On the two Dell computers the RIBless cables don't
work on, a regular battery-powered after-market RIB
works perfectly under MS-DOS. So does anything else I
attach to the serial port. But when the DTR and RTS
lines are low, the RIBless port isn't getting any
power, its circuitry isn't working, and the radio sees
an unpowered RIB attached to its programming line.
Gets nowhere fast. I haven't tried every computer in
the house to see if perhaps RSS is turning those lines
on but my Dell machines aren't doing that, or if RSS
doesn't bother with the lines, in which case it's up
to the computer BIOS to do the job. Since a lot of
older RSS packages don't have good serial port
routines in them, I suspect RSS doesn't even bother
trying to set DTR and RSS.
I've seen a lot of IBM laptops where the serial port
was disabled or reassigned to be a modem or IR port.
The Dell machines I've got (most are pre-2000) have
the ports assigned properly/logically.
Bob M.
======
--- George Henry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I have seen some Dell laptops where the serial port
> was disabled in the BIOS
> right out of the box, but still works under Windows
> XP. You might want to
> check the BIOS settings to be sure the port is
> actually enabled.
>
> George, KA3HSW / WQGJ413
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bob M." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2008 8:00 PM
> Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] RIB-less cable
> circuitry
>
> > Thanks. That's what I was looking for.
> >
> > The reason I'm investigating this is that a friend
> > bought several RIBless cables to program GTX
> radios.
> > We used one on his Compaq laptop and it worked
> just
> > fine. We then tried to use one on two other
> computers
> > - both DELL - and the RIB seemed dead, as in no
> power.
> > The GTX thought the RIB was turned off and came up
> in
> > trunking test mode. We had to use a real RIB and
> cable
> > to finish the job.
> >
> > So I bought one of those LED testers for DB9 ports
> and
> > found low signals on DTR and RTS, as well as TXD
> > during idle periods. Starting RSS didn't change
> the
> > state of those lines, and as they're the ones that
> are
> > providing power, the RIBless cable is dead in the
> > water.
> [snip]
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