Red Wave Radio

I'm looking for any information anyone might have about the pc programming
protocol used by the Radio Shack Pro-76, Pro-79, Pro-89, Pro-2016 and
Pro-2017 handheld scanners.  The software included in the "Scanner
Data-Loading Software and Cable" package (Radio Shack P/N 20-048) lacks many
features and is not compatible with Windows NT-based operating systems
(Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP).  If I can figure out the protocol, I
can write a program with more features and better compatability.

So far, I have figured out the wiring of the cable, and have an idea of the
general structure of the data.  I really need help figuring out what appears
to be a CRC value.  I've been using a program called Slurp to capture the
data from Radio Shack's program running on another computer through a
null-modem cable.

Here's the information I have about the cable:

The scanner end is a standard stereo phono connecter that goes into the
headphone jack.  The PC end is a standard female DB9 connector.  The sleeve
(bottom section) of the phono connector is the ground and is connected to
pin 5 of the DB9 connector.  The ring (middle section) of the phono
connector is RXD (receive data) for the scanner and is connected to pin 3 of
the DB9 connector which is TXD (transfer data) for the PC.  The tip (top
section) of the phono connector is mono audio for when headphones are
connected and is not connected to the PC end of the cable.  The serial
connection settings are 4800 bps, 8 data bits, no parity, 2 stop bits, no
flow control.

I have gathered some information about the actual protocol, but it is too
lengthy to include in this message.

PLEASE E-Mail me if you have any information or would like to help.

--
Riley

[snip]

Quote:>So far, I have figured out the wiring of the cable, and have an idea of the
>general structure of the data.  I really need help figuring out what appears
>to be a CRC value.  I've been using a program called Slurp to capture the
>data from Radio Shack's program running on another computer through a
>null-modem cable.

[snip]

Good start.

I don't have any particular interest in those scanners - kind of
burned out after doing this kind ofthing for the 64, 92 and a
Sportcat.  I assume Slurp is the program you got from my page.  I am
delighted to see you using it to figure out another scanner, rather
than just as a stopgap for reading the 93 before proper software was
available for that.

The way to attack checksums is pretty much the way you figure out the
rest of the sequence.  Change the data in one channel by the smallest
frequency interval possible.  Then look for patterns.

I've encountered two kinds of checksums.  One is what was used on the
64 - the numbers (as seen in the text format of the data) were added.
The checksum for 123 would thus be 1+2+3 = 6.

The other way is to add the ASCII code values of the numbers.  That
way the checksum for 123 would be 49+50+51 = 150.  I think that adding
the ASCII code values (treating the data as a series of integers) is
more common.

The Sportcat used that kind of a checksum, and I was surprised to
learn that others had decoded everything but that.

Good luck.

Ken Plotkin

Yeah, I got Slurp from your site.  It works great and has helped a lot.
Thanks.

Quote:> The way to attack checksums is pretty much the way you figure out the
> rest of the sequence.  Change the data in one channel by the smallest
> frequency interval possible.  Then look for patterns.
<snip>
> The other way is to add the ASCII code values of the numbers.  That
> way the checksum for 123 would be 49+50+51 = 150.  I think that adding
> the ASCII code values (treating the data as a series of integers) is
> more common.

> The Sportcat used that kind of a checksum, and I was surprised to
> learn that others had decoded everything but that.

These scanners seem to use something similar to that.  There appears to be a
subtraction involved though, because increasing one of the values by one
decreases the CRC by one.  I'm not sure yet what number is subtracted from
though, so far, it seems to be 254 and 190.  I'm not sure under what
circumstances it uses which number to subtract from.  I'll keep
experimenting though.

Thanks for your help!

---
Riley

The PRO-89 checksum is the two's compliment of the modulo 256 ascii sum of
all the bytes in a data line except the header byte and the checksum byte
itself. The header is always hex 81 and the checksum is a single byte at the
end. I picked a random line from the data dump and verified that this
formula works.

Are you sure you can't be persuaded to join in the fun? Be like old
times.........

Frank

Quote:>The PRO-89 checksum is the two's compliment of the modulo 256 ascii sum of
>all the bytes in a data line except the header byte and the checksum byte
>itself. The header is always hex 81 and the checksum is a single byte at the
>end. I picked a random line from the data dump and verified that this
>formula works.

Cool!  How'd you figure that out?

Quote:>Are you sure you can't be persuaded to join in the fun? Be like old
>times.........

If I owned one of those scanners, I'd be all over it.  I have a
compulsion to figure out almost anything I own that has a serial port.

I worked on the PRO-93 for a while, even though I don't own one and am
umlikely to ever own one.  It was a good chance to work with my 92ware
collaborator.  Then Don Starr came along, and in a few days figured
out everything we had been beating our heads against the wall on.

My next scanner software thing will be to finish the next version of
92ware, something I've been meaning to do for a bit over a year.

Ken Plotkin

Just an update...

I was sent a specification for the scanner protocol and have been able to
use it to write an object oriented communications backend for my program.
It can now successfully send commands to the scanner.  I'm going to finish
making each of the scanner commands object oriented, and then I'll start
working on the user interface.

Riley

I cheated. Get out your scanner archive cd (you do know where it is , don't
you?) and look in the Radio Shack Scanners folder.

Quote:>I cheated. Get out your scanner archive cd (you do know where it is , don't
>you?) and look in the Radio Shack Scanners folder.

Ahh - there it is.  Just where you said it would be.  Just not paying
enough attention these days.

Told you I was burned out. :-)

I have released the first Alpha version of my software, called ProLink.  It
still needs a lot of work and testing.  If you would like to help test it,
you can download it from the website address listed below.  Please E-Mail me
any comments, criticisms, bug reports or success reports.

The next big feature I need to add is saving and loading of files.  I would
like to use a standard file format, but since none exists to my knowledge, I
am going to be proposing a new standard, based on XML and designed from the
beginning to be able to be used by other scanner programs and work with
other types of scanners.

You can download ProLink from the website below.

http://albertane.glyff.net/prolink/

Riley