This board is bespoke USB to UART converter for programming Tait TM8100 series radios. It connects to the front end of a radio using a DB9 connector and provides a sturdy USB-B connector for interfacing with a PC. The board uses the MCP2200 chip from Microchip.
The current version is v2
To use the programmer, two pieces of software are required:
- MCP2200 Windows Driver https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/MCP2221_Windows_Driver_2021-02-22.zip
- Tait TM8100 Programming Software (can be found in the TARPN Tait documentation).
If the MCP2200 driver link is dead, check the product page for a new link https://www.microchip.com/en-us/product/MCP2200 and file an issue against this repository.
The board is designed to plug directly into the front panel of a TM810x radio. A USB-B to USB-A cable (such as a modern printer cable) is then used to connect the programmer board into a PC.
Once the board is plugged in and detected by Windows, check the Device Manager to determine which COM port the programmer was registered as.
In the Tait software, under Tools -> Options, select the COM port that was found in the Device Manager
At this point, you can either "Read the Radio" or "Interrogate the Radio" using the Tait software. Refer to the TARPN Tait documentation for more details on programming specifics.
This section only applies if you are building your own programmer. Once assembled, the board must be configured using the software from Microchip. This is needed to invert the UART rx/tx signal levels as required by the Tait radios. With newer versions of the board (v2 and later), LEDs can be enabled by selecting "Enable Tx/Rx LEDs"
Here is a video of a v2 board reading from a Tait TM8105