. Plug in your USB Serial Port Adapter to your computer. Attach the Motorola RIB to the USB Serial Port Adapter. Finally, attach the programming cable to the RIB and your transceiver.
Note: If you have an existing serial port on your computer, just plug your Motorola RIB to the computer and the Motorola programming cable to the RIB and your transceiver.
We now need to make sure that the USB Serial Port Adapter has been assigned port COM1 or COM2. This can be accomplished by checking the Device Manager. The Device Manager can be accessed by bringing up the Start Menu and typing “Device Manager” in the Search Programs and Files area.

How to Change the COM Port Number

If you plugged in your USB Serial Port Adapter and a COM port other then COM1 or COM2 was assigned in the Device Manager, follow the steps below.

Right click on the USB Serial Port and select Properties.
Click the “Port Settings” tab, and then select the button labeled “Advanced”.

Click the drop-down menu from where it says “COM Port Number” and select “COM1” or “COM2”. Then click “OK” to save.
Note: If COM1 and COM2 are both in use, you must select one of them. It will give you a warning that the port was opened by another application, and may have an unpredictable effect (on the other application). You must select “Yes”.

Adjusting the COM Port Settings

The COM Port Settings will need to be adjusted in order to communicate with your Motorola Radius.

 If you are not already there, open the “Device Manager”, right click on the USB Serial Port and select “Properties”.
Click the “Port Settings” tab, and then change the “Bits per second” drop-down menu to 2400
(You might not have to do this step. If you have problems, change this back to the default setting.) Click the “Advanced” button and change the “Receive FIFO Size” setting to “None” from the drop-down menu.
Confirm and close both boxes by clicking “OK”.

Configuring DOSBox to Run Motorola RSS

Now it’s time to configure DOSBox to run the Motorola RSS program. If you have not done so yet, download and install the DOSBox program. (Download link)

Click the “Start Menu” and in the “Search Programs and Files” area, type and select “DOSBox Options”.

Your default text editor will open with the DOSBox conf file. Change the the conf files “serial” settings to:
[serial]
serial1=directserial realport:COM1
serial2=disabled
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

Note: Make sure if you are using COM2 that you change the above to else leave it to COM1:
 
[serial]
serial1=directserial realport:COM2
serial2=disabled
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

 

Change the the conf files “autoexec” settings to:
[autoexec]
mount d c:\gm300v.5
d:
GM300.EXE
Save the DOSBox conf file and exit your text editor.
 

Starting Motorola’s Radio Service Software

Now it’s time to see if we did so far is correct. Let’s start DOSBox and see what happens. You should see a welcome screen that tells you to push any button, and then the following screen below.

If you see this screen above, congratulate yourself! You have successfully configured DOSBox to run Motorola’s Radio Service Software.
Now comes the part that just about everyone has trouble with . . . getting your Motorola Radius to communicate with your computer. Cheap programming cables, and too fast of a CPU speed (on your computer/DOSBox) are the main cause of this problem. We already discussed what cables worked for me. Now let’s go over how to slow down the CPU speed.

Slowing Down the CPU Speed in DOSBox

While DOSBox is running, hold down the “Ctrl” key and press “F11” until the CPU Speed (displayed in the title bar) reaches somewhere around 191 cycles. If you went too far, hold down the “Ctrl” key and press “F12” to raise the speed back up. I was able to successfully program with a CPU Speed of up to 400 cycles.

Configuring and Testing the Motorola RSS

Now it’s time to configure the RSS, and test the connection between your computer and your Motorola Radius.

From the “Main Menu” of the Motorola RSS, press “F9” to get into the “Setup Computer Configuration Menu”.
Now press “F3” to go into the “PC Configuration Menu”
You will need type in the “Default Path Names” on this screen.
 
DEFAULT PATH NAMES
Archive D:\ARCHIVE
Backup D:\BACKUP
Repeater D:\REPEATER

SERIAL PORTS
RIB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . COM1
 
Now press “F8” to save your settings.
 
Press “F3” to perform a “COMM TEST”. This is where you will find out if 
your computer and your radio will be able to communicate. Look to make 
sure you get the “Radio Communications OK” message. If you get any error
messages, double check everything above, and make sure all the settings
are correct.
 
 
 

Configuring Repeater Motorola RSS

 
  1. If you are not at the Main Menu, press “F10” until you get there. Press “F3” to “GET/SAVE Codeplug Data”.
  2. Now press “F2” for the “READ Radio” option.
  3. After the reading of the codeplug block is complete, press “F10” and then “F4” to get to the “CHANGE/VIEW Codeplug” menu. 
  4. Now press “F2” to get into the "Radio Wide Configuration"
  5. Press F9 for “OTHER ACCESSORY”. This section will let you change the function of the programmable pins on the back of the radio:  
  6. on both radios Change Pin 8 to “CSQ Detect”. This pin is active when both PL/DPL and a Carrier are detected by the radio.
  7. Press F10 to exit this menu, and then F10 once more to get back to the CHANGE/VIEW Codeplug Menu
  8. Press F10 once more to return to the main menu.
  9. Press F3 to get to “GET/SAVE Codeplug data”
  10. Now press F8 to Program all of these settings and frequencies into your radio.
  11. Press F2 to confirm.You should now see a progress bar similar to when you read the codeplug data.
  12. Now press F10 to exit the Motorola software and type “exit” to quit DOSBox.
 
You should now have a fully programmed Motorola GM300 Radius radio! There are many more settings within this software such as adjusting power for each channel. I didn’t get around to playing with these settings much. These settings are in the “Service” menu and should probably be adjusted with care. There is a possibility that you can throw your radio out of calibration, so don’t say you haven’t been warned :). Below is what the power adjustment looks like for those curious:    Please feel free to leave any comments or problems that you encountered. I tried this on Windows. Hope this info helped someone out there with one of these old dinosaurs like it did for me! 73 's .













 







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