M1225 Programming Software

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Bartolome Beacham

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Aug 3, 2024, 4:38:41 PM8/3/24

to tiolinkphrasar

Hans, once I have the cable where do I find the software? It's beginning to look like getting set up to program this radio will cost more than the radio itself. Unlike Kenwood, where the cable is cheap and the software is free.

The M1225 is the radio I have been looking at as well. I would love to find out about the programming as well. I take it the CHIRP software won't work from reading your previous comments. Actually, I was looking to buy 2 of these radios, one for the truck, and one for the radio shack. If I like this radio and I'm able to get set up to program it Ok, then I will likely buy more of these for my dads truck and my two son's vehicles as well.

You'll have to find a copy of Motorola RSS for M1225 (not terribly hard to do) but that's definitely not the hard part. RSS doesn't run on modern hardware; for the MT2000 I used Win95's DOS mode on a Pentium without issues. I'm not sure how the M1225 software runs on later computers. Virtualization may be an option but RSS needs Microsoft DOS to work. A 16550-based serial port is highly preferred, I don't know how well the USB ones work; computers of the right vintage for RSS usually have onboard 16550 serial.

I take it these CDM varieties will program on a 64 bit modern USB based computer more easily? Also, do these varieties meet the part 95 legal operation criteria? If they do, then maybe I would like to check these out. I just want something thats inexpensive, easy to program, has 40 watts of power, and is legal to operate on GMRS frequencies.

I noticed the programming cable for the CDM1225 on ebay looks to have a CAT5 type data plug on one end, and a USB on the other, but I did not see anywhere on the radio photos (back side) where this cable would plug into a CDM1225. The CDM1225 seems to have a 20 pin port in the back. Does the programming cable plug into the front where the mic plugs in??

The M1225 and the CDM750/1250/1550 are completely different families of radios. The M1225 programs fine on Win 7 32 bit or older platforms provided you are using Version 4.0 which is a Windows program. Version 3.2 and older are true RSS and will not run on anything newer than Win98.

Please stop mixing up the 1225 family and the CDMs. They are very different radios, but they do have some common features. They both have the 20 pin accessory port in the back and a mic connector on the front panel. On the M1225, the mic connector is an 8 pin RJ45. The CDM mobiles have a 10 pin RJ50. The extra two pins are for a CDM specific DTMF mic. Both families can use the 8 pin RJ45 mics, however, which allows the use of a wide variety of Motorola mics on either radios.

Both families of radios program with the same programming cables. I prefer the serial version because it plugs into my Panasonic CF29 Toughbook. I have both aftermarket cables and the Motorola "ribless" serial cable. There is also a USB version of the programming cable, and that will also do both families of radios.

The USB cable is not a simple USB to RJ45 cable. There is a USB to TTL serial module in the cable. You are much better off purchasing one that uses the FDTI chip. There are problems with the Prolific chips that can be totally avoided by purchasing FDTI

"Yes David, the radio is programmed by plugging the RJwhatever cable you saw on ebay into the front of the radio in the mic port, not the back. The 20 pin port on the back of the radio is for bla bla bla"...and isn't used for programming."

Or maybe something like this: "No David, (as you suspected) the cable you saw on Ebay that looks like it has an RJwhatever plug on it, won't work, the cable you need must be a 20 pin plug that goes into the back port. You can't program the radio from the front mic port."

Members of the Moderation Staff have noted the 'discussion' - we are leaving things intact as-is (for now) however, we trust that this disagreement or misunderstanding is now resolved and no further outbursts will be placed here.

We must all remember that this Forum is made up of persons from all areas of the US and word usage and regional phrases may not be the same in all locations. Let's all be a bit more tolerant and understanding. We are all here to share and to learn and if there are any disagreements, please use the Private Messaging feature here in the Forum to calmly discuss any details that may be unclear between individuals.

Channel ExpansionThere is a selection in the RSS to make the radio 24 channels. If you select this option, as long as you don't use the alphanumeric portion on every channel (or it will run out of memory) you can get 24 channels in.

General InformationSome very early M1225's would not let you put audio into pin 5. It was frozen off by the firmware. Motorola did swap radios so you could use pin 5 BUT.... the input is switched by the PTT line from the accessory connector. You cannot use both mic and acc. audio in.

An RSS note, the RSS for these radios is not backwards compatible. That is to say, once you program a radio with a newer version of software, there is no going back. Likewise, if the radio you have has been programmed by newer software than you posess, you will not be able to read/write it unless you get the same or newer version than what is in the radio.

The M1225LS has limited memory available. That's why it only does 2 conventional channels. This radio uses a masked processor and is not flashable. To convert it back to a M1225 conventional radio, the microprocessor would have to be changed. If the micro-p were to be changed to a non-LS UHF processor (like maybe one scrounged out of another dead M1225) the radio would have to be re-aligned.

General InformationUsing RSS versions 1 and 2, Out of Band programming can be done by holding down the shift key for everything except the decimal place during frequency entry. This will no longer work with the newest version of RSS (3.1).

There are two versions of this board, the OPT-1225 and OPT-1225-PP. The easiest way to tell the difference is to power up the radio with the option board installed - the OPT-1225 will make an amusing multi-tone start up sound. The OPT-1225-PP is a less obnoxious series of tones. One board is green, one is red.

Both versions of the board have the capability to store 256 modes, but this is assuming that you do not use the alphanumeric capability and that you have 16 LTR systems with 16 talkgroups each. Realistically, using alphanumeric, you can expect 50-80 conventional modes.

The PL/DPL/CSQ can be separated. You can run Tone encode, but CSQ decode. You can also run a different PL and DPL on encode and decode. The caveat is that you must use the software that goes with the newer board (OPT-1225-PP), regardless of which board you are physically installing.

Some people are running into trouble using external speakers on their new M1225 mobiles. It would appear that they keep trying to connect speakers with less than 8 ohms impedance. This causes the radio receive audio to have random popping noises emitted from the external speaker. The biggest problem is that the 16 pin Maxtrac speaker plugs right into the M1225. This makes people think that the speakers were intended to be compatible between these different models. This is not the case.