The Radio Information Board

Have a UHF 51SL portable Model 1 (48 channels, no display). It has firmware 6.4.11. I used 2.4.10 PCC to read the radio. When I wrote the code plug back to the radio, it uploaded without error. Yet powering up the radio has the yellow LED come on and the radio is dead. Because it has no display, I cannot see any error code. I get no beeps. I experiemented in the bootloader to see if it would take an earlier hardware version and the message tells me it's a version 6 radio, so there is something happening in the radio when I go into the bootload mode.

The radio does not power off, I have to (like with bootload mode) remove the battery.

I'm told we have an EFJ expert here...Dave...who may be able to shed some light? Some years ago I bought PCTune and no joy in reading the radio with that as well as with several versions of PCC.

HELP...anyone...Dave....

Jerry

how many times does the LED blink? there will be a pause then it will just keep repeating. This is an error code for the model I radios (actually they all do it but the other models have a display to tell you though)

The light comes on once...yellow...and goes off. I forgot to mention that the radio was brand new, from the box...so no one but me has done any programming on it. I was able to read the options/version and the codeplug. I saved the code plug without problem. When I uploaded the codeplug (which I normally do to verify the software/cables/batter are OK) it quit.

With another 51ES radio (with a display) and this one, side-by-side, powering them both up, the timing is similar. The Model !, of course, would not have the powerup logo, etc., but the timing is similar with both radios having the yellow LED show for the same amount of time. Where the good radio goes into the "ready to use" mode, the Model 1 becomes non-functional.

Thanks!
Jerry

Sorry Jerry, I read your original post wrong.
The amber LED will come on while the radio is doing is power on self test sequence, that part is normal.
Since the firmware is 6.4.11 that would require PCC 2.6.x to program it.
The fact that it does not power off seems kinda suspect. Almost like it is stuck in 'bootload' mode, although in that mode, the radio would not do its power on self test, it would just turn on in bootload mode.
Can you still read version info or anything from the radio?

I too suspect it's going to the bootload mode. No, I cannot read any data from the radio (version, options, etc.)...

But...when I try to "upgrade" either the boot or application with a .hex file, the message does come back telling me I need a version six (I don't have a version 6 so I was experimenting with a version 1 or 3). So the bootloading must be looking at the radio and knowing it's a version 6, so I believe some data transfer is possible.

I am wondering if a simple upload of a bootload and application will restore it? And, where do I get a .hex file?

The PCC I used was a 6.4.10 (I think, operating from memory here at work). I have a couple other version six radios (VHF) and have had no problems with the cable/PCC/computer. That is what made this all odd. It's almost like a memory leak happened that corrupted the application code -- and I cannot re-upload the application. The frustrating part is not having a display (which I cannot easily fix) to know that the radio is probably in bootload mode.

So.....uploading boot/application seems like a possibility. Does EFJ share the .hex files for this?

Jerry

To clarify...the PCC version used was obtained from EFJ for version six radios...so I'm confident it's correct. I will confirm what version I have as several of the radios I have require different versions. Have spent some late nights on public safety events last couple of days and my brain is fuzzy.......



Jerry

There are several versions of PCC that work on the Series 6 (ES) radios, but it really matters what version of PCC you use to program a specific version of firmware in the radio. IT is kinda goofy but EFJ does some weird things in that regard and it can make it harder for the end user to keep it all straight.
You can get the latest firmware update from them for around 20 bucks and load that in and see if that helps you out.