At 04:52 PM 2/7/04 -0600, you wrote:
>Mike:
>
>Do the Moto programs need a serial port or a parallel port?
serial - on either COM1 or COM2.
I'm not sure when COM3 and COM4 were added... I know that
the early ones didn't have it.
>I have three Gateway Handbook 40 Mhz 486DX computers. These
>are fairly small monochrome display with a serial port.
>Unfortunately the parallel port needs an adaptor to get to
>a DB25 connector and the floppy drive also needs a cable
>to run on the parallel port.
>
>Would these be suitable for programming, assuming I can get
>the program onto the harddrive? I have one of the parallel
>port adaptors and one of the floppy cables for these computers.
The RSS installed from floppies - and came on a mix of 5.25
and 3.5" disks. Personally I'd leave the originals in the file
cabinet - maybe the home cabinet - and copy to 3.5" disks
and install from them. Then put the install disks into a separate
file cabinet - at the office.
Then use the floppy drive to install the software onto one of
the laptops.
I'd look around for a old copy of LapLink - I have version 5 around
here somewhere. It allows you to replicate a drive, a directory or
a subdirectory between two machines. It uses a null modem
cable between the two machines serial ports. Install it on the
desktop and the laptop.
On your desktop you'd create a directory - maybe call it "LAPTOP-C".
Then I'd connect the desktop to the laptop with the cable and use
LapLink to copy the entire laptop C drive to the desktop. This gives
you a total backup. If the laptop gets messed up you can boot from
a DOS floppy, format the laptop drive, then swap floppies to one with
the LapLink program on it, and LapLink a complete image back onto
the laptop. It's also a easy way to keep two laptops as a total clone
of the other.
>Micheal Salem N5MS
>
>Mike Morris WA6ILQ wrote:
> > John:
> > You may want to keep that 286 for yourself. A lot of the Moto software
> that
> > is used to program the synthesized radios (like Maxtrac, MT-1000, Spectra,
> > Saber, etc) will not run on anything faster than 100mhz. There are
> tricks to
> > slow down newer computers, but it's a lot less problematical to just
> keep an
> > old 286, 386 or 486 alive. The "breakpoint" seems to be a 486-66 or
> 486-100
> > and DOS 5. The problem is that the Moto software guys were hardware
> > engineers and not programmers and used software timing loops to "throttle"
> > the flow of the data in and out of the serial port. Fast machines
> "break" the
> > serial port drivers.
> >
> > So if you have a working 286, 386 or 486 and if you think you ever might be
> > needing to run Moto's "Radio Service Software" - RSS for short - keep that
> > old clunker.
> >
> > Personally, I have a 286 desktop and a while back I set up a couple of
> > IBM 700-series color Thinkpads (486-66) for a friend. I boosted the laptop
> > internal hard drive from 200meg to 2 gig (the replacement drives cost $25
> > each). The laptop plugs into a docking station with a CD-ROM drive and
> > a large hard drive in it. I can back up the entire laptop hard drive
> by doing
> > a simple XCOPY from the internal hard drive to the docking station hard
> > drive.
> >
> > And I'd like a copy of that announcement program if you end up zipping
> it...
> >
> > Mike WA6ILQ
> >
> > At 07:44 AM 2/7/04 -0500, "John Clark" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> >>Don,
> >>
> >>I have a 286 computer that the TV station used for music going to
> >>commercial out of the news. It runs in dos.
> >>If you can't find something similar in your "dogpile" searches,
> >>(learned something new myself, though I prefer 'google') let me know.
> >>I'm sure the program is small enough to zip up and FTP if not e-mail.
> >>I will be glad to do it for you, if for no other reason than you've given
> >>me a good idea of what to do with the old thing!
> >>
> >>Another option: We have a satellite fed "radio station in a box" on our
> >>tower that uses a tiny walkman-style MP3 player that has all the IDs
> >>and such on it. They ran wires to it to trigger from the computer. It
> >>looks so out of place in the nice rack of broadcast gear, but it works!
> >>
> >>John R Clark
> >>WCTV 6 Television Engineering
> >>(850) 893-6666 EXT 205
> >>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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