Question to guru: XTL5000 Different O5 Heads

[MotoFAN]

Guys,

Why Motorola offers 2 different versions of O5 head?



First with dark grey plastic insert and O5 mark at the top right corner.

Second one is with light grey insert and XTL 5000 mark. Also came with round /\/\ logo at the left.

Both for Motorola XTL5000!

Why???

And few more specific questions for guru:

1. They are fully compatible?
2. Which one is newer?
3. First one came as part of kit HLN1471_ (O5 CTRL HD/CHIB REMOTE REPLACEMENT). But second one?

[MotoFAN]

Version. Dark grey one is newer one and came exactly the same for XTL5000 and APX7500. Replacement for remote mount XTL5000 is HLN1471E (kit with CHIB included?), and just head (dash mount) for APX7500 is PHCN4000A. Anybody can confirm or disprove?

[ard099]

The dark grey head is the newer control head. It's compatible with the XTL5000 and APX mobiles and its what you get when you order a new XTL5000 or APX. The lighter grey is the older style head which came with the XTL5000 before the APX was released. I don't know why they changed the color.

[MotoFAN]

It's all about O5 head:

HLN1463A - CONTROL HEAD, XTL5000. Has been replaced with HLN1466G.
HLN1466G - XTL2500 CONTROL HEAD. The item HLN1466G has been replaced with HLN1466H. <-- WTF? How XTL5K's O5 can be replaced with XTL2500's head?
HLN1466H - CONTROL HEAD, XTL2500. Available = Y. $493.25.

HLN1463E - CONTROL HEAD, XTL5000. Has been replaced with HLN1467E.
HLN1467E - XTL5000 CONTROL HEAD. Item has been cancelled.

HLN1467B - CONTROL HEAD, XTL5000. HLN1467B has been replaced with HLN1467E.
HLN1467E - XTL5000 CONTROL HEAD. Item has been cancelled.
HLN1467G - XTL5000 CONTROL HEAD. The item HLN1467G has been replaced with HLN1467H.
HLN1467H - CONTROL HEAD, XTL5000. The item HLN1467H has been replaced with PHCN4000A.
PHCN4000A - APX7500 CONTROL HEAD. Available = Y. $655.00.

HLN1468A - REMOTE ASSY, CONTROL HEAD END. The item HLN1468A has been replaced with HLN1468C.
HLN1468C - CONTROL HEAD END REMOTE ASSEMBLY. Available = Y. $236.00.

HLN1471A - CTRL HD/CHIB REMOTE REPLACEMENT. The item HLN1471A has been replaced with HLN1471E.
HLN1471E - O5 CTRL HD/CHIB REMOTE REPLACEMENT. Available = Y. $432.00.

Motorola is not looking for easy ways... Who can understandably explain this kind of hell?

What is the differences between all of four available variants? Price range is $236-655!

batdude & Pj, need your help!

[MotoFAN]

Anybody?

[Bigfella237]

To the best of my knowledge, low & second tier radios (XTL2500 and below) can't use Odyssey control heads, they use Mantaray CHs, so I think there must be a typo in your first paragraph above as it doesn't make sense, although I have no idea which CHs those part numbers relate to?

[MotoFAN]

No any typos, all P/Ns and description from MOL.

[Pj]

I can't recall (little brain dead at the moment) but I think there was an inital break in production with the XTL5000's. This is/was either with the heads and/or the remote mount kits. Doug (I didn't dig it up yet being on the iPhone at the moment) wrote up the issue in his XTL guide here on the board.

I've never been able to get an M head (even swapping out most componets) to work with a XTL5000 (wanted to use that style, but no go) or vice versa.

Also Motorola is famous for giving multiple part numbers to the same thing. Some are referred back to how they are initally packaged or ordered (dash mount might have one part number - or similar and remote mount the same way....along with spare's, 2nd control heads etc). All are typically the same. HLN1234x ->x being the revision are suppose to be functionally the same. Even in some of the older manuals to newer manuals the part numbers are off. When I have some down time this week I'll see if I can dig up some stuff.

But as stated above for the OP - the black head is considered an O5 head and is compatible with the XTL5000 and APX series radios. The control head will see which radio its hooked up to and it will download the correct control head software to the radio. The O3 head works the same way. Those are the only two heads that I am aware of that are cross compatible with both lines.

The XTL5000 head will only work with the XTL5000 radio. I do seem to recall somewhere that there were some board componet changes in the XTL5000 O5 head, but I don't recall where the break was (memory chips IIRC).