I have contacted our local Motorola dealer and they are giving me the run around. We have a XTL 5000 currently with a W5 head and want to swap out for a 03 head. The 03 head was previously used with a different XTL that is gone. To the best of my knowledge we have all hardware required for this. My question is there any easy way to make this happen? If not what sort of flash do I need to get from Motorola to make this work? Thank you in advance.
XTL 5000 W5 to O3 head change
- Thread starter wannabace
- Start date
- Status
- Joined
- May 22, 2012
- Messages
- 980
Whats the firmware version of the radio?
I'd think all you'd need to do is have some recent version of the firmware (R12 or newer, just to pick one), then with the radio set up as a W series, read the radio and perform a control head change to O5, power down, swap out the TIB for an "O" series TIB, then plug in your O3 head and reprogram names, etc. as required.
I've never had to do anything with special software or whatnot to make this work. The only caveat I can think of would be that you may need to use a serial cable with the O3, and if the XTL's firmware is extraordinarily old, it probably doesn't know what an O3 is, and that could cause issues.
If you can perform a firmware upgrade to the latest and greatest rev (R20.00.01 at this time) prior to doing the swap, it certainly wouldn't hurt things.
I'd think all you'd need to do is have some recent version of the firmware (R12 or newer, just to pick one), then with the radio set up as a W series, read the radio and perform a control head change to O5, power down, swap out the TIB for an "O" series TIB, then plug in your O3 head and reprogram names, etc. as required.
I've never had to do anything with special software or whatnot to make this work. The only caveat I can think of would be that you may need to use a serial cable with the O3, and if the XTL's firmware is extraordinarily old, it probably doesn't know what an O3 is, and that could cause issues.
If you can perform a firmware upgrade to the latest and greatest rev (R20.00.01 at this time) prior to doing the swap, it certainly wouldn't hurt things.
JMR061
Prolific Contributor
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2012
- Messages
- 396
Pretty sure you have to have R9.00.00 or greater if I recall correctly. You need the correct TIB for the O5/O3 and the TIB to Brick flex. The drawer would then be able to hook up to the O3 head. If your remote mounting you can get the control head extension cable. You also need to bring speaker and acc. power to the unit a different way than the W5 (if remote mounted). If you have a mid power power you can use the connector on the rear of the radio for acc/spkr. If you have a high power you can use the factory setup which is a bulky cable coming off the DB25 and then the same acc/spkr cable you would use on the back of the mid power radio.
If you have all this, use CPS to tell the codeplug it is an O3 radio while still in W5 configuration. After you program it swap out hardware and you should be good to go. One warning if you use secure and the secure board is the original style that came with the first W series radios then you will need a new one as those old ones don't work with the O series heads.
Jason
If you have all this, use CPS to tell the codeplug it is an O3 radio while still in W5 configuration. After you program it swap out hardware and you should be good to go. One warning if you use secure and the secure board is the original style that came with the first W series radios then you will need a new one as those old ones don't work with the O series heads.
Jason
Last edited:
- Thread Starter
- #5
Just to confirm I'm attaching a picture of the head we are wanting to use. This is already installed and plugged in and I was told to do whatever it took to make it work. I kind if figured if have to take the "brain" out for programming and then put it back once it was good to go. The local Motorola dealer was trying to sell us $850 worth of hardware and I don't think we need any if that. I figured at the most we would need a new flash with a different feature set. I'll give the firmware a try and see what happens.
kc2obw
Prolific Contributor
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2012
- Messages
- 274
Just to confirm I'm attaching a picture of the head we are wanting to use. This is already installed and plugged in and I was told to do whatever it took to make it work. I kind if figured if have to take the "brain" out for programming and then put it back once it was good to go. The local Motorola dealer was trying to sell us $850 worth of hardware and I don't think we need any if that. I figured at the most we would need a new flash with a different feature set. I'll give the firmware a try and see what happens.
That is a W3 head
- Thread Starter
- #9
Mid power UHF
- Status