MCC7500 v7.15 console. . . . .

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talviar
Posts: 121
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2001 4:00 pm

MCC7500 v7.15 console. . . . .

Post by talviar »

OK- this post could go a couple of places. In the old days (Gold Elite, MCC5500 I would say this is a Console issue, however in the ASTRO25 arena. . . . )

Who I am-
System Manager of a portion of an ASTRO25 Wide area network

What I have done- opened up a Case with Motorola and exhausted the resources of the shop --AND-- Motorola, Case is being escalated higher in Engineering and in the ST Group

What I have-
an Astro 25 v7.15 M-Core Controller operating a multi county trunking system (ICORRS Radio System in Western PA)
8 Trunking Sites (6 simulcast trunking sites on 7/800, 1 intellirepeater trunking site on 7/800, 1 simulcast trunking site on VHF)
Numerous Conventional RF Sites, I can't vouch for what the other counties have on their Conventional setup's only what is here in my county-
My conventional set up consists of 4 conventional sites- 1 site colocated with Dispatch site #5 (backup dispatch center) that has 1 CCGW & 3 APX7500 consolettes for backup use in event of a link failure to the master site, 1 site colocated with Dispatch Site #6 (main dispatch center) that has 4 CCGW's & 7 APX 7500 consolettes and 2 XTS5000 Consolettes for backup use in the event of a link failure to the master site along with a handful (4) control stations on VHF, UHF, 800 Conventional, and 800 Opensky for various local system access to other radio systems, 2 sites located at 2 high profile RF site where each site has 2 conventional VHF base stations, Each site has 1 station that is a single GTR8000 transceiver, Each site has 1 station that is a GTR8000 transceiver and 2 additional receivers for a T3-3R configuration. The GTR8000 units replaced Quantar base stations of same configuration.

When my county came on board our Trunking system was operating at 7.11. Prior to moving the conventional base stations from our former Gold Elite Console to the trunking system, the Master Site was upgraded from 7.11 to 7.14. After the dust settled from the 7.14 migration, we started to shut down our Smartnet system and migrated users to the ASTRO25 system. At this time, the Quantars were shut down and the GTR8000 units brought online. It took some time for the local radio shop to have the T3-3R configuration working where we had 3 individual channel modules on the MCC7500 radio screen where an operator could select and handle that channel module as a stand alone frequency/base (except you couldn't cross patch between the 3 modules since they shared a transmitter) This allowed us to use a few interop channels when needed on a lightly used base station for purposes of crosspatching a VHF channel to a trunked talk group (for example 155.340 National EMS when an out of the area medical helicopter that doesn't have the local 800 MHz simplex ground channels programmed in is needed when we run out of choppers with Stat, Lifeflight, etc)

Everything worked fine on 7.14. In March of this year, we upgraded to 7.15 Found out a week ago that our other 2 channels on the T3-3R no longer transmit. They receive, but won't transmit.

Quite a bit of stuff has been tried. But before I type details on the various things tried-

Does anyone out there operate an ASTRO 7.15 system (any core) with the MCC7500 Console, --AND-- either T2-2R, T3-3R, or T4-4R conventional base station set ups?

If so- how are your configurations set up for this? (I am fluent in PM operation and most of the back end stuff on the NM Terminal so feel free to get into gory technical descriptions!)

Thanks in advance!
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chartofmaryland
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Re: MCC7500 v7.15 console. . . . .

Post by chartofmaryland »

Morning Talvair,

Saying UO did you a favor and performed an entire snapshot capture of the 7.14 release prior to upgrading then there should be a 1 for 1 in your 7.15 layout.

Starting with the obvious, are you trouble shooting an issue that worked after the 7.15 upgrade or did you stumble across another item that UO did not check the operation on with the ST after bump?

Saying it did not work after the upgrade may be a coding issue between 7.14 and 7.15 as there are some differences in the 2 some with conventional which is where this focus lies.

If this feature was confirmed working, (pull audio in Nice if you have it, to hear comm checks after the upgrade was completed) then you may be into issues with your CCGW's.

The CCGW GGM8000 units have been flaky depending on their release which is where I take it you are interfacing to your T3-3R stations either co-located or over medium.

The older units with the 2.0 USB port have shown a number of issues with our use and even after confirming the configuration file is written into the directory thru putty, we have to often pull power to get a CCGW to respond to changes.

No issues have been reported where a CCGW stops working while on duty. Only issues are at startup of a new setting push.

Other than this exterior review, the next step is get out the TIMS and a banjo and hop into the circuits to confirm there are proper keying tones coming from the CCGW's.

Busy for the next 2 weeks but if I can make time I'll load up a T3-3R port into a stable 7.15 CCGW and report what I can do.

So far, every time I scope the CCGW analog port for TRC the capture is very clean and sharp to the standard.

CoM
If the lights are out when you leave the station and then come on the second you key up, you know you have enough power.
talviar
Posts: 121
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2001 4:00 pm

Re: MCC7500 v7.15 console. . . . .

Post by talviar »

CoM-

Unsure if UO did the snapshot, and if they did, where it is at. . . . . .Will ask the ST that is primary on our system-

Unsure if it was working AFTER the 7.15 upgrade. Was working prior to the 7.15 upgrade
The various people involved in the upgrades don't check the conventional equipment.
Our agency checks the primary channel (everything on F1 on the base)
But didn't check the secondary channels F2 & F3 on the base.

F2 for channel select is 1850
F3 for channel select is 1350
in our set up.

The local shop swapped in a handful of other spare CCGW's that they have been able to duplicate our issue on/with. . . . .
So I doubt that we had around 5 or 6 CCGW's all fail in the same time frame.

Shop also downgraded the software on the CCGW to 7.14 and a variety of older software with no change in operation.
Wireline comes off of Ports 2,3,4 on the TX pair from the CCGW into an audio bridge prior to hitting the base radio.
Ports 2,3,4 will work for TX as long as channel select tone is 1950
Assign any other tone for primary keying and nothing passes.

Set up the ports for a multi frequency base where you put a channel select drop down on the channel module, then it will pass the tones for what ever channel you select.
Shop can't get a "non standard" tone for use on a single frequency channel module.

If you do have the time, and perform that check, it would be a useful sanity check for those of us here.

Thanks for your information!

Tony
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Twisted_Pear
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Re: MCC7500 v7.15 console. . . . .

Post by Twisted_Pear »

chartofmaryland wrote:Other than this exterior review, the next step is get out the TIMS and a banjo and hop into the circuits to confirm there are proper keying tones coming from the CCGW's.
I echo this advice. After doing a lot of work with TRC and custom tables (trying to determine best way for Secure On/Off support) I found confirming what the CCGW is actually sending out helps to eliminate areas to look at. Also, if you have console/SSH access to the GGM run the command "sh -ccgw conf" and make sure it matches up with what you have configured in PM. That way you can at least confirm the CCGWDB is on target with PM.
emsbuff3240
Posts: 423
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What radios do you own?: Centracom Gold Elite, XTS5K 4K

Re: MCC7500 v7.15 console. . . . .

Post by emsbuff3240 »

Did you get this resolved?

First, I would double check the Tone Segment, Tone Sequence, Tone Command, and Tone Table configurations you have setup in PM. First check that the custom Tone Table references the correct Tone Command that would map the F1 TX and F1 Select to the Tone Sequence that sends the 1850 Hz function tone. Then go one more level deeper and make sure that the tone segments in the tone sequence are configured correctly. Repeat for the custom Tone Table on the F1 TX/Select for 1350.

If all that looks correct to you, I would start from scratch and create new custom Tone Tables. My bet is some default tone segment/sequence changed in the upgrade and now the referenced object isn't there anymore.

Let us know!
-Jon
talviar
Posts: 121
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2001 4:00 pm

Re: MCC7500 v7.15 console. . . . .

Post by talviar »

emsbuff3240 wrote:Did you get this resolved?

First, I would double check the Tone Segment, Tone Sequence, Tone Command, and Tone Table configurations you have setup in PM. First check that the custom Tone Table references the correct Tone Command that would map the F1 TX and F1 Select to the Tone Sequence that sends the 1850 Hz function tone. Then go one more level deeper and make sure that the tone segments in the tone sequence are configured correctly. Repeat for the custom Tone Table on the F1 TX/Select for 1350.

If all that looks correct to you, I would start from scratch and create new custom Tone Tables. My bet is some default tone segment/sequence changed in the upgrade and now the referenced object isn't there anymore.

Let us know!
Resolved in a round about way-

Everything listed above was tried- including pulling a completely wiped out CCGW unit and loading it clean from scratch as a new base station including all the custom tones. The only tone that will pass as F1 for keying is 1950.

Work around- Each of the "other channel positions" was programmed as a T3R3 configuration and frequency drop down set to the appropriate keying tone. Fortunately once a channel module on the MCC7500 screen is used with a particular channel from the "frequency drop down" the channel module will hold the appropriate Freq keying tone from that point forward.

So resolved but not what I would call a "clean" resolution.
emsbuff3240
Posts: 423
Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:23 am
What radios do you own?: Centracom Gold Elite, XTS5K 4K

Re: MCC7500 v7.15 console. . . . .

Post by emsbuff3240 »

That is very strange. What release of MCC7500 are you running? I have definitely successfully deployed exactly what you are talking about using 7.15 M1 core with enhanced CCGW blades.
-Jon
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