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Spectra A-4
- Thread starter wayatsi05
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diskmonger
Member
FAIL 001 is a Synthesizer out of lock condition.
Spectra radios are great radios but they have a really bad problem with leaking capacitors on the circuit boards. Sometimes if the radio has leaky caps you will see this error. I own 3 spectras and 2 of them had this problem.
See here: http://www.batlabs.com/spectra.html
Also, took this from another website:
"As these radios get older, the electrolytic capacitors can become a problem. If the electrolytic capacitors on the control head boards, radio drawer command board or RF board leak, it will disrupt the operation of the radio. Any leakage will also eat through the printed circuit board traces if left there long enough. The more common problems are radios that will not power up, get stuck in SELF TEST or give a FAIL 001 error message. Electrolytic capacitors are not the only cause of these problems, but they are becoming a fairly common cause. Keep this in mind when trouble shooting these radios."
Spectra radios are great radios but they have a really bad problem with leaking capacitors on the circuit boards. Sometimes if the radio has leaky caps you will see this error. I own 3 spectras and 2 of them had this problem.
See here: http://www.batlabs.com/spectra.html
Also, took this from another website:
"As these radios get older, the electrolytic capacitors can become a problem. If the electrolytic capacitors on the control head boards, radio drawer command board or RF board leak, it will disrupt the operation of the radio. Any leakage will also eat through the printed circuit board traces if left there long enough. The more common problems are radios that will not power up, get stuck in SELF TEST or give a FAIL 001 error message. Electrolytic capacitors are not the only cause of these problems, but they are becoming a fairly common cause. Keep this in mind when trouble shooting these radios."
rescue128
Member
are these fixable. i have one with the same error. bought it of a guy named denny in chicago, said it worked great, he wont return my contacts with him
The caps are not too hard to replace, but you do need a knowledge and some experience with surface mount rework.
Thing is, if the caps have leaked out too much, irreversible damage may have occurred as the electrolyte will etch away the PCB traces. These are multi-layer boards, so fix them early or they'll never work right again.
Here's a more indepth article on the capacitor problem:
http://www.repeater-builder.com/motorola/spectra/spectra-caps.html
Thing is, if the caps have leaked out too much, irreversible damage may have occurred as the electrolyte will etch away the PCB traces. These are multi-layer boards, so fix them early or they'll never work right again.
Here's a more indepth article on the capacitor problem:
http://www.repeater-builder.com/motorola/spectra/spectra-caps.html
Last edited:
silverbk
Member
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2004
- Messages
- 172
rescue128 said:
Yes they are fixable, shoot over to Batlabs and look up Wil he does them for a living and is very reasonable.
Also make sure you are getting power everywhere. Even with bad caps a spectra may work intermittently. They have to really be shot to give a fail 001 there is usually some prior flakiness.
You can open the control head and examine it with a magnifying glass, look for leaking and damaged traces.
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