XTS Radio Lock Issues with Hardware Encryption

[adaw2821]

Running into a weird issue where I have had a 6 digit pin setup under radio lock. After I enabled hardware encryption, when I entered the pin, I got a brief error message, then it went ahead and logged in. However if I turn the radio off and back on, that password no longer works. If I enter it, I just get the beep and it says Radio Locked again. 3 attempts and I get deadlock.

I have tried reading the help menus and tried various combinations of "Auto Login" under secure settings, the PSWD menu item, and noting seems to work once I've enabled encryption. Works fine if I disable hardware encryption. As always thanks for any help! It is much appreciated!

 

[KD9RTX]

What is the error message you get?

 

[adaw2821]

Error 09/10. Flashes just briefly then boots up. It does the same thing with every radio. The only way I can get it to work with a pin at all is if I disable hardware encryption, then set the unlock pin, then enable encryption again, since the unlock pin is greyed out once encryption is enabled. But I can figure out any other way to create an unlock pin.

 

[adaw2821]

I do have auto login enabled. Here is what the help files say under auto login:

Auto Login (Secure Configuration, General)
Enables the Radio Lock feature to be ignored. Radio Lock requires that a radio-user password be entered upon radio power-up. Auto Login allows the Radio Lock Password to be bypassed.

Note:

• The password should be entered at least once when the Radio Lock feature is enabled.
• The Auto Login feature can be enabled or disabled through a "LOGF" menu selection.

Available only:
When the Secure Equipped field is enabled, and
when the Secure Configuration, "Hardware" is the selected Secure Type, and
when the Radio Lock field is enabled, and
when Tactical Inhibit field is disabled.

And this is the help file under radio lock. I have added menu items for PSWD and LOGF but they wont do anything when I try them.

Radio Lock (Display & Menu, Radio Lock / Tactical Inhibit)

• The initial password is set in the Unlock Password field, and may be changed by the radio-user through the "PSWD" menu item selection. However, when the Secure Equipped field is enabled and Hardware is the selected Secure Type and the Tactical Inhibit field is disabled, the password must be initially created via the radio's "PSWD" menu item selection; this is due to the password being stored in the radio's hardware encryption module.
• When the Mandatory Password field is disabled and either (the Secure Equipped field is disabled) OR (the Secure Equipped field is enabled and Advanced Digital Privacy is the selected Secure Type field), the radio-user may avoid entering the Unlock Password and the Tactical Inhibit Encode Password by setting a "NULL" (zero-length) password from the radio's "PSWD" menu item selection.
• When the Secure Equipped field is enabled and "Hardware" is the selected Secure Type and the Tactical Inhibit field is disabled and the Auto Login field is enabled, the radio-user can disable or enable the Radio Lock feature through a "Auto Login (LOGF)" menu item selection.

 

[KD9RTX]

The UCM is either missing or not talking to the radio. Disabling hardware encryption is how you fix that error. Do you know if you have a UCM in the radio?

 

[adaw2821]

The UCM is either missing or not talking to the radio. Disabling hardware encryption is how you fix that error. Do you know if you have a UCM in the radio?

Yes there is a UCM. I have keys loaded and seem to be working? Radios talk to each other fine with channels strapped to hardware encryption. I left one radio without keys to test and get a key fail message when I try to transmit to it.

 

[KD9RTX]

From the XTS and XTL 5000 basic service manuals.

Usually this error comes up when people activate hardware encryption without a UCM. But if you know you have one then maybe it's bad.

 

[adaw2821]

Thanks for that. I'm not sure where to go from here. These are ebay radios that appear to be refurbished and one radio that I got elsewhere and installed the UCM myself. I am guessing these are aftermarket and not original moto UCMs. I think the encryptions is still working, and it may just be part of the software that deals with storing the unlock pin. I may try seeing if I can find the flash file to upgrade the UCM or if not just run them without a lock code, although that would kinda suck.

 

[Giddyuptd]

Sounds like a dead ucm or failure on the ucm itself somewhere. Only way to know is to pop it into another raid and see what it does. As for the ucms there was no after market one for them I believe. Being what over 20 plus year old radios it is expected to see hardware failures or issues with components. It's possible if you tracked down the culprit component one could revive the ucm.

 

[adaw2821]

Can you explain how to test the UCM or revive it? I have 4 radios and all doing the same thing. 3 were bought refurbished from the same place. The 4th was not encryption capable and I bought the UCM separate and installed it. They "appear" to be working with AES256 although I'm not an expert. Once keys were loaded radios all could talk to each other fine. Erased keys in one radio and then get a "key fail" message when trying to talk to it. Reloaded keys and everything is fine. Just the lock issue.

My assumption was maybe they were knock off UCMs and worked for the AES256 data, but didn't have proper software or hardware to handle the lock pin. I tried looking for the UCM update file to maybe try updating them but haven't had any luck on that front yet.

 

[MTS2000des]

There no "knock off" UCMs. They can vary in algos, firmware, etc. If the UCM is visible in test mode (provided secure is enabled in the codeplug) and you can read out the version, this at least means the UCM is alive and responding to the world. That's a start. The SEC VER should match the provenance of the radios firmware. If your "self installed" UCM is much higher than the HOST version of your installed radio, this can cause issues, and properly updating the HOST radio firmware via iButton refresh key and appropriate firmware file may resolve issues.

This is not for novices and requires proper tools including the CPS (which you already have), refresh key and firmware files- which are no longer available from MSI as these 20 year old relics are long off support.

 

[N4DES]

Motorola had an FSB where they had issues with the XTS2500 that had a UCM board in it. Years ago I tried to set it and was never able to set a password, so I just gave up and moved on.

This is a portion of the 19.00.01 FW Release Notes:

Special characters allowed in Radio Alias ID
New Feature Emergency Revert between Trunking and Conventional systems
New Feature Listen Only Talkgroup now supported on XTS/XTL
New Feature MPL Enhancement
Enhancement Telephone interconnect/Private call will not terminate
Issue Update Mixed Voting Scan doesn’t remember last voted channel
Issue Update Mixed Voting Scan persistent member issue
Issue Update W-Series CH no longer displays RSSI
Issue Update ERROR 09/10 on MACE-based UCM