XTS3000 returned from Depot DEAD

webmedics · Post by **webmedics** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 10:48 am

Greetings all,

It would appear that I've purchased a Frankenstein radio on eBay. I know! I was just stunned....items on eBay that weren't 100% legitimate? What has this world come to?

OK, anyone that missed the sacrcasm, please read on.

Moneyrola sent a letter to the Motorola Radio Service Center that I took my XTS3000 model III VHF to be repaired. It told them that unless "the customer can prove that they are the legitimate owner" they will not work on the radio. How the heck do I do that?

I had purchased this quite some time ago, and had succesfully programmed and used the radio for about a year and a half. I then made the mistake of trying to add a digital personality to the radio. Our Law Enforcement Officers had been given new radios, and a new digital system with analog back up mixed in the radio banks. I was trying to add the ability to MONITOR some of those less sensative digital channels to keep my butt from hoping out of the Rescue and walking in to the wrong places (again)

I read the Officers radio with my CPS, then tried to manually create a personality similar to add the digital system to my XTS. I then read the radio, saved the codeplug, read the new codeplug with the hand added digital and wrote this to the radio. That was the last time it worked.

I tired to restore the radio with the uncorrupted codeplug from before reading the digital system. No luck. Hence the trip to the Radio Service Center.

They couldn't figure it out, and couldn't get it to write with thier CPS so they sent it to the Depot for a flat rate repair. Instead of fixing it, the RSC got the letter from Schamburg telling them how the ESN didn't match. and the parts weren't matching up with the labels, yada yada yada.

So the RSC hands me a brick and a bill..... Any suggestions?

OK, any constructive suggestions?

And no, finding the Rat Bastard that sold this on eBay isn't one of the options.... I already tried that.

RESCUE161 · Post by **RESCUE161** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:24 pm

Why is the guy on Ebay a rat bastard if the radio worked properly for a year? Or did I read that wrong?

The way your post reads is that you programmed it illegally and it got inhibited.

Blow another DOS CP from another radio using DOS RSS.

Or better yet, use a scanner...

spectragod · Post by **spectragod** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:37 pm

XTS 3000's do not have an ESN#, so how could that portion of the radio be illegitimate?

Sounds like smoke and mirrors, did they charge you for the repair?

Are you sure you used astro CPS to program the CP, or did you try and dump it with mobile software?

I am sure it is recoverable.

What does it do when you first power it up, come on and go off? Any fail codes? We need more info to give a more specific answer/suggestion.

SG

webmedics · Post by **webmedics** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 4:50 pm

All I know is what Moneyrola told the RSC about the ESN not matching. If I knew otherwise, I'd have posted such. The radio has some type of identification when you read the radio right? Well what ever it was, Moneyrola felt is wasn't a valid number, and since the labels under the battery were blank, they assume it's not legit.

As for the Rat Bastard, it's pretty clear, someone sold me a Frankenstein Radio. Sure it worked, but obvioulsy it has issues. Thanks for the idea of a scanner... just what I needed more crap to carry around. OK, maybe I'm also enablelling the transmit feature, but I didn't feel like getting flamed for having that capability.

I've got the Windows CPS , and no DOS based RSS to read / write with.

Spectragod....... It powers up just fine, no error codes, scans like it should, changes "channels" and zones.... I took it in becuase the only thing it wouldn't do is break squelch > no audio. I thought I had screwed up the receive properties in the personality when I added the Digital. Sort of like when you mistakenly add a receive PL. Otherwise the self check reveals no problems, it just didn't "work"

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 5:31 pm

Sounds like the radio hasn't been inhibited. Sounds like it's a typical Nick radio that's way, way off on the alignment. You need to find someone who has the appropriate equipment and experience with ASTRO units to realign the radio. I'd bet that would fix your problem.

spectragod · Post by **spectragod** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:12 am

It very well may just need tuned, but most likely....... if it was a parts built radio from our favorite Astro distibutor, it is more than likely missing shields and such. It is possible that it may have a bad piece of hardware as well. The only real way to tell is to get something like that on the bench and take it apart.

SG

webmedics · Post by **webmedics** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 5:27 am

So spectragod,

Where do I find someone experienced to fix this thing? I went to a full blown, Motorola Logo'd building and they hadn't worked on of these (yet) They just sell them, and the level of service would be the installation of them. As for the charges, they did bill me $38 for the time it took to install the RF adapter for my Public Safety Microphone.

I gave them a copy of the working codeplug, I then suggested that they do something like program in the NOAA channels and see if would at least receive. The Tech told me it would read, but not write with thier CPS/RSS and I didn't really want to go down the path of explaining how I had more current software.

SO, Who can open this up and see how to make it work again?

Who's Nick? Is this someone that I should seek out to fix a non traditional radio anyway?

RESCUE161 · Post by **RESCUE161** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:02 am

I wasn't trying to be mean, I was just pointing out that what you typed appeared to me that you programmed a radio on a system that you were not suppose to be on.

If I am wrong, then I stand corrected.

Was this a trunking system that you were programming?

What version of CPS do you have?

Post by **alex** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:06 am

webmedics wrote:So spectragod,

Where do I find someone experienced to fix this thing? I went to a full blown, Motorola Logo'd building and they hadn't worked on of these (yet) They just sell them, and the level of service would be the installation of them. As for the charges, they did bill me $38 for the time it took to install the RF adapter for my Public Safety Microphone.

I gave them a copy of the working codeplug, I then suggested that they do something like program in the NOAA channels and see if would at least receive. The Tech told me it would read, but not write with thier CPS/RSS and I didn't really want to go down the path of explaining how I had more current software.

SO, Who can open this up and see how to make it work again?

Who's Nick? Is this someone that I should seek out to fix a non traditional radio anyway?

$38 to install a RF adapter? Are you kidding me? You paid them for this?

Something smells, and it ain't the guy in the cube next to mine...

webmedics · Post by **webmedics** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:14 am

Hey Rescue161, no offense taken, sorry if I fired one across your bow.

Let's say it's a system that we are/were authorized to be on, but then they went digital. The Statewide Digital system is being phased in, and Phase 1 is Law Enforcement. Phase 2 is Fire and as usual EMS is the last to be added.

Our 2004 Expedition, owned by a hospital based Paramedic Intercept Program, had an Astro Spectra installed, a really smoking A9 unit with all of 16 analog channels in a single zone. Did I mention that the Hospitals' Housekeeping was on Channel 3 and the housewide pager was on 5? Well that's what happens when you let and Administrator tell the shop to "just program it like our other radios" and they cloned it to one of the Janitor's HT750's

We used to be able to talk to the Cops, and they loved to give us updates. You never know when they could get a lifesaver medal for doing my job.

Case in point though: A Fire Officer asked for *EMS* to come "look at a patient from a domestic" on an anlaog channel. Not being able to hear the digital side I (we) were unaware that he was calling in his next door neighboor's fight. I pull up to see the Chief getting his butt kicked along with a FF that responded from home. All that and I and end up in the middle of a knock down drag out, managing to restain the subjects prior to LEO's even getting dispatched. Not fun, on the top of my list of things to not do again.

Seeing as how the Hospital didn't even see fit to but maps for us (no other department needed them) I figured I'd save my own butt and buy an XTS3000.

So with all that said, how do I get this radio fixed? Moneyrola only wants to sell me the same thing for ...oh...what $3,000?

RESCUE161 · Post by **RESCUE161** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:48 am

Just do like I said above and force another Cp into it. It sounds like you got inhibited to me.

Post by **wavetar** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 9:56 am

He's not inhibited...if he were the radio would show 'self test', then turn into a brick (no lights or sound).

What likely happened is he has analog firmware, and he blew in an IMBE codeplug. OR, he has a VSELP radio and blew in an IMBE codeplug. Either of these will royally mess up the radio...I'm guessing he has VSELP, as I've seen that cause an 'unrecoverable' condition as he's describing.

Webmedics, what is your HOST/DSP & original flashcode?

Todd

RESCUE161 · Post by **RESCUE161** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 11:14 am

I've seen inhibited radios that look like there fine and dandy, but will not receive anything.

They pass the self test and all, they're just deaf.

spectragod · Post by **spectragod** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 1:41 pm

PM me webmedic.

SG

Post by **wavetar** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:51 pm

RESCUE161 wrote:I've seen inhibited radios that look like there fine and dandy, but will not receive anything.

They pass the self test and all, they're just deaf.

That is not truly 'inhibited'. That is simply the radio with an invalid ID on a PTT-ID system with Auto Affiliation enabled. The radio will not even receive on such a system, but will work fine in very other aspect (conventional, another system, etc). I've set up systems just like that as per certain customer's requests.

An actual inhibited radio will do as I described...self test, and then dead. I've seen radios inhibited like that, and have done the actual 'killing' myself for testing.

Todd