ASTRO Saber Is - Can't Read/Write (w/RSS)

kgb · Post by **kgb** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 10:12 pm

Howdy folks,

Picked up 4 ASTRO Saber Is... all IMBE. Two work great, one having had a minor problem of a loose spannernut causing intermittent power. The other two cannot be read.

Here're the specs known:

H04RDC9PW5AN
HOST/DSP unknown. (One might be HOST/DSP 7.some.thing, the other likely HOST 5.xx.xx/DSP N06.xx.xx)
Flashes: 100004-000000-4

I get a no ACK/NAK error. The radio gives indication of entering service mode when I press ".." 5 times if tried. The codeplug is apparently trunking only, as any channel selection I try yields a "boooop" on TX when it can't handshake. It doesn't give me a POST beep on powerup, but the good radios weren't programmed for power-on alert either and work fine.

Might these two radios be inhibited, or the serial bus damaged? I even tried swapping cases with a known good case to no avail. Seems to rule out bad lineups of the flex.

Would forcing in a new S-record help? So far, the investment paid off.. these are bonuses...

Heylp? Any hints appreciated!

-The Gronk

fogster · Post by **fogster** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:21 am

kgb wrote:I get a no ACK/NAK error.

Just checking, since I've done it: you are using an ASTRO Saber cable, and not an ordinary Saber cable, right? I seem to recall I got an error along those lines when using the wrong (or a bad) cable.

Would forcing in a new S-record help? So far, the investment paid off.. these are bonuses...

I can't claim to be too knowledgeable in that area, but I personally would be awfully worried about forcing a new S-record into a radio that gave comm failures when I tried to read/write it.

kgb · Post by **kgb** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 4:36 pm

Good point. However, this is a known-good cable. It works on every other ASTRO Saber encountered. The RIB battery is also pretty fresh.

Post by **batdude** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 11:19 am

two possibilities if your programming setup is known good.

one - take the chassis out of the housing and reseat it. make sure the spanner nutz are tight and retry.

if that doesn't work - swap the case from one of the radios you CAN read to one of the ones you CANNOT... this will tell you if the housing is any good... the internal flexes in these radios are getting very old nowadays.. most around 7-10 years old... and they just get intermittent over time.

if that doesn't point to the cause, you have a chassis problem that's going to take more thought to repair.

d

kgb · Post by **kgb** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 2:06 pm

Hi Doug,

A case-swap was tried; chassis swapped from questionable case to known-good case. Didn't test the questionable cases with known-good chassis however. Good point.

Chances are this is an in-chassis problem. I hope it can be solved. The next thing I may try is swapping the VOCONs with known-good chassis and testing. If that does it, I'll have to investigate the bottom finger-array connector.

Thanks for the tips folks...

-The Gronk

misawatech · Post by **misawatech** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 8:14 pm

It's been some time since I've worked with the sabers but on an Astro there is a small horseshoe shaped clamp that holds the plunger in place. This plunger is what tells the radio there is something attached to the accessory connector. I've found that these clamps have come loose or where not there at all and could not read the radios. The way I was checking is to read between the antenna ports nut and the plunger. It needs to be shorted. If it is not then it is a good chance that this connection is disrupted