Batboard

I know this topic has been beat to death but... I hope this is not illegal to discuss here.
I have read so much conflicting info on this subject and I don't want to
ruin my good radios. I don't know if these radio are even capable of being upgraded. I don't want to inject anything here I just want to hear it straight from the horses mouth so to speak.

I do have a stable setup for astro programming either RSS or CPS.
I do have a radio that I would like them to work like.
I have a code plug and S-record from this doaner radio. H04RDH9PW7AN
I have most of the hardware neccessary for the upgrade. Display, housing etc.

I just need the proceedure spelled out step by step.
Thanks


Radio info:

Astro number 1. H04RDC9PW5AN
Firmware: 3.16.00.00
DSP: does not show up when I read the radio?
Flash code: 000004-002000-2
Voncon: 512K
VSELP/IMBE: Don't have a clue. How do I find out?
Encryption: yes, hardware des

Astro number 2. H04RDC9PW5AN
Firmware: 3.31.00.00
DSP: M05.00.25
Flashcode: 000004-002000-2
Vocon: 1 meg
VSELP/IMBE: Don't have a clue. How do I find out?
Encryption: yes, hardware des

Well first of all, these are the two options installed in the radio:

H37/G50 Smartnet Operation
Q241 ASTRO Ready (Analog Operation ONLY)

Its not digital what-so-ever.

In addtion, your radio with the 1 meg board seems odd. Its my understanding that all 1meg boards starts at 7 and go up. This *could* be an early 1meg board, but I doubt it.

If you were to clone the codeplug into these radios, there is a very good chance that most of the features will not work. Your firmware in the first one is quite old. 2nd radio isn't bad, most if not all could/should work... except for any digital mode. The firmware does not support VSLEP or IMBE.

I also think you will also need a few parts (such as display front, keypad etc) to be swapped out of the Mod 1's to make them a 3. In other words, this will require some work to make them digital mod 3's.

I am sure that someone who has done some converstions will jump in here.

Hi
I checked the one and it is indeed a 1 meg vocon.
I do not need digital communications.
I need the proceedure for programming a type 3 s-record into the vocon.
Thanks

The way I understand it, what you need to do is read the existing model one radios and get ALL the alignment settings and jot them down. If lab is available make a backup of your codeplugs with the no pack/unpack option. Save that in case things go down the tubes. Then install your display and new case. Once again using lab, write the model III codeplug from the saved S record that you have with the no pack/unpack option. Do not unpack the record as this will cause a problem. Then you can read the radio with normal RSS and reset all the alignment settings back to what they used to be.

The ideal behind this is that normal RSS checks serial and model number. The lab no pack/unpack option dumps the srecord into the code plug with no model number checking.

Be very careful as this could kill your radio if done wrong. Also your serial number, model number, flash code and other items will now match the codeplug from the donor radio and if the firmware revision is different from the donor radio this could present a problem.

Before you take my advice, wait and see what others have to say and read the section on Batlabs under the Astro Saber model section. It has some further info. Of course you must have lab software to do this and lab is not available to anyone but depot techs.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the info.
Well I know the firmware will be different. Hope that doesn't cause too many problems.
What's this I hear about using MTSX lab to write the S-records?
I'm pretty sure these are VSELP radios so I don't know if that matters.
The S-record I have came out of a radio with 3.16 firmware. same bandsplit and model 3.

Looks like you may have analog only radios, the DSP must start with a I or a N to be digital. Also DSP firmware must be greater than a 6 to be IMBE. At least one radio is is not digital radio for sure, the other might be digital, but it will be a VSLEP. Without the DSP version you can't tell easily.

The srecord version firmware looks close enough to me to work with your existing radios. Someone correct me if I am wrong. I am no expert!

I dont' now much about MTSX lab other than what I found on a thread here sometime back. It mentioned that a older version was capable of doing this.

If they are VSELP-era radios, then you can use Astro LAB 3.04.00 to force codeplugs with no issues. If they are newer IMBE-era radios, then the Astro LAB will corrupt the codeplugs, even using the no pack/unpack option. I've heard that there's later Astro LAB versions which work with IMBE, but haven't seen it myself.

For whatever reason, the MTSX LAB 3.00.02 has no problem transferring IMBE codeplugs using the no pack/unpack option.

Todd

I've used 3.04 with IMBE stuff all the time. It never corrupts anything. If you do no unpack it just read the file, it doesn't do any checking of the data other than verifying the checksums to make sure the file is not corrupt.

Jason

So, what we have gathered so far is:

These are VSELP radios and can't possibly be IMBE right?
This is because the firmware rev is so old?

And because these radios are VSELP astrolab 3.04 won't kill them?
How about if the s-record that I'm programming into these VSELP
radios has IMBE settings? Do I then need MTSX lab???

I always hear that the when doing this the flashcode should match?
What is the purpose in that? The whole idea of this excersise is to
upgrade the flashcode right????

We need to consolidate some of this info and verify it so we don't get
botched up radios.
Or are there too many variables at play here?

They are not even Vxxxx (:)) radios. Analog only. No digital modulation in them what-so-ever.

But with the appropriate codeplug/s-record they could be vselp?

No I dont believe so. You would need the appropriate firmware and dsp to support VSELP. The radio is analog only and without a dsp and possibly firmware change it wont do vselp or imbe.

Jason

So the firmware and dsp revs I listed above can't even handle vselp?

Correct. The firmware does not support digital.

You may want to read http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.php?t=23682 if you haven't already. It may help clear some things up.

KB9KST wrote:I've used 3.04 with IMBE stuff all the time. It never corrupts anything. If you do no unpack it just read the file, it doesn't do any checking of the data other than verifying the checksums to make sure the file is not corrupt.

Jason

Let me expand...I'm referring to reading a regular codeplug with LAB, and getting the "codeplug too new" error. With MTSX LAB 3.00.02, you can ignore that, and then go into the "write with no pack/unpack" screen & write the packed codeplug into the target radio. With the Astro 3.04, you will also get an "unrecoverable block error" of some type. It will let you then write the packed codeplug to the target radio, but you end up with an "01/92" error on the screen.

If you are directly reading one radio with no pack/unpack, and then forcing it into another, it probably works...don't know, never tried it. Same thing if you're using an actual packed S-record, probably works.

Let me expand...I'm referring to reading a regular codeplug with LAB, and getting the "codeplug too new" error. With MTSX LAB 3.00.02, you can ignore that, and then go into the "write with no pack/unpack" screen & write the packed codeplug into the target radio. With the Astro 3.04, you will also get an "unrecoverable block error" of some type. It will let you then write the packed codeplug to the target radio, but you end up with an "01/92" error on the screen.

If you are directly reading one radio with no pack/unpack, and then forcing it into another, it probably works...don't know, never tried it. Same thing if you're using an actual packed S-record, probably works.[/quote]

I did a little test. I did a read and got the "codeplug too new" error. Then I saved it under "F6 Write archive"
Then I did a read under "read radio no pack/unpack" then saved via "F6 write archive".
Now I compared the two files with a hex editor. I found a couple bytes different. Should this be so?

Still a bit confused about whether I should read the radio under "read radio no pack/unpack? then immediatly write this to the radio?

Or "read codeplug" get error then immediately write to the radio?
Sure would help to have a documented proceedure.