Spectra FAIL 001 code?

[radioservice]

Hi,

I'm obviously not as familiar with this code as most of you are. Could you tell me what it means and what the best fix is?

[tvsjr]

VCO out of lock. You've either hacked the radio and pushed it too far outside its rated bandsplit causing the VCO to unlock (may be fixable with a conductive pen, but you still have the front-end filters to deal with), or you have the dreaded leaky cap issue, where boards have been damaged by corrosive materials leaking from failed electrolytic caps.

[Jim2121]

http://www.batlabs.com/spectra.html see Error codes -- since tvsjr beat me to it while I was typing...

[radioservice]

Thanks....I haven't HACKED it at all. It's well within the band...just one day it started going in and out of the Fail mode. Even today it works half the time, until you turn it off and turn it back on then it enters into the Fail 001 mode....like it's possessed by a teenager or something. Then it eventually straightens itself out.

[tvsjr]

Thanks....I haven't HACKED it at all.

Calm down, dude.

It's well within the band...just one day it started going in and out of the Fail mode. Even today it works half the time, until you turn it off and turn it back on then it enters into the Fail 001 mode....like it's possessed by a teenager or something. Then it eventually straightens itself out.

Classic leaky caps symptoms. You need to either look into cap replacement yourself, or send it to someone to have done. I believe Will and kc7gr can both take care of it, maybe others?

[radioservice]

That's cool...which caps....which board?

[tvsjr]

http://www.repeater-builder.com/motorol ... -caps.html

In short... all of them.

[radioservice]

....really?.....all of the electrolytics....or, ALL capacitors?

[tvsjr]

RTFM.

ALL Spectra mobile radios contain about a dozen small aluminum surface-mount electrolytic capacitors that have a major problem: they start leaking a nasty corrosive electrolyte out of the bottom after 10-15 years of age. Those used in mobile service that may have seen more extreme temperatures can age even faster. Since most Spectras are over 10 years old this means that they are failures waiting to happen. You need to recap the radio as soon as you get it (unless the previous owner has already done that) since the caps can be leaking with no visible operational symptoms.

[radioservice]

RTFM...got it!

Thanks! I'd better get busy...

[dirtrat]

These aren't the only things that cause this problem. I've replaced MANY 16.8 Mhz crystals becuase of a FAIL 001.

VCO out of lock. You've either hacked the radio and pushed it too far outside its rated bandsplit causing the VCO to unlock (may be fixable with a conductive pen, but you still have the front-end filters to deal with), or you have the dreaded leaky cap issue, where boards have been damaged by corrosive materials leaking from failed electrolytic caps.

[radioservice]

Hey thank you...that sounds very likely.....would it come in and out with a bad crystal or would it go out until the crystals replaced?

ALso, I know Moto was kind of funny about the ref osc's for p1225s.....is this 16.8 an ordinarry off the shelf part? if so, do you recall a p/n? ....(I would RTFM if I had a FM)

[GlennD]

I use Saber reference oscillators since I have a lot of them. They work just fine. You can measure the signal on pin 21 of the chip below the metal cage.