FPP vs CPS on XTR2500?

[blaze]

Hi,

Please forgive what is doubtlessly a laughably basic question, but I've read and searched everything I can find online and can't figure out the answer. Please be gentle with me, I'm new at the XTS programming...

I have an XTS2500 with FPP enabled, that, I was told, is flashed with both the Q52 and Q53 options. But neither the Q52 nor the Q53 bit is set in the flash code that gets displayed when I put the radio in service mode (it's 000000-0C000A-6). The radio is running fairly old firmware -- 4.50.00.

I want to change a few things that require the CPS, but I want to make sure not to delete the FPP feature while I do it. I have the latest (yes, legally acquired) CPS (V14), just downloaded from MOL, (but no programming cable for this radio until next week, so this is a somewhat academic question until the cable arrives).

I recall reading that under some circumstances, particularly if you have only one of option Q52 and Q53, programming an XTS radio with the latest CPS can disable FPP. But my radio doesn't appear to have either according to the service mode flashcode, and yet it definitely has FPP.

Is there any way to safely program this radio with CPS?

Any advice much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[bezking]

Hrmmm.. You seem to have a bit of an impossible flashcode there. First, you must get that updated. 4.5? That's more than fairly old. That's older than dirt. I wouldn't be surprised if v14 just outright refuses to read or write it.

Now, on to that impossible flashcode. According to Akardam, you have 9600 Baud Trunking, but no P25 voice. Since you can't use a 9600 Baud system without P25 voice, I don't see how this could have come from Motorola.

Are you saying that you have neither Q52 or Q53 yet you can FPP the radio!? That's definitely some black magic... I honestly could not give you an answer as to what will happen when you try to read that...

 

[blaze]

Thanks for the response.

Yes, I agree, the displayed flashcode makes no sense (and the radio definitely has P25 voice). So I'm guessing the flashcode is simply wrong, probably suggesting the radio was clumsily hacked somewhere along the line, but I'd like to nurse it back to good health and give it a good home.

 

[bezking]

Sorry that I couldn't have been more help.

You will want to head over to batboard.batlabs.com - this is a community of Motorola experts who will be able to help you out...

 

[blaze]

OK, this is just getting weirder and weirder.

I was able to read the configuration with ASTRO25 CPS R14 -- and I get a completely different flashcode from the one I get in service mode. The CPS thinks the flashcode is 0A1008-102710-4, and allows me to program the radio accordingly.

The good news is that this flashcode includes Q52 and Q53. Yay.

But the bad news is that the flashcode DOESN'T include digital voice. CPS therefore won't let me program any of the channel personalities to have digital or mixed TX or RX, which is something I definitely need (and that the radio definitely does have, on the channels that I can currently program with FPP).

Any obvious way to hack around this and preserve digital on this radio? I guess I could pay for a flashcode upgrade, but that seems silly given that I clearly already do have that feature.

(I'll also check on Batboard).

Thanks all.

 

[W2NJS]

You will have to have the radio reflashed so that the first digit/character of the flashcode is either a 1 or a 5. The number 1 will give you the P25, and an additional number 4 will give you enhanced display which you definitely want since your radio has a display screen. The total of both numbers in the first position equals 5 so that's why you need to have a five there. Zero means no P25/digital whatsoever. Each flashcode position can be made up of multiple features which is why you have to add them all up to understand what is in each position. Somewhere on Batlabs there is a long, complete, involved, boring, but very good explanation of the makeup of flashcodes.

 

[blaze]

Thanks for the reply NJS

Right, I understand how to decode the flashcode, and that I should have the 1 and 4 bits set in the first digit to get digital voice and the ID display (and that this flashcode doesn't).

But what I don't get is why the radio works fine in P25 as it is! I can definitely program digital via the FPP, but the CPS won't let me re-write to the radio without disabling digital in the channel personalities.

 

[rc50won]

This radio was either hacked or somehow the code plug has become corrupted. W2NJS is correct in that to get this radio to function the way you want it will have to be reflashed. CPS is smart enough to only allow functions that it sees as enabled in the flash.