Help with LPE-200, radio died

[GILMOORE]

Yes The Radio Goes In To Program Mode But Thats About It

 

[GILMOORE]

The software iam using it doesn,s seem to like my commands then i double click on the bin file it gives me a message wear to store the bin file thats not right because a can,t find a bin file

 

[rescue161]

The software iam using it doesn,s seem to like my commands then i double click on the bin file it gives me a message wear to store the bin file thats not right because a can,t find a bin file

You are using "Radio Maintenance" for some reason and should NOT be. You need to use "ProGrammer" to read/write the radio. "ProGrammer" is going to allow you to modify the codeplug and data in the radio. I see that you're messing around with BIN files, which is a BAD thing. Normal programming has NOTHING to do with *.bin, *.enc or *.trk files. You are on the fast track to destroying your radio.

I'll say it again - Read the radio with ProGrammer, NOT Radio Maintenance!

 

[rmiles]

So I PM’d GILMOORE to try and help him out. He sent me the radio. I was able to turn it on, but could not change the currently displayed TG. I had no problem getting it to enter programming mode. I hooked it up and read the personality. No problem there. Then I looked over the personality, to be certain it was properly programmed for receive only. Guess what, it is!!!! Auto login is not selected; all TG’s have transmit unselected. So, just for good measure, I changed his LID’s, saved the file, and tried to load it back into the radio. Shortly after I hit program, I got this message;

“Encryption Data Not Found at Location or Format Incorrect. Use the Maintenance Program to Recover the Radio before Programming”.

I selected the only choice, “OK”, and then got this message;

“Radio programming could not be completed”.

I am relatively proficient with, and very comfortable using ProGrammer & RadioMaint. I open RadioMaint, read the tracking data, bin & DSP files with no trouble. When I read the feature data from the radio, it did, or I thought it did, because when I tried to save it, I got an error, and when I tried to edit it, I got this error;

“No Valid Feature Data. Select Yes to create blank feature data. If you select No, use Get Status function with radio connected or read feature data from file”.

I selected “No”. When I looked over the Radio Maintenance Report, there is nothing printed for feature data, and on the Radio Status Information screen, there is a “NO” in the Feature Encrypted field.

So I’ve explained in excruciating detail that this radio has lost its feature encryption. The question is how do we get it back?

 

[rescue161]

There is a guy named Ken on the Radio Info board. He may be able to help. The OP really screwed the radio up by goofing around in Radio Maintenance... As I said earlier, DO NOT USE Radio Maint to do ANYTHING that involves programming the radio.

M/A-Com may or may not be willing to send a new feature string. I had an Orion a while back with the same problems. I called M/A-Com and the lady pulled up the serial number and emailed me the feature set that they had on file for that particular radio. If you're lucky, they'll do it for free. I just upgraded an M7100 to FPP and P25 and it cost me about $450.00 for that feature string. They're proud of their software.

 

[rmiles]

Yeah, I know Ken, (n_zero_ndp). I have his email address around here somewhere. I'll post this on there as well. I know he's been known to visit here occasionally as well. I would guess I'd call TAC to get that on Monday? Is Stephanie still doing those? I heard she might be leaving.

There is a guy named Ken on the Radio Info board. He may be able to help. The OP really screwed the radio up by goofing around in Radio Maintenance... As I said earlier, DO NOT USE Radio Maint to do ANYTHING that involves programming the radio.

M/A-Com may or may not be willing to send a new feature string. I had an Orion a while back with the same problems. I called M/A-Com and the lady pulled up the serial number and emailed me the feature set that they had on file for that particular radio. If you're lucky, they'll do it for free. I just upgraded an M7100 to FPP and P25 and it cost me about $450.00 for that feature string. They're proud of their software.

 

[rescue161]

Yeah, I know Ken, (n_zero_ndp). I have his email address around here somewhere. I'll post this on there as well. I know he's been known to visit here occasionally as well. I would guess I'd call TAC to get that on Monday? Is Stephanie still doing those? I heard she might be leaving.

It's been YEARS since I had to fix the Orion. When I tried to order the upgrade for the M7100, M/A-Com would not deal with me directly because I wasn't a dealer. They made me go through a dealer to get the upgrade... FPP and digital work great when talking to my Motorola Astro Saber/XTS radios.

 

[ElroyJetson]

Email the TAC and ask for feature string recovery on this radio. Provide the ESN and serial number.

My experience is that they'll do a couple recoveries for you for free, but only a couple.


And do not hesitate to charge the owner of this radio a penalty fee for doing something stupid, which in this case is screwing around with the maintenance tools after being told explicitly and repeatedly not to do so.


Elroy

 

[rmiles]

He sent me this a short while ago;

Serial Rom#9DD6C8070000
FEAT DATA 1
Ø1DEØB3A4153
FEAT DATA 2
A63DFAA721CØ
FEAT DATA 3
36A4Ø4714ØØØØ
SYS GRP#65535
TRK System #255
CNVCHN#65535
Ø4, Ø8, 12,23,29
SYS KEY PVT DIS
GRP KEY PVT DIS

So I entered it as a new feature encryption as;
01 DE 0B 3A 41 53 A6 3D FA A7 21 C0 36 A4 04 71 40 00
wrote the file to disk and dumped it back into the radio. Still got the same errors. Then I performed a complete recovery of the radio, after which I, yet again tried to reprogram the personalty, and still I get the same error messages.

 

[ElroyJetson]

Do you get an error 550, 551, or 552?

If you're unable to get the radio off a conventional channel, you won't see that error.

In that case, delete any and all conventional channels from the personality and write only trunked data to it, trunked data that utilizes the defined feature set. (Provoice, for example.)

Then see if you get those 550 series errors.

If you do, you have a feature encryption problem, still.


Elroy

 

[rmiles]

That's the really weird thing. The radio never displays any error codes. I boots normally, and displays the last TG it was monitoring. But it does not respond to any key/button presses, and turning the channel knobs results in no channel change. But I can turn it off, put it in programming mode, and basically do anything I want to the radio. Weird

 

[rmiles]

OK, I tried to dump in the feature he emailed me, but the feature data size is wrong. Usually, feature strings for the LPE have 16 pairs, with zeros on the end. This string has 17 pairs. It cant be odd, and it can't be more than 16 pairs, so what gives???

I took the feature string out of the one ProVoice LPE I have, just to see what would happen, and dumped it into this radio. Well, progress, I think. Now I can get the menus to display, but only on conv channels. When I first re-booted the radio, it was set to an EDACS TG, and I got;

INV SYS
ERR=0551

And if I re-boot on a conv ch I get;

FEAT ERR
ERR=0551

When I arrowed to conv ch's the radio works fine, on analog. But if I change the ch to a DV ch, and press PTT I get DIGV ERR.

It's looking more and more like this radio's going to have to be re-featured. Not cheap from what I've heard.

 

[JungleJim]

That's good. The features you loaded into the radio won't work. The feature encryption is tied to the ESN so the feature encryption for one radio will not work in any other.

The feature error shows that the encryption is no good. having no features means that any EDACS systems will show up as invalid systems. the DIGV ERR simply means that the channel is programmed for digital but you don't have the features to support it.

Whenever you program a radio with programmer it will save both the tracking and feature data in the backup folder under the ESN as the filename. If you can find it on a computer that was able to program the radio the last time it worked you can load it in to the radio and it should work.

If you are unsuccessful, take the radio serial number, model number and ESN and email them to TAC with a short explanation that the radios feature encryption has been corrupted and you need a replacement. They should have on record the features purchased with the radio and will email back a new feature string. If it is not in their system you may need the purchasing info to show what it was supposed to have. If the radio is a remanufactured (aka bastard) the numbers might not jive and you will get a feature string with only the basics in it.

You may also consider contacting the place the radio was last bought from. They may still have the features on file also.

Any of those options will cost you nothing. TAC is very easy to work with.

 

[rmiles]

The radio is supposed to have been a FMR referb. So I emailed them a photo of the radio tag and all the cogent information. No reply. So then I tried emailing TAC. I went to M/A-Com’s website, and filled out the TAC online form and submitted it. No reply. Why is M/A-Com so obstinate toward “non commercial” customers?? I even have a government email address and still I can’t get anywhere with them!

 

[jfroot]

I've had similar experiences trying to deal with MA/COM as a "hobbyist".. When I called them to upgrade to MAXSYS/GRP they asked what agency I was with and I said.. I am with myself.. This really seemed to confuse the lady on the phone. She didn't know what to do. Then I tried a local MA/COM shop here in Vancouver and got an even ruder response when I told them I was merely a private citizen.

 

[rmiles]

It's been well over a week since I contacted FMR and TAC. Still no response out of them. Anyone have a direct contact there they could put me in touch with? I really want to follow through with this, so if my radios ever have a problem, I've already done the leg work, and I'll know exactly what to do to get mine repaired in the shortest amount of time. Although, I always back up my files, so that shouldn't be an issue, but you never know! One thing is for certain, it should NOT be this difficult!

 

[GILMOORE]

Still need support for LPE-200 ENC file.

Good morning to everyone. Guys, i'm still looking for support. My radio has been not working for at least a month. I paid too much money for this radio to have it sit and not work. This forum is a support forum. So guys, why haven't I solved my radio issue? Someone knows how to contact Tac and get that file. Where else does a person get support if he doesn't get it here? There is no other support for that type of radio. Guys, i'm noit going to take no as an answer. Serious replies only.

Ps: Remember, I paid a thousand dollars for this radio. And I do have a family to support. And before you criticze put yourself in the other person's shoes. Thanks guys, I know someone has the knowledge. There's too many smart people on this site not to be able to get a simple file. You can pm me if you prefer.

 

[morganAL]

If your feature encryption file is hosed, the ONLY way to get it back if you don't have a backup copy is to go through TAC. 1-800-528-7711 opt 3. The feature encryption string is derived from a combination of the radio's physical serial number, the ESN (electronic serial number), and some black magic that only M/A-COM knows the recipe for the potion (and only a few people know it).

 

[loumaag]

Attn: GILMOORE

Starting a new thread is not the answer, especially when the original thread is still current. I moved your new thread and the one response to your original thread.

 

[rmiles]

Good morning to everyone. Guys, i'm still looking for support. My radio has been not working for at least a month. I paid too much money for this radio to have it sit and not work. This forum is a support forum. So guys, why haven't I solved my radio issue? Someone knows how to contact Tac and get that file. Where else does a person get support if he doesn't get it here? There is no other support for that type of radio. Guys, i'm noit going to take no as an answer. Serious replies only.

Ps: Remember, I paid a thousand dollars for this radio. And I do have a family to support. And before you criticze put yourself in the other person's shoes. Thanks guys, I know someone has the knowledge. There's too many smart people on this site not to be able to get a simple file. You can pm me if you prefer.

Just so there are no mistaken notions. I've not charged Gilmoore one red cent for any of the time (HOURS!!!) that I've put into trying to get his radio back up and running. In fact, I never planned to charge him anything, and told him that up front. I'm just trying to help out a fellow hobbyist who is obviously not familiar with the delicate art of radio programming. I'd prefer to have the radio properly configured by someone who knows what they are doing, than someone who does not. If that means performing the service for free, then so be it. Knowing that I’ve circumvented someone from possibly interfering with a public safety radio network, the ramifications for which are VERY harsh, far outweighs the measly monetary gain that charging for the service would yield.