Recovering an HT750/1250 series radio

Post by **wavetar** » Sat Jun 15, 2002 3:50 am

Thought I would share this in case anyone else runs across the problem.

I was in the process up upgrading the firmware in 35 HT1250-ls radios. About mid-way through the 18th unit, the software gave me an error, stating that the process had been interrupted, and to press "retry". After trying that many times with no success, I tried to upgrade another radio, but the software couldn't see the radio. After re-seating all my cables & powering the RIB off/on, I was able to continue upgrading the radios. But, now I was left with a seemingly dead radio. No power up beeps, no display, nothing. Couldn't read/write to it with the regular CPS. Trying to start the upgrade on it just came up with the same error you get if you run the program with no radio attached. I nearly wrote it off as one for the Motorola Depot to deal with, but then an idea came to me. Basically, I started the upgrade on another radio, but once I got to the point where the software tells you to put the radio into bootstrap mode, I removed that radio, and attached the "dead" one. The software then continued on & finished upgrading the radio, bringing it back to life! Seems the radio was just stuck in bootstrap mode, as opposed to dead. The key to this is to have another radio around to start the upgrade with & then swap for the dead radio. Hope this helps somebody in the future.

Todd

Rude Dog · Post by **Rude Dog** » Sat Jun 15, 2002 5:00 am

We have to ship more HT series to depot than I like to, maybe we can save a few more with this. Normally I don't post, I just harvest info so thank you for posting something that may save us and our customers pain.

Ed

perthcom · Post by **perthcom** » Sat Jun 15, 2002 7:12 am

Thanks for the TIP!

BTW I used a similar trick while upgrading 26 telario units..!

And in the good old days of GE Carfones, the Nam would get corrupted so i would get into the programming mode using a good nam then switch nam chips while powered up and go through the programming mode and it was fixed... well as fixed as a peice of badly engineered junk can get!

Bruce

jim · Post by **jim** » Sat Jun 15, 2002 11:26 am

Great tip! It's nice to see someone come up with a simple, but very good idea that works.

Nand · Post by **Nand** » Sat Jun 15, 2002 4:16 pm

Post by **wavetar** » Sat Jun 15, 2002 4:32 pm

Whoa! Your avatar freaked me out while reading your response...did the eyes always move? Interesting method of cloning you've come up with. I'd appreciate a PM with a few details such as OS platform & the timing of the radio switching, if you would. Thanks,

Todd

n3obl · Post by **n3obl** » Sat Jun 15, 2002 7:09 pm

Sucks when you dont have a 2nd radio to fool the computer with.. I was going to try the sepearate TX/ RX data lines to the different radios.

Will · Post by **Will** » Sat Jun 15, 2002 11:17 pm

I tried to do that switching EEPROMs on a R100, but the S/W said "Units Switched". I have not found how to write the correct info from my test R100 to the bad receiver in for repair. The EEPROM is $60 from/\/\!

Nand · Post by **Nand** » Sun Jun 16, 2002 5:31 am

perthcom · Post by **perthcom** » Sun Jun 16, 2002 10:02 am

Thanks Nand, I never thought of that approach..
Thanks for sharing that with us!

Post by **wavetar** » Mon Jun 17, 2002 11:03 am

Nand, I had a thought. I'm not sure how much information is made available to you with the memory editor but if one could figure out how to pause the HT/CDM CPS in the same manner as the DOS RSS, could you possibly edit the frequencies to be put into the radio, thus getting around the bandsplit? It won't pause while in the background by default. Something to think about...

Todd