Batboard

so i have seen a lot about converting a radius into a maxtrac, but i want to go the other way. the radius offers channel steering, the maxtrac does not. so...is it possible?
can i just blank the maxtrac logic board and force a radius codeplug into it?...along with the other necessary steps of course
both radios are 16 channel with no scan. the only difference i have seen so far is the channel steering capability of the radius.
thanks for any input

I would think that would work, as long as you have the expanded logic board. One way to tell is to look at it, and along the back edge you will see several circled holes with labels such as ACC8, ACC12, ACC4, etc. If the board has all of these accessory holes labeled, then it should support channel steering with the Radius firmware.

However, while there is software around that will let you blank a MaxTrac or Radius, you'd need to use Radius software to initialize the radio after changing the firmware. I don't recall ever doing that, but in theory it should be quite possible.

It seems like such a nice feature. I wonder why they never had it in the MaxTrac line. Maybe there's some signalling options in the MaxTrac that take the EPROM space away from channel steering.

Let us know how it works out.

Bob M.

I have done this conversion - it works perfectly - as posted here several times in previous topics which are easily retrieved using the board's search feature. [e.g. SEARCH: radius AND firmware AND steer*]

Just blank the logic board, change the firmware and [as Bob said] you must reinitialize the radio with Radius RSS.

oh there we go speculating why /v\otorola did or didn't do something that seems rather intuitive...there could be an entire web site dedicated to that alone....starting with why they're so difficult to deal with.
anyway, off the rant, it is such a usefull feature i was sort of bumed to find that my bargin basement priced maxtrac i bought didn't have it.

so after blanking the logic board will i need to go through the same process as if i am resurecting a dead gm300...i.e- use the prom access feature in the maxtrac lab to input a serial number, ect., or is all of that taken care of when i reinitialize with the raduis RSS?

The initialization process requires you to choose several things, such as the band split, model number, feature set, and the control head "panel" number. The last thing you get to enter is the serial number of the radio.

The model number and feature set depend on each other, so you may have to experiment with these until you get a pair that enables channel steering. A Radius service manual might give you a clue about the model numbers that you can choose from. You will probably want the feature called "maximum signalling" on the MaxTrac.

Once all this info is entered, the software writes it to the radio. If you make a mistake, you just blank it again and start over. After the base personality info is stored, you have to go through the board replacement procedure to set the tuning data: deviation, output power, frequency warp, etc.

Eventually you'll be able to actually create and populate the modes you want the radio to have.

Bob M.

so i would think i should be able to just "clone" or copy all this information from an existing radius with channel steering. if i go into the "more info" page or whatever its called, that should list all the information i need right....
sorry for all the questions, but i don't have my programming stuff in front of me right now to try and answer some of them on my own

I've never been a fan of the cloning operation, since I don't know how much it actually copies. I know it does the modes, but I don't know about the options or the tuning data. If you have another radio that does what you already want, then make the new radio the same model number when you initialize it, so it will have the same capabilities.

I've mainly played with MaxTracs, and have never used the accessory plug for anything (except the speaker jumper), so I have no experience with the options screens other than to set everything to default values.

Bob M.

When you re-initialize the radio, as Bob said, you set the model number, which creates a blank codeplug. If you initialize the radio as the same model as a saved archive file, then you could clone that archive file into the radio.

Scott, KB0NLY, has a couple of articles on the repeater-builder site that should answer all your questions.

http://www.repeater-builder.com/maxtrac ... index.html