Motorola CPS training materials?

[gman1971]

In Motorolian, the Talkaround term is basically when two radios that are programmed to use a repeater, can talk to each other directly without the repeater. This comes in handy when you go out of repeater range.

G.

[gman1971]

17 hours ago, Radioguy7268 said:

I don't have any personal experience with using one. I've seen a few. Pricing for new runs north of $1000 - and you still need to get it installed.

What are you looking to do with one?   For GMRS use - I'd tell you that you can buy a decent 40 watt mobile for a bunch less than buying a new MVA docking station.  They also take up more dash/console space than a remote mount mobile.

In regard to radio for GMRS, I agree, 1k for a mobile (unless you get something like a super-duper APX multiband) I would suggest a used 5350e or a 5550e with the RMN5127 DTMF microphone. But if you want to splurge, you can always get the the XPR5550e HHCH, which I have on a couple of radios and its super nice.

[tweiss3]

@Lscott, did you ever get the CPS help you were looking for? I'm just starting to look myself, but even though I got an account, it seems they still lock you out of things.

[Lscott]

7 minutes ago, tweiss3 said:

@Lscott, did you ever get the CPS help you were looking for? I'm just starting to look myself, but even though I got an account, it seems they still lock you out of things.

No. I requested an account but never got the notification. I just found it last night in my junk email folder. Now it's expired.

[tweiss3]

38 minutes ago, Lscott said:

No. I requested an account but never got the notification. I just found it last night in my junk email folder. Now it's expired.

Thats unfortunate. It took mine 3 weeks to get approved after multiple chats and an expedite ticket. Ordering from them is interesting too.

 

I'm debating on pulling the trigger on a 7550e, but not sure just yet.

[Radioguy7268]

Ordering new equipment right now is an exercise in patience. Beyond the painfully slow interface of shop.motorolasolutions.com, you're entering into a time delayed backlog of immense proportions.

You would also get a new unit that requires CPS 2.0 for programming.

Do yourself a favor, grab a slightly used XPR7550e for half the price and half the hassles - and then you can use CPS 16 build 828 (which is the last CPS version before CPS 2.0 was introduced.)

 

[Lscott]

15 hours ago, tweiss3 said:

Thats unfortunate. It took mine 3 weeks to get approved after multiple chats and an expedite ticket. Ordering from them is interesting too.

 

I'm debating on pulling the trigger on a 7550e, but not sure just yet.

They're nice radios. Myself I don't like the funky antenna connector. I use my radios at times with external antennas. Having a standard SMA connector is a perk in my book.

The weird antenna connector is just a move by Motorola to capture more money from customers since that's one item that gets frequently broken by careless users. You look on eBay and you can find packs of antennas for Kenwood radios for sale cheap. No so much if at all for Motorola's proprietary ones. I bet Motorola makes a good profit on them.

[tweiss3]

2 minutes ago, Lscott said:

They're nice radios. Myself I don't like the funky antenna connector. I use my radios at times with external antennas. Having a standard SMA connector is a perk in my book.

The weird antenna connector is just a move by Motorola to capture more money from customers since that's one item that gets frequently broken by careless users. You look on eBay and you can find packs of antennas for Kenwood radios for sale cheap. No so much if at all for Motorola's proprietary ones. I bet Motorola makes a good profit on them.

If you are worried about cost, a brand new antenna from Motorola is $9.95 on the MOL site. Same with the older Vertex Standard stuff, I needed to get a few covers and screws, and saw the VS/MOL antennas were 1/3 the price of ebay versions, and just straight up replaced all 5 that I was going to "live with" for the time being.

[Lscott]

1 minute ago, tweiss3 said:

If you are worried about cost, a brand new antenna from Motorola is $9.95 on the MOL site. Same with the older Vertex Standard stuff, I needed to get a few covers and screws, and saw the VS/MOL antennas were 1/3 the price of ebay versions, and just straight up replaced all 5 that I was going to "live with" for the time being.

The antennas are not super expensive, but making the connector non standard is just another way for Motorola to capture more of the accessory market. It might cost you $9.95 and they have them made in China for $1 each most likely.

[tweiss3]

2 minutes ago, Lscott said:

The antennas are not super expensive, but making the connector non standard is just another way for Motorola to capture more of the accessory market. It might cost you $9.95 and they have them made in China for $1 each most likely.

That's true, however, I've come to the conclusion that any used radio I pick up is getting a new antenna, for the price and guarantee it is the right band antenna/working order, wrap that into the purchase price of the radios when I make my decision to buy.

 

I did pull the trigger on that 7550e, I also order the CPS last night. Lets see how long it takes for that purchase to process.

[Lscott]

29 minutes ago, tweiss3 said:

That's true, however, I've come to the conclusion that any used radio I pick up is getting a new antenna, for the price and guarantee it is the right band antenna/working order, wrap that into the purchase price of the radios when I make my decision to buy.

 

I did pull the trigger on that 7550e, I also order the CPS last night. Lets see how long it takes for that purchase to process.

I have CPS 16 build 828 for the XPR6550's I have a couple of the VHF and UHF models. The software has the mod's for the wide band FM and radio/code plug password work around. The later is almost necessary when buying used radios since some might be password locked.

I just got a Kenwood TK-3180 yesterday I purchased on eBay last weekend. The radio is the rather rare type-2 which has an official band split of 400 MHz to 470 MHz, perfect for Ham Radio and GMRS. It was $30 including shipping. Normally these sell for $80 to over $100 each.

https://kenwoodsub.dealerarena.com/ProductPDFs/10/TK-2180&3180Brochure.pdf

The radio had the special "passport" trunking firmware loaded and not the normal conventional/trunking one, LTR, so the usual Kenwood radio programming software wouldn't work on it. The radio displayed a message showing the special one that had to be used, which of course I didn't have. I flashed the normal firmware to the radio since I had it. Once that was done I found it was password locked for writing. Fortunately the radio programming software I had is modified to enable all sorts of features even the dealers likely don't have access to. One was removing passwords. All I had to do was enter the radio's serial number and do a write. That cleared all the passwords in the radio and I was able to write my code plug to it and now it's working.

I guess the reason why the price was so cheap was the seller couldn't program the radio either.

[tweiss3]

That's a good deal. I just need MOL to process things at this point.....

[tweiss3]

If a radio was programmed on CPS2.0, can't ever use CPS16, right?

[Radioguy7268]

Never say Never - but for most practical purposes, yes. Once you use CPS 2.0 to write a codeplug into a radio -  you're pretty much locked into it going forward, unless you're into hacking and cracking, and using illicitly obtained software that voids your warranty.

For a hobby based user, there is no practical purpose to using CPS 2.0.   If you're already using CPS 16 build 828 - stay there. Firmware R 02.09.0001 is the most recent version that will still work with CPS 16.  

Most of the newer CPS 2.0 Firmware updates require you to have an active SUM (Subscriber Update Management) - which generally means if your radio is more than 3 years old - you need to purchase a SUM License just to upgrade firmware. Not really worth it IMHO.

[tweiss3]

7 minutes ago, Radioguy7268 said:

Never say Never - but for most practical purposes, yes. Once you use CPS 2.0 to write a codeplug into a radio -  you're pretty much locked into it going forward, unless you're into hacking and cracking, and using illicitly obtained software that voids your warranty.

For a hobby based user, there is no practical purpose to using CPS 2.0.   If you're already using CPS 16 build 828 - stay there. Firmware R 02.09.0001 is the most recent version that will still work with CPS 16.  

Most of the newer CPS 2.0 Firmware updates require you to have an active SUM (Subscriber Update Management) - which generally means if your radio is more than 3 years old - you need to purchase a SUM License just to upgrade firmware. Not really worth it IMHO.

Thanks. That's what I thought I read, but I just wanted to confirm. I just got a message back from the seller that the last codeplug write on the radio was made with 2.0. I had already considered software costs in the purchase price. I guess I'll just start in 2.0 making this codeplug.

[Lscott]

3 hours ago, tweiss3 said:

Thanks. That's what I thought I read, but I just wanted to confirm. I just got a message back from the seller that the last codeplug write on the radio was made with 2.0. I had already considered software costs in the purchase price. I guess I'll just start in 2.0 making this codeplug.

I had an XPR6580 I wanted to experiment with on the Ham 33cm band and it had the trunking firmware on it. Somebody had used V2.0 to program it too. I managed to get it back on the old firmware usable with CPS 16, but in the process the “tune” date, the internal hardware calibration, got mucked up. I saved it before doing the down grade but found out there are differences between the two so the original “tune” data file won’t load. 
 

Using the tune data utility I can see the values but not all of them can be adjusted manually. A few of the receiver gain settings can only be adjusted on Motorola’s “auto tune” test station, which I don’t have or access to one. I could send it out for this but I’m not spending $80 to $100+ on a bench fee to adjust the radio. I only paid $45 for it. In the mean time I loaded the tune data from another radio in the one that got mucked up and reset the parameters I could manually adjust to match to original ones where possible. Not perfect but better than nothing.

[tweiss3]

Well, for what it's worth, there may be differences between 16 & 2.0, but overall, if you can find it in 16, its the same place in 2.0. The most annoying thing is the lack of cut/past or import features, resulting in mostly building the entire codeplug from scratch. Just made me recheck everything I've used in the past.

 

My biggest issues is MOL taking forever to give you permissions to do anything, 3 weeks to get an account, 3 days to update account information, "72 hours" to get access to the learning center (past 72 hours, but after calling I get a "should be available tomorrow morning").

[Lscott]

2 hours ago, tweiss3 said:

Well, for what it's worth, there may be differences between 16 & 2.0, but overall, if you can find it in 16, its the same place in 2.0. The most annoying thing is the lack of cut/past or import features, resulting in mostly building the entire codeplug from scratch. Just made me recheck everything I've used in the past.

 

My biggest issues is MOL taking forever to give you permissions to do anything, 3 weeks to get an account, 3 days to update account information, "72 hours" to get access to the learning center (past 72 hours, but after calling I get a "should be available tomorrow morning").

Makes you wonder how they manage to get and keep customers.

[wayoverthere]

31 minutes ago, Lscott said:

Makes you wonder how they manage to get and keep customers.

Job security for the radio techs? Having to enter it by hand is probably somewhat less of an issue if you're only doing 2 or 3 codeplugs across the org and just load, load, load. Especially so if most of the code plug is the same...save one with all the commons, then open from that and "fork" variations from there.

[tweiss3]

27 minutes ago, Lscott said:

Makes you wonder how they manage to get and keep customers.

To be fair, 90% of their business comes from government contracts in public safety, and those radio techs have accounts complete years ago. The new "business" radios they are pushing is DTRs, and 99.99% of that they want to push you through a dealer anyways.

[tweiss3]

@Lscott Have you managed to program via bluetooth? I tried last night (cable is in route) and didn't have any luck. I'm sure I'm missing something simple, and it probably need to be programmed via cable first, oh well. 

 

Also, completed the Narrowband "training" (15 minute video), but then it now can take up to 3 days to apply to your purchasing account. You would think these computer automated things would move quicker. I have more time in waiting then anything else.

[Lscott]

4 hours ago, tweiss3 said:

@Lscott Have you managed to program via bluetooth? I tried last night (cable is in route) and didn't have any luck. I'm sure I'm missing something simple, and it probably need to be programmed via cable first, oh well. 

 

Also, completed the Narrowband "training" (15 minute video), but then it now can take up to 3 days to apply to your purchasing account. You would think these computer automated things would move quicker. I have more time in waiting then anything else.

No Bluetooth option for programming with any radio I have. I think the XPR7550's can do it but the XPR6550's and XPR6580's I've got don't support Bluetooth.

I got my cable from the frequently mentioned source, BlueMax49ers. The guy is very easy to deal with and the quality of the cables I got was very good. I spent more than buying some no-name one on eBay but his are guaranteed to work.

https://bluemax49ers.com/

What was in that "training" video that required you to spend 15 minutes of your time watching? I probably could have produced the video in 30 seconds. If it's wide-band click this. If it's narrow-band click that. Done.

I need to get the radios out and play with them a bit. I had to think about how to organized the zones since the radios I have only allow 16 memory channels per zone. I had to set them up a bit differently than any other radio I own that has zone support.

[tweiss3]

2 minutes ago, Lscott said:

No Bluetooth option for programming with any radio I have. I think the XPR7550's can do it but the XPR6550's and XPR6580's I've got don't support Bluetooth.

I got my cable from the frequently mentioned source, BlueMax49ers. The guy is very easy to deal with and the quality of the cables I got was very good. I spent more than buying some no-name one on eBay but his are guaranteed to work.

https://bluemax49ers.com/

What was in that "training" video that required you to spend 15 minutes of your time watching? I probably could have produced the video in 30 seconds. If it's wide-band click this. If it's narrow-band click that. Done.

I need to get the radios out and play with them a bit. I had to think about how to organized the zones since the radios I have only allow 16 memory channels per zone. I had to set them up a bit differently than any other radio I own that has zone support.

the long and short, narrowband is required after 2013, you agree to use the wideband entitlement correctly, and will follow all the rules of Part 90 for Narrowband mandate......

At least it was simple and the bare minimum to keep the FCC off their back.

The cable I bought is the bluemax49ers, it's just late (USPS). Cable is minor. The timeframe to do things legitimately is insane though:

3+ Weeks to get an account started

2 days to get an account number assigned

3 days to get them to turn on your LXP access

3 days after narrowband training

3-5 days for purchase to process and be sent to you.

[Lscott]

54 minutes ago, tweiss3 said:

the long and short, narrowband is required after 2013, you agree to use the wideband entitlement correctly, and will follow all the rules of Part 90 for Narrowband mandate......

At least it was simple and the bare minimum to keep the FCC off their back.

The cable I bought is the bluemax49ers, it's just late (USPS). Cable is minor. The timeframe to do things legitimately is insane though:

3+ Weeks to get an account started

2 days to get an account number assigned

3 days to get them to turn on your LXP access

3 days after narrowband training

3-5 days for purchase to process and be sent to you.

What are your out of pocket expenses so far buying software and the license entitlement ID's?

[tweiss3]

20 minutes ago, Lscott said:

What are your out of pocket expenses so far buying software and the license entitlement ID's?

I'll send you a PM, I don't want MOL mad at me for posting it.