Batboard

other than putting a 9volt on the battery and testing it before to see if it was good is there a way to tell if its good while attached to the rib?

what? 'putting a 9volt on the battery'? testing what? tell if what is good, the rib or the battery? you lost me here.....

Astro_Saber loves to talk in riddles no one can understand, in some other language.

We have a Motorola RIB that programs everything but the Waris portables. Weird.

Todd

Well then I guess my Rib is 100 % then, as I programmed all
those tricky radios with it.... But after all it is a carefully assembled
bulletproof and beta matched transistors with 1%resistors,tantalum
capacitors, etc.....

Thing I don't understand with the clones is where is all of those
transistors??? they seem to think that a max232 level shifter is it.
And i won't even get in to the lack of the CA3140...

I just don't understand how those "clones" could possibly work
at all. some of them aparently do though, or they wouldn't be
able to keep selling them. I bought one (my first) off of Ebay
like 6 months ago when I got my first Motorola 2-Way Radio. I took
one look at it with the battery wires hanging off of it, and two
14 pin IC's in it for $79 dollars shipped, and thought "Hmmmm...."
There was no way in hell that I was going to plug that thing into
my mts2000 that i just paid 500 dollars for. No Way. So I gave
away the rib to a friend of mine (who says it works just fine) And
Ordered up some parts and built up a regular looking rib with extra
good parts in it, and therefore are garanteed it to work which it does. I Have recently "tested" it a little more by programming
up a spectra about 20 or thirty times over a 5 day period. The whole time the Rib has been connected and On with software running. No Problems at all.

Special thanks to Monty, Will, and Wavetar who make this possible,
and of course 10-95 who fixed the spectra.

Some people arent experts at typing!

Whats up with all thease clone rib's.

i have no idea - but i have been pulling my hair out over the gentz rib.

it will program any radio that uses an rj-45 connector but refuses to program or access an ht-600.

i have tried about 10 different ht-600's and read and applied all the info in the ht-600 posts here.

i even triple checked the rib agienst the real moto rib schematic and the gentz schem.

i know it's built correctly!

the only difference between the gentz and the moto rib is the gentz adds the rj-45 jack and a db-25 comp jack with the pin 5 to 22 jumber allready there.

the gentz rib also has better filtering in the power supply section.

other then that they are the same.

hmmm it could be the tolerence of the partz - but then why would it work on the "rj-45" radios.

oh yeah and double checked the radio to rib cable also.

This thread beat me to the punch.

My main question would be what RIBs do most of you 'part-time' programmers use. Obviously it would be ideal to get your paws on a gen-u-ine /\/\, but what about the $49 jobbies on ebay? Again, obviously, you get what you pay for, and I really just want to be able to program my 2 Sabers that I trashed, possibly due to a bad RIB that was home built (not by me). I have a Saber II that I want to use at work (as a FF) and a Saber I for my son to use as a monitor only radio, and also as a MURS radio.

Well, here is a very very good thread about What the radio
cable should and should not be. Personally for the Saber series I
use a custom made converticom that works as a SVA, programmer, and keyloader. I am extremely rough with the thing,
having dropped it on the floor/concrete quite a few times. (It's slippery)
Still all good.

http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.p ... clone+ribs

You gotta build stuff REAL good if you expect it
to perform. Take the Advice from Monty. It's the best youll ever get
as far as radio cables to Rib and the Rib itself is concerned. Polaris
is not that good either.


and here is one on the best clone Ribs out there. I also bought one
of the ones from 2wayprogramming.com that I already gave away,
and The guy i gave it to says it works just fine. But again to each
his own, I personally did not want to risk it, especially on X9000's
and Spectra's. Thats the main reason its wise to take the Advice
of the Pros. I did build mine, but i would not recommend it unless
you have the habit of building EVERYTHING all the time. I have that
bad habit ! I am slowly trying to get out of it however as I grow older and mature.

http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.p ... clone+ribs


http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.p ... clone+ribs

I have never had a problem with the aftermarket RIB that I use. I use a Pentium 120 MHz with 24 MB RAM. The only radios that I have that cannot be programmed with this setup are Saber/System Sabers. They have to be programmed with the 386/25 MHz with 4 MB RAM machine. The RIB has never failed me. I use a power supply with battery backup unless I am programming radios in my vehicle, then I use a NEW 9V.
I couldn't even tell you what kind of RIB it is. I can't even remember where I got it, but I know it works and works well for the radios that I program. I have programmed: HT1000's, MTS2000's, Saber's, Systems Saber's, Astro Saber's, Maxtrac's, Spectra's and STX's. We have Motorola factory RIBs at work, but I use this one when out of the office (TABOO, I know...).
Scott

Well, I can't seem to get the image to come up???

My programming setup is about the same as Rescue 161, with a Pentium 120 laptop running DOS 6.22. I use the RIB from 2wayprogramming ( I added an external wallwort to it) and home made cables (good ones) at home and the real /\/\cCoy at work. I have never had a problem with my HT1000, Maxtrac, Radius or Spectra at home. The only problem I ever had was with an EBay radio that I suspect was F*$%ed up when I got it. (thanks Monty for resurecting it)

I'll be honest, I didn't have the B@lls to use my setup on the MCS and MTS 2000's we have at the Fire station. For radio's used in Public Safety, I just feel better using the factory units.

cranbiz wrote:My programming setup is about the same as Rescue 161, with a Pentium 120 laptop running DOS 6.22. I use the RIB from 2wayprogramming

Ed's RIBs are great, but his programming cables give me the heeby geebies ( http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 1392446813 )

Yup. That IS a heeby geeby cable if I ever saw one. Good example
of what to use if you want to blow up your radio.

Looks like you need to be a brain surgeon to use that cable, one wrong move and the patient DIES!!


Frank

Reminds me of that game "Operation"...lol 'It take a very steady hand.'

I've got one of Ed's Rib's, as well as a Moto Rib, never had any problems with it, even programming my HT1250's and CDM's. The cable you must be referring to is the one for the Pro Series handhelds, it is pretty scary looking. I use a factory Moto cable, the one with 3 connectors (Rib/Radio/Test).

I apologize if the answer to this question is in another thread, but I CANT FIND IT with "Search" using Rib, Power Supply, P/S etc. I began to think the Search was broke, so to try it I put in "Motorola" and got a few hits, so Search isn't broke, hehe. It did point me to this thread which is close to my answer...

I have an OEM rib, got lucky cuz it sorta "came with" a pile of radios I acquired for my EMS service a few years ago. I have used a Polaris (someone else's ) once, it did fine, but since I started with the best, I guess I am a snob. Anyway, I have programmed MTX1000, Saber, and Syntor (single and dual drawer models) syntor pac-RT's, and probably a few other things just fine with it.
But HERE's my question :

It came without a power supply, and I have (apparently) never needed it until now as I am trying to program some SP50 UHF radios and just CANT!

I have the correct male plug, and several different wall-warts and 12v adapt-a-plug cables, so wish to brew my own. Can I apply 12v to the M rib box, or is that too much? (12v bench supply and/or 12v 1.2Ah gel-cell handy-dandy portable power socket)
Or would I be safer rigging a 9v to the correct plug to power the beast?

Any help will help.

Thanks all.

My programmer - Canon 386nx laptop (dedicated), OEM rib and cables, Dos 6.2, kitchen table

Big Blue TO/\/\,

You did not say what the clock speed on your 386 is. While I do not know anything about the SP50 personally, I have been told it requires a really slow programming computer. The Motorola RIB will handle 12 volts (the Motorola Syntor X 9000 programming cable feeds the full A+ battery voltage to the Motorola RIB).

As for the other threads in this discussion, keep in mind the RIB is only a link in the programming system. The programming computer, the cable between the computer and the RIB, the RIB and the cable between the RIB and radio all make up the programming hardware. Motorola kind of blew it and only used + and - 5 volt power supplies in the RIB. This means they cannot really meet the minimum required RS-232 voltage levels called for in the EIA/TIA-232E V.28E specification. The specification requires + or – 5 volts MINIMUM under all conditions and loads (Motorola's - 5 volts through a 2k resistor just does not cut it). Actually, the MAX232 chip uses + and - 10 volt supplies to grantee they can always meet the RS-232 specification, even under worst case conditions (the supplies are not really load regulated and they usually get about + and – 8 volts on the RS-232 lines). Some computers that actually meet the RS-232 specification might not work with a Motorola RIB (Fortunately most will work).

As Monty pointed out, some Motorola radios make complete use of all the RIB circuits and computer to RIB RS-232 handshake lines (the conventional Syntor X 9000, trunking Syntor X 9000E, all Spectra and all Astro Spectra radios are the ones I am aware of). Therefore, aftermarket RIB clones and RIB to computer cables may only work with some Motorola radios and not work with other Motorola radios. In addition, you might have a computer that will work with the RIB, but will not work with the RIB when programming one of the radios that use the RS-232 handshake lines (i.e. your computer may be one of the rare ones that requires real full specification RS-232 voltage levels on its handshake lines).

Many people that claim their RIB is not working, may in fact be having problems with some of the other previously mentioned programming hardware that constitutes the entire programming system. Then there is the constant problem of running the RSS program on a computer that is slow enough for it, which might again create the “appearance” that the RIB has a problem. Troubleshooting Motorola radio programming problems can get fairly complex. For most people, it is hard to pin problems just on the RIB, unless you have only substituted RIBs (in a working programming setup) and found only one RIB that does not work with all the other hardware and RSS software being the same for your RIB test.