Batboard

I'll start by saying we are a legit motorola shop. We sent out a radio for repair and the work order said that it replaced:

HLN6458L, FX Front End 800 & reprogrammed firmware.

Because they reprogrammed the firmware we needed to load our codeplug. This is where we get trouble, the RSS software puts out a message saying somthing like: Codeplug and radio feature set dont match.

Im guesing that the radio returned with more or less options turned on?

The code plug is not corrupt.

Does any one have any suggestions as to what the problem is

Thanks

Yes, I've had that happen in the past...sadly more than once or twice. I've had to go so far as to send the radio back to the depot with a copy of the codeplug on a floppy disk & ask them to make the radio so that it can work with the codeplug again.

What model radio is it? Can you read it to get the flashcode? How does it compare to the flashcode in your saved codeplug?

Todd

yan6 wrote: Im guesing that the radio returned with more or less options turned on?

That sounds about right, they must have put in firmware that had some different options, hopefully they didn't take out an option you need. I think if you can read the flash code you can find out what options it has and maybe compare to another radio.

To program it you'd probably need to enter everything from scratch, which besides being a pain also gives you one radio in the fleet who's codeplug isn't compatible with the rest. You may want to contact Moto about this one.

The flashcode is what confused me. When I read the radio it had the same flashcode as in the codeplug? Therfore the options should still be the same?

Did you check to see if it's the same model#? I've had boards come back with the incorrect bandsplit (ie: 403-470 instead of 450-520, for example).

One issue I've run across is with the MTX8000/838. The old controller boards were an "NCNxxxx" part number. The new ones are 'PMCNxxxx". Anytime I've received a radio back with the newer board, the codeplug is never compatible. Everything looks the same, and doing a screen-by-screen comparison shows everything to be identical...yet still get the 'feature set mis-match' error. Those are the ones I have to send back with the codeplug on a floppy to get it done right.

What model was your radio? MTS2000?

Drag and drop is your friend.

SG

I've gotten a batch of radios to program, all from the same order and with sequential serial numbers, and had one give me a feature mismatch error when I tried to clone it. If it can happen under those conditions, anything is possible.

It's not a CPS version issue is it?

normally a wrong CPS version will say something like "codeplug too new for application", but maybe it is still a version issue.

What model of radio, and what version CPS are you running?

open 2 copies of CPS

read the radio in one, open your saved codeplug in the other.
once BOTH windows are done and idle, right click on the taskbar and select "tile windows vertically"

drag the top of the tree on your saved codeplug onto the top of the tree on the window of the radio you just read.

once complete, write the codeplug from the window you READ the radio from.

we get this all the time, and the drag drop method will work.

once you get the codeplug in the radio, read the radio and resave it and this issue will go away (for that radio)

Hey guys thanks for the great support on this, I think I may be a step closer to solving this. I tried draging and droping the tree view and it gave an error message syaing that it could only handle 128 zone/channel combinations and that it had to deleted 64 of ours. If I'm not mistaken I think our radios can normaly do 256 zone/channel combos. Is the feature set (Motoflags) of the radios held on the vocon board?

By the way these are 800Mhz Astro Spectra Model # D04UJH9PW7AN

The flashcode for both the duff radio and the archive code plug is: 500008-000400-7

Check the host & dsp versions of the repaired radio in test mode, and compare it to one of your other radios. I recently had one come back with earlier versions than what the radio had when I sent it in! It also had a DVP-XL encryption module in it instead of the DES-OFB/DES-XL module it was sent in with! What a clusterf&%ck that was.

Todd

wavetar wrote:Check the host & dsp versions of the repaired radio in test mode, and compare it to one of your other radios. I recently had one come back with earlier versions than what the radio had when I sent it in! It also had a DVP-XL encryption module in it instead of the DES-OFB/DES-XL module it was sent in with! What a clusterf&%ck that was.

Todd

Yep... still going through something similar for a fellow Labber. Depot has had the radio longer than he has.

Well, it just never ends. I sent a SmartZone capable LCS2000 in for repair back in JULY. It finally arrived back 12 weeks later...no RX at all. Immediately sent it back out again...8 weeks later it comes back just the other day...with a regular SmartNet LCS/GTX main board in it!! This of course means it cannot accept the saved SmartZone codeplug I have for it. So, out it goes to the depot again. It's been 5 months at this point...God only knows how long this whole process is going to take!

Todd

Jeezus...I now have 3 SmartZone LCS2000 units, all back from Mexirola with standard SmartNet/GTX boards in them!

Apparently, the long turn around times were because they somehow didn't think to make any new 'tanapas' (Motorola speak for board assemblies) for repair once the product reached end-of-life. Well, they now have the boards for repair...they just have no clue what the differences are between the models!

Yeah, it's getting more and more interesting. I received a call on Tuesday about an M1225 that's been sitting at the depot since early October, advising me the scheduled ship date had changed to the 19th (Tuesday). They weren't clear on whether the parts supply issue (the main board, actually) had been resolved or if the radio was coming back RUR, so I called in and found out that the notes on the CS side still indicated no ETA on shipment.

I asked to escalate the call and am still waiting to hear back from the depot with an explanation. Even the repair status on MOL shows a changed ship date of 12-19

what has happened is that the firmware has probably been upgraded for rebanding.
With that you cant just dump the old code plug in.
As someone suggested drag and paste and it should work fine.

He said it rejected 64 modes saying it could only take 128. Since when is a W7 limited to 128 rather than 255. Sounds like they changed the number of total modes it can take.

For a hacker this is a simple fix but the legit way you have to send it back again, boy the depot sure is messed up from reading all this stuff.

Jason

I am an Xmoto RSC tech. I was in Juarez for 3 months training and setting up the facility. The techs there are dedicated and hard working people. It's the company that is killing the quality. Along with several other RSC techs, we did our best to install decades of experience in a very limited amount of time.

I now work for an MSS and have to put up with the same issues all of you are experiencing. We were considered to be overpayed board swappers. I guess with enough negitive feedback, it could come back. But it will be years before an efficient and first class repair center is back in place.

Good luck to all.

diggs59 wrote:The techs there are dedicated and hard working people. It's the company that is killing the quality. Along with several other RSC techs, we did our best to install decades of experience in a very limited amount of time.

I have to concur with this. They really are trying to learn this stuff, and they are turning around mid-tier product in two days or less now. Some of it is running a little longer. I have had my frustrations with them and some are on-going. But in phone and e-mail correspondence with them they have been very eager to make it work. The higher tier equipment has a steeper learning curve and that's what they are struggling with the most.

For all of you sending units in, provide as much info as possible. Tag the radio with Model,Flashcode(most important), use a translator(babelfish)for notes on radio. Attatch it to the radio as sometimes paperwork gets seperated by those who do not know the importance of this info to the tech. This may seem redundent, but it is your best way to improve turn around and take care of your customers. If you have a disk image to send, even better.

Help them help us.

Maybe they should just outsource to the batboard tech's

Thanks Alex. I gave this site as reference to some techs down there, so all of the Batboard techs ARE playing an important role in supporting the facility and our customers.

My repair team in Elgin had a motto"You can't destroy us, you can only annoy us" Still true. Now let's fix some radios.....................

Oh great, first they take jobs away from Americans, then they're going to come here and ask us how to perform the repairs we're paying them hundreds of dollars to do? Insert infamous Markos Moulitsas quote here.

Maybe we shoud look in to adding advertisements for Kenwood, Yaesu, and other products - to appear only when hit by mexico IP's to make some cash for the board?

Hey Guys, I didn't mean to take this in the wrong direction.

We had limited time to save the integrity of a competent repair facility. I used this site myself to find information in the past because I respect the knowledge and dedication to M products represented here. If you you think that my 350 associates(mostly still under or unemployed) and I are rejoicing in this, please think a little harder. The Mexican techs did not take our jobs, Eddie Z. shipped them out. In fact, they were told they were going to work with us, not replace us. It was not until 2nd quarter '06 that they realized the truth. They are scared and we're out of work. We were not given a choice other than to pass on the knowledge we had, or say screw the the customer. Those of us with some integrity feel justified in what we did. We did fight this, and many good people lost their positions doing so.

Got a beef. Call ED, your congressman, the President, your mother, or whoever...............Sorry for the way it's going, but we did our best.

Believe me diggs, I don't blame the poor suckers trying to do the repairs, nor do I blame the long-standing repair personnel from Elgin for trying the impossible, which was cramming 30 years worth of experience into a few months. I certainly don't blame the local Motorola office who've provided loaners & dealt with the repair depot via phone for us. Hell, I don't even blame the techs at the Motorola Toronto facility for not checking the units when they've come back from repair in the U.S...after all, they're used to things being fixed properly. The blame sits squarely in the lap of Motorola Corporate, who've lost sight of what taking care of both it's customers, and it's employees actually means. I'm employed by an MSS, and am a pro-Motorola radio person in most aspects of this field. I'm simply letting the people here know, and by extension hopefully Motorola, that what they've done is hurting them. The cases of improper repair aren't isolated, nor infrequent. And the same ones are occuring with unsettling regularity. They turned what was a world-class repair process into a joke.

Todd

This is encouraging... just as I'm sending some radios to the depot for repair.... great....

So, has anyone had luck specifying "US repairs only" in a new moto contract?

Most of our repairs from "Texas" have been fine, except we have one issue that just will not die! We sent in 2 CDM control heads, and they sent one of them back as an Astro handheld control head. Umm, that’s not right. After sending it back in (with a case number) to get the correct control head back, we waited a week, and we received the Astro head back (supposedly repaired) and they billed us too. WTF?

Yep, we sent in a W4 control head...waited nearly 2 months, and received a W7 back! Took nearly 4 more weeks to get the proper head switched out & returned to us.

Yup, sent in the CDM1550, got back the CDM1250.
Nothing that 2 1/2 months and 2 trips back didn't fix.

And the hilarity continues. Sent in an MTX850 for low RF power...unit came back with a new board, and tags matched the original...but the codeplug in it was for an MTX8250. Also, no transmit audio at all. Back to the depot it goes...



Todd

Sounds like that MTX850 was LABotomized!

Hmmm, Lab for the Trunking Pro series could be very fun to play with! An 8250 would be much more useful with SmartNet or SmartZone features (like its Latin counterpart has).


You guys need to send in a good bottle of Tequila with your next repairs and see if that improves the quality of your returns!

We had seriously thought of sending in a Spanish translation of some of the problems we were having with our units, but we were afraid that someone might get offended and throw in a few extra loose metallic pieces of hardware in a radio and send it back "Repaired".

It seems like they are being forced to crank them out so fast that they don't even have time to turn on the unit & verify its operation. I would like to see them include some kind of check-off sheet or computer generated test form of the radio. That might help the tech catch some of the more blatant and obvious mistakes.

Honestly, I hope that Motorola straightens out this mess so that we can all move on.

~WEC

Victor Xray wrote:Hmmm, Lab for the Trunking Pro series could be very fun to play with! An 8250 would be much more useful with SmartNet or SmartZone features (like its Latin counterpart has).

Bummer they don't sell the ATS2500 up your way then. It does SmartZone OmniLink, 250 modes etc.

Wile E. Coyote, I don't think you'll ever get a unit back intentionally screwed up. The techs are doing what they can given their limited training and support. Not in their nature anyways.

Your second point identifies the real problem. Total production is all that matters. I was there. It's a service depot run as a production facility. I hope someone changes this soon too.

diggs

The funniest thing (if you can laugh about this stuff). There is a new notice on MOL. It explains about the new "Repair depot Packing Slip".
It shows a sample packing slip from the repair depot. Obviously this repair slip was typed by someone that has difficulty with English.

Under the repair notes section the depot tech has typed in:

"Your radio needs fixed"

Too funny!!!

RFguy wrote:Yup, sent in the CDM1550, got back the CDM1250.
Nothing that 2 1/2 months and 2 trips back didn't fix.

I wonder if stuff like this is why eBay has so many radios with no model numbers displayed (aside from refurb kits) or statements like "pic shows a 1550 but it's REALLY a 1250". Depoted radios that came back mutated and the owner says screw it and pawns it on eBay?

Gee...
I used to defend moto till the bitter end.... I wonder if all that was for nothing..... well most of the local 2 way shops are still pretty good.. I hope that if i need anything repaired... it'll go no further...