KDFtool/KFDshield timeout

[furdog58]

Are the units high power units (110 watt) ? If so, key load at the base unit not the control head. If not I'm sorry I could not be more helpful. Don't give up.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

I once had my board drop the firmware and gave me fits. I reflashed the firmware and all was well.

 

[efficacious]

I once had my board drop the firmware and gave me fits. I reflashed the firmware and all was well.

Im glad I double checked trying a firmware upgrade. I thought I was upgrading the firmware and the ucm, but it seems like only the ucm upgrade is succeeding. It turns out am not able to flash the firmware on any of my radios, even the ones that are keyloading. I am ordering a bluemax49ers cable to hopefully be able to reflash the firmware. I will update on whether it works or not, thanks for all the help so far.

 

[KD9ZJK]

The UCM firmware version may be too old. Emc r01 & r02 do not support ckr/sln. You will need to put the radio into “service mode” by turning the radio on and pressing the optional button above the ptt button within 5 seconds 3 times. After a few seconds you will see your xts’s emc firmware version. If the emc version is 0 there is no ucm installed. If any one knows how to keyload a xts series radio with emc r01 or r02 using a Kfd tool or shield plz post how on this forum because I do not know!

 

[efficacious]

I have gotten the cable, and I'm now able to upgrade firmware. So that's a small win. Reflashing doesn't seem to have fixed the issue. My radios are both R20.50.07 and UCM "SECURE VER" R05.07.15. They both have KG1 AES-256.
They both still show "keyloading" on the LCD when the KFDshield is not plugged into the computer, but my two radios that do keyload don't do that.
They both wont keyload, and give an "Error -- timeout waiting for data" when I try to "Detect MR" or keyload. I've tried "Multiple Keyload" with my usual key container, and "Keyload" (one at a time).
The KFDshield still passes the "Self Test" and works fine with my two other radios.

 

[KD9ZJK]

I have gotten the cable, and I'm now able to upgrade firmware. So that's a small win. Reflashing doesn't seem to have fixed the issue. My radios are both R20.50.07 and UCM "SECURE VER" R05.07.15. They both have KG1 AES-256.
They both still show "keyloading" on the LCD when the KFDshield is not plugged into the computer, but my two radios that do keyload don't do that.
They both wont keyload, and give an "Error -- timeout waiting for data" when I try to "Detect MR" or keyload. I've tried "Multiple Keyload" with my usual key container, and "Keyload" (one at a time).
The KFDshield still passes the "Self Test" and works fine with my two other radios.

I am more familiar with the xts3000’s so my previous “advice” on the firmware versions does not apply to the xts2500’s.

 

[marcotor]

The KFDshield still passes the "Self Test" and works fine with my two other radios.

Then you must by now know the issue is with the Radios, not the tool or cabling. If these XTS2500's are eBay special PRC surplus radios, it could be anything including the pins are worn, or if they have "refurbish housing" from China, those could very well be the culprit.

At this point, swapping a housing for a known good unit would be in order.

 

[efficacious]

Then you must by now know the issue is with the Radios, not the tool or cabling. If these XTS2500's are eBay special PRC surplus radios, it could be anything including the pins are worn, or if they have "refurbish housing" from China, those could very well be the culprit.

At this point, swapping a housing for a known good unit would be in order.

I swapped the UCM into a known working unit. I could no longer keyload the known working unit (now with the working UCM). I could keyload on the other unit that wansnt keyloading before(now with the non-working UCM). The non-working UCM loaded with a working key, the seller used a kvl4000. Could it be that the board version I have just doesn't like a certain setting either in the radio or KFDshield?

The UCM that isnt working is a 0104027J01
The UCM that is working is a 0104025J12

 

[efficacious]

I now have tested 11 surplus PRC-153s. 4 have the problem that I have been describing.
3 have the exact same 0104025J12 UCM that the working ones do. 1 has the 0104027J01, no idea where that came from.

It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the settings on the radio, or be affected by firmware/UCM updates or re-flashes.
I've tried housing and ribbon cable swaps as mentioned above too, no luck.

I don't know if it is something to do with the KFDshield. Two of the radios that are not keyloading now were previously keyloaded successfully with an original KFDTool and a KVL4000 respectively.
I am sending one back to see if it can be keyloaded by the KFDTool again.
Has anyone with both devices ran into being able to keyload on one and not the other?

I guess it could also be the connectors on the board itself. Has anyone else tested these with a multimeter before?

 

[furdog58]

Some thing I just thought of. With the KFD shield you have to use their software or firmware cant remember. Not the regular KFD Tool Firmware/software. KFD shield has Info about it and you can download at the GitHub link they provide if needed. Also sorry from before on the Model being a XTS not XTL.

 

[furdog58]

If It

The KFDshield still passes the "Self Test" and works fine with my two other radios.

When you say works fine with the other radios. If so Disregard my post. Sorry

 

[W0VNE]

Just a note for what this is worth. I bought both the Arduino Hat for KFD crypto loading and one of the Chinese KFD Clones from EBAY with a short 3 pin audio style jack to a connector for the XTS-5000 (And 3000s I think) and wanted to report that the Chinese clone needs to use the original KFDTool not the Arduino code. My Mini came preloaded with firmware and I decided not to "fix" anything not yet broken.
The XTS cable was as close to what I actually wanted to load keys to which is the EF Johnson series 5100 radios. I think the difference of importance is that on the Mic end you have to run ground to the OPT2 Pin 5 to put the radio into Keyload mode. I found as others have noted that the first time you run KFD Tool you always get some sort of communications error but the simple solution is to select the correct com channel which on my gear is COM9. Then you can do a hardware check (With the radio not connected) and read if there are any internal keys or not. BTW I've tested this with Ver 1, 2, 3, 4 and the 6ES versions of the radio and all worked out of the box with no need to add security modules etc. I've only tried the AES and DES modes not the XL Motorola only modes. The radios need to have crypto modes enabled and make sure that when your enabling P25 DES OFB and P25 AES OFB you don't have Multi-Key Disable checked or you will be limited to a single crypto key. It "seems" so far as I can tell the Versions 1, 2, 3, 4 of the radio load up to 16 Keys. The version 6 6ES seem to let you load more but I'm not sure what the limit is.

By the way if your adding keys to a number of radios the keyloader seems to sometimes get into a funky mode which I've always fixed by just unplugging the USB cable and plugging it back in.

This is the pinout that I used which has worked but is not official (So it might be wrong but it worked for me) On the mic end I ground pins 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 12. Data goes to pin 13. Sense? Seems from the schematic I've seen to be wired to ground on the side of the keyloader but? Maybe I don't understand it properly.

I'm very interested in making up a crypto key loading cable for the EF Johnson 5300 series Mobile Radios. If anyone can share the connection list? THANKS!

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Just a note for what this is worth. I bought both the Arduino Hat for KFD crypto loading and one of the Chinese KFD Clones from EBAY with a short 3 pin audio style jack to a connector for the XTS-5000 (And 3000s I think) and wanted to report that the Chinese clone needs to use the original KFDTool not the Arduino code. My Mini came preloaded with firmware and I decided not to "fix" anything not yet broken.
The XTS cable was as close to what I actually wanted to load keys to which is the EF Johnson series 5100 radios. I think the difference of importance is that on the Mic end you have to run ground to the OPT2 Pin 5 to put the radio into Keyload mode. I found as others have noted that the first time you run KFD Tool you always get some sort of communications error but the simple solution is to select the correct com channel which on my gear is COM9. Then you can do a hardware check (With the radio not connected) and read if there are any internal keys or not. BTW I've tested this with Ver 1, 2, 3, 4 and the 6ES versions of the radio and all worked out of the box with no need to add security modules etc. I've only tried the AES and DES modes not the XL Motorola only modes. The radios need to have crypto modes enabled and make sure that when your enabling P25 DES OFB and P25 AES OFB you don't have Multi-Key Disable checked or you will be limited to a single crypto key. It "seems" so far as I can tell the Versions 1, 2, 3, 4 of the radio load up to 16 Keys. The version 6 6ES seem to let you load more but I'm not sure what the limit is.

By the way if your adding keys to a number of radios the keyloader seems to sometimes get into a funky mode which I've always fixed by just unplugging the USB cable and plugging it back in.

This is the pinout that I used which has worked but is not official (So it might be wrong but it worked for me) On the mic end I ground pins 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 12. Data goes to pin 13. Sense? Seems from the schematic I've seen to be wired to ground on the side of the keyloader but? Maybe I don't understand it properly.

I'm very interested in making up a crypto key loading cable for the EF Johnson 5300 series Mobile Radios. If anyone can share the connection list? THANKS!

The problem with the EFJ 5300 series (and the Viking series) is that which adapter you need depends on which control head you have on the radio. Standard...you need the adapter for that Hirose mic connector. Lightning, well that's a different Hirose mic connector. Viking...you guessed it is a different Hirose mic connector. Then once you get into the second generation Viking mobiles you can support the Standard, Lightning, Viking, or KCH series heads.

 

[W0VNE]

The problem with the EFJ 5300 series (and the Viking series) is that which adapter you need depends on which control head you have on the radio. Standard...you need the adapter for that Hirose mic connector. Lightning, well that's a different Hirose mic connector. Viking...you guessed it is a different Hirose mic connector. Then once you get into the second generation Viking mobiles you can support the Standard, Lightning, Viking, or KCH series heads.

I do have on lightning head but not too interested in it. As to new Viking series radios that sounds interesting but I've got about as many 5300s as I need and probably couldn't afford a new version.

What I'm looking to do is build my own cable. Its all original 5300s or maybe later the 53ES I'm interested in. Paying for the Hirose mic connectors with the Hirose connector (And the cable I don't need) this jazz all cost more then I've spent on the two KFD clones and the 3pin to Jedi/5100 mic connector. I'm not sure why so many people seem to be using these parts which I think are priced for people who have the cash for a motorola KVL keyloader. *Which is not me. Unless there are some radio that need some extra electronics in the connector to Hirose connector. For the XTs-5000 / EFJ 5100 is just grounds and data. As far as I can tell it doesn't even use the sense line. But... Maybe that was supposed to be connected to the OP2 pin? As in the radio will see "sense" being ground from the KDF? I've dug half way through a couple of the 5300 / 53ES service manuals and looked at schematics but the signals for putting the radio into keyloading mode aren't obvious to me. *Not that I'm any genius at this.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

I do have on lightning head but not too interested in it. As to new Viking series radios that sounds interesting but I've got about as many 5300s as I need and probably couldn't afford a new version.

What I'm looking to do is build my own cable. Its all original 5300s or maybe later the 53ES I'm interested in. Paying for the Hirose mic connectors with the Hirose connector (And the cable I don't need) this jazz all cost more then I've spent on the two KFD clones and the 3pin to Jedi/5100 mic connector. I'm not sure why so many people seem to be using these parts which I think are priced for people who have the cash for a motorola KVL keyloader. *Which is not me. Unless there are some radio that need some extra electronics in the connector to Hirose connector. For the XTs-5000 / EFJ 5100 is just grounds and data. As far as I can tell it doesn't even use the sense line. But... Maybe that was supposed to be connected to the OP2 pin? As in the radio will see "sense" being ground from the KDF? I've dug half way through a couple of the 5300 / 53ES service manuals and looked at schematics but the signals for putting the radio into keyloading mode aren't obvious to me. *Not that I'm any genius at this.

To the best of my knowledge, EFJ only ever manufactuered a full cable to interface between a KVL and their radios. There was never a HR10A Hirose adapter like we got with Motorola and the W series and GCAI.

For the LF10 12 pin connector used on the Viking Series head, this is based off the EFJ Engineering Documents for PN 585500094001, a HR10A adapter would be as follows:

• HR10.3 to LF10.1 (EFJ labeled Keyfill)
• HR10.4 to LF10.3 (EFJ labeled Ground)
• HR10.4 to LF10.5 (EFJ labeled Keyload)

That should get you a refence you can compare to the Standard head's Hirose adapter in a service manual.

Edit: To clarify, HR10.3 would be pin 3 on the HR10A connector and LF10.1 would be pin 1 on the LF10 connector. Also, to put the radio into keyload moad you short the pin labeled "Keyload" in the service manual to the data ground for the KVL.