Adding keypad/display to VX160, VX417?

[nh7cy]

I've been curious about this for a bit.

Basically I have a small fleet of VX160s and VX417s laying about and naturally have a box of parts radios. Naturally, the 160s seem to share the VX180/190 circuit board, while the 417 shares the 420 circuit board.

My question was: Is it possible to add a DTMF and display to a 417 or a 160?

While many units I've worked with required some "tweaking", I've had a few others that have only required a new case, lcd, and keypad rubber to obtain DTMF/Display capabilities (interesting, especially considering the cost difference between some of these radios and their supposed upgrades)

Figure its only about $30 in parts per radio, but I'd rather see if anyone has experimented with this before I go off and buy anything.

 

[radiotweester]

It is possible to do just by recasing. The VX160 to a VX180 should be very forgiving in the software. The VX417 to the VX427 can be done, but you will need either Windows ME or XP (I don't remember which I used). I did it by mistake to a VX427 when they first came out. I ended up with no keypad or display. I played around and got a VX417 to function as a VX427.

On a side note, the VX4100 8 channel can be made in to a 501 channel just by ordering a new front panel. They use to be ~$30. Install it, read it and you have a VX4200 with a VX4100 serial #.