"Invalid system" error on Jaguar?

[ElroyJetson]

I got someone to program up my Jaguar, using a file that was known to be good the last time it was used, not that long ago.

Now, on about half the departments in the radio, I get an INV SYS (Invalid System) warning whenever I go to them.

What might cause this, and what's the corrective action?

CJ

 

[emtLarmy15]

This is a guess and purely a guess...but is it possible that your radio is trying to log onto the system's CSD? If it is, and the LID is not in the CSD, then that could be why your getting the invalid system...or maybe they have changed something since the last time that programmer file was used........ I am sure someone else will be along that can help ya better...

Chris

 

[ElroyJetson]

What's a CSD? I'm not familiar with that term.

The radio is definitely NOT logging on. It's been programmed purely as a scanner and we've made very sure of that.

I had two personalities reordered and the radio behavior changed.

Let me get a little more detailed about the radio's setup.

I have about 200 groups in the radio divided among about thirteen named departments and four systems and tower sites.

I have north, central, south, and east tower sites, numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Each site has verified correctly ordered and complete LCN lists.

I have the radio set up so that the rotary knob changes between the 13 agencies. For the sake of discussion, an agency as it appears on one of the rotary selector positions will be called a personality.

The personalities are set up like this, from first to last:

1 Podunk PD, south tower, groupset PODUNK
2 Podunk PD, east tower, groupset PODUNK
3 Boondocks PD, south tower, groupset BOONDOCKS
4 Redneck City PD, south tower, groupset REDNECK
5 Redneck City PD, east tower, groupset REDNECK
6 Clueless Sheriff's Orifice, south tower, groupset CLUELESS
7 Clueless Sheriff's Orifice, central tower groupset CLUELESS
8 Little Cracktown PD, central tower, groupset LILCRACK
9 Cracktown PD, central tower, groupset BIGCRACK
10 Little Beachside Cracktown PD, central tower, group BCHCRACK
11 Outhouse PD, north tower (and I'm rarely in range of it) groupset OUTHOUSE
12 Clueless Fire-Rescue, south tower, groupset CLUEFR
13 Clueless Fire-Rescue, central tower, groupset CLUEFR


I use master groupsets for each agency, which contain all the groups
that they use on ALL towers. If a given group, say a tac group, doesn't have any allocation on one tower but does on another, it doesn't matter. The central tac groups are not used on the south tower, and vice versa, but it certainly doesn't do any harm. This allows me to have fewer groupsets to keep track of.


In this original configuration, personalities 1 thru 7 worked and the rest gave the INV SYS error.

I had personalities 8 and 9 moved to slots 3 and 4 as a test.

In that configuration, the moved personalites began to work, and the two personalities that got displaced to slots 8 and 9 CONTINUED to work. I gained two working agencies and lost none. All I did was get them shuffled around a bit.

Do you have any idea what's going on here?


Elroy

 

[emtLarmy15]

No sorry I am at a lost. I don't get into the actual programming of radios, just tell the radio man what I want done and he presses some buttons and does it.

The CSD is the main computer that controls an EDACS system. At this moment, the acronym's meaning has slipped my tongue...wanna say Communications System Director......but I may be wrong.... but anyway, in our radio system thats where all of our vital system info is store, LID's, Talkgroup ID's ect... Basically when we key our radio, the radio sends a request to the CSD to talk on the selected talkgroup. The CSD then checks our LID to make sure it can talk on the system, and I believe that talkgroup...Then once given permission by the CSD a message is sent back to the radio, advising all ok and it keys up (which is usually about 500 ms).... Then we are on the air. Now I may have a few things mixed up, so hopefully someone else will be along that knows a heck of alot more than I do.

Chris

 

[jcs162]

The "INV SYS" message shows that the system is beyond what the radio is set up to do. For example if its a 128 sys/grp radio you can program in a lot more systems and groups, but when it trys to access anything past its set limit of 128 it gives the error message. The memory is there for all those extra systems but the feature data won't let the radio use them. Check the "features" screen from the menu on the radio and scroll through the information, it will show how many systems and groups the radio is set up to do. The way to get it to access the rest of the systems is to update the radio code and feature data, and trust me on this one, don't let just anyone try it. It is real easy to make these radios a paperweight by trying to use the data and code from another radio to try and enable more features in yours, sometimes it works but most of the time it won't

 

[ElroyJetson]

Now we're getting somewhere!

My radio's features by the menus:

sysgroup# 128
trksys# 255
cnvch# 65535

Features:
4
7
8
12
16
23
29

Feature data 1: 01470B339C9C
Feature data 2: 16274515C7C9
Feature data 3: ABEBD4400000

Memory sizes are
EEPROM 2K
RAM 128K
FLASH 1MEG

But this radio's firmware seems to be a little bit out of sync with itself. In the revision menu, it shows these gems:
EEPR SIZE 2K
RAM SIZE 2K
FLASH SIZE 128K
SYN PWR 1 MEG
TRX PWR 23.00
EEPR SIZE (gives personality filename)
PERSNLTY (gives personality filename)

Those are NOT typos! That's what the radio actually says in the revision menus!

DSP RAM 16R05F01
FLASH VER S1R04A04

I had the file checked and I've got 283 talkgroups in total. That would be the problem, I guess. So I am going to figure out what to toss out and have it done.


Alternatively....what are my options for radio upgrades?


I do have another working Jag here as well, which I repaired when I realize the low sensitivity was due to a bent RF contact. Nice to get an easy one, every now and then!

It has an older copyright date (1999 vs. 2002) but it has personality version 23.00, and its DSP and FLASH revisions are:

DSP RAM 14R05C01
FLASH VER S1D01A07

Its revision data reads normally.

But, it's a pre-production model and ALL 32 options show as enabled! I think that's probably not accurate.

It says its capacity is:
sysgrp# 65535
trksys# 255
cnvchn# 800

It seems to work fine but also gives the same INV SYS error.

It presumably needs a proper flash.



What are the options?

Elroy

 

[ElroyJetson]

Holy...!!!

I just ran the features from the first radio. It's pretty cool!


04 - Group scan
07 - Dynamic regroup
08 - EDACS emergency operation
12 - AEGIS/VG TX and RX operation
16 - Data TX and RX calls
23 - Narrow Band Operation
29 - IMBE vocoder operation (EDACS ProVoice)


It's a radio that was rejected as "uneconomical to repair" by my county and sold at auction for peanuts. I put a new display board into it, cleaned it up, screwed it together, and it worked from the start. I had to take it to the county radio shop to get it deprogrammed because it was ACTIVE on the system. Of course I showed them the auction paperwork including their own work order showing the radio as "uneconomical to repair" with all the serial data on it, so they know that the radio's legally mine, and they verified that it's been stricken from the county property records for me so that we'd be sure there was no trouble.

I think the shop may have tightened up their evaluation of incoming radios as a result of this. A new display and front cover for a Jag are not so expensive that it would make the repair uneconomical!

If I really wanted to be an ass, I could have taken this radio to the county commissioner and asked why the radio shop was condemning radios that were easily repaired and expensive to replace, but I'm not into stirring up trouble, especially when the guys at the radio shop have been quite decent to me.

The local radio shop is helpful enough but they won't program radios for me (or anyone else who's not "official", at least not on the public safety system.) I understand why that is and don't lose any sleep over it.

There ARE others out there who will and they know who they are!


Elroy