XTL 2500 Control Head Issue

[Archigan1]

Good day,

I recently replaced my XTL2500 control head with another one that works reliably. I went to plug it in, and... nothing. When not connected to the brick, it of course shows the FL 01/90 error. When connected, there's a 50/50 that it shows it for a split second, but regardless, it boots into Maintenance Mode. Remote normally, of course Local if I connect it to my computer.

From what I can tell, neither control head has been swapped to an O5 head, so it's not an issue of the brick not having the right control head. I tried to synchronize my control head to the radio through ASTRO 25 CPS; the control head boots into bootloader mode, but after a minute it goes back into Maintenance Mode and the CPS says it failed to communicate with the radio. Same errors that happen when I just try to read the radio, or write the previous codeplug, saying "Open radio failed." It worked perfectly fine with my previous control head, so I'm suspecting firmware mismatch (which would have been solved with the synchronize option) or bad cable.

Thoughts?

 

[FreddoFrog]

My simplified thoughts are that the FL 01/90 issue is most likely an indication that the control head is not communicating with the brick firmware. It is akin to the twitching that you see in patients that have had a serious stroke (i.e. nerves trying to reconnect to the brain).

Experts around me suggest that your issues could be a result of the codeplug and/or radio feature set that you are reading from/working with still being configured to the previous control head. Fix the codeplug and/or feature set to match new hardware once you can get a stable firmware update onto the radio (i.e. one that does not continuously boot into bootloader mode) and you may fix this.

Discussion of firmware and or tools to work with firmware and/or codeplugs beyond CPS creates grief for ones seeking to assist or trying to get assistance (i.e. you get "reaction scores" hence credibility sent negative). Be careful and/or thick-skinned.

Side note: If using a USB serial adapter make sure that you use a FTDI chipset. I saw a similar issue to that which you are describing recently with a CH340-based adapter. Replace the USB-To-Serial adapter with a GENUINE FTDI-based chipset and many issues may evaporate.

 

[ff026]

Did you swap heads while the brick was powered up or connected to power?

 

[Archigan1]

I solved it, switching to a working cable then running the synchronization program worked. It did not sync the control head and the brick, but it did upgrade the firmware of the control head and the bootloader, and that works now. Probably just a version mismatch. Was on bootloader R01.00.00