CP200

[candrist]

Does anybody know if the CP200 can be upgraded from 4ch to 16ch?

If so, how would I go about doing it?

[SteveC0625]

Does anybody know if the CP200 can be upgraded from 4ch to 16ch?

If so, how would I go about doing it?

I am pretty certain that it can not be done. I have both 4 and 16 channel models here, and given the 4 channel switch, that suggests that it would be more effort than worth.

You'd be better off buying a used 16 channel model that is in good shape and selling the 4 channel one. Faster, cheaper, and probably a lot less chance for damage if you open up the radio.

[candrist]

Thanks Steve. That's what I was afraid of.

[AEC]

This is probably to remove the ability to buy a lower tier radio, and convert it to an upper tier version, eating @ Circle-M's profit line.
They also did this to the P110 series. The rotary switch encoder AND the cpu ccould not process the impulses for any more than the allocated channel numbering. You could no longer Toolkit the radios after 1994.
Radios with the following, and PRE '94, such as P44QLC200E2AA could be expanded to 16 channels, with MDC, but serial numbers such as P44QLC200B2AA could not. The 'E' in the number string identified the expandability of the codeplug data.

I have tried to convert one of my 4 channel CP200s to 16, doing a selector/encoder swap, and program as a 16, but no joy.

[com501]

This is because of the masking in the chipset. You are correct, this was changed years ago.