Batboard

Well I mosleyed on over to my programming desk and found my Saber cable is actually an Astro Saber/Saber Si cable. Bummer.

What do you reccomend for a Saber/Systems Saber cable?
Some ribless or usb concoction off fleabay or a rib to radio from fleabay or an OEM cable from Mother M?

Also, what is a Saber Si?

Just make a "dongle" that plugs into the cable that switches the two pins. Batlabs is down right now or I would tell you. The only difference in the Astro Saber cable and the Saber cable is two pins are swapped. Plug the dongle in to program regular Sabers / Sysytems Sabers - take the dongle off to program Astro Sabers. I do the same thing here, but I have a Saber cable.

Saber Si is an 800 MHz analog only radio that looks like an Astro Saber.

I believe it's pins 6 and 8 that are swapped. Double-check the Batlabs site though, but as Rescue161 says, it's literally a matter of switching one pin to make it work. I just ran a few cables between the RIB and the cable, and swapped two of them. As I said, I think it's 6 and 8, but you ought to get some corroboration on that before writing the radio.

Radio Shack has a nice adapter that works very well for swapping the connections. Spend a few bucks and get that. It consists of a db25 connector on each end soldered to a cicrcuit board and a bunch of loose wire jumpers. You solder them in the right places. So you can make an adapter to flip the pins.

Jason

KB9KST wrote:Radio Shack has a nice adapter that works very well for swapping the connections. Spend a few bucks and get that. It consists of a db25 connector on each end soldered to a cicrcuit board and a bunch of loose wire jumpers. You solder them in the right places. So you can make an adapter to flip the pins.

Jason

That is exactly what I used. Very easy and very neat.

Why bother getting another cable? Or even making a dongle? Put a toggle switch in the DB25 shell. Have one position for ASTRO and the second for Legacy Sabers / Systems Sabers. Pins 6 and Pin 8 are the only difference at the RIB (DB-25) end.

RIB-DB25 Pin 6 = ASTRO Saber Position
RIB-DB25 Pin 8 = Legacy Saber / Systems Saber position

Works great. The only caution is make darn sure the switch is in the right position. If you really want to go "all out", use a fancy tapered nut to secure the toggle switch (buy a quality switch also) & silkscreen "ASTRO" and "LEGACY" (or term of your choice for older units) onto the DB-25 shell & make it look professional.

-KGB

You may have to go that way (with the switch) as I don't see the part for the shell (27601403) listed any longer. You may get lucky and find some on the clearance shelf.

If it were an aftermarket cable, I would have no problems putting a switch on it, but for OEM stuff, I just prefer to use the the DB-25 dongle shell.

Also, you have to make sure that it can't be switched during a write of the radio. If it does do, bad things could happen. That's why I like the dongle. There is no chance of it accidentally switching modes on you as there are no switches.

I used a small square SPDT switch on mine. I installed it in one of the DB25 shell sides and just hooked up the pin 6 and 8 lines like was mentioned earlier.

The slide switch seems to provide a bit more protection from an accidental trip during a write.

I used some header pins on 6 and 8 and cut a small hole on the db25
shell and I move a jumper pack between one pair or another
using a pair of tweezers or needlenose. no size increase in the db25
or extermal stuff and wont get knocked off easily. Phrawg