Our fire company has had minitor III's for a couple years. Have had problems with the from day one. I just took one to be repaired at the local motorola dealer. The problem was that the you could hear our tones loud and clear howver, the pager would not alert. I was told earlier that the chip probably needed to be resoldiered because the belt clip interferes with the CPU chip ( I think) and the soldiering breaks. So when I went to pick up the pager, the charge was 110.00 and the pager had a new case on it. Fire company paid the bill and now it is a month later and the pager is doing the same thing.......good clear audio...no alert. The chief of the fire company called Motorola and asked them what he can do? The guy at Motorola told him that he did not know of any problems with the Minitor III's (imagine that). Can someone please tell me what I can do to fix the pagers when this happens instead of sending it back to the dealer? Also I have an account with Motorola in which I can order parts and accessories, can I send it to them direct or do I always have to take them to a dealer?
Can anyone help, Please?????
Thanks Corey
Back to the ole' Minitor III problem!!!!
Moderator: Queue Moderator
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Dispatcher85
- Posts: 78
- Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2004 10:46 pm
What is the freq of the tones? My 4 year old M3's won't pick up 368 to 450. 928 works fine. This has happened to 6 out of 50. 
Mot says send them to the depot and they will fix for $100. I seem to remember a problem with the 3's when new that 300 to 350 wouldn't work correctly. Anybody got any solutions?
Mot says send them to the depot and they will fix for $100. I seem to remember a problem with the 3's when new that 300 to 350 wouldn't work correctly. Anybody got any solutions?-
Mikey
- Posts: 410
- Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2001 4:00 pm
- What radios do you own?: CDM1550 LS+, HT1250, MCS2000
The only thing i found that would keep the Decoder chip from breaking off the Board was to give the guys a Cordura case to put there pagers in when they are packing them. The Belt clip pulls on the back of the pager case when you put stress on it (like hitting a seatbelt or chair back when sitting) and that flexes the PC Board and pops the chip loose. I know its not a true fix, but when you put the pager in a cordura case it keeps the guys from using the belt clip on the pager and breaking the chip again.
Hint: one way to see if the chip is popped loose on your pager is to squeeze the pager in your hand between the belt clip and front of the pager while paging it, if it alerts while you are squeezing it, chip is loose.
Mikey
Hint: one way to see if the chip is popped loose on your pager is to squeeze the pager in your hand between the belt clip and front of the pager while paging it, if it alerts while you are squeezing it, chip is loose.
Mikey
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Dispatcher85
- Posts: 78
- Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2004 10:46 pm
Back to the ole' Minitor III problem!!!!
Can anyone tell me how to soldier it myself or instruct me how to do so?
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Tony Soprano
- Batboard $upporter
- Posts: 418
- Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2001 4:00 pm
So, let me get this straight.
You took it to a dealer, and they replaced the case, charged you $110, then a month later it still doesn't work. Does this so-called "dealer" have a repair warranty policy? Take it back, and make them eat it! A $110 repair price would be more in line with Motorola flat-rate, than a dealer-level repair. And if they did send it to Motorola, they have a 90-day repair warranty. So don't take this lying down, make them make it right.
Tony
You took it to a dealer, and they replaced the case, charged you $110, then a month later it still doesn't work. Does this so-called "dealer" have a repair warranty policy? Take it back, and make them eat it! A $110 repair price would be more in line with Motorola flat-rate, than a dealer-level repair. And if they did send it to Motorola, they have a 90-day repair warranty. So don't take this lying down, make them make it right.
Tony
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Wile E. Coyote
- Posts: 210
- Joined: Thu Oct 28, 2004 9:27 am
- What radios do you own?: The best that low bid can buy.
I agree with Tony on this one. I would send it back to the dealer. If you want to scare them a little, when you drop it off, tell them that the pager is a "BOUNCER". this is a term that Motorola uses for returned repairs under warranty. If that doesnt work, have Tony give 'em a tour of the alley!
Good Luck!
-WEC
Good Luck!
-WEC
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Dispatcher85
- Posts: 78
- Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2004 10:46 pm
Back to the ole' Minitor III problem!!!!
Oh let me tell you this so called "dealer" is shady. He is the only dealer in the area and believe me he takes advantage of his costumers. Believe me I would like to give him a tour of the alley!!! Hahahaha
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scvfd1204
- Posts: 71
- Joined: Sun Nov 02, 2003 8:55 pm
- What radios do you own?: Most older style legacy gear..
Just a thought but....
When our county's dispatch center revamped and installed all new consoles and the new VHF repeater, we started having problems with our pagers alerting. It is even affecting our older Minitor II units, as well as IIIs and IVs. The county keeps blaming our pagers, and we keep sending them off for repair, and they keep coming back as unrepaired or NTF.
After several days of complaining about the problem, the county emergency services coordinator decided to listen to me, and explain my thoughts on the situation. The radio shop hired by our county to provide communications equipment and service is trying to get more and more money, but procide much less quality of service. The hallf way do everything, and then try to get out of actually making things works the right way.
In order for them to get the cheap primary repeater to pass the audio of the pager tones, they have to crank the modulation level sky high. That in turn, causes the frequency of the tones to deviate much more than 5 kHz either side. In addition to this, they have the deviation on the PL transmit for the reoeater cranked iwde open, and that adds noise to the transmission. I have seen cases where our Motorola mobile radio will not catch the tones, since they are over deviating. I noticed this when I had to start turning the volume on my mobiles down because the tones were too loud (ear drum burtsing levels), and then having to turnt he volume back up to hear the dispatcher talking.
The radio shop still hasnt rectified the situation, and probably never will. The county has since hired another radio shop to come in and troubleshoot the system. I know the second radio shop tech and he is really good when it comes to this sort of thing.
Just to let you guys now how far behind in communications my county is, we just switched to a High Band VHF system from a low band VHF system (45.440 MHz) that was originally installed in the late 60s. The same radio shop maintained that system after the Motorola shop got underbid for maintenance after the system was initially installed. The GE shop took over maintenace, and kept adding bandaids to the broken legs of the system until it finally crashed about 4 years ago. The primary repeater lacks even decent coverage (100 watts at 400 feet in teh center of the county). The county fire association prucahsed and installed a secondary operations repeater (125 watts at 120 feet near the center of the county), and it gets much better coverage that the main machine.
I think the seat of our alerting problems lies at the consoles and control radio link.
Perhaps my county will wake up and smell the coffee and get their head out of the sand on the problem before someone gets hurt or killed.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Jeff
Surf City, NC
When our county's dispatch center revamped and installed all new consoles and the new VHF repeater, we started having problems with our pagers alerting. It is even affecting our older Minitor II units, as well as IIIs and IVs. The county keeps blaming our pagers, and we keep sending them off for repair, and they keep coming back as unrepaired or NTF.
After several days of complaining about the problem, the county emergency services coordinator decided to listen to me, and explain my thoughts on the situation. The radio shop hired by our county to provide communications equipment and service is trying to get more and more money, but procide much less quality of service. The hallf way do everything, and then try to get out of actually making things works the right way.
In order for them to get the cheap primary repeater to pass the audio of the pager tones, they have to crank the modulation level sky high. That in turn, causes the frequency of the tones to deviate much more than 5 kHz either side. In addition to this, they have the deviation on the PL transmit for the reoeater cranked iwde open, and that adds noise to the transmission. I have seen cases where our Motorola mobile radio will not catch the tones, since they are over deviating. I noticed this when I had to start turning the volume on my mobiles down because the tones were too loud (ear drum burtsing levels), and then having to turnt he volume back up to hear the dispatcher talking.
The radio shop still hasnt rectified the situation, and probably never will. The county has since hired another radio shop to come in and troubleshoot the system. I know the second radio shop tech and he is really good when it comes to this sort of thing.
Just to let you guys now how far behind in communications my county is, we just switched to a High Band VHF system from a low band VHF system (45.440 MHz) that was originally installed in the late 60s. The same radio shop maintained that system after the Motorola shop got underbid for maintenance after the system was initially installed. The GE shop took over maintenace, and kept adding bandaids to the broken legs of the system until it finally crashed about 4 years ago. The primary repeater lacks even decent coverage (100 watts at 400 feet in teh center of the county). The county fire association prucahsed and installed a secondary operations repeater (125 watts at 120 feet near the center of the county), and it gets much better coverage that the main machine.
I think the seat of our alerting problems lies at the consoles and control radio link.
Perhaps my county will wake up and smell the coffee and get their head out of the sand on the problem before someone gets hurt or killed.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Jeff
Surf City, NC