Product Support Bulletin 755

BULLETIN MOTOROLA PRODUCT SERVICES LAND MOBILE PRODUCT SECTOR PSB # 755 1307 E. ALGONQUIN RD. APC # 448,482,509 SCHAUMBURG, ILL. 60196 Date: FEBRUARY, 1996 (708) 576-0180 EXPIRES : N/A MODEL AFFECTED: T5365A Subject: QUANTAR/QUANTRO EQUIPMENT ISSUES. 1) WHEN INSTALLING STATION CONTROL BOARD AND WIRELINE FIRMWARE, BE SURE THEY ARE IN MATCHED SETS SO COMPATIBILITY ISSUES WILL NOT BECOME A PROBLEM. THIS INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND IN THE QUANTAR RSS MANUAL AND THE RSS SYSTEM HELP TEXT. FIRMWARE VERSION 2 THRU 5 WILL WORK TOGETHER TO SOME DEGREE. BEGINNING WITH VERSION 6, THE STATION CONTROL AND WIRELINE MUST BE OF THE SAME SET OR THE STATION WILL NOT WORK AT ALL. WHEN A STATION IS POWERED UP AND THERE IS AN INCOMPATIBILITY IN FIRMWARE, THE WIRELINE LED WILL FLASH GREEN TO RED EVERY 5 TO 10 SECONDS. 2) STATIONS EQUIPPED WITH THE UHSO OPTION, SHIPPED PRIOR TO AUGUST 15, 1995 , WILL HAVE A PROBLEM WHEN USED IN 6809 TRUNKING SYSTEMS AS THE CONTROL CHANNEL. SYMPTOM: THE INABILITY OF A SUBSCRIBER UNIT TO ACCESS THE SYSTEM. THIS IS CAUSED BY THE CORRUPTION OF THE WIDEBAND AUDIO WHICH CARRIES SUBSCRIBER SIGNALLING WORDS TO THE CENTRAL CONTROLLER. SOLUTION: REMOVE THE INDUCTOR ( L101) ON THE UHSO BOARD. 3) CONVENTIONAL STATIONS MAY EXPERIENCE PL INTERFERENCE FROM CO-CHANNEL USERS WHO HAVE PL FREQUENCIES ADJACENT TO THE QUANTAR/QUANTRO STATIONS PL. THE PL DETECT BANDWIDTH IS WIDE ENOUGH TO DETECT THESE ADJACENT PL FREQUENCIES ONCE THE PROPER PL IS FIRST DETECTED. IF POSSIBLE, CHANGING THE PL FREQUENCIES IS THE RECOMMENDED PROCEDURE. A FUTURE RELEASE OF STATION FIRMWARE (V8.00) DUE LATE SUMMER 1996 WILL ADDRESS THIS ISSUE IF THE PL FREQUENCIES CANNOT BE CHANGED. 4) THERE HAVE BEEN REPORTED ISSUES WITH BEST UPS POWER SUPPLIES WORKING WITH THE ONAN MADE QUANTAR POWER SUPPLIES, LEADING TO PREMATURE FAILURE OR OVERHEATING OF THE BEST SUPPLY. BEST HAS MADE DESIGN MODIFICATIONS AND IF YOU HAVE A BEST UPS MADE PRIOR TO 3/01/96 THAT IS BACKING UP THE QUANTAR STATION, PLEASE CONTACT GARY WASHER WITH SEPS INC. (BEST DISTRIBUTOR) AT (800)369-7377 FOR INFORMATION ON OBTAINING A MODIFIED BEST SUPPLY TO ELIMINATE ANY FURTHER ISSUES. 5) IT HAS BEEN DETERMINED THAT APCO 25 COMPIANT 12.5 KHZ OPERATION WILL REQUIRE A HIGH STABILITY REFERENCE FOR BOTH UHF AND 800 MHZ OPERATION. THIS CAN BE PROVIDED BY USING THE UHSO OPTION FOR THE QUANTAR/QUANTRO STATION OR AN EXTERNAL HSO. THE 1 PPM STABILITY OF THE VHF STATIONS ARE NOT AFFECTED. BE AWARE IF YOU UPGRADE FOR APCO 25 COMPLIANCE AND THE STATION ALREADY CONTAINS AN OPTION FILLING THE OPTIONS SLOT, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ADD THE UHSO STATION OPTION TO IT, AND AN EXTERNAL HSO WILL HAVE TO BE USED. 6) TO INSURE PROPER CONTROL OF TDATA LEVELS IN 6809 TRUNKING SYSTEMS, THERE IS A RESISTOR THAT NEEDS TO BE CHECKED. IN EPIC MODULES TTN4094B & C WHEN USED IN SIMULCAST APPLICATIONS, THE RESISTOR R1216 SHOULD BE REMOVED. IN NON-SIMULCAST APPLICATIONS THE RESISTOR SHOULD REMAIN IN. MODULE TTN4094D WILL NOT REQUIRE THIS CHECK. MODULE TTN4094A WAS NEVER SHIPPED TO THE FIELD IN THE QUANTAR/QUANTRO STATIONS. THE RESISTOR VALUE IS 470 OHMS. 7) RSS VERSION 5.00.01 HAS BEEN KNOWN TO CAUSE PROBLEMS WHEN BEING USED TO UPGRADE STATIONS FOR INTELLIREPEATER PIB OPERATION. CODE PLUGS THAT ARE UPGRADED VIA RELEASE 5.00.01 UTILITY WILL HAVE A MISSING BIT THAT WILL PREVENT THE PIB FROM FUNCTIONING PROPERLY. CODE PLUGS THAT ARE UPGRADED WITH A LATER VERSION OF RSS WILL AUTOMATICALLY CORRECT THIS PROBLEM. 8) RSS VERSION 6.00.01 HAS BEEN KNOWN TO CAUSE PROBLEMS WHEN BEING USED TO UPGRADE STATIONS FOR CERTAIN FEATURES: MIXED MODE (ASTRO & ANALOG) SIMULCAST SYSTEMS, CORRUPT CHANNEL DATA FOR SIMULCAST STATIONS, REFERENCE MODULATION FOR SIMULCAST STATIONS. ANALOG ONLY AND ASTRO ONLY SYSTEMS ARE NOT AFFECTED BY THESE ISSUES. USE RSS VERSION 6.01.00 TO UPGRADE STATIONS FOR THE ABOVE FEATURES TO ELIMINATE ANY PROBLEMS. WORK AROUND IF 6.01.00 IS NOT AVAILABLE WITH THE TECHNICIAN: 1. CORRUPT CHANNEL DATA: WHEN THE CHANNEL DATA ON THE MAIN:CHANGE/VIEW:CHANNEL INFORMATION SCREEN IS VIEWED AND/OR CHANGED BY THE USER, CERTAIN HIDDEN CHANNEL PARAMETERS MAY NOT BE SET PROPERLY IN THE CODE PLUG UNLESS THE FOLLOWING STEPS ARE FOLLOWED: A. AFTER MODIFYING THE CHANNEL DATA ON THE MAIN:CHANGE/VIEW CHANNEL INFORMATION SCREEN, AS THE LAST USER ACTION BEFORE PROGRAMMING THE CODE PLUG TO THE STATION, PROCEED TO THE SERVICE:STATION CONFIGURATION SCREEN. B. MOVE THE CURSOR TO THE SIMULCAST FIELD AND TOGGLE THE SETTING FROM ENABLED TO DISABLED. EXIT THE STATION CONFIGURATION SCREEN. C. RE-ENTER THE STATION CONFIGURATION SCREEN AND TOGGLE THE SIMULCAST SCREEN BACK TO ENABLED. D. NOW SAVE THE CODE PLUG TO THE STATION. DO NOT RETURN TO THE CHANNEL INFORMATION SCREEN AGAIN BEFORE SAVING THE CODE PLUG. 2. ALIGNMENT OF REFERENCE MODULATION: TO PERFORM THE PROPER REFERENCE MODULATION ALIGNMENT, THE SIMULCAST FEATURE MAY HAVE TO BE DISABLED IN THE RSS TEMPORARILY TO ALLOW ACCESS TO THE PROPER ALIGNMENT SCREEN. FOR MIXED ASTRO & ANALOG SIMULCAST SYSTEMS ONLY, FOLLOW THESE STEPS: A. READ THE CODE PLUG FROM THE STATION. B. FOLLOW THE STEPS OUTLINED ABOVE TO PREVENT CHANNEL DATA CORRUPTION. C. PROCEED TO THE SERVICE:STATION CONFIGURATION SCREEN, AND SET THE SIMULCAST FIELD TO DISABLED. D. PROCEED TO THE SERVICE:ALIGNMENT:REFERENCE M0DULATION SCREEN AND PERFORM THE ALIGNMENT OPERATION AS DESCRIBED IN THE MANUAL AND THE SCREEN HELP TEXT. E. SAVE THE ALIGNMENT TO THE STATION. DO NOT SAVE THE CODE PLUG TO THE STATION BEFORE SETTING SIMULCAST BACK TO ENABLED. 9) QUANTAR/QUANTRO INTELLIREPEATER WITH NON-EPIC (TRN7760A) STATION CONTROL BOARD, EXPERIENCING SINGLE STATION RESETS. IN SEVERAL RARE SITUATIONS RF INTERFERENCE HAS CAUSED RAPID FALSING OF THE CONNECT AND DISCONNECT TONE DECODERS IN THE STATION. THIS HAS CAUSED AN OVERLOAD OF THE NON-EPIC STATION CONTROL BOARD WHICH RESULTS IN A RESET. STATION ALARM LOGS WILL INDICATE INTERMITTANT, BUT, PERSISTENT "SYS_RESET" MESSAGES WITH NO OTHER ALARMS CAN BE LOGGED DURING THIS OCCURRENCE. IF A "SYS_RESET" MESSAGE IS LOGGED AND THERE IS ANOTHER ALARM STRING IN THE LOG WITH AN IDENTICAL TIME STAMP, THERE WAS NOT AN OVERLOAD CONDITION, AND THE RESET WAS DUE TO SOMEOTHER FACTOR. IF IT HAS BEEN DETERMINED THAT THE PROBLEM IS TRUELY THE OVERLOAD WITH NO OTHER ALARMS, THE SOLUTION IS TO CHANGE THE STATION CONTROL BOARD FIRMWARE TO VERSION 11.109 OR LATER. VERSION 11.109 IS COMPATIBLE WITH ALL RELEASE 2.7E FIRMWARE. IF YOUR SYSTEM DOES NOT CURRENTLY HAVE RELEASE 2.7E FIRMWARE, THEN UPGRADES TO OTHER SYSTEM DEVICES MAY BE NECESSARY. 10) THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH CWID BEING SENT BY THE STATION USING CARRIER SQUELCH OPERATION AND T=R FREQUENCIES. THE PROBLEM MANIFESTS ITSELF BY CONTINOUSLY SENDING OUT A PARTIAL ID. IF POSSIBLE USE PL INSTEAD OF CSQ ON THE STATION RECEIVER, OR DISABLE THE ID. THIS WILL BE RESOLVED IN STATION FIRMWARE RELEASE 7.1 DUE LATE MARCH/APRIL 1996 TIME PERIOD. 11) A PROBLEM WITH AUDIO HOLES HAS BEEN REPORTED WHEN STATIONS ARE BEING SETUP FOR (1) TWO WIRE TONE REMOTE CONTROL OR (2) FOUR WIRE, WHEN THE RECEIVE AUDIO IS BEING ROUTED TO A SPECTRA TAC OR DIGITAC COMPARATOR. THE STATION MUST BE CONFIGURED USING THE RSS TO ENABLE THE 2175 HZ NOTCH FILTER IN THE RECEIVE AUDIO PATH. IF THE NOTCH FILTER IS NOT ENABLED, AUDIO HOLES IN THE REPEAT AUDIO OR WIRELINE AUDIO MAY RESULT. 12) QUANTAR/QUANTRO INTELLIREPEATER WITH 2.7E OR 2.7 MOL FIRMWARE. THE POTENTIAL EXISTS FOR THE BASE STATION TO EXPERIENCE A RESET WHEN USING RSS TO PERFORM THE FOLLOWING OPERATIONS UNDER LOAD CONDITIONS: ----- READ THE STATION CODE PLUG ----- READ THE STATIONS ALARM REPORT ----- MONITOR THE FRONT PANEL DISPLAY THE FOLLOWING PRECAUTIONS SHOULD BE TAKEN TO PREVENT POTENTIAL COMMUNICATION OUTAGES THAT COULD RESULT FROM STATION RESETS. THIS INFORMATION IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT WHEN PERFORMING THE ABOVE OPERATIONS ON A STATION MAINTAINING THE RS232 LINK TO THE ZONE CONTROLLER, AS A FAILURE OF THIS STATION WILL BRING THE ENTIRE SITE INTO SITE TRUNKING. ----- ONLY PERFORM THE ABOVE OPERATIONS DURING PERIODS OF LOW OR NO SITE ACTIVITY. ----- DISABLE THE STATION BEING WORKED ON TO REDUCE ITS LOAD AND AVOID THE POTENTIAL FOR CORRUPTING A CALL. ----- AVOID PERFORMING THE ABOVE OPERATIONS ON A STATION MAINTAINING THE ZONE LINK. IF THIS CANNOT BE AVOIDED, PLAN THE WORK FOR AN APPROPRIATE TIME AND MAKE THE NECESSARY PREPARATIONS TO ALERT USERS OF THE POTENTIAL PERIOD OF SITE TRUNKING OPERATION. 13) STATIONS USING THE EPIC STATION CONTROL BOARD, WITH FIRMWARE VERSIONS 5.0 OR 5.1 WILL EXPERIENCE A TIMEKEEPING ACCURACY PROBLEM WITH THE INTERNAL CLOCK FOR STATUS MESSAGE REPORTING. THE STATION COULD BE OFF BY AS MUCH AS 15 MINUTES OR MORE PER DAY FROM ITS ORIGINAL SETTING. SOLUTION: IS TO UPGRADE THE EPIC BOARD FIRMWARE TO VERSION 7.0 OR LATER. THIS IS AN INFORMATIONAL BULLETIN ONLY. NO REFERENCE TO WARRANTY IS IMPLIED OR INTENDED.