[OZAPRS] APRS interface

[Bob]

I recently bought a ZASTONE Z218 25W VHF UHF transceiver to replace my 
5W Baofeng APRS beacon in the car, or a build a fill-in Wide1-1 
digi/Igate for the Nowra area.

I'm having a hell of a time making my home-brew (Buxcom V3 based) work 
with this radio. It worked with the FT-817.

Here is what little info I found trolling the Internet, for the benefit 
of others. The manufacturer can't be bothered to answer emails.

ZASTONE Z218 25W VHF UHF transceiver is the same as BAOJIE BJ218 or a 
Luitton LT-725UV

Looking at the 8pin RJ45 connector on the front of the radio, pin 1 is 
on the left. Is this correct?

Pin 6 is ground, definitely. (Ohmmeter)

Pin 3 is the Mike, according what I found on a Russian site. Pin 5 also 
appears as PTT from Russian site but wont make the radio TX when 
grounded. Pin 3 does. Here is my confusion.

PTT is Pin 3 to ground via around 2kOhms this works but no audio to the 
radio. Derived experimentally.

Pin 7 has 8 Volts on it to light the LEDs in the mike? Not relevant but 
might be handy.

I tried to make a data cable for programming but no luck there either so 
I had to buy one from fleebay. $9 with driver, posted (not here yet)

Chirp does not directly support this Radio yet.

Just wondering if someone else has tried to use one of these $85 
delivered, radios before I try to reinvent the wheel?

Thanks, Bob, vk2byf