FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

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PhillyPhoto
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FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by PhillyPhoto »

I bought it off eBay (insert comical retort here) for a great price. It powers up, but goes to "FL 01/90". It is a dashmount so cabling isn't an issue, but I checked everything anyway. What I'm looking for is someone who has experience with these and can resurrect this from the paper-weight graveyard. I'm not looking to spend my life savings on this (lost most of it in the market this past week anyway), but would like to get it operational. The seller said they came from the Houston, TX PD, and looking at the RR database and what it is/has I believe it. If you can help me out, send me a PM.

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d119
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by d119 »

Crack the lid open and reseat the VOCON and any EMC if it has one. I've seen this cure that problem.
jmr061
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by jmr061 »

Best bet would be to start swapping boards with known working ones. I'd start with the vocon, then the control head then the command board. Open it up and look for any obvious damage first.

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PhillyPhoto
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by PhillyPhoto »

This is my only Astro Spectra, so I don't have any spares to try swapping parts with. I've looked in all compartments, and see no obvious damage (cracking, leaking caps etc).
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by Astro Spectra »

When you say it powers up then goes fail, do you mean that you momentarily see a normal display? Does it happen to then cycle off and, like, restart again by itself in a loop?
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PhillyPhoto
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by PhillyPhoto »

Astro Spectra wrote:When you say it powers up then goes fail, do you mean that you momentarily see a normal display? Does it happen to then cycle off and, like, restart again by itself in a loop?
It never gets to the SELF TEST, it goes straight to FL 01/90, and then it does a power cycle on it's own.
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by Astro Spectra »

Well there is one thing you can try, see the batboard section on the spectra and scroll down to the corrupted code plug section on the page http://www.batlabs.com/spectra.html

I've used the power supply method to stop a recycling Astro Spectra so that I could read out the codeplug or restore a valid codeplug to try and establish what was wrong. The bad news is that bad caps in the control head can sometime cause the same sort of fault.

While a bad CP should indicate FL01/82 you can get 01/90 when the hardware has been messed with, like head swapping etc. A look at the codeplug might help point the way foward.
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kt2728
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by kt2728 »

Astro Spectra wrote:When you say it powers up then goes fail, do you mean that you momentarily see a normal display? Does it happen to then cycle off and, like, restart again by itself in a loop?

If one of these radios gets stuck in this loop, what does that indicate as the problem?

you might check to see if it has the vocon in it. not trying to be a smart a$$ but you never know what you will get off ebay.

kt
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by Astro Spectra »

Did you get 1MEG display by the pressing the home button 5 times immediately after power up? If so then you have a VOCON installed.

01/90 is nothing to give up on it is usually a control head serial bus failure error message that basically means that the head can’t talk to anything which can be a hardware or a software problem but it’s not normally fatal in that it is very common when things are put together wrong. Check the interconnect board for bent pins, hell check all the connectors for bent pins. You might need to track someone down nearby with Astro Spectra experience to help out.

By the way I assume you have the emergency pin grounded on the DB15? Pins 2 and 8 need to be connected. Otherwise the TX can come on and with now antenna and a less than adequate power supply the radio will dip out and recycle.
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by Leadenwah »

I'm having the same problem, on an Astro Spectra Plus 800MHz, but it's become progressively worse.
First the "ERROR 01/90" would show briefly after the radio posted correctly and all seemed well.

After the removal of several existing personalities, it posted OK again, but rotating the Mode knob, caused the readout to display: ILLEGAL. I saw where this may be a programming issue in other searches. It's not inhibited and never showed any FAIL codes.

With known good Control Channels and Talkgroups all properly set, it shows "OUT AREA," ILLEGAL again, but powered up and posted OK.
Now it only cycles, flashing the display briefly, with both Red and Amber LEDs lit, then blank, then all over again in a loop. No rapid button pressing helps.

Swapping out a known good W4 control head showed exactly the same behavior so it's got to be in the radio not the control head.

Beyond checking the boards as suggested above and which I'm about to do, does anyone have any additional ideas on this? I will smell first for the capacitor odor.
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by Pj »

AS-If the radio is in a Fail 1/90 cycle, you typically cannot do the 5 button presses.

L-I've seen this with corrupt or really messed up secure and trunked settings in the codeplug. Disable any secure (if equipped) and look for any dynamic regrouping talkgroups in the zone/mode screen.

While in there, look at your OTAR/OTACS (if optioned) and if I remember what I was going to write, I'll add it later.

I'd also check your 12vDC supply voltages...almost sounds like a low voltage issue.
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Leadenwah
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by Leadenwah »

Good ideas!

I first have to get the radio out of its cycle so that I can reload a better CP.
Getting ready to try the variable voltage trick and will check power at the radio as well.

Thanks
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by Leadenwah »

The power supply method got the radio to stop cycling,
but it would not allow it to be read to written to.
"Spectra+" came up and remained on the display, but both Red and Amber LEDs are still lit at that time.
The codeplug in the radio was fine, it's just the FL01/90 which continues.

Radio has no encryption carrier or module. Codeplug did have Infinite Key Retention enabled,
but all other secure options removed.

No leaks, damaged components or misfitting boards found.
Swapped out known good W4 contron head, still get FL 01/90
Swapped out known good interconnect boards witih no change.
Went to 12VDC power in vehicle, no change either.
Antenna has always been connected.

Other than changing out the various boards,
does anyone have any other suggestions ?
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by Pj »

IIRC, if you can see infinate key retention, secure equipped is checked under radiowide (?). If it is, you should also have a secure error message as well on power up.
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Leadenwah
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by Leadenwah »

The " IIRC " was the first error message which flashed during the radio's registration.
The "ER 01/90" appeared briefly after that, then the radio posted up.
When I wrote to the radio I eliminated Secure from the options.
I had removed some personalities and after that "ILLEGAL" showed up when the Mode knob was turned.
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by 4n6inv »

When you said that this radio came from Houston, my first reaction was "Oh $h!t!" The reason I say that is that a friend of mine recently bid on a lot of Astro mobiles from a Houston auction; only to find out that they had been "de-miled" - meaning that employees of The City of Houston / and/or their radio shop drilled holes in the circuit boards; or otherwise deliberately destroyed the internal components of the radios so that they could never be read or reused without substantial repairs - obliterating the codeplug was their main concern. Yet; another floating hoax from Mother M to keep the radios off the gray market. So far; it's worked wonders with the military auctions! GSA , and Gov Liquidations are not selling used Motorola radios that haven't had the same treatment - if at all. Motorola has the US State Department CONVINCED that the codeplugs can be resurrected - thus creating HUGE security concerns. I was in Iraq last May and watched as XTS5000's and others went into the shredder - with nothing more than broken knobs, because Motorola convinced them that they should just destroy the radios; rather than risk "sensitive" information being leaked out.

This information comes from the horse's mouth - et., al in the government chain of command.

I watched in HORROR as 20-30 XTS5000's were chipped to shreds, rather than replace a knob. I saw it! Oh; and by the way; I was only there for 10 days!

Perhaps this isn't the case here with all of Houston, but I know that they are de-miling much of their radio equipment!

Sucks!

Jim
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by Leadenwah »

Jim,

Actually it was the original poster of this thread who bought the radio from Houston on Ebay.

I came in late on this thread because of the FL 01/90 found in a search. My radio is in excellent condition.
My only problem is this cycling on/off display.
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by motorola_otaku »

4n6inv wrote:When you said that this radio came from Houston, my first reaction was "Oh $h!t!" The reason I say that is that a friend of mine recently bid on a lot of Astro mobiles from a Houston auction; only to find out that they had been "de-miled" - meaning that employees of The City of Houston / and/or their radio shop drilled holes in the circuit boards; or otherwise deliberately destroyed the internal components of the radios so that they could never be read or reused without substantial repairs - obliterating the codeplug was their main concern.
That would be a new development, then. I've bought model 2 analog Sabers from Houston FD surplus intact and working. The same guy I got them from also gets their model 1 XTS3500s from time to time, and they're intact and functional. Maybe it's just PD and maybe it's just the mobiles? Either way, it's a joke since wrecker drivers have been rolling around with modified ham rigs, commercial Yaecomwood crap, and God knows what else capable of transmit on HPD UHF literally for decades, and it's not like their programming templates have ever been a big secret.
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Re: FL 01/90 on an Astro Spectra Dash Mount

Post by 4n6inv »

I couldn't say with any certainty which agency they came from in Houston. My strong hunch is that it was PD. About six months ago, a friend of mine got into a bidding war on a pallet of Astro Spectras. When the winning bidder showed up to claim the items, he noticed the de-mil, and said: "Oh; hell no!" and walked out. The city then issued a second chance offer on the highest bid he made against the guy he got into the pissing match over. He knew who he was bidding against, and was able to find out that they had been de-milled. He declined, and the city tried to make it a legal issue about both of their bids. When my friend confronted them on the legal aspects of the "deliberate destruction" of the radios without disclosing that fact that they had (essentially offering them "as-is" knowing full well that they were destroyed) - the matter disappeared - as did the pallets of Astro Spectras. Hummm....
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