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AOR AR8200 an excellent portable analog radio receiver. It comes with the serial port, but the cable for it is sold separately. And the list price is over $100. You can make the same cable in 15 minutes yourself and save over $80. Read on...

The good news is that the connector on the AOR AR8200 is identical to the one on HP Jornada handeld. The bad news is that the serial lines on the AR8200 have TTL levels and the Jornada has native serial (12V). Moreover, the pinout is different... So, to adapt the cable you will need to cut it and build a level converter.

If you are not as lazy as I am, you can use this guy's guide on how to build a converter using MAX232 or similar chip.

I found a simpler (and cheaper) way:  buy a prebuilt one. There are truckloads of phone data cables sold on ebay for under $1. You can use any SERIAL data cable, but it'll be better if you find one that uses the MAX232 or similar chip (as opposed to diodes and transistors) and does not come in a moulded body, so you can disassemble it to attach Jornada cable to the connector rather than connect the two cables in the middle and shrink tube them. This is solely for aesthetic reasons.

Parts you need

1. The HP Jornada cable (Part No. F1258A or F1224-80004). Price $10..$15
2. Any suitable cellphone serial data cable with DB-9 female connector on one end. Price  $0.01 + shipping (ebay).

Cut both cables in the middle and connect rx,tx,and ground wires. You're almost done.
If you nave an AR8200MK2 or MK3 receiver you need to break off or isolate pin 10 on the jornada connector. It is connected to the ground and the same pin on the receiver is AGC, which should not be grounded.

The jornada cable also gives you access to disctiminator output signal. You might want to connect it to a standard 3.5mm audio plug (insert .1uF capacitor in the middle). Now you can plug it into your PCs audio input or to a data slicer interface to decode digital communications.

What if you don't have a serial port on your PC/laptop

Not a problem! Instead of the serial phone data cable, buy a serial-to-usb adapter cable and use it. Find one that you can disassemble so you can attach directly to the USB controller skipping the level converter that is not needed in this case.

/AngryDad

Last edited by AngryDad (2006-10-20 10:12:29)