Transmission1

I'm about to program an Icom FC2000 however I've run in to the problem that I dont have a windows computer. Is it possible to use a windows emulator to program a radio? Or is there too many problems allocating com ports etc

Also, does anyone have any recommendations for a cheap (i.e. free) emulator. Programming radios is the only thing I'd really use it for so doesnt have to be especially fancy

Thanks

You can use a live image to boot into Windows using a PE or use a stock one like that found on Hirens CD. You can use Wine/PlayOnLinux/Crossover to install the Windows program onto a Linux or maybe a Mac machine, or use a VM to run a Windows installation inside Linux/Mac.

Hi Admiral. Thanks for replying. I think I'll give something like Wine a try first of all. Was just a bit worried it wouldnt translate well and the software wouldnt be able to find the right ports for the USB lead. Will let you all know how I get on

Thanks

The best way I have found to use WINE is to install PlayonLinux and let that download and install WINE and the mono runtime binaries. If you just download WINE then it is flimsy and doesn't run a lot of things, WINE on it's own wouldn't install MS Office 2016 but PlayonLinux installed it and it runs a treat. Crossover is a tad more (Windows) user friendly, but it is paid for software, there is a trial full version but possibly not worth the money if you just want to install MS Office, Photoshop and Lightroom like me.

I still keep a couple of XP netbooks around, purely for running Motorola CPS on. Not found a reliable way to make it work on a newer OS!

Best approach depends on how beefy your computer is.

I use Oracle Virtualbox to run a vanilla windows XP 32bit image, which runs pretty much every older CPS I've thrown at it. The F2000 is relatively modern though, so might need newer Windows.

Virtualbox will run on Windows/Mac/Linux as required. USB ports can be a little dodgy, but because every one I've needed is just a USB-serial converter, I let the host OS (Windows 10 in my case) handle the drivers, then just tell Virtualbox that "COM1" on the VM is patched through to COM4 on the host.

Yeah I use Oracle Virtualbox to run a Win XP, Win7 and Win95 (for really old Moto software) and that seems to work well. There are some Mototrbo DP3xxx series that have old firmware and cannot be read/written to with CPS newer than 10.5 so I have a VM Win7 so I can program those on the odd occasion. VM's mean one laptop can (usually) program any type of equipment which makes life easier in the field.

I can also recommend virtualbox, no messing around with WINE that way. You can also transfer the image between computers and everything's all self-contained.