Rowelink technical details

[mightytim99]

Anyone have the tech specs on the Rowelink serial signal for a Rowe CD100 series?
I'm looking for voltage, timing, commands recognized, etc.

[Ken Layton]

I believe it's RS-485 protocol.

[mightytim99]

Thanks, Ken. I am considering trying to interface a PC with one of the extra RoweLink ports on my CCC. I guess once I establish a link, I would then need to see what commands/codes the CCC is expecting to see. Have you seen anything that lists the codes, etc that the CCC uses to talk to to the peripherals?

[Ken Layton]

Several years ago, we had a guy come to our shop from an advertising company. He told us his company would pay us for running paid ads on the jukebox's display panel. Well he showed up with his laptop and a cable he made. One end plugged into the serial port of his laptop and the other end plugged into connector P8 on the CCC (the optional printer/communication serial port). Connector P8 is RS-232 communication and to use it you must have a MAX232CPE chip installed in the empty socket at location U1 on the CCC board. Normally the factory sent the board out with the socket installed, but no chip in it since it was an option.

You can buy the correct chip at Jameco Electronics as their stock # 24811 (MAX232CPE) for around $3.

Connector P8 pinout:

1: Ground
2: RTS
3: connector key
4: CTS
5: RX
6: connector key
7: TX
8: no connection, not used

That guy was indeed to make the jukebox do all kinds of things through that connector. However, it definitely required the CCC to have at least version 3.2 operating firmware chip installed ( a 1 meg eprom ).

[mightytim99]

The chip sounds cheap enough - what's the charge to upgrade me to 3.2? I'm fairly good at programming - would be willing start work on a "open source" RS232 interface project to allow the CCC to communicate with a PC (A MP3 adapter)...

[Ken Layton]

Send your CCC to Bruce Wentworth:

http://www.rowejukeboxrepair.com/

He can make you a new chip, install the socket (if yours needs the larger socket), change the soldered-in battery to a coin cell battery holder (so if the battery goes bad in the future you can change it without soldering), and install the latest updates to the board (if needed, there is a mod to protect the MAX232 chip).