Programming XPR 6380 in Smartnet mode

[ericcc65]

I've been asking a few questions here over the past few months as I've been trying to understand and evaluate trunked mobile systems. One neat thing is that I've been able to play with a few Aeroflex test sets and motorola handsets with CPS software. Generally I have to get the settings to match up before they will talk. So far I've been successful with TETRA and MPT1327 handsets/CSP/Aeroflex units. But I'm having trouble now with my XPR 6380 handset and Smartnet.

I licenses for an account with motorola and bought the CPS for this handset. The user interface is the most modern and up to date of any of the other CPS for the other systems I've tried. But I can't seem to get things working. The most confusing to me, to be honest, is it feels like the configuration settings don't allow for everything that I would need in order to program a trunked mobile system.

For instance, there is just a list of channels (either analog or digital), but I would think I should program in the control channel. I don't see a place to enter the connect tone either. It just doesn't feel like a trunked system.

I see in the device features that it should be free to convert to "3600 Trunking," which seems to be exactly what I want. But I bought this handset from a dealer and whenever I try to go to Device->Convert I get "No matching package(s) exist." Is there some way for me to convert to 3600 Trunking? Thanks.

 

[mikewazowski]

Have you flashed it with the Smartnet firmware?

 

[ericcc65]

Have you flashed it with the Smartnet firmware?

Please excuse the ignorance, but how do I do that?

At this point I'm quite afraid that whatever is necessary will either require shipping the radio back to the dealer and/or more money. This is the CPS package that I bought from Motorola:

RVN5115AC CPS R9.0 GLOBAL MOTOTRBO DVD

 

[mikewazowski]

You probably need a Device Migration Package which will convert your radio from TRBO Conventional to Smartnet/Privacy Plus trunking. The files can be downloaded from Motorola Online.

You then use CPS to convert the radio.

 

[ericcc65]

Thanks so much. I'll have to check again tomorrow but that might have been one of the "Additional Packages" on the install CD. I hope so.

For what it's worth I have tried searching in this forum (cps is unfortunately too short of a word) and the internet. But I find the motorola catalog to be nearly impossible to search, I finally had to call and ask for part numbers. I might try that tomorrow but in the off chance do you know where I might find that online? Is it just in the business online section or somewhere accessible for those without accounts?

I hope I'll be able to do this. As mentioned I bought the radio from the dealer. Every time I try to enable different features it asks for an Entitlement ID, which I don't have. Trying to reach the dealer to ask these questions too.

Thanks again for your help, it's much appreciated.

 

[mikewazowski]

The firmware and device upgrade packages are all on MOL which requires you to have an account. http://businessonline.motorolasolutions.com

Anything requiring an entitlement ID is an option that must be ordered from Motorola. Motorola will give you the entitlement code which enables the feature.

 

[ericcc65]

Thanks. I do have an MOL account so I'll give them a call and see if they can support this.

 

[ericcc65]

I callled Motorola and there was some problem with the MOL account, it hadn't registered that I bought the software for this and didn't show the downloads I needed. They changed some configuration in the account and told me what to download.

If others find this difficult the problem for me was that this software isn't in the catalog. It's in the Resource Center, Software, Two-Way, MOTOTRBO, Conventional - Firmware. From there I downloaded and installed the Device Upgrade Guide, Device Conversion, and Digital Firmware for my radio.

Supposedly at that point I should have been able to fire up CPS and choose Device, Convert. But the dialog that came up didn't have any Firmware or Codeplug for me to select. I found on another forum that the solution is to do Device, Update first. I had to do that twice as the first time it made me re-install a Motorola driver for the USB connection, it found it on my CDROM that had the CPS. After that upgraded at that point I was able to choose Device, Convert and I've got it in 3600 trunked mode now.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[mikewazowski]

When the radio is upgraded, it drops into Flashzap mode. When it does this for the first time, it must install the driver for Flashzap. The first time you do it the driver isn't loaded and by the time the driver is loaded, the process fails.

The second time works because the driver is loaded.

 

[ericcc65]

When the radio is upgraded, it drops into Flashzap mode. When it does this for the first time, it must install the driver for Flashzap. The first time you do it the driver isn't loaded and by the time the driver is loaded, the process fails.

The second time works because the driver is loaded.

Makes sense, that describes perfectly what happened to me. I'm grateful for these forums because I believe it was here I found a thread talking about having to run things a few times before it worked. Plus I think a thread here gave me the idea of upgrading the existing firmware for conventional/digital first and then being able to apply the Smartnet firmware. I'm also glad I just happened to have the CD in, I think that's where it pulled the driver from.

I was a little worried because I couldn't remember if I bought a Motorola cable or not. I bought aftermarket cables for a few of the other handsets, which worked fine for CPS, but I'd read it matters when you're flashing. Well, the cable had the marking of the Motorola part number so I crossed my fingers and tried it and it all worked.