Batboard

Hi Just got a few of the Older Astro Spectra VRS-EP Model #P2017B and VRS-750 Model P2081A. I have the connection cables from the VRS to the Astro Spectra. I set up in the CPS for VRS but it seems that the Units are not working. When I restart the radio with the VRS attached the radio does not boot up the screen just lights up. Do I need special firmware to use the VRS in the Flashcode ? The astrospectra is Flashcode 100000100007 (Or similar) Just need some help. The DSP and host are older.


Thanks

what model astro spectra do you have?
the W3 with the HHCH (handheld control head) is not compatible with vrs.
the W4 W5 W7 W9 remote mount are. is there a W6?

my friend with the VHF astro spectra and UHF VRS750 runs a W4. you cant use a VRS of the same band, it must be different than the band of the radio.
his radio has a date code in 2001. with a flash of 100001-000000-7
i think you may have your flash 0's flipped?

what are your radio wide settings for VRS?

under radio wide advanced tab, you need to have "vrs-ep" checked, then all your vrs options will be available, im assuming you have it checked.
for the beginning i would recommend you turn off "mode steering" and just set VRS to 1 pl

under VRS tab in radio wide, only check flashing display, and make sure in car monitor default is BOTH, so that if you are out with the portable say in the store, you can call back to the car and your passenger will hear you and you can communicate, setting to base, means the portable will not open the astro spectras inside speaker.

under vrs private line make sure mode steering is disabled ans set your desired pl tones.

under vrs advanced, check access ack and TOT tones, these are helpful features in my opinion, they let the portable know if they got into VRS or not. set TOT to 120 if you listen to repeaters with rag chewing, the 60 sec TOT will not be enough.

under vrs personality set your VRS frequency, and power level.

that is what was originally setup on my friends, and it worked good.

i dont have any expierence being involved in the setup of the VRS EP but from the limited research ive done, they are not programable, some contain an EXPO portable. i would say way to go is the VRS750, they have a HT750 chassis inside.

let me know if this helps, these are just basic settings to get you going, plenty of tweaking beyond what ive put here will get you set up in a really nice configuration.

i decided to put potentially helpful info in this thread for anyone trying to get a VRS750 going.


the next setup issue is the squelch on the VRS750 is too tight for a special application.
the squelch is cranked WAYYYY up on the VRS, it wont open for anything but a strong signal at this time.
i see this as a good configuration for the officer who will be fairly close to his cruiser doing routine traffic stops, but for the special experiment it is desired to have the VRS use a "normal" squelch setting.

the shop has no manuals or information on the VRS or a cable, and with the help of members on the board, i was pointed to the FCC OET website where i entered the FCC ID of the VRS750 and i was allowed to DL an original PDF of the repair manual from 2002, in it, contained a schematic of the VRS programming cable.

that schematic indicates the VRS750 tuning cable should be as follows
VRS side to RIB side
1 to 1 Gnd
3 to 16 boot control
7 to 15 TXD
9 to 2 PROG SENS
jumper between 4-11 on Rib side
10K ohm resistor between pin 1 and 15 on rib side

the PDF is kinda fuzzy on the pinout of the cable, it shows a outline of the horseshoe shaped connector
with pin 1 starting on the flat side in the upper left corner and the pin on the lower left is pin 18
im assuming that it counts sequentially to the right from pin 1, then at the far right, starts on the bottom right and counts sequentially left ending at 18

i made a cable based on these directions and its not working
this requires the professional series global tuner for the HT750
the shop is using a version 2.10 or 2.15 global tuner i dont remember exactly what ver it is.
it wont read, acts as if the VRS is not connected.
the shop is using a genuine older model RIB running a Pentium 2 desktop its about 10 years old

as far as i can tell, either i'm mis interpreting the pin out on the VRS750 program connector, such as maybe they are staggered, or possibly moto changed the design by the time the VRS750 was released, the info the FCC has is pre release.

OK, the shop ended up taking apart a VRS750 and noticed there's silkscreen at the connector showing the pinout.
when looking at the front of the VRS750, the round part of the horse shoe looking connector is on the right,
the lower left flat side corner is pin 1 and the lower right round side corner is pin 9. after re working the pin locations for the program cable the radio now displays "VRS PROG" when the connector is connected.

upon proper connecting and use of the global tuner for the warris series, it was forund that the squelch softspots were set to "63" which was maximum for all ranges. they were all reduced to 38 which was just above the squelch threshold and the RX range of the VRS is noticeably better!



the link to the offerings of the FCC on the VRS750
https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/rep ... 2FT4848%27

the FCC ID search screen is here if the above HTTPS link doesnt work
http://www.fcc.gov/oet/ea/fccid/
the FCC ID of the VRS750 is AZ49FT4848
then click on details and click ok to the disclaimer

if you need to know the pinout for the 25 pin connector

http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.p ... 50#p392394

heres some pictures that may help

VRS750 board bottom side


board top side


the HT750 closeup

this post is about the VRS-EP

im curious if anyone has worked with a astro spectra VRS-EP (different than the VRS750)
onfreq shows the following at http://www.onfreq.com/syntorx/spectra/m ... tml#spvrsm
*****************************
ASTRO SPECTRA VEHICLE REPEATER SYSTEM (VRS-EP) MODEL INFORMATION
MODEL NUMBER DESCRIPTION
P2019A Astro Spectra VRS-EP, VHF 136-174 MHz, 300 mW
P2020A Astro Spectra VRS-EP, VHF 136-174 MHz, 300 mW

CHASSIS NUMBER DESCRIPTION
HLD9274A VHF RNet-SLM Transceiver 136-150.8 MHz
HLD9033C VHF RNet-SLM Transceiver 150.8-162 MHz
HLD9034C VHF RNet-SLM Transceiver 162-174 MHz

MODEL NUMBER DESCRIPTION
P2017A Astro Spectra VRS-EP, UHF 403-470 MHz, 300 mW
P2022A Astro Spectra VRS-EP, UHF 403-470 MHz, 2 Watts

CHASSIS NUMBER DESCRIPTION
HLE9316A UHF RNet-SLM Transceiver 403-416 MHz
HLE9317A UHF RNet-SLM Transceiver 416-430 MHz
HLE9019C UHF RNet-SLM Transceiver 450-470 MHz

I do not know what the difference is between the P2019A and P2020A models. The manual did not indicate any difference at all.
The VRS-EP is only for Astro Spectra. It will not work on a Spectra or Spectra II and their VRS will not work on an Astro Spectra.
The VRS can steer up to 8 modes on the mobile radio using the portable radio PL tones to select the mobile mode.
*****************************

notice all these models indicate the usage of a SLM transceiver, NOT a expo. my research points to the RNET-SLM as being a programmable unit, dataradio/calamp makes a dataradio that is field programmable refered to as a dataradio JSLM other RNET companies refer to SLM as programmable.
my question is, has anyone had experiences with the above VRS-EP models to know exactly what brand of RNET-SLM units are in these VRS-EP from the factory?
its possible to remove whatever was factory installed and replace it with something not programmable, so im sure there are some VRS-EP floating around with crystal RNET units inside.

im interested in the RNET units that are programmable, particularly for UHF 450-470 and weather they will bend down to ham, even if its just over the line to say 449.9625



the dataradio/calamp PDF indicates theirs is capable of 300MW to 4 watts depending on how much voltage is applied. im wondering if the P2017A VRS-EP 300mw main board only applys the amount of voltage to put out 300mw and the P2022A 2 watt model's main board supply's the correct voltage for 2 watts. so if that were the case, manually applying more voltage to the RNET could provide output upwards of 4 watts, if adequate/custom heat sinking is assured

i called calamp today and asked about the squelch adjustment on their dataradio, and they said squelch was manually adjustable with a pot on the circuit board, good to know, because the VRS750 has some crazy tight squelch, and for a custom application, that is really not a good feature. i also asked them about the range of the JSLM outside of the 450-470Mhz range, he thought that it MAY go a meg below 450 but wasn't completely sure.

anybody have any thoughts on the VRS-EP info above?

wazz

Going back several years to when I was actively working with VRS and VRS-EP models I might be able to answer your questions.

I had several VRS units and they were all slightly different depending on vintage. Most had expo portables in them, although I had two RNET units on UHF. One had a P50 of all things inside the latter two had a crystal RNET radio and a programmable RNET. I never bothered taking them out of band or moving the freqs at the time since they were on iterenant low power UHF channels. Unfortunately I don't remember the brand, but dataradio / cala sounds right.

I eventually got rid of all of them as they were in the bulky systems 9000 housing and received little use considering how much room they took up in vehicles. For some reason I I just picked up a VRS750 to play with off of ebay with a new cable for $150.

APCO25 wrote...
Expo: they were all hardwired. No use of the Hirose connector even though it was there on the chassis.
Channels were jumped for 1 freq operation. Antenna was soldered instead of the MX connector.

The RNET's that I had were pre-programmed other than the crystal model which was clearly a P50 inside it. The rest had what was clearly a an RNET style data radio. They all worked on analog spectras and user the settings, pl's etc were all dumped in the unit via the systems 9000 serial bus. I cant remember if we plugged any of these into astro spectras at the time.

i got the VRS-EP in the mail from the EBAY seller. it does have an RNET transceiver in it on 465.525 simplex here's a picture of the inside.

Question on the VRS 750 P2081A

Will this also work on a O5 remote XTL 5000 ?

I currently have a VRS-EP VHF interfaced with a UHF Astro Spectra. I would like to interface a VRS-750, instead of the VRS-EP. I have a need to use a VRS-750 UHF with an Astro Spectra UHF. I know that Inband is not recommended by Motorola, but I will have the proper separation and filtering to do so. Question: Are there any software "stops that would prohibit interfacing a UHF VRS-750 with an Astro Spectra UHF.

Henry

123 wrote:Question on the VRS 750 P2081A

Will this also work on a O5 remote XTL 5000 ?

If that's the standard VRS750 then yes, you should have no problems.

I have one hooked up to my O5 XTL.

Guys,

Can a VRS 750 relay a "Auto Scan" mode from an Astro Spectra? With a VRS-EP hooked up the radio drops out of scan mode as soon as you hit the VRS button.

Pete

I can comment on this Pete. That is a flashcode option that needs to be in the mobile radio. Also if you'll look under the VRS screen in radio wide options and see if scan with VRS is available. If it is grayed out you'll need to have your radio flashupgraded if it is available just check it and reprogram the radio. I have that option in my Astro Spectras and it works good for me.

Inside the VRS EP the TX box (I believe) has an eight pin dip switch. Does anyone know what this is for?????? Thanks, Rod K9ROD

Hi Guys,

Is the cable from the Astro Spectra <> VRS750 documented somewhere? I am assuming it connects to the DB25 female on the bottom to the radio and not the MCS2000 style cable on the face plate. Also is a VRS750 the current model for a XTL2500/5000?

Pete

As far as I know, the XTL2500 can't be used with a VRS. But the VRS750 is virtually plug and play on the XTl5000.

Dan

Nothing like dredging up old topics...

Does anyone know if a VRS 750 will work with an APX mobile?

Jay

It seems like they have disabled it in the more recent firmware.

IIRC, the earlier versions of CPS allowed you to configure the VRS750 or VRS-EP. It seems to have been phased out now, leaving users with only the Futurecom DVRS.

It also appears that you need Option W492AG (printed on label) in order for it to work with the XTL (and earlier firmware APX) models.

I'm not sure if Option W492AG can be added via flash upgrade or something. If anyone knows, it would be very helpful.