Centracomm Gold Elite and iDen interface

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 9:26 am

Can anyone help me on this one?
After about 1 year and 8 months of the usual it's not our fault between the iDen provider and Motorola I've come looking for any information that I can find to help solve this install.
First a little background. When the iDen interface was first brought in to the centracom it did not function, Telus, the iDen supplier said their radio was correct but the interface wouldn't talk to the radio. At this point I'm baffeled and call for help from Moto. After the usual sales,Moto talks I get a FTR out to check the interface. He suspects that the wrong cards where sent. We then have to wait for enginering to call to confirm the firmware ect. We found out after this that when this particular interface is orderd it is defaulted as an ASTRO interface unless specified Iden.Ok problem solved. Not yet, the centracom now can see the new interface cards, but still can't talk to the radio. After many trials and more months of testing radios that are suposed to be the right firmware I finally get the right radio that talks to the interface cards. I can control the Iden functions from an Elite position but have no audio. I have had a fluke usage of the complete interface,(audio and radio function) for a few hours, and it worked great. I shut down the radio for some other testing and lost the audio again. Nothing I have tried has helped to this point. Again back to Telus and Moto. Can anyone spread a little light on this as I seam to be the guinny pig on this, and looks like the expert in western Canada.
Thanks for any help you can offer.

Post by **wavetar** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 2:19 pm

Well, I do a fair bit of Centracom work, and your situation (waiting, waiting, waiting for M) is completely understood. I don't know anything about iDEN radios, but to my understanding they're similar to Motorola tunked units. So, I guess my question is, how are you interfacing the radio into the CEB? I gather from your post that it's not the standard "BIM to tone remote adaptor to base radio" scenario. What sort of radio functions can you control with the console, other than the regular PTT & channel changing? What type of iDEN radio is it? What's the CEB interface card called & what's the part#? Maybe the extra info will help someone (XMO, Salem?) come up with suggestions.

Todd

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Thu Sep 04, 2003 7:17 pm

To answer your question as how the iDen radio is interfaced, now I get to go techy. The radio is controled by the iCIM (BLN1214A-SP1) via serial data sent to the digital hang up cup(DHUC) then to the radio through the control cable. TX and RX audio is through a seperate BIM (BLN6654D-SP5) card taken of the punch block for P2 on the backplane.This 4 wire audio is sent through a (AIB) matching transformer (QTN6050A) set up mounted on the DHUC and again through the DHUC and the control cable to the radio. iCIM and BIM are connected together through an Aux i/o module(BLN6664B). I have RX/TX audio through to the DHUC and AIB from the radio till I hook up the iCIM data line then it seems to mute all audio. The only help I've gotten in the last couple of weeks is from a tech Barrie Ont. saying to change the TDM asignment as that seamed to work for him. I sorta lean toward the OS/firmware problems that are always popping up with centracoms. This system is NT 4.0 SP4 and I believe the firmware on the iCIM is Q103 or Q402. Nobody has told me if the iCIM firmware is a problem yet. Hope that helps a bit more as to how the thing works. Thanks

Post by **wavetar** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:40 am

I tend to agree with you about the firmware incompatibilities. NT4 SP4 would put your system in the Q002 area, much earlier than your iCIM. I'm surprised Motorola would even provide the iCIM to you without a recommendation to uplift the rest of your platform to the same level. Guaranteed the first thing the SSC would say to you is your configuration 'is not supported'.
That said, have you tried changing the TDM address as was suggested? Believe it or not, it can make a difference in certain circumstances, from distorted audio to missing audio. Another thing to try is removing the MUX BUS (not the DATA BUS) jumpers on the BIM. Sounds strange, I know, but it may make the difference.

Todd

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 4:20 pm

Thanks, I'll give those sugestions a try next week when I visit the system. I will post an update to let you know how the changes went.