Hartmann Posted February 17, 2010 Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 So... theoretically some of you have the piece... but does anybody of you have practical experience... I got two pieces and did not understand how to use them, as normal "radio operation skills" do not help (and I have some experience with quite a few radios). My experience with the bowman replica: Once you have the Lithium LS14500 batteries put inside the radio you can turn it on and have an audio signal with a short "beep" and a voice (that sounds very "chinglish") saying "open radio"... that could be a translation error meaning "radio ready"... (but it could also mean: open the radio... or "initialize" the radio... or "activate" the radio) When you switch channels, the chinglish voice says the channel number... which is pretty slick, as you dont have to look but listen only which of the 16 channels you have selected. With a team mate I tried to have a radio communication and that failed. Once you press either the radio PTT or the wireless PTT as long as you say something you do not hear the other over the same channel, but instead you hear another "female chinese" voice that says something chinese and after that the same chinglish male voice says "open radio" and the channel number again... So far... frustrating... I have ordered the Software and Cable connector and I hope that the software will give some answers... My intuition tells me, that the radio set could require an "activation" before usage... Hmm.... Link to post Share on other sites
farrasdevell Posted February 17, 2010 Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 Definitely AA sized lithium @ 3.6V, type 14500 as per instructions on radio. They fit perfectly in the radio. Batteries are from Maplins. http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=26669 Product QE50E Bloody expensive as they are not rechargeable! I just couldn't wait for the rechargeables from HK. Well eBaybanned have always been good about any faulty kit- even higher value stuff. test the batteries to make sure they have charge, check the contacts inside the radio with a multimeter. I tested my radio with my one of my lipo's but any aeg battery will have enough juice to test the radio with you just need to be a bit careful not to touch the two wires and short the battery. Link to post Share on other sites
Papa Posted February 17, 2010 Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 just had an email to confirm shipping Still waiting on the cable ordered rechargable batts from fleebay & have no idea weather it works because i have no one to talk to its good to keep the thread alive Link to post Share on other sites
bbstriker Posted February 20, 2010 Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 Well I got the cable which came with programming software on a dvd. The software and radio communicated at the first go and is reliable. Reading from and writing to the radio is a breeze. As I suspected the PRR replica is indeed a Kenwood TK3207 compatible radio. The software supplied is identical to the software I use to program the TK3207. The radio type has programmable frequency between 440Mhz and 470Mhz. This is good news. But despite being able successfully to read from and write to the radio with different frequencies and settings, the PRR still does not work- it does not transmit and announces "Open the radio in English" When first switched on but does receive. If on max volume, then when switching channels, it makes a loud clicking noise which only goes away when you turn the volume down. I used a frequency counter and it does not register anything when pressing the PTT - except momentarily hearing a female chinese voice announce something in chinese. So I guess I will have to wait for eBaybanned to sort out a replacement PRR replica. So, it seems that with a good working radio, these PRR replicas can easily be programmed to UK PMR on low power output. Good news I guess. On the basis that I've been unlucky with a turkey example, it's great that such a replica exists. I have a real deal PRR and the accuracy and build quality of the replica is amazingly close to the real bowman- the only difference I can discern is that the real PRR is definitely heavier. I for one will stick with the Replica PRR when I get a working example! It's also interesting that the real-deal bowman headset plugs directly (and works) into the replica and the replica headset works with the real deal bowman- they both use the same military plug. Great stuff! Anyone else have any further experience with these radios? Link to post Share on other sites
Hartmann Posted February 20, 2010 Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 But despite being able successfully to read from and write to the radio with different frequencies and settings, the PRR still does not work. It does not even transmit. I used a frequency counter and it does not register anything when pressing the PTT. So I guess I will have to wait for eBaybanned to sort out a replacement PRR replica. Ummm... please read my posting... then put 1 and 1 together... With a team mate I tried to have a radio communication and that failed. Once you press either the radio PTT or the wireless PTT as long as you say something you do not hear the other over the same channel, but instead you hear another "female chinese" voice that says something chinese and after that the same chinglish male voice says "open radio" and the channel number again.... Yours didnt work and our two didnt work... so I dont think a replacement will work either... Either it has to be "unlocked" or there is something terrible totally wrong... Link to post Share on other sites
bbstriker Posted February 20, 2010 Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 Hartmann I also get the female chinese voice say something in chinese when I press the PTT. It seems that both our radios have the same problem- faulty! On the basis that at least I have not been able to (via google) discover any bad reports on this replica PRR, I think that we have both been unlucky ending up with faulty radios. Where did you buy your PRR replica radio from? Link to post Share on other sites
Hartmann Posted February 20, 2010 Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 Then this would be three faulty radios, because i had two to testing. All from ebaybanned. But i don't think that the radios are faulty. I just think that we are too little Chinese to understand chinese replica technology. it would help to get a manual. No support is existing. The URL which is listed in the mini leaflet from the box is not existing... ... Link to post Share on other sites
Apex Posted February 20, 2010 Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 Not looking good for this radio now which is a shame has i wanted to get one. Need a translation i think of what the bint is saying... Link to post Share on other sites
Lupus Posted February 20, 2010 Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 Maybe You can find some hint here: http://www.bikersoracle.info/TK-3201ServiceManual.pdf Don't know - just an idea where to start looking... Link to post Share on other sites
galactica Posted February 20, 2010 Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 If a frequency counter is not registering anything when the PTT is pushed, something is badly wrong. Link to post Share on other sites
bbstriker Posted February 20, 2010 Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 Then this would be three faulty radios, because i had two to testing. All from ebaybanned. But i don't think that the radios are faulty. I just think that we are too little Chinese to understand chinese replica technology. it would help to get a manual. No support is existing. The URL which is listed in the mini leaflet from the box is not existing... ... What is Paul from eBaybanned doing about your faulty radios? Have you contacted eBaybanned? Link to post Share on other sites
bbstriker Posted February 20, 2010 Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 Still waiting on the cable ordered rechargable batts from fleebay & have no idea weather it works because i have no one to talk to its good to keep the thread alive Hi Does your radio work? What happens when you press the PTT? Link to post Share on other sites
farrasdevell Posted February 20, 2010 Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 i get the chinglish but have not had a female chinese voice. Am too poor to be buying cables atm even if i could find them in stock. this makes me sad Link to post Share on other sites
bbstriker Posted February 21, 2010 Report Share Posted February 21, 2010 i get the chinglish but have not had a female chinese voice. Am too poor to be buying cables atm even if i could find them in stock. this makes me sad So does your PRR replica radio work? Link to post Share on other sites
farrasdevell Posted February 21, 2010 Report Share Posted February 21, 2010 i dont know i dont have a radio on the same freq to test it with. It turns on saying 'open the radio one' (or selected channel) it tells me what channel i'm on as i move up/down channels. thats as far as i have made it without the ability to program into channels i can recieve on my 446 other than that it seems to work. have you tried all the dip switch combinations under the ptt? one is the scrambler the other is the wireless ptt switch. Link to post Share on other sites
Hartmann Posted February 21, 2010 Report Share Posted February 21, 2010 Aaaaahhhh... I saw the dip switches under the scrambler unit... so they have anything to do with the working condition?? I will try it today.... I havent contacted Paul about the Bowmans yet. I have another problem... My Headset plug lost a pin in the female plug of the scrabler unit... too sad... I will post fotos of that tommorow... Although it is broken, it still works (the headset) if i put the plug back in place. Difficult to imagine? Well, I will post photos soon... Link to post Share on other sites
Stew Posted February 21, 2010 Report Share Posted February 21, 2010 I was excited about these but they sound like a big pile of poo. Link to post Share on other sites
vidi_gonzales Posted February 21, 2010 Report Share Posted February 21, 2010 I have two radios (both from EB) that work fine with each other. On channel 12, one of the radios talks to me in Chinese when I press the PTT. Thats all. We ordered the cable and the software from the link in this forum, but when the cable arrived, the CD was broken. Can any you send me the software by email? So that we can test it fully? Link to post Share on other sites
Hartmann Posted February 22, 2010 Report Share Posted February 22, 2010 I have two radios (both from EB) that work fine with each other. On channel 12, one of the radios talks to me in Chinese when I press the PTT. Thats all. You call that "working fine"... Yesterday I could manipulate the two dip switches below the scrambler unit and one result was that the chinese voice was not to be heard when pushing the wireless ptt... unfortunately we could NOT test it with the other radio yet. But we do in a couple of days... As promised, here is my little desaster with my bowman radio: Link to post Share on other sites
Papa Posted February 22, 2010 Report Share Posted February 22, 2010 got the lead & the software buttttttttttttttttt the software on the computer cant find the radio changed the model to the one listed in a previous post but nothing on com port one Waiting to use my daughters laptop if that has any luck You call that "working fine"... Yesterday I could manipulate the two dip switches below the scrambler unit and one result was that the chinese voice was not to be heard when pushing the wireless ptt... unfortunately we could NOT test it with the other radio yet. But we do in a couple of days... As promised, here is my little desaster with my bowman radio: Link to post Share on other sites
Lupus Posted February 22, 2010 Report Share Posted February 22, 2010 From my expirience with laptops and car diagnostic more often desktops PCs work better. Crossing fingers for You. Link to post Share on other sites
Hillslam Posted February 22, 2010 Report Share Posted February 22, 2010 same here. I could never proggram my motorolas thru a USB-based com port or emulator. I ended up having to go out and buy a serial port pci card for my desktop. Link to post Share on other sites
lee stephenson Posted February 22, 2010 Report Share Posted February 22, 2010 same here. I could never proggram my motorolas thru a USB-based com port or emulator. I ended up having to go out and buy a serial port pci card for my desktop. If you are using a USB to Serial adapter, the com port number is usually generated each time the adaptor is plugged in, se it is very unlikely to be COM1, which is what most software defaults to. Best way to check is to go into hardware manager, and have a look at what number has been assigned to the USB adaptor and then set the software to that port. I have not used the radio software, but I know that certain adaptors cause problems with some software I do use, by connecting/disconnecting HTH Lee Link to post Share on other sites
Hillslam Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 If you are using a USB to Serial adapter, the com port number is usually generated each time the adaptor is plugged in, se it is very unlikely to be COM1, which is what most software defaults to. Best way to check is to go into hardware manager, and have a look at what number has been assigned to the USB adaptor and then set the software to that port. Yes Yes, thats basic troubleshooting. Already tried all that and much more on top. Regardless, some legacy software - which includes most embedded level / low level software like device manipulators - cannot handle the USB bus at all, regardless if there is an emulator riding on top of the protocol or a dongle embedded in the cabling ramping down the rates and packet sizes and translating the calls. Nothing to do with setting the correct address. Link to post Share on other sites
lee stephenson Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Yes Yes, thats basic troubleshooting. Already tried all that and much more on top. Regardless, some legacy software - which includes most embedded level / low level software like device manipulators - cannot handle the USB bus at all, regardless if there is an emulator riding on top of the protocol or a dongle embedded in the cabling ramping down the rates and packet sizes and translating the calls. Nothing to do with setting the correct address. Hi Hillslam Wasn't try to be patronizing! Just used to many people who are so used to USB that the idea of setting port address's is completely alien to them. I'm also guessing that the usual Cross Over/ Straight Through cable has been tried as well (Once again for people who are not used to the joys of the RS232 "standard") Best of luck Lee Link to post Share on other sites
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