Maxtrac 800 trunked to conventional problem

[Josh]

I swapped firmware from Privacy Plus trunking to conventional on my Maxtrac800.

It worked, but I have no RX... per say. I programmed 851.0125 for TX into a dummy load for testing and a frequency counter pointed to 851.6375 which is significantly off.

I read about issues people had when trying to use regular firmware on a maxtrac900 and wonder if this is the same problem.

I'm clueless here.

-JOsh

[redbeard]

Assuming you then blanked your logic board and re-initialized it as a conventional radio? Then re-entered ALL your tuning values that you wrote down before blanking the board? Also entered the numbers from the labels inside the radio? I have done this with 800 radios using the HLN5569A firmware with no problem. Another consideration is whether your radio has the HLF9122A talk-around RF board. If not your xmit is stuck between 806-825 so no simplex TX is possible.

[Josh]

Assuming you then blanked your logic board and re-initialized it as a conventional radio? Then re-entered ALL your tuning values that you wrote down before blanking the board? Also entered the numbers from the labels inside the radio? I have done this with 800 radios using the HLN5569A firmware with no problem. Another consideration is whether your radio has the HLF9122A talk-around RF board. If not your xmit is stuck between 806-825 so no simplex TX is possible.

Yes I blanked it and I saved the tuning settings in the process too. Simplex board too, of course. Anyhow, all the frequencies are off significantly and I have no idea what frequencies its receiving. Judging by the audio quality when I figured out where it was TXing, it was obviously off some khz as well.

When I go back to the old firmware, all is well.

[Forts]

Apologies for jumping into an old thread but I just attempted this same project, and have the same results. I bought a Trunking Maxtrac 820 and wanted to convert it to conventional 800mhz. The existing trunking firmware ( HLN9435D) was swapped out for conventional (FVN4019A) and I'm seeing similar results. The wanted a simple talkaround channel on 857.5125, but when I transmit it's on 857.1125... I have no idea where the RX is now.

Basically I wrote down all the alignment details, as well as the info on the stickers inside the radio, blanked the board using Lab RSS, then switched the radio to a 2 mode conventional w/talkaround. Re-entered all the details but no worky. The one thing that has me puzzled is that the FVN4019A firmware is listed as '900mhz conventional' over on the Repeater Builder site. Is this maybe the problem? And if I have the incorrect firmware, what is the proper one for an 800mhz radio?

Thanks much!

Edit: So it looks like I may need the HLN5569 firmware. Anyone happen to have this tucked away somewhere that they would be willing to share?

[Josh]

I found the solution.

Reinitalize the board using conventional software, not the trunking software.

[Forts]

I've tried re-initializing it with both the Lab software and the conventional software with the same results. I'm really wondering if it's because I have the wrong firmware then... thanks for the info!

[Josh]

I've tried re-initializing it with both the Lab software and the conventional software with the same results. I'm really wondering if it's because I have the wrong firmware then... thanks for the info!

hmm, I don't really know. I used the "right firmware" for conventional radios, nothing special or fancy.

The first time I did it, I don't know why but the frequencies were all over the place

Then more recently I tried it again with total success for no explainable reason other than the source of reinitialization.

-Josh

[WB6DGN]

So it looks like I may need the HLN5569 firmware. Anyone happen to have this tucked away somewhere that they would be willing to share?

According to AccessPoint HLN5569A is still available from Motorola for $27.56 list and my Maxtrac manual shows that as the correct firmware for the 800 conventional radio. I always thought that the FVN4019 was only for the 900 radios. Whether or not that's the problem, though, I have no idea.
Tom DGN

[Forts]

Thanks for the info. There's actually a fellow selling conventional 800mhz MaxTracs on Ebay right now for $10 a piece. I'm going to grab a couple of those I think to tinker with, and I can always plop the eeprom from one of those radios into my current one to see if it fixes the problem or not.