Astro Spectra Plus power-up issue

[Markb911]

Hi All,

I purchased an AS+ off of eBay a year or so ago and it worked fine. I am not sure what I did but now the brick will boot up, but the radio just "bonks" at me, After it bonks, I can read and write the radio no problem, but the display is blank. I uploaded the original codeplug thay came in the radio, but that did not help.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks in Advance.
Mark

 

[Alpha]

The radio normally beeps on power up, is that what you are hearing? If not, maybe a key on the control head is stuck or the control head itself has gone bad. The no display plus what sounds like a stuck key together may point to the control head being the problem.

If you have another radio, the control heads are the same electrically as the regular Astro Spectra heads, so you can try swapping out the head and see if that's it or not. Is the radio remote head medium or high power, or a dashmount? A few more details might be helpful...

 

[Markb911]

It's not the typical beep that you normally hear. It's a low - pitched tone, like when you press an invalid key on the head, if that makes sense.
It is a medium power remote head W5.
I think I will try opening the head. Maybe there is something obvious in there that I can fix. I don't have a spare head, but I might see if I can find one on eBay. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Markb911]

I just opened up the head and the first thing I noticed was this component, which looks to me loke a fuse (the white cylindrical thing in the center of the pic). I checked it with a multimeter for continuity and there is none.
Could this be my problem?

 

[Alpha]

No, that's a crystal! The main clock for the microprocessor. I know the damn thing looks like fuse, but it will show open when measured with an ohmmeter. If you have an o-scope, when the head is on and running, you should see a 7 Mhz (approx) sine wave on it.

 

[Markb911]

Doh! Guess I need to work on my component identification, lol. When I have more time, I'll dig a little deeper. Thanks for your help and patience up to this point. I do have an oscilloscope. Maybe I will try measuring that just for kicks. Bought a cheapo DSO203 made in China scope a while back to play with.

Mark

 

[Alpha]

Actually, I have seen a few of them fail, if the radio is subjected to a severe mechanical shock (i.e. getting dropped or in a a vehicle accident) that is one of the more mechanically delicate components that tends to fail.

I have found and fixed more than one of them before, but in the scheme of things it's not that common a failure. Usually when the radio sees that level of abuse, the glass vacuum-fluorescent display usually shatters as well.

 

[Markb911]

I Just went through the inside of the head and it looks damn near pristine - no damage or burned traces
Checked all the connector pins and buttons and everything looks good as far as I can tell. I just picked up another head on eBay, so that is my next step. I did also check the "CHIB" on the trunk mount side and everything looks fine there too. I will double check the cable between the two as time permits. I did check against a known working cable a while back and got the same behavior.

 

[Markb911]

Well, I picked up another W5 head on eBay and this new head won't power up the brick at all -
No beep or nothing. This sucks! I don't wanna have to buy another head, but what choice do I have besides another head or sell the whole thing at a loss? Anyone have any other ideas?

 

[Alpha]

Bummer. 'Ebayed" again... Hopefully you didn't spend too much on it, but it sounds like the new head is simply bad, or has other issues, it should at least power on the radio, even if it's an analog Spectra head (which won't do anything else). Maybe you can recover a few $$ by selling it as a "tech special". It does sound like you basically have no choice but to try and find another one, sad to say. Bad luck, chum...

 

[4n6inv]

OK, before we call the code on the radio or control head; I ran into a similar situation while repairing some control heads this past week.

In the CPS; there is a setting for "Retain Last Dim State" (or something like that) that tells the radio to power up in whatever the last "Dim State" was on the control head. I modified and / or fixed 6-7 W7 control heads and yanked out a mid power drawer to test them with. The last "Dim State" on the radio was "Off" - and, thus; every one of my control heads powered up the radio, but gave no display. I was scratching my melon - "What did I screw up?" Then it dawned on me to hit the DIM button on one of the control heads. Voilà! They all came to life. I was about to snatch out the command board and replace it, because I've seen them cause control heads to not power up - even though they powered up the radio. I would suggest - if you haven't already - just hit the DIM button and see what it does.

To my advantage; I have an Agilent bench PS, so I can tell below a millivolt what the radio is drawing, current-wise, constantly. I could tell exactly what was going on as far as what I would have normally expected to see with the radio off, on - in standby, with the control head illuminated or off. The current draw varies ever so slightly depending on what you have the radio set up as in a native state.

Oddly enough; when I got ready to test a handful of secure modules and a keyloader that I had fixed; the same radio wouldn't recognize the secure board, or keyload. Scratched my melon another second or two and swapped the command board. All was well. This was a command board that I'd already done the Motorola SRN modification for the securenet problem, so I was pretty sure that wasn't the issue. When I put in another command board, all was well. That's a project for next week.

These are just a few little tings to test, if you haven't already. 1( Check the Dim State. 2(Try swapping the command board.

One thing I didn't see mentioned above (but may have missed) is: Does the radio receive and transmit? I know you said that you could read and write to it. Does it produce a tone when you change modes or volume? Just curious. If you can't tell if it's transmitting; use a PS with a accurate ammeter, and see if the current draw flies up when you key the mic. Oh; and don't forget to use a dummy load or antenna before doing so!

 

[TheWizard]

The behavior you're describing, considering your original post was nearly a month ago, is the same as having the programming cable plugged into the unit. When you insert that into the mic jack on the dash unit or the keyloader port on a remote head unit, the radio powers up, but the display remains off and none of the buttons do anything.. and you get the low pitched beep.

Either you have the programming cable still plugged in somewhere, or, the radio for whatever reason thinks you still do. I can't speak for the other control head being nonfunctional.

--also, as for the "save last dim state" when the radio gets programmed and the programming cable is removed, at least my two radios default back to the brightest display level and no key backlighting.

 

[4n6inv]

I didn't even consider the CHIB. That's another good place to check. If you have one of the little interfaces from the control head to the radio, you could set it up as a dash mount and include or exclude that as a suspect. Good point.

 

[HA5BRG]

I am having the same issue (low pitched tone upon radio startup in parallel with the default self check high-pitched sound) with one of my Astro Spectra radios. It is a regular Astro mobile with a W4 head.

 

[Mars]

Please start your own thread. Hijacking a 2.5 month old thread for your own purpose is not acceptable.