Programming a CDM750

[SteveC0625]

I just received a used CDM750 VHF, and am having some problems programming the P1 and P2 programmable buttons.

Our primary channel has a repeater at the north end of the county, but operates simplex on the output side of the repeater for the central, western, and southern areas of the county. I entered the proper frequencies and TPL codes and the radio hits the repeater just fine.

I want P1 Short Press to toggle the Talkaround feature, and set it to do that in the Programmable Buttons menu. I also checked the Talkaround box in the proper personality menu.

The software writes to the radio properly, but when I replace the programming cable with the microphone, pressing the P1 button just gets a single beep and no change in the repeater access. It if works correctly, I think I should get an indicator light above the P1 button, and the tone should be a beep-beep indicating in or out of Talkaround.

I tried programming P2 for Talkaround and got the same results. Can't seem to get Hi/Low Power to work, either. I also tried to set one of the channels to a lower power setting and that won't take either.

What am I missing?

 

[gary123]

you have to assign the button function in the radio wide field. Once set corrrectly you will hear a 'beep' rather than a 'bonk'

 

[SteveC0625]

you have to assign the button function in the radio wide field. Once set corrrectly you will hear a 'beep' rather than a 'bonk'

I think I already have that set correctly:

Controls & Menus --> Conventional Buttons --> Programmable Buttons

 

[IAmSixNine]

You wont see a marker above each button if its pressed. For example if you choose scan, on the top of the screen you will see a Z with arrows on each end, that represents scan.

I think direct is represented |--| .. If you program in a channel with CSQ it will show a speaker for carrier squelch.

 

[SteveC0625]

You wont see a marker above each button if its pressed. For example if you choose scan, on the top of the screen you will see a Z with arrows on each end, that represents scan.

I think direct is represented |--| .. If you program in a channel with CSQ it will show a speaker for carrier squelch.

Except this is a CDM750 which has no display, just buttons and a few lights.

 

[IAmSixNine]

DOH.. my bad, you are absolutely correct, my apologies to the original poster. I quickly read the title and was thinking of a 1550. Sorry.

 

[trlrdrdave]

Looks right to me. But seems like i had this trouble too one time. Make sure there is no other instance of the function in the mic button area. If there isn't turn all functions to unassigned. Try one at a time (volume set maybe) on long or short and see if you can get one of them to work. Look in the radio config menu and change it to standard min if it isn't.

 

[gary123]

set both the short and the long to talkarround sometimes the default push is too short for the radio to act on it. the radio thinks you are selecting long press.

 

[SteveC0625]

set both the short and the long to talkarround sometimes the default push is too short for the radio to act on it. the radio thinks you are selecting long press.

Tried that early on with no success. But a good plan anyway.

But today I am going to follow trlrdave's plan. First, "unassign" all the functions for P1 and P2. Then assign just one function to P1, write the radio, remove the program cable, plug in the mic and see what happens.

If things work, I was going to have P1 be Talkaround on both long and short press anyway as I don't want or need a lot of the other functions offered. Besides, a lot of them don't work on the 750's.

Thanks to everyone so far for jumping with ideas. I'm still playing with it so any other thoughts or ideas are very welcome.

 

[SteveC0625]

OK, now I am really stumped. I actually have two CDM750's and both are behaving exactly the same. The personalities all program up just fine, but when I go to assign any functions to P1 and/or P2, nothing takes.

I am really running a simple setup in these radios. No option boards, standard microphones only, PL only on the one repeater channel, CSQ on the other three. No MDC or DTMF at all.

Both radios transmit and receive just fine. But no matter what I do, the two programmable buttons won't take anything. They just act like they are unassigned.

All I need is the Talkaround to work, and maybe High/Low power.

 

[SteveC0625]

Problem solved!

A gent over on the batboard suggested that I disable Auto Scan and see what happens.

I went into the CPS, turned off scan everywhere, and then enabled P1 short press for Talkaround for the primary channel, and P1 long press for Hi/Low Power.

BINGO! It worked just fine.

I went back in and set the two channels to scan without the Auto Scan function, enabled P2 short press to Toggle Scan On/Off, and wrote to the radio once again.

Works great. Thanks to all who offered suggestions. Now I know these two radios are OK and have learned a whole bunch about programming them.

 

[IAmSixNine]

Thanks for the follup as well. I learned something new today.
I was the idiot that first thought you had a 1550. LOL
Just goes to show now matter how long you have done commercial 2-way theres still room to grow.

 

[SteveC0625]

Part of this I have to place the blame on Motorola for not making tutorials readily available, and not offering a programming manual. But forums like this one tend to ease the pain.

One more note, I also figured out that functions like Toggle Talkaround and Toggle High/Low Power are disabled when the radio is in scan mode. Turn scan off, and the toggles work correctly. I know that isn't exactly a programming issue but since I reprogrammed one radio a half dozen times before I realized this, perhaps my experience will help the next guy down the line.

Again, thanks to everyone for offering ideas and suggestions.