Tuesday 19 January 2010

DJ-G7 software, finally working

This morning I got a 'proper' Alinco programming cable (the correct wiring, not an Alinco part) and tried it with the programming software. The cable is USB to 3.5mm 3-pole jack plug and is a standard USB to serial adaptor. The ring of the jack plug has 2.8 volts DC on it (this is the data connection). Connected that to the Alinco speaker/mic converter cable through a 3.5mm/2.5mm jack adaptor.
I still got an error message in the programming software when trying to connect to the radio.
Using Filemon I checked whether the software was missing any DLL files (the old Puxing 777 5-in-1 software needed MSFLXGRD.OCX to work and this isn't part of a standard Windows install - it was included with the Yaesu VX7 programming software so if that was installed then the Puxing software would work). The Alinco software was trying to open MSCOMEN.DLL but the file was missing from the Windows\System32 directory. Downloaded the missing file but this made no difference, there was still the same error.
Next I tried copying the firmware to the radio, to make sure the cable was working. Downloaded the DJ-G7E firmware updater but this said the region was wrong. So I don't have the normal DJ-G7E. Tried the firmware for the universal model DJ-G7EG and that worked OK (a search for the DJ-G7EG returned mostly German results so I guess the G is for German).
Installed the correct version of the programming software for the universal model DJ-G7EG and it connected to the radio (very slowly). It takes about 10 minutes to read the data from the radio (and that's supposed to be at 57.6Kb/s!).
I bought my DJ-G7E(G) from Nevada.
With this software you can export/import CSV files which makes editing memories a lot easier (sorting them by frequency, finding duplicates etc.). This is better than the Icom IC-E91 software which had no way of sorting them. Also the bank sizes can be changed from the default of 100 memories, which is good because I don't like memories in fixed banks, it wastes memories. My UBC3500 scanner is better, it has no channel numbers, only groups which can be any size (up to a limit of 2500 channels in total).

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Simon,

I've read a bunch of reviews and opinions about the dj-g7 that said it can or can't be used as a crossband repeater so my question to you is:

Can YOUR dj-g7 be used as a crossband repeater?

73, Roland PF2T

Unknown said...

Hi all,

The DJ-G7 can be used like a crossband repeater. You have to modify it to obtain MARS capabilities (do the DJ-G7 become a DJ-G7T version).

After this expansion the X-Band repeater can be activated. On the original manual you can find how make it.

You have to remember that the volume controls are active. This means that you can modify the BF Level on any band of the X-Band repeater. In my tests the best leves are Maximum volume level (20).
Dont be afraid to listen loud noise during the X-Band operations. The internal speaker is deactivated when X-Band is active.

73 IW2HGL Diego

Anonymous said...

Tnx for the info Diego.

73 PF2T Roland

T. J. Moore said...

What comm port did you have assigned? That's where I'm getting my error. Thanks.

Unknown said...

Just stumble across this blog.
Re the com port. It might not be the correct way, but it's quick, dirty and works... just go into the Comm menu and work your way down each comm port and try and do a memory read.
My little vista netbook keeps swapping the comm port and as soon as i hit the right one, it stops giving me an error and just starts to read all the memory.
Hope that helps (;->

Does anyone know how the CSV files should be fiddled with in Open Office so they can be read again?

I'm just tying to update repeater info and every time i change info in the exported/saved CSV file, it won't import... corrupt or unreadable probably.

Many thanks, Alvin VK7NDQ