Repairing XE500 speaker mics

[EM36]

Moto says no repair. Right.... I've taken it upon myself to rebuild alot of these.

Here's what causes tinny/crummy rx audio. EVERY single mic in the fleet is like this. PISS POOR design...nothing to keep metal filings off the speaker cone. This is not the worst, just one I opened this morning. A great trick to cleaning is a reverse polarity neodymium magnet waved over the top will pull all this crap off in one shot without damaging the speaker. Then I carefully wash the entire mic in Simple Green with an acid brush cut down to 3/8" bristles. Clean the whole thing with a paper towel and dry, then reassemble. New mic cord on every mic that comes in. This fixes the two biggest issues/complaints with these. Very few cannot be rehabilitated.

 

[knickerlessparsons]

All you have to do then is get all those filings off your magnet. Personally I now use an old mag mount base with some paper wrapped round it, the shiny backing to FedEx document pouches are ideal. When you've cleaned your speaker take the magnet out of the paper, over your bin (V important) and the filings drop straight off.

Long term readers won't be surprised that it took many years before that bleedin obvious and simple technique occurred to me. As a great philosopher once said, Doh!

 

[EM36]

All you have to do then is get all those filings off your magnet. Personally I now use an old mag mount base with some paper wrapped round it, the shiny backing to FedEx document pouches are ideal. When you've cleaned your speaker take the magnet out of the paper, over your bin (V important) and the filings drop straight off.

Long term readers won't be surprised that it took many years before that bleedin obvious and simple technique occurred to me. As a great philosopher once said, Doh!

Ah so I'm not the only one to do this! Actually been finding it's pretty simple to get off the magnet just wiping with a damp paper towel. Great idea though putting cover over magnet will try that! Below is same mic cleaned off.

 

[com501]

I usually just sell the customer a new mic and beat the old one with a mallet. You have to remember though, that gold mines are literally printing money.

 

[knickerlessparsons]

Ah so I'm not the only one to do this!

I don't do it with EH500's we don't have exotic stuff like that in this part of the world. I tend to do it with used handportables that I get in. Metal ingress isn't a problem if they are going to be recased, but where the portables have otherwise decent housings I find bashing the speaker grill onto a mag mount base often dislodges a surprising amount of rubbish. Obviously it depends on what type of environment the radios have been used in, but you don't always know for certain.

 

[a1emt]

Thanks for sharing this! My department will be getting a bunch of these in January.... We've replaced many, many of the Xtreme Temp cables on the first-generation XE microphones over the last few years (still not a cheap fix) but usually solves 90% of the issues.

 

[EM36]

Thanks for sharing this! My department will be getting a bunch of these in January.... We've replaced many, many of the Xtreme Temp cables on the first-generation XE microphones over the last few years (still not a cheap fix) but usually solves 90% of the issues.

Yep the majority of issues are the XE cables. I dunno what revision they're on right now but last time I saw was up to rev K.... ugh

you'll find red lights stuck on, no transmit, no receive, no button action, all kinds of stuff with cords. Between the cords and the junk accumulated on the speaker it usually brings them back. I have seen a few with water damage on the boards. Those become parts mics to repair physical stuff like cracked front panels, broken rear panels etc.

 

[ndp]

Great tip on the magnet. Did a housing swap on one of my personal radios and even with the little screen on the grille there were filings stuck to the speaker. Pulled them off with a magnet and it's working brilliantly now.

 

[PSEhub]

I also recommend using the Deoxit cleaning solution, such as D100P pens (not G100P, must be the cleaning variant)

Flooding the users continuously with these Deoxit pens (prime them first) can also work if they have the budget to just regularly order batches of pens for people. Of course they get lost, but just keep flooding the "system" with deoxit pens and you'll have accessory complaints become rare.

This is the product Motorola has officially recommended in multiple instances, such as cleaning Minitor charging pins, and they sell it for an inflated price, but Parts Express, Digikey, Markertek, etc are cheaper.

 

[moetorola]

I found a simple pocket screw driver (non magnetized) works fine also cleaning up the fillings.

 

[NonToxic]

Yes, the magnet works great, use it in a small plastic bag and ditch the bag after. The internal metal disc doesn't stop the fine filings.

Moto sent me replacement cords after questioning them about are issues we were having with them. They offered them. Solved a lot of problems.

 

[romanrobles]

We've got a couple of the Gen2 XE RSMs that I probably should try this on, but I cannot figure out how to remove the front grill.
I plead ignorance. Any hints/tricks that someone can share on how to get to the XE RSM speaker would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[EM36]

We've got a couple of the Gen2 XE RSMs that I probably should try this on, but I cannot figure out how to remove the front grill.
I plead ignorance. Any hints/tricks that someone can share on how to get to the XE RSM speaker would be appreciated. Thanks.

Using a small xacto knife, get under the left side of the bottom front escutcheon. Carefully lift just the first 1/4" up and you will find a micro size torx screw. In between the mic elements up above is a small square, lift that too and find another torx screw.

Take the 4 large torx off the back, remove back. With a small straight blade screwdriver you will find 2 clips on bottom inside, 2 on top, and one on each side. CAREFULLY push the bottom clips to release. Insert another small screwdriver under the front panel and apply a very slight amount of pressure to force the front panel apart, BE CAREFUL YOU DONT BREAK THE CLIPS. Many I have opened and found broken clips on if they've seen a rough life. Carefully lift front from bottom to top.

 

[romanrobles]

Using a small xacto knife, get under the left side of the bottom front escutcheon. Carefully lift just the first 1/4" up and you will find a micro size torx screw. In between the mic elements up above is a small square, lift that too and find another torx screw.

Take the 4 large torx off the back, remove back. With a small straight blade screwdriver you will find 2 clips on bottom inside, 2 on top, and one on each side. CAREFULLY push the bottom clips to release. Insert another small screwdriver under the front panel and apply a very slight amount of pressure to force the front panel apart, BE CAREFUL YOU DONT BREAK THE CLIPS. Many I have opened and found broken clips on if they've seen a rough life. Carefully lift front from bottom to top.

Thanks, EM36. I appreciate the help.

 

[EM36]

One other thought on these also. When you lift the bottom of the front panel, use firm even pressure once you've got the clips undone. There is double sided adhesive around the mic elements. I've been pretty successful at getting the adhesive to pop off. If you aren't patient and rush it then the adhesive tape is liable to tear in pieces. I got a small roll of double sided tape and some wax paper and cut out new adhesive pieces to go around the mic elements. Works well. I'll try and take a picture of one and document if I get some time.

 

[EM36]

Here's some pics showing the screw locations and also interior pics where the plastic clips are. Also if you notice the amount of fire soot in the mic, I use an acid bruch with bristles cut to 3/8" and simple green concentrate to clean this out. I wash/brush every component by hand. Yes you need to be careful around flex circuits etc. The back, all the buttons, etc can be rinsed under the sink and hand dried. Moto frowns on any chemical used on these, simple green has worked fine for us.

 

[phantom]

Do you happen to have photos of an XE500 instead of an XE?

That would be very helpful! TIA

 

[EM36]

sorry no

 

[EM36]

We've got a couple of the Gen2 XE RSMs that I probably should try this on, but I cannot figure out how to remove the front grill.
I plead ignorance. Any hints/tricks that someone can share on how to get to the XE RSM speaker would be appreciated. Thanks.

Well the good news is you don't need to remove the front grill. I did one today that got a new cord, rusty steel removed from speaker, and completely cleaned. I took lots of pics. I'll try to get some time to upload tomorrow. The newer rsm are much easier to work on.

 

[EM36]

Here's some pics of the XE500 and a few comments interspersed.
This pic is removing the 4 torx screws on the rear of the mic shell. The screwdriver in the pic is pointing out a flex circuit connected to the rear panel. Be VERY cautious removing the rear panel, it's a short flex circuit and is possible to damage. Screwdriver is on top of the connector to the board which can be seen in other pics also disconnected.

Pic below shows rear cover removed, circled screws for removal of pcb, arrows show the flex circuit connectors for channel encoder and rear mic.

Pcb now removed exposing speaker. Two torx screws hold speaker retaining ring. Carefully remove. This retaining ring is under spring tension. Make sure you notate the exact positioning of the speaker so that the wires end up in the same place when you put it back together.


And yes these have the same flaw as the older rsm. There is nothing to stop steel filings etc from being sucked into the speaker. This one was not that bad but still had a fair amount of accumulation on the cone.