XPR XPR6580 programming woes

[wyomingmedic]

Prepare for a woeful tale of despair.

Radio: XPR6580

Cables: Genuine Motorola PMKN4012A x2 (I have two separate cables)

CPS: TRBO version 16. Build 828 (Last version 1 CPS), and the newest version 2 CPS (don't remember the number off the top of my head)

Computer(s): WIndows 10 machine, Windows 8 machine, Windows 7 machine. All have functioned beautifully for XPR programming for many years. All have a fresh version of legit CPS.

ALL of the computers with every combination of the two available cables, refuse to read XPR radios now. The cable is getting installed via Windows as a USB device and NOT a network device like they normally do. I've downloaded every driver I can get my hands on, freshly installed the CPS multiple times. Same result with 2.0 CPS. The cable/radio comes up as a Motorola radio # X for about 30 seconds, then becomes a standard USB device that is happy as can be.

Am I missing something in an update? This whole system worked about a month ago without problems. Now, nothing works. I have been beating on this for two days now. I got one radio to program one time magically, but have since been unable to program anything else and am at my wits end.

HELP!!

 

[Project25_MASTR]

There's a B revision of the PMKN4012 cable. I seem to remember it being required after CPS 10.5.

 

[wyomingmedic]

Okay, bit of an update for future searchers who have the same problem as I

The "A" revision cable works fine for the XPR6XXX line of radios, but NOT the newer 7550 line. There is ample documentation online about why, and how to modify an "A" cable into a "B". Not my problem in this case.

Around CPS versions 10 to 12, Motorola made a lot of changes to the USB driver revisions. Radios that had older firmware than 1.12.XX aren't necessarily able to use CPS on a Windows 10 machine (and potentially not windows 8, but I can't confirm that through my own adventure). The radio that was borking my whole operation has a firmware of 1.08.XX <----- OLD. I don't even have the firmware files to attempt to upgrade it.

BUT, because the firmware is so old, it would never read on Windows 10 machines. BUT, being a hoarder, I was able to dig up an old Windows XP machine that had an install of CPS 10.X on it. To my utter amazement, CPS 10 and the same USB cable was able to immediately read and write to the radio to my heart's content.

So, long story short, if you are using an OLD XPR that has an OLD firmware, you probably have to update the firmware before it can be used on a Windows 10 machine, or find an old copy of CPS and try that. In my case, this radio must have been last programmed with CPS 10 or older. Absolutely amazing to me that this thing was in service somewhere. But now it can live on as a 900mhz DMR rig.