SPECTRA problem

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N9KTW
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Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Feb 05, 2014 12:39 pm

SPECTRA problem

Post by N9KTW »

Hey guys

I have a 900mHz Spectra. All the conversions for ham went fine ..... sort of.

I read and thought I had archived the OEM codeplug. But the archive saved by serial number and only saved my last modified one (not too big a deal). Anyway upon dumping in the final iteration of my codeplug (the previous test versions worked fine), all looked to be fine, until the radio went to reboot..... all I get now is a blank screen with the busy and TX lights on.

I tried a "low voltage" power up, and got the display which shows a "fail 01/90" error. Cannot seen to get past that. I did the "I wouldnt recommend this" of trying another MLM board (from another 900 spectra which is only a 1 conv channel, 1 system radio) in the radio. Got the 999 error , and I dont know how to "re-do" this MLM to work. I did try the original MLM in the other radio and it acted exactly as it did in the first radio.

Can anyone "walk me through straightening this mess I made out?

Again it is a problem with the original MLM board, not the radio itself... I am a bit out of my league here.


Howard, N9KTW
Jim202
Posts: 3609
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2001 4:00 pm

Re: SPECTRA problem

Post by Jim202 »

N9KTW wrote:Hey guys

I have a 900mHz Spectra. All the conversions for ham went fine ..... sort of.

I read and thought I had archived the OEM codeplug. But the archive saved by serial number and only saved my last modified one (not too big a deal). Anyway upon dumping in the final iteration of my codeplug (the previous test versions worked fine), all looked to be fine, until the radio went to reboot..... all I get now is a blank screen with the busy and TX lights on.

I tried a "low voltage" power up, and got the display which shows a "fail 01/90" error. Cannot seen to get past that. I did the "I wouldnt recommend this" of trying another MLM board (from another 900 spectra which is only a 1 conv channel, 1 system radio) in the radio. Got the 999 error , and I dont know how to "re-do" this MLM to work. I did try the original MLM in the other radio and it acted exactly as it did in the first radio.

Can anyone "walk me through straightening this mess I made out?

Again it is a problem with the original MLM board, not the radio itself... I am a bit out of my league here.


Howard, N9KTW


You can't just go swapping out the MLM boards between the different radios. Both the serial numbers and the radio model numbers need to match between the radio control board and the MLM board.

Depending on which version of the software you have will determine just how easy it will be to resolve the mess you have caused by just swapping the MLM boards and expecting the radio to function with no errors.

Jim
N9KTW
New User
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Feb 05, 2014 12:39 pm

Re: SPECTRA problem

Post by N9KTW »

Jim, et al:

I fully understand that I cannot just swap parts and get a working radio with no additional effort. My point in doing what I did was to see which part of the hardware had the failure. I did figure out that it is the MLM board from the radio that I had programmed which has a problem. (the problem which I had, was swapped across the radios when i did the board swap, and upon returning the boards all was as before).

So what do I do now???? If anyone wants model and serial numbers, I will happily post them.

I really would like to get this radio going again for 900 mHz


de Howard, N9KTW
turbo2ltr
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Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2016 10:21 am

Re: SPECTRA problem

Post by turbo2ltr »

Sounds like it needs some caps replaced. I just had the exact same issue.

http://www.repeater-builder.com/motorol ... -caps.html
Jim202
Posts: 3609
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2001 4:00 pm

Re: SPECTRA problem

Post by Jim202 »

Sometimes the codeplug gets messed up and the MLM doesn't know what to do. It goes nuts and throws errors.

As everyone always preaches, always, always save the working codeplug before you go messing with any changes to the radio with the software. Don't save it in the normal location the software defaults to. you don't want to over write your original codeplug.

My suggestion would be to take a working radio that has close to the same model number and clone it into the radio your fighting with.

It's been a while since I have read this thread from the beginning, so I don't remember if you provided the radio model number in your posts. There are enough people on here that should be able to come up with a working code plug to try and stuff into your problem radio.

As has already been commented on, there is a possibility that you have a cap failure some place. But so far, I have not seen the problem show it's face on the MLM board. There are MLM boards floating around that could be obtained. It's just a matter what version MLM board firmware you require.

If your going to use zones, then I believe you will need one that is like version 6.xx.

I have been playing with Spectra radios for many years. Some information that might help you is you can take an MLM board out of an 800 MHz. radio and use it in a radio from another band. You just have to clone in the codeplug to match your model to use the obtained MLM board.

Jim
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