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MTS II/ Movement Tracking System

Wile E. Coyote

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Anyone have any wiring info/ cabling info/ manuals etc. for the DRS Technologies MTS II system? One of the FMTVs at work had the power supply box still wired in, and I picked up some cables from Austin, but...none of it seems to go together so I'm still missing something. I managed to get a new MTS II unit and NOS mount bracket from the E-place, but...too many bits of the puzzle remain.

If anyone else grabbed one of those systems when they were still available, right now you can get the NOS mount brackets if you know what to look for - $39. Cabling becomes the problem. And info.

For those who don't know what MTS is...it's sort of Blue Force Tracker Lite. Same basic satcom antenna and messaging and mapping/ tracking functionality but intended for support mission vehicles.
 

juanprado

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Did you get one of the complete systems in the hardigg cases from epay?

I have picked up from a different auction the DRS monitor/cpu ( supposed to be missing the hard drive? Not sure on caddy) and the keyboard. I have not disassembled yet to investigate. How do you tell the difference in between I & II?

From M939 scrappers. I have the ram mount, m939 dash bracket, keyboard and monitor bracket and power supply. The power cables are weird as they are a Y ( I believe I have 2 cables and power supplies) ? Looks like one cable from the power supply goes to the mt-2011? GPS dome?

I am also in the hunt for the manual. It looked like the complete kits in the cases had cd's and manuals. Hard to tell from Pic. I sent the seller a pm and no reply.

I have not been able to even find the tm # for these. I suspect the only documentation is from DRS.
 

mkcoen

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I’m still looking for the antenna and screen just for a mock up in mine. I have the dash bracket and the antenna mount but nothing else.
 

Wile E. Coyote

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I saw the $700 specials on Ebay...second lot of them I've seen come up...but no, there was a guy who had a bunch of the DRS MTS II units brand new who started off at $200 and went all the way down to $40 at one point...which was too good a deal to pass up. I should've bought a couple. Anyway, it'll say "MTS II TABLET" right on the label...looks like this:

MTS-II.jpg
I opened it up and indeed there's a hard drive in there. There's nothing resembling any sort of power supply/ regulation circuitry in there so that all must be done in the Comtech black box with the red-covered switch, which also connects to the MT-2011 / MT-2012 depending.

Not sure exactly what comes in those cases the fellow is selling, but certainly the MT-2011, some cabling, documentation and the PLGR...but if there was an actual computer in there too he posted no pics of it. Unfortunately DRS Technologies got bought out and don't have anything relating to older versions of current systems on their revised website at all. I've asked them a few things in the past with regard to the AN/UYK-128s (FBCB2 setup) but didn't even get an auto-generated courtesy reply, so...yeah. No help there.

MTS II is basically a COTS system anyway so maybe someone can get manuals through a FOIA request. LOGSA might have some too but probably D or F coded so you need a CAC to access. Seems a bit dumb.
 

Wile E. Coyote

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Yup. That's the MTS-II bracket. On the front of the fuse box cover there should be four holes where the Comtech 'black box' power supply/ interface went...sometimes they take that out, and sometimes they don't. Coincidentally there's one for sale on the E-place right now - guess we're not allowed to post links, but just search for MILITARY SURPLUS COMTECH and you should be good. Looks like the majority of the cables are there in your truck.

(Comtech box might mount with two holes now that I think about it - I'm not near my stuff at the moment or I'd go look.)
 
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Ras1

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Rockford, illinois
if anyone knows where I can find some of the mts mrt parts let be know. I tried looking on epay for the $700 computer but couldn't find it

Im looking for comtech gps antennas
And
I need a hard drive caddy/tray for the mts mrt tablet. Or at the very least I need detailed pictures, dimensions, and connections if you have that.

Let me know
Dave
 

Wile E. Coyote

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Lynden WA
On the e-place, search up "movement tracking system". He's got two up, but his pictures are so worthless as to make the word 'worthless' worthless. Though you can see the MT-2011 and the PLGR. He doesn't show any computer, but if it's the grab-n-go with the PLGR chances are if there's even one in the kit it'll be an ancient CF-29 or so Toughbook.
 

Ras1

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Location
Rockford, illinois
You would need much more. That is just a power supply unit. Your missing wiring, mount, cpu/display, keyboard, hard drive and caddy, not to mention operating system which has to be custom made as originals are destroyed upon release.

How many power supply units do you have?

Dave
 

Ras1

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Rockford, illinois
On the bottom of the tablet there are two screws that have strings to keep them from getting lost. These are quick release screws. Pop the cover open. Do You have a hard drive tray or mount? On the back of the tablet there is another spot with screws. That is where the batteries go. Do you have the batteries?
 

CbtEng71

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Sorry for the delay, I was out of town. I’m not sure about the tablets. I will upload pictures of then along with the keyboard this evening when I dig them out.
 

CbtEng71

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Minnesota
These are the pictures of the two tablets I have, a docking station, and the keyboard. Not sure if it’s all the same system of not.
 

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Wile E. Coyote

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Lynden WA
So, finally had some time to play with my MTS II tablet, keyboard etc. which was obviously part of the same large lot someone was selling on Ebay there for awhile, which I believe a number of us picked up. Since it had no cabling or anything I'd basically just left it for months - but now it's up and running. For those with the same beast in the same situation - I present What I've Learned So Far. Complete with part numbers:

MTS II is a touchscreen tablet made by NCS Technologies, and is their 'NCS Magnus II' tablet, having replaced the first gen NCS Magnus c.2006-2008. The tablet itself is a modified commercial version with military connectors and stripped of all its commercial interface ports except for a standard USB connection and a PCMCIA card slot hidden beneath the right-side anti-drop plastic bumper/ reinforcement. The tablet has an on-screen keyboard at boot which allows use of the stylus to operate the virtual keyboard in the absence of the physical keyboard. The separate LCD screen on the bottom displays various icons including hard-drive seek, and has three buttons: the leftmost single button cycles between the two adjustable parameters (speaker audio and backlight), where the rightmost buttons on top of each other are increase value/ decrease value. The values being adjusted are shown on the LCD screen as a number value between 1 and 100. The '911' button brings up the virtual keyboard under some circumstances and generates an 'all stations' SOS message under others. 'SCREEN' buttons allow brightness increase without having to use the ones near the LCD display, and turn on/off the screen display (toggle) for emergencies.

The system has an Intel Core Duo U2500 CPU running at 1.20 GHz, and comes with 1 Gig of RAM. It comes pre-loaded with Windows XP Professional SP2 and a Fujitsu MHY2080BH 80G hard drive. There are no commercial-pattern ports available except for the one USB port and the PCMCIA slot, and there is no wireless functionality. Software supporting the Movement Tracking System functionality is Miletus Associates Inc. 'TracerLink Pro V2.0.12' which serves the mapping and plotting functions, and there are pre-loaded maps of Iraq and Afghanistan, plus key areas and training regions etc. in CENTCOM, CONUS, USAREUR, Korea etc. Maps are zoomable from basic region right down to individual streets in some cases - less resolution available in others. Vehicle plots are via icons with or without descriptive elements according to set preferences.'MTS Messenger' allows brief text messages to be sent to other system users and support elements, and addressing is typically done by 'bumper number' (BM) of users in different groups according to AO. The status display is customizable and has the same 'gumball' type status icons showing either red or green for message status, FOM (quality of GPS data), state of GPS crypto fill and some other things including MT-2011/ 2012 transceiver status. 'Vehicle Server' is the third. Via the MT-2011/2012 linkup, you can select the appropriate database in your AO so vehicles in the region will plot on the TracerLink maps (and be available for text messaging via MTS Messenger.)

The MTS+ operator's manual is also stored on the tablet, though it centers around operation of the programs above vs. anything more useful with respect to installation/ wiring of the tablet itself, and the cables listed in the manual have no NSNs. Some of the COMTECH part numbers appear valid - others don't.The tablet itself runs on 12VDC. One of the functions of the COMTECH 'black box' left in many of our FMTVs is to convert 24V down to the 12V that either generation of Magnus tablet use. Connecting to the common Comtech 'black boxes' left in some of our FMTVs is done via (oddly) the large 'ANTENNA' port on the bottom of the tablet. A 'Y' cable connects to that ANTENNA receptacle, with the Y splitting into POWER and RS-422 leads, which in turn hook up to the 'Computer Power J8' and 'Computer RS/422 J7' connections on the Comtech black box using a set of cables that basically extends each leg of the 'Y'.

MTS 'Y' Cable: 506D465-01

Extension Cables:

POWER: MTS-V2-03 POWER CABLE, LAPTOP, P/N 1751-0008 (MFR COMTECH DATACOM)
DATA: MTS-V2-02 DATA CABLE, LAPTOP, P/N 1751-0007 (MFR COMTECH DATACOM)

The remaining receptacle on the black box, "Antenna/ Modem J6", goes up to the MT-2011/2012 satcom transceiver on the roof (tan plastic box.)There is another cable used for the PLGR/ DAGR GPS feed into the system, which goes between the 'RS-232' receptacle on the tablet directly to the DAGR/ PLGR. I've never seen such a cable out there. It would have the D15-pin 'VGA' type plug either of those two GPS units uses, and would terminate in a small 3-pin Amphenol male. The only clue as to the part number is the one in the COMTECH literature, which would be 1751-0009.

When you boot yours up, you'll be faced with the 'PRESS CTRL + ALT + DELETE' security boot message. After doing that, you'll get the DOD warning message, then after hitting OK will get the standard Windows XP login. Unfortunately you can't use the second CTRL/ALT/DELETE method in the hopes of gaining the password-less Administrator account, and the Administrator account on MTS II has been renamed "xAdministrator". Other users are 'CSSAMO', 'mts' and 'backupadmin' - but I found all that out after the fact because I couldn't get in without changing some BIOS boot settings and doing a little USB magic I learned thanks to civvy-world users losing their passwords.

Hope that helps anyone who bought one of the systems recently on Ebay or wherever. This has been a lot of guesswork and buying likely-looking cables from various places...and scrounging others out of junked FMTVs. :)
 
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