Maxtrac B5 to B7?

franko · Post by **franko** » Sat Mar 23, 2002 6:30 am

Some of you may think this is a silly question,but I have to ask.

Is it possible to change a maxtrac B5 firmware chip with a B7 chip so the B5 can then be programmed with one trunk system and one conventional channel?

Thanks for any info.

Jim202 · Post by **Jim202** » Sat Mar 23, 2002 7:03 am

You didn't say what type of trunking system your looking for. If I read between the lines and make a wild guess, you may be asking if the Maxtrac can be made to monitor type II trunking systems. The answer is yes.

The PROM on the logic board needs to be changed and a different code plug cloned into the radio. Best that you go look on the http://www.batlabs.com page and then go look through the radio selection. Click on the Maxtrac and start reading. Most of what is there is not what your looking for. Near the end is the information on the PROM and the part number needed. Motorola no longer supports this radio. If you place a wanted on several of the news groups, you should find someone that has one of the PROM's your looking for.

Next step to overcome is the question of is the radio a 5 pin or 16 pin acc. connector? The 16 pin is the prefered one to make the upgrade to. The 5 pin radio logic circuit board was not made to have the extra memory available.

Hope this gives you the info your looking for.

Jim

franko · Post by **franko** » Sat Mar 23, 2002 8:16 am

Thanks for your reply Jim.While I have made inquiries here regarding Type II info,what I would like to do is change some B5 units we use in our trucks to be able to operate on the Type I system that we are using now to still be able to continue using "trunk 1A".

And then when we have two or three trucks that are out of range of our system but still close enough to Tx direct to each other
to do so on the conv. chnl. {talkaround}

We use a B7 for a base and I also use a B7 in my truck for call alert encode etc.

Thanks again

franko · Post by **franko** » Sat Mar 23, 2002 8:18 am

Also I forgot to add...the B5 units are only
5 pin boards.

franko · Post by **franko** » Sun Mar 24, 2002 7:32 am

Hi all,
If I remove the EEPROM from a B7 unit that I'm not using and install it in the B5 unit,will that allow me to have one trunk and one conventional channel?

As always,thanks for any help,

F.C.

Max-trac · Post by **Max-trac** » Sun Mar 24, 2002 9:33 am

Have you tried to make the second channel conventional and it said this model not capable? I had that response with a 2ch unit.
I haven't done that much work with trunking (I usually convert them to conventional only by changing the eprom), but I think you need to have the board blanked and initialize with the features you want. You may also need to have the full featured front too.
I am pretty sure you can make a 5 pin board do trunk and conventional with the full feature front. I think the eproms are the same for B5 and B7. I think some of the RF boards won't do talkaround also.
So you will have to play with lab software and not be afraid to experiment. 800 maxtracs are cheap on ebay!

eacradio · Post by **eacradio** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 5:37 am

The five pin logic board will only do a conventional channel as a B4 model. That unit had a T/A in place of Sub B. You have to blank the board with the Lab software and then program it as a B4. You can still do 2 systems and one conventional. You'll need a codeplug of a B4 to do it right.
Danny

RESCUE161 · Post by **RESCUE161** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:34 am

What about a B6? I have a B6 with the 4 LEDs, and the 'SUB B' is not programmed. Is that 'my' T/A channel?

franko · Post by **franko** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 6:21 pm

when I try to add the conventional in "add mode" the RSS says "this model already has the maximum conventional modes allowed".
And it actually has none.

I also used a B7 codeplug and set it up as one trunking and one conventional and tried to load that into the B5 and that didn't work.

All of this was before reading Danny's post on the B4 codeplug.Does anyone have a B4 cp you could send me? Sounds like that is just the thing needed for this!

My B6 has the normal front similar to the B7's. I've never seen one with the four LED's.

Thanks very much for all the help!
Franko

franko · Post by **franko** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 12:47 pm

O.K.,thanks to Danny being nice enough to send me a B4 cp. this is where I'm at...

I got the B4 cp loaded into the rss as an archive,made changes to trunking and conv. modes to match the other units.
Blanked and initialized the D35MQA5GB5BK unit as a B4.

Now the trunking mode will tx and rx fine...
but the conventional mode will only rx.
Also I have it set to talkaround,ofcourse.

Any ideas as to what the cause for this is?

Best regards,
franko

Max-trac · Post by **Max-trac** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 2:38 pm

franko, some 800 RF boards will not do TX talkaround. You want the HLF9122A for talkaround (vs HLF4095B)

franko · Post by **franko** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 3:43 pm

Hi,

The RF board "is" HLF4095B.
Can this board be modified to enable T/A?