Odd Communication failure

[John G]

I am somewhat embarrassed to post this since I have always been able to fix whatever problems I have encountered. About a week ago, I decided to re read some Visars I had. I got out my latest programming PC, a Panasonic Toughbook CF27. This PC worked fine when last used several months back. I also got out the aftermarket RIB that worked fine last time and the aftermarket cable that also worked fine. Put a new battery in the RIB, turned it on, hooked up the radio, hit F2, the "data" led flickered at about 1 second intervals for maybe 5 seconds, and then, I got a "Communication Error" message. I shrugged, checked all connections, and tried again. Same thing. What the??? So, I got out my Kenwood programming cable, that worked fine a few months ago, hooked up a TK480, got a "Communication Error" message. This eliminated both the RIB and cables since they were different now. I have had terrible luck with Toughbooks. They may be "tough" but they fail pretty easily just sitting. So, I scrambled around and managed to find an old IBM Thinkpad. I put the hard drive from the Toughbook into the Thinkpad, fired it up, connected the visar as before, and got another "Communication Error" message. I had another CF27 for parts, so I got it out and got the same thing. I tried to try a couple of HP C600s I had but couldn't get the PCMCIA drives to boot up. I found another Thinkpad but it had memory failure and wouldn't boot. I went back to the original Toughbook and tried "Moslo" which has never been needed before and it didn't help. I don't have any other PCs with a serial port. I have a netbook but I haven't had any luck at all getting RSS to work with a USB to RS232 adapter. My two last resorts are to take the stuff to work where I have a desktop with an RS232 port and boot it under DOS. The other is an old HP EPC that has lain around for years. I will have to install dos and the RSS on the hard drive and see if it works, but it does have an RS232 port. Any ideas? Have I done something really stupid and just overlooked it? Oh, I did try another cable between the PC and RIB. No joy. I guess I'll have to dig out some other old Motorola , try to find the correct cable and give it a try just to be sure.

[DJP126]

Does your Toughbook have a REAL serial port, or are you going through an adapter? If it's an adapter, it might have failed.

[John G]

Yes, it has a real RS232 serial port. So does the Thinkpad.

[HLA]

i'd start by using a pencil eraser on the terminals and try that. then i have to ask, is there any version of windows on that toughbook? and if so has it been updated? some updates could be too new for the rss

[John G]

I will try the eraser on the terminals thing. Good idea. Though they look clean, you never know. None of the PCs used have any form of windows on them. The drives were FDisked, new partitions made, reformatted, and DOS installed. I have used DOS 6.22, DRDOS, and DOS 7.1. I think I like 7.1 best. I assume you know the deal behind 7.1. There is no such thing. It is all the DOS stuff from XP removed and made into its own operating system. I think it supports long file names and has some of the good stuff you get when you get Windows but none of the bad as far as I can tell. I think it even supports NTFS though I don't use it. I am trying to locate a LapLink cable so I can hook two of them together and see what happens. I think it may just be a null modem cable. I know I have one somewhere.

[princeaw]

As stated above, Updates or even other new programs could cause an error. Make sure you're com ports are enabled/working, and selected properly in the software if necessary. Also, a pencil eraser would work to clean the contacts, but sometimes I need to lightly use a pick, or something with a point on it.
Are the battery charge good enough for programming? That was also a common mistake I found people making.

[AEC]

I have a CF-27 as well, and I had to turn OFF ALL sleep modes in the BIOS.
Any reference to sleep cycles can make the RSS stop, and had this occur to an old Spectra...it died and had to be reprogrammed several times to get over the garbage the RSS tossed in to make it stone dead.
I suspect your issues are close to the same. Let the machine sit idle while the RSS is open, has puzzled me a lot before I found out the cause, and for whatever reason, Visar RSS does not
like to remain in idle mode with no keyed inputs...no idea why, either. One day it works flawlessly, the next...it doesn't.

If I remember, the RAM also has to be configured differently as well, from extended to expanded, or vice versa...can't recall the order here.

[John G]

Well, I have made progress but not completely solved the mystery. I tried a different pc. This time an Itronix IX550 700 Meg Pentium M. I couldn't get a satisfactory DOS installation on it so I swapped drives from the CF-27. I tried a Visar as before but got the same results. I took the cable loose from the radio and found one of the pins badly bent. Hmmm. Of course when I straightened it out, it broke off. I resorted to an old home made cable that I don't consider trustworthy and it worked. I wanted to see if a Kenwood worked but the only version of KPG35 I had on this particular drive was a ham modified version and the only Kenwood radio I had handy was a TK480, not a 481. I ordered another cable from Kawa even though I didn't want to but there wasn't much to choose from. I am having big problems getting that Itronix to boot from USB. It will see a CD drive, but not a thumb drive or USB floppy. I can't get it to see a PCMCIA drive either even though it has a slot and the BIOS should be new enough. But, all that is another matter. I'll take it to work next week where there is a 481 and see what happens with that. If everything works after the new cable arrives, I'll have to ascribe all this to a faulty cable that went bad sitting in a box. I guess I'll give that CF-27 another try too. I keep trying to get it to work with a Compact Flash drive and sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't. The Itronix wouldn't work with the CF drive at all, period. That is a strange PC. It has no off switch.