XTL5000 - died after head swap

[Eaton]

Hi there!
A guy brought me an XTL5000 (O5 head) for repairs. It used to run R20.00.01 FW, 450-520 MHz split. Now it won't turn on.
It used to work fine until the guy tried swapping control heads (he didn't like the battered look of the old one).

I checked that emergency and ground pins are shortened (OK), +12 V present from the power supply (OK), tried even to supply power to the ignition sense cable (no luck and it has never been programmed to turn on like this). The next thing I did was to test both CHs and their flexes on a known-working XTL5000. Everything's fine.

Now it only leaves one cause - bad transceiver. But what may have gone wrong with it?

Has anyone encountered a failure like that? How do I locate the malfunction at the brick?

Thanks to everyone in advance!

 

[Mars]

The XTL is extremely prone to ESD failure. That's why I refuse to ever use/buy/sell them. They're GARBAGE. I even killed one through ESD during a simple keyload operation.

Combine ESD failure with the uniboard design, and you have a piece of **** radio which is nearly impossible to troubleshoot.

**** you, Motorola, **** you.

 

[Magnus]

Yeah I will second that. I have had several XTL mobiles die totally random deaths. The only common point is you ****ed with it. If left alone they may work great for years, but at any random point they might just up and die when you touch them.

 

[JMR061]

I agree that the xtl has issue with dying for no reason. One thing.... Did you check the fuse on the main board? If he had powered applied during the head swap it's possible he blew that. If that's not the cause then I and others wish you luck in finding the cause. Usually that's a waste of time.

 

[com501]

With XTLs. A GROUNDED static mat, wrist strap and ESD precautions are a must, and sometimes you STILL cause them to roll over and play dead. The first bad solar flare we get, half the nation is going to be off the air......

 

[tsunami_australia]

Dang just as I was considering upgrading my Jedi stuff to XTL.

I love the Jedi and XTL gear (Odyssey??) but I'm really beginning to be snot off by the fact that we can't be offered the software to change the flashcode and the flash cannot be changed at all now officially on Jedi gear (thus part of the reason I was considering an upgrade to XTL gear, so I could order exactly what I wanted still whilst under support).

I have one Jedi casualty already at the moment, I tried via FDB to push H38 software to what appears to be an ex CFA model3 VHF MCS and now whilst it still answers to some calls from FDB I cannot get it to power up. (yeah slightly off topic). But if XTL gear is so floppy when what to do? God forbid I'm even considering Simoco as a transition path and I'm not impressed with some of their bs but since they at least push the dual brick actively which M are not, rather trying to force feed APX I'm wondering whether Motorola is all it was now. The Radius and Jedi seemed to have been their last great release.

 

[Eaton]

Took the radio apart and tested F0400 fuse with an ohmmeter - shows infinity resistance.
This may be an easy fix unless there's a short somewhere. Am I right or missing something?

 

[com501]

You are good, it probably ISN'T shorted, check both sides of it to ground, before you replace it. Blowing the fuse is usually caused by oopsing a disconnect because power was still applied somewhere.

 

[ecraiger]

Wow. I was fixing to put in a remote head kit. Guess it's better to leave it alone!!!