Astro Flash Codes...

jwood · Post by **jwood** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 2:25 am

What is needed to Read and Write a Flash Code into a XTS-3000 ????

This is what my radio has now

Options Installed on this Flashcode:

500004-000000-5

Q806/G806 IMBE / APCO-25 Digital Operation
H14/G114 Digital ID Display
H37/G60 Smartnet Operation

I would like to have a few other options placed into the radio...
Programming the radio is a breeze for me! but I have never played with the FLASH PORT

Post by **wavetar** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 4:29 am

An 'official' FLASHport upgrade must be obtained through Motorola directly. Actually, you might be able to go through a dealer, but they in turn are required to go through their local Motorola dealer rep. Required info to give is number of radios, list of serial numbers, current flashcode, and flashcode you wish to upgrade to.
Unless you 'know somebody' at Motorola, the chances of getting a legit FLASHport upgrade are slim. It is meant for large corporate clients to upgrade dozens/hundreds+ units at at time, not Joe Average with 1 or 2 radios.
If you do manage to obtain one, it will come with 3 disks. One disk with the upgrade software on it, another with the latest SRIB software on it, and a third blank floppy, with instructions on how to use it as a system boot disk. There will also be a DB-25 'hardware key', which is inserted in-line between your SRIB & programming cable. This key determines how many flashes you can perform, and will also only allow the upgrading from one specific flashcode to another specific flashcode.
I'm not going to go into the exact details of the process involved with the actual installation of the FLASHport upgrade & programming of the radio, since if you are successful in obtaining one, it comes with complete instructions.

As an alternative to the above, some people have LAB RSS, which can force new options into the radio. The options will work, provided the current HOST/DSP firmware can support it. If it cannot, the FLASHport is pretty much the only way to go.

Todd

ASTROMODAT · Post by **ASTROMODAT** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 9:57 am

We just uplifted some XTS3000 radios in late September, 2003 from Analog to IMBE. We got 2 disks in the FLASHport kit---one had the actual FLASHport, while the other had the latest firmware for the SRIB. I don't remember getting any boot disk. The procedure was to load the FLASHport to the PCs hard drive. Then, the other disc was written into the SRIB. After that, you just hit the "FLASHport Upgrade" button in CPS 3.0, and away you go! It was VERY slow. The first radio took 27 minutes just to put in the IMBE, while the other radios went faster. I believe this is because the FLASHport is loaded into the SRIB first, and then the SRIB writes to the radio. Therefore, after the first radio is loaded, subsequent radios only need the SRIB to write to them, and there is no need to keep writing to the SRIB. However, I also noticed that there were a bunch of other FLASH items in the kit. Motorola said that these were "compatibility loads," and various other loads that fix previous bugs, and in general were a software re-fresh, bringing the portables current.

FLASHport is very expensive stuff, to be sure, but it does work! Maybe someday it will come down in cost, and we could buy it from Motorola over the Net. I can see why the cost is high for the features stuff, but one can only hope that the software refresh FLASHport would someday be a no charge download. A simple software refresh for the DIU3000 is $700 per unit, yet we must have this firmware so they will support the new UCM modules. We'd gladly operate with our existing DIU firmware (1Q02), and use the ECMs from 4Q99 and previous, but the new UCM has replaced the ECM cartridge, so we are stuck! Starts to get costly very quickly at this rate.

Larry

ASTROMODAT · Post by **ASTROMODAT** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 11:46 am

I think the plan with the new generation radios (XTS5000 and XTL5000) is to make it just incrementally shy of impossible (or at least unacceptably difficult) to "roll your own."

Larry

Post by **wavetar** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 5:15 am

ASTROMODAT wrote: I don't remember getting any boot disk.

It's been about 18 months since I did a FLASHport upgrade, so you're likely correct. The boot disk was for the DOS based RSS, to ensure a 'clean slate' when the computer turned on. This obviously isn't necessary for the Windows CPS.

ASTROMODAT wrote: The first radio took 27 minutes just to put in the IMBE, while the other radios went faster. I believe this is because the FLASHport is loaded into the SRIB first, and then the SRIB writes to the radio. Therefore, after the first radio is loaded, subsequent radios only need the SRIB to write to them, and there is no need to keep writing to the SRIB.
Larry

Correct. Once the SRIB software has been loaded for the first radio, subsequent radios are much quicker. BUT, if you stop the session (exit the CPS) before all radios have been completed, it will go through the same procedure the next time you fire it up to continue the upgrading. Best to do them all at once.

Todd

ASTROMODAT · Post by **ASTROMODAT** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 10:31 am

The other thing to keep in mind when doing a FLASHport upgrade is to make darn sure you really do have a good, fresh battery on that portable (plus have both the AC supply on the SRIB and the SRIB batteries turned ON), since the first upgrade can take almost a half hour to load. I have heard the various horror stories about what happens if your radio dies, and/or is disconnected, etc. during a FLASHport upgrade session----sounds quite nasty! We upgraded a few of our ASTRO Spectra mobiles on the bench with an external 12V DC power supply, and I wondered what might happen if there was a power glitch (Murphy's Law) during the FLASH load. It felt safer in terms of upgrading the ASTRO Spectras in the helicopters and vehicles since they were on their system batteries, which were no way going to die in 30 minutes.

Larry

Post by **wavetar** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 3:04 pm

ASTROMODAT wrote:(plus have both the AC supply on the SRIB and the SRIB batteries turned ON)
Larry

Does the 'D' version SRIB have a 9-volt battery plug? Our 'C' version does not. It doesn't even have a place underneath for the battery, like the regular RIB does. I always assumed it was because Motorola didn't want people using the battery alone when doing FLASHport upgrades. There's obviously still the chance the AC power will fail, but is much slimmer than a battery going low.

Todd

ASTROMODAT · Post by **ASTROMODAT** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 3:44 pm

My SRIBs have the Motorola optional (field upgrade kit) battery compartment underneath the belly off the SRIBs (not sure if our units are the RLN-1015C or D models). I like the battery backup because here in Western Washington, we have lots of power glitches, and full blown outages ALL the time, especially during the winter time (due to falling trees on power lines). I'd be afraid to do a FLASHport without the battery backup, as Murphy's Law dictates that's when a power outage will occur! I can look and see if our units are the C or D model and let you know, if you are interested. I was not aware that Motorola dropped this battery backup option on current SRIB models.

Larry

Post by **wavetar** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 12:59 pm

Just an update on some of the things we touched on in this thread. I just received three separate FLASHport upgrade packages, one for MCS2000, one for XTS3000, and another for Astro Spectra. All three packages arrived with 3 floppy disks. One disk with the applicable radio upgrade software, a second with the SmartRIB software, and a third blank floppy for making a system boot disk.

The booklet contained within has instructions for both DOS RSS, and Windows CPS upgrade methods. I had 17 MCS2000 radios to upgrade today. I did the first 12 with DOS RSS, since that's what I'm used to. I performed the final 5 with CPS. Both methods took approximately the same amount of time. The nice part about the CPS is that it has a descriptive header for each block of the 20-step process. Unfortunately, a lot of the steps fly by so fast it's difficult to catch what it's saying. I have most of the steps written down, and will catch the rest when I upgrade the XTS3000 & Astro Spectra radios. That'll happen as soon as my "D" revision SmartRIB comes in from Motorola! Then I'll post all the steps for all of our hacker friends out there.

Todd

RocketNJ · Post by **RocketNJ** » Fri Jan 09, 2004 1:19 pm

If it is a defect and the radio is under warrantty then they should not charge. For those that want to refresh firmware on older radios to support new features. (like VSELP to IMBE) then they pay.

George

r0f wrote:I think it's insane that Motorola charges their customers for firmware upgrades, when they're correcting problems which they themselves initially sold to the customer!

I don't know what kind of world M lives in, but when I screw up, I pay for it. I don't pawn it off on other people unless they screwed it up.

Thank you for the "alternative" upgrade methods.

S