Batboard

Having seen the number of vocon boards in the for sale section in the last couple months I have been toying with the idea of building an astro saber. At this point its just an idea and I really have not done any looking into it (i.e. buying a service manual) and I figured posting some basic questions for the experts to answer would be the zero step.

-First, it is going to save me any money? Besides having the fun and gaining the knowledge I would from trying the build the thing it is not worth it if I have to spend more than the going rate for a used factory or watchbuddy saber.

-Second, are all of the parts easily available from Motorola? I would purchase (if still available) a vocon off the board and would try to get almost everything else from the factory.

-Third, how hard is it to screw up? Even if I can save a few hundred dollars it is not worth it if it doesnt work and I spend months tracking down problems.

This radio would be used for monitoring only and the odds of me ever selling it would be slim so I shouldn't have to worry about any liability issues. As far as the vocon, I dont need (and really dont want) the ability to do 9600 baud trunking so a 512k board, like the one r0f has for sale, would do me fine. I probably wont have time to start on this project until may or so but I want to start gathering information and parts (hopefully) now.

Thanks in advance for your help!
Mike

Your better off buying one off a batlaber or fleabay. By the time you order all needed parts from /\/\otorola and get a 1meg vocon off ebay, you'll be at much more than it would be to buy a new radio.

Also you might need special software used in-house at motorola, and is never sold to the public.

Best bet.... buy one already built by a professional

You could get half way there and buy and AS1 and build it up from there. I would not recommend buying second hand Astro parts on Ebay however, unless you are buying from a well known proven good seller.

Frank

I inquired about the same exact project a short while back, I seriously considered buying all the parts new, piece by piece and creating my own parts built astro saber.

I know it is possible and as others have mentioned- could be expensive.

r0f also advised me that it it wouldn't really be feasible- and also said it would be more realistic to buy one used and he is one of the gods around here when it comes to astro radios.

Although I am very capable of piecing together parts from an exploded view diagram, it seems there is more to it than that-all is not always as it appears to be on ebay-lots of scammers and unless you buy from someone known to be reputable or a member of this board-buyer beware!








But on a lighter note if you should decide to go ahead I have a new frame (metal only-NO electronics and a new basic service manual for cheap! (I scrapped my project idea)-----------------John

Thanks you all for your input!

I really never had any intention of relying on ebay for parts. I always feel like I am gambling buying anything serious on ebay, especially something I cant test immediately after receiving it. Any parts I might use would be obtained either here (as much as possible) or new from Motorola.

John: if there really is more too it than putting together parts from an exploded view then I probably dont want to mess with it. I dont exactly feel confident shelling out $500-$1000 unless it really is that simple or close to it.

To build a complete AS3 around a good vocon what else would be involved besides assembling components and a little soldering (if any)? Will it be ready for programming or does something else have to be done?

Thank you all again,
Mike

Fuel4300 wrote:Thanks you all for your input!

I really never had any intention of relying on ebay for parts. I always feel like I am gambling buying anything serious on ebay, especially something I cant test immediately after receiving it. Any parts I might use would be obtained either here (as much as possible) or new from Motorola.

John: if there really is more too it than putting together parts from an exploded view then I probably dont want to mess with it. I dont exactly feel confident shelling out $500-$1000 unless it really is that simple or close to it.

To build a complete AS3 around a good vocon what else would be involved besides assembling components and a little soldering (if any)? Will it be ready for programming or does something else have to be done?

Thank you all again,
Mike

You'll probably need some labtool software to setup the model/ flash code info etc.

Frank

The key components to an astro saber 3 are:
Vocon and shield with 4 screws
RF board, jumper to vocon and RF shield
Frame (including volume and channel controls)
Model 3 Housing
Front Display Board Kit including speaker and mic.. etc.

Then you need antenna and battery.

As people have said before, the easiest is to buy a model 1 (or even better a model 2) and get the rest of the parts to upgrade.

To convert a model 1 into a 3, you will need a Front Display Board, and a Model 3 Housing... that's it.

To convert a model 2 into a 3, all you need is a model 3 housing.

The trick to it, finding a model 3 codeplug or srecord with all the needed goodies to jam into the radio using lab. (See other posts regarding lab and it's evilness.) Also, save the tuning data from the original radio before you lose it by overwriting them with the new codeplug. As long as the original was tuned, the values should be ok.

If you parts shop, look for "new old stock" stuff.... It has a greater chance of working. But you never know unless M new ($$$$)

If you need help along the way with parts ID and such, be sure to ask rOf, he's WELL versed in astro stuff...

tpg

Good stuff.

Maybe a dumb add-on question, but how complete must a radio be to be refurbished by the Depot?

Like if you had, say, a bad controller, a Vocon and maybe a housing, doesn't Moto replace a bunch of parts anyway when a radio is refurbished and/or reflashed?