Cloning ICOM M710 or M710RT

[scud]

I think I have all I need but still I get the ..ing "cloning error"

for the M710 I use ex1726, a OPC478 (with stereo to mono adapter or OPC552 USB cable)
I load the right driver to COM1
I set the baud rate of COM1 to 4800 bds (tried with 9600 also)
set RADIO_ID to 1
set RADIO_IF to PIN
I use a Windows 7 ASUS netbook

no matter what I get the embarassing 'cloning error'.

Anyone who's been able to clone the M710 can kindly point me toward a possible solution? I'm runnig dry of ideas and even trying different kind of DOS emulators hasn't changed much.

Thanx pals
Scud

[Greg S]

Scud,

Sorry, but not much of an expert here. Our programing issue was finally resolved by an another cruiser that had an electronic background somewhere in his storied past. What he told me was that he was unable to to do the programing with a newer laptop because it didn't have the power output to get past the cloning jack. I suspect that was the same problem that the professional I took to to had, although all he told me was that the cloning jack was bad. I'm also now suspecting that what he actually saw was the same error message you are now receiving.

The resolution that our friend found was that he had to use an older laptop with a higher power output. He thought that a desktop PC would also have the needed output to push past the cloning jack. Instead of your netbook, if you have access to one, you might want to give a desk top a try. Good luck and us know what you find.

Greg

[fairbank56]

It may be because you are trying to run this dos program under the Windows environment. I have an old laptop that I use for programming and it will not connect to the com port running in a dos window. This laptop has a 3.5 floppy and when I use a bootable disk with the cloning software on it, it works fine. Also, it doesn't matter what the remote settings in the radio are set to. Those settings are for use when remote controlling the radio. The cloning software will work regardless of those settings.

I don't buy the "power output" theory.

Eric

[scud]

Originally Posted by fairbank56

It may be because you are trying to run this dos program under the Windows environment. I have an old laptop that I use for programming and it will not connect to the com port running in a dos window. This laptop has a 3.5 floppy and when I use a bootable disk with the cloning software on it, it works fine. Also, it doesn't matter what the remote settings in the radio are set to. Those settings are for use when remote controlling the radio. The cloning software will work regardless of those settings.

I don't buy the "power output" theory.

Eric

I agree Eric I got to the same conclusions of yours. Starting from XP and later the operating system doesn't allow the various applications to make calls or write directly to the hw and that includes the I/O ports.

Likely the ex1726 is a old DOS programs which does run under XP or Win7 but encased in a command shell any time he sends a interrupt call or pokes into what it thinks is a hardware chip it is actually talking to a software driver and the handshake is not the right one.

I can easily boot with DOS and run the application from there BUT .... I have no serial ports in my PC ... just USB ports and so I need to install a PROLIFIC PL2303 driver which converts USB to serial and the bloody driver just runs in Windows (no DOS version).

SO i guess the only way is to dust off my old WIN 98 operating system, get it installed and try. I dunno' about Linux or Ubuntu if they have the same approach as WinXP or Win7 when it gets to I/O calls.

Scud

[scud]

Thank you Craig

I do think it wasn't an issue of 'power' but of Operating System instead and by pure luck maybe your pal geek stumbled across a Win95 or Win98 and was able to make a break though. No chance so far to make it work with XP, NT or Win7.

I'd like to give a shot to Linux or Ubuntu systems but that will require some experimenting and allthou' 'open' systems i don't think those will allow a direct acces to hardware ports to the various applications.

I'll keep you posted for sure. Next try is with Win98.
Of course if somebody wanted to stretch his fingers on the keybord and and work on the porting of ex1726 to make it Windows compliant then he can count on free drinks and longlasting gratitude.

Scud

[Rhumbline]

I recently purchased an ICOM m710 also and want to use it on marine and ham bands, so I am about to enter this fray. I am an oldtime software/firmware/hardware guy and don't see any problem running an old DOS program under command-line XP, but most likely there will be problems in using the USB-to-serial adapters required with newer computers which have no real serial port. In my last job we built serial communications channels into our products to enable computer control and provide firmware updating, which always worked fine with real serial ports but would fail with most new USB-serial adapters. The problem is most of these adapters are intended for large block-mode transfers and won't work off-the-shelf with devices using short send/receive command sentences. The only ones I got to work were those using FTDI chipsets and the FTDI driver (FTDI Chip Home Page), and even then, if I remember right, we had to tweak various parameters in the FTDI driver properties. Only the FTDI driver allowed us to set the parameters we needed for reliable short-block send/receive communications. When I get to it, or if you prod me sooner, I'll try to dig up the specific settings we used to make things work.
-Bill

[btrayfors]

I do 710's and 710RT's fairly often. I keep an old Dell Win98SE laptop around for just such occasions. It has a real serial port, and the software is installed on the hard disk.

Also use it for programming Victron Multi-Plus inverter/chargers.

The serial port and old DOS OS make these chores very simple.

Bill

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Rhumbline

I recently purchased an ICOM m710 also and want to use it on marine and ham bands, so I am about to enter this fray. I am an oldtime software/firmware/hardware guy and don't see any problem running an old DOS program under command-line XP, but most likely there will be problems in using the USB-to-serial adapters required with newer computers which have no real serial port. ...

Correct, the USB-serial cables won't work (unless you can sort out the correct chipsets & tweaks), but there is a very well done MS DOS emulator written for Gamers that emulates serial ports correctly. I have successfully run the Icom EX software under this emulator to program a 710 RT. Very handy...now I just have to track it down again. Will search and post a link.

[belizesailor]

Here you go: http://www.dosbox.com/

Now you can chuck that old machine! ;-)

[wsmurdoch]

There is lots of information on the Icom m710 radios including the use of Dosbox with Windows to reprogram the radios on the Yahoo group

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ICM710/info

[Rhumbline]

Thanks for the info Belizesailor and wsmurdoc. I've downloaded the DOSbox software and will give it a try.
-Bill

[belizesailor]

No problem. Be sure and post how it goes.