RSS ""Can't read codeplug" error?

[Rred]

I've successfully used the RSS software, under DOS with a real serial port, and a "ribless" cable, in the past. And can still use it successfully now. But one radio (an ancient HT1000) from the same vintage batch, which I HAD previously programmed with the exact same setup, refuses to communicate.

If I try to READ the radio's codeplug, or WRITE the prior codeplug to it (yes, I have that archived) the RSS software comes up with the big generic message "Cannot communicate with radio..." check the battery, power switch, cable, phase on the moon, etcetera.

Well, I've tried all that stuff, even tried cleaning the ribless contacts and pushing it around to make sure it was firmly on the radio. All no joy.

Is there something simple that I'm missing? Last year, it worked. This year, it won't. And no problem at all with the other radios from the same batch.

 

[drayd48]

Could the codeplug out of version? Try downloading CPFIX, press start, and then read you radio in your software.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

I seem to remember the Jedi series radios have a brittle flex which was known to cause problems...

Sent from my SM-T713 using Tapatalk

 

[FFPM571]

#1 CPFix is CPS is windows based. Will not work with RSS dos based. #2 that is not what CPfix is for it is Astro25 based.

 

[KG4INW]

I seem to remember the Jedi series radios have a brittle flex which was known to cause problems...

Sent from my SM-T713 using Tapatalk

I'll second this suggestion, especially since you describe it as ancient.

 

[Rred]

A brittle flex? That's a new one on me. I never met a flex/ribbon that just snapped form old age, while mainly nested inside equipment. Kinda hate to play Alien Autopsy just to find out that might or might not be the problem.

Anything online, or hints, as to how to access that flex? Presuming you mean it goes from the side connections to the main board?

 

[Nasby]

Get a flat head screw driver and slowly pop the bottom off (after you remove the top 2 knobs).

The HT1000 is a "snap together" radio.

It could be a fun experience to see all the cool stuff inside the radio and feel really good inside if you fix it.

Hey, and if that doesn't work, just buy a new HT1000 on Ebay for $13.00

 

[Rred]

Thanks, Nasby. Knowing it is snap instead of worrying about breaking hidden screws makes it easier. No great desire to play Alien Autopsy because "Been there done that" and I don't need another t-shirt. Don't NEED to fix the radio, either, but if there's a simple way to keep it out of the landfill and working another 20 years, why not?(G)

Not terribly eager to open it up, because a bad ribbon cable (flex, whatever) just seems too easy to be the problem, and I've got enough on the ToDo list.

I would call the "bottom" just that, the end opposite the top. I'm guessing what you call the bottom is what I call the BACK, the side that the battery snaps into.

 

[KG4INW]

Unfortunately, age can deteriorate the internal flexes on these radios, I've seen it before. Especially with use (mechanically speaking). Here's the Jedi service manual that will give the factory approved method of disassembly/reassembly, however Nasby is correct on the basic method.

 

[Rred]

Thanks, that certainly seems simple enough.

 

[N4KVE]

I have a bunch of UHF MTS2000's with a similar problem. I can program all of them with the newest CPS, & a ribless cable. However, that ribless cable will not work on my oldest FW MTS2000. 5.41. For that radio, I must use a rib, & factory cable. Don't know why, don't care, that's just the way it is.

 

[Rred]

Well, I'm resigned to the holy mysteries of "xx cable and xx software and xx radio just won't work" for no particular reason. Like the old old PC days, when I got an early morning phone call from a friend who was a programmer. (The real kind, who wrote in assembly language.) Phone wakes me up and a voice just says "What are the addresses for the COM ports?" Huh?

Turned out he was working on a Compaq, and Compaq and the "real" IBM PCs had all those different hardware addresses, code had to be written for the right systems. Let the stuff go out of production for twenty years, and that kind of detail tends to get lost, and the internet is often useless at documenting things that only existed in odd publications.

But this radio, cable, computer, software, all played nicely together last year.

I spent a fast five minutes on the problem tonight, amazing how easy it was to open the radio once I had some idea of where to push. Lots of flex cable, and at least to the naked eye, it all looked perfectly new. I'll have to pin out the lines the ribless cable uses to confirm that, but at least the disassembly was first class. Not much stuff is made that nicely!