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Program Maxtrac with DosBox

Program Maxtrac with DosBox

I found a used Maxtrac 300 radio on eBay that I wanted to repurpose into an APRS tracker and realized I needed to program the APRS frequency. Here is how you use DoxBox to program your radio.

Things you need:

  • Maxtrac Radio
  • Windows computer (I'm using Windows 10 x64)
  • Motorola FTDI programming cable from Valley Enterprises
  • FTDI Driver (http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm)
  • DosBox Software (https://www.dosbox.com/)
  • GM300 Software (gm300v.5.zip)

Install the FTDI Driver for Windows Install the DosBox software Download the GM300 software and extract it to C:\GM300 Plug in your FTDI USB cable and check Device Manager to see what COM port it was assigned:

Locate your DosBox config file for editing

{system drive}:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\DOSBox\dosbox-{version}.conf

Open your DosBox configuration file and set the following variables:

core=auto
cputype=auto
cycles=fixed 191
cycleup=10
cycledown=20

serial1=directserial realport COM1
serial2=dummy
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# You can put your MOUNT lines here.

MOUNT c C:\GM300
c:

Now when you run DosBox all you need to do is launch the program with

GM300.EXE

Here's what the Main Menu looks like when loaded

First you need to pull the current code plug off the radio before you can make changes