I took a look at my CPS cable at home and confirmed it is a PMKN4154A CPS cable, part of the HKKN4027A CPS cable kit. This confirmation is good news because it means no special cable is needed for firmware updates.
The DTR NA firmware update tool only contains updated firmware for the DTR 600/700. The last FW update to the DTR 410/550/650 was back in 2012, IIRC.
The DTR 410/550/650 firmware file(s) are available. Info needed to update the firmware in the DTR 410/550/650 models is on this site.
it is highly unlikely that there will be be any more updates to the DTR 410/550/650 firmware. DTR 410/550/650 models were discontinued last year (2018) while the DTR 600/700 models were in development. The DTR 410/550/650 models enjoyed a 12 year production run and I suspect Motorola was finally running into issues with parts going EOL and can’t get parts for them anymore. The DTR 410/550/650 models were long overdue for a replacement anyway.
I successfully updated the firmware in my DTR700 fleet earlier this week and the channel/talkgroup scan feature works as advertised. The scan behavior appears to be identical to the talkgroup scan feature in the older DTRs.
Thanks for the confirmation. I was hoping maybe they included an AGC update for the 410/550/650 series, but I guess it isn’t a high priority at this point.
I think it’s safe to say there won’t be an update for the 410/550/650 given that they are officially out of production.
I emailed the Moto dealer where I bought my DTR700 fleet from and emphasized the need for Motorola to update the firmware in the DLRs to add AGC to the transmit audio to fix the DLR’s distorted audio problem. I explained the problem and a quick test people can do to demo the problem.
The DTR 600/700 have the best audio, thanks to Motorola adding AGC to keep the transmitted audio under control. The DLRs sound the worst due to no AGC in the tx audio path. The DTR 410/550/650 also do not have AGC in the transmit audio but sound better than the DLRs.
Motorola solved the audio issue by adding AGC to the DTR 600/700 transmit audio and I’m trying to push Motorola to add it to the DLRs. The DTR 600/700 program similar to the DLRs so I would expect the firmware to be similar. When the DTR 600/700 models were first announced, the CPS (R06.00) had not been updated yet (to R07.00) and an early version of the owner’s guide said to read the radio as a DLR model in the R06.00 CPS and then work from there. That looks like a workaround in the CPS. The CPS was soon updated to R07.00 include the DTR 600/700 models. The latest CPS R07.01 is able to use the new features that were added in the DTR 600/700 firmware update. I would think it should be possible to add the DTR 600/700’s AGC to the DLR firmware.
The email reply I received said my email would be forwarded to Motorola.
After successfully updating the FW in my DTR700 fleet, I noticed a bug that wasn’t there before the FW update. I have had several occasions after a DTR700 has been powered on for a while and I pick it up to transmit with it or do something on the keypad and…nothing. The radio display appears normal but the radio won’t transmit or receive and no response from the keypad or other buttons. No chirp upon pressing PTT. The radio appears to be totally brain dead and requires a reset. In one case, I had to pull the battery briefly to reset the radio so it would work normally again. Holding the power button long enough (for several seconds) will also do a reset. After resetting the radio, everything is fine again. I had one radio do this twice to me tonight.
Motorola has released another firmware update for the DTR 600/700/720 models. The DTR720 is not sold in the USA and I assume it is the Latin America version.
The CPS was also updated to include the new features. The latest CPS rev is R07.02.
I found this while browsing Motorola’s site for new stuff.
Motorola DTR600/700/720 series two-way radio Firmware Update info 31-Oct-2019
DTR600/700/720 two-way radios firmware to be updated from:
Firmware Version R01.00.02 or R01.01.00 to R01.02.01
Codeplug Version R01.00.00 or R01.01.00 to R01.02.00
Keypad Version R01.00.01 or R01.00.02 or R01.01.00 to R01.02.00
R01.01.00 provides new features and capabilities listed below:
Scan - radio stay on a channel is able to scan for other Public groups channel and Private groups which has the same hopset/profile ID.
Group Caller ID - radio receiving screens will display the Caller ID/Name for group calls.
Fixed issue with long channel name for home channel.
R01.02.01 provides new features and capabilities listed below:
Text Message - radio able to receive text messages and send text messages to other radios with pre-programmed text messages.
Remote Monitor (DTR700 & DTR720 only) - radio configured as Manager Mode is able to remotely monitor and listen to the environment of the other radio for 30 seconds provided the target radio is in the range.
Remote Disable (DTR700 & DTR720 only) - radio configured as Manager Mode is able to remotely enable or disable other radio provided the target radio is in the range.
Call Alert - radio able to pre-alert a specific radio in range to call back.
Rental Timer (DTR600 & DTR720 only) - radio rental company able to set rental period to radios and radio will be disabled when rental period expired.
Ringer Tone and Volume - radio able to set specific Ringer Tone and configure the loudness of the Ringer Tone that sound while receiving text message or call alert.
OTA Contact Cloning - radio able to add or delete contacts to or from another radio wirelessly without connecting the radios by cable.
Fixed issue with call failed after back and forth private calls to a radio.
There is no mention of any fixes for the strange lockup behavior I have encountered a few times.
Looks like I will be doing another update to the firmware in my DTR700 fleet tonight.
I successfully updated the firmware in my DTR700 fleet. I played around with the Manager Mode features. Remote Monitor, Remote Disable, and Remote Enable all work as advertised. I found the Manager Mode features in the DTR700 also works with the legacy DTR410/550/650 models. I tested the DTR700 Manager Mode features with one of my DTR650 radios. I was able to remotely monitor and remotely disable and enable the DTR650 from my DTR700, and vice versa. The DTR700 Manager Mode features appear to be backward compatible with the legacy DTRs.
Now for the BAD news. One of my DTR700 radios exhibited the occasional strange lockup behavior that I posted about earlier. The firmware update did not fix this behavior. I was out and about with the wife today and we were using a pair of DTR700 radios and mine locked up and played dead for a few minutes. The radio appears to be brain dead except for the display which appears normal. There is no response from the keypad or PTT or any buttons and no transmit or receive. It does send an acknowledgement to another radio talking to it to allow the other radio to continue transmitting but nothing is heard out of the dead DTR700. Pressing and holding PTT several times over about a minute eventually caused the radio to reset and reboot itself and then everything was OK after that.
The lockup happened after I got out of my car and right when I pulled the radio out of my coat pocket. We tested the radios only a minute or so earlier and everything was OK before getting out of the car. It was windy and cold and dry today. Very low relative humidity. I’m thinking the radio took a zap of electrostatic discharge (ESD) when I pulled the radio out of my coat pocket. If it actually is an ESD problem, i.e., has poor immunity to ESD, this is a hardware issue and something that might not be fixable with a firmware update.
I recently acquired two new DTR700s and two DLR1060s. I’ve been playing with them for about a week now. I have also experienced the random lockup behavior described by n1das. This happened shortly after I had programmed in a private group and put all four of my radios into this private group. I went out driving around, doing some range testing between the two DTR700s. Suddenly, I wasn’t getting any talk tone confirmations anymore. I pressed the PTT button a few more times and then the radio rebooted. When the radio came back, everything was normal again. This was with the R01.01.00 firmware. The conditions that night was cool and damp, so lots of humidity. I have since flashed to the latest firmware (R01.02.01) and am playing with it now. I really do hope the Motorola engineers look into this issue soon.
(Remainder of discussion regarding output power moved to new thread here.)
It’s funny that you say that you wish the radios had more than 1 watt, and then go on to explain how their range is better than other radios. I consistently had better range with my DTR than with my 4-watt UHF radios. The higher frequency and frequency-hopping I think give the DTR it’s incredible range. It doesn’t need any more power, and by using only 1 watt, the batteries can last a LOT longer!
Greetings Andy! Thanks for the warm welcome. I agree that it is nice to have long lasting radios, battery-wise. Nevertheless, I can’t help but fantasize any improvements towards an ideal, optimal radio. If regulations allowed, I can imagine this radio having a continuous power range between say, 1mW and 5 Watts, fully variable. The transmit power would be varied according to a set bit error rate (BER) threshold that it tracks to (realtime power control like with CDMA). So if two radios were in a direct call at close range (e.g. between adjacent cabins in a cruise ship), maybe 1mW would be all it takes to maintain clear communications. Thus, the transmit energy would always be throttled to the minimum required between the two corresponding radios in direct call mode. It would also be great if the current transmit power was displayed to show the current efficiency. Of course this wouldn’t work if a broadcast to all radios listening to the same profileID, public or private group is desired. In this case, having standard selectable preset power levels (e.g. 100mW, 1W, 5W) would offer some of this desire to save battery life when range isn’t needed.
The other half of this fantasy is to imagine how much more sensitive the receiver portion can be improved upon (while maintaining or even improving upon hopping channel selectivity, blocking immunity, spurious noise generation, increased frequency stability, etc.) using state-of-the-art RF techniques and hardware materials. I wonder if some modified form of RAKE receiver is even possible with fhss (like as used in CDMA dsss systems) to help combine the mutipath signals instead of just rejecting them. -131 effective dBm? -137dBm? I can only dream.
Back to reality. I also obtained two of the stubby antennas (PMAF4025) for the DTR700s and performed some more range testing a couple of days ago. The range seems to fall right in between the two DLRs and the two DTRs with the longer half-wave antennas on both of them. I came across an interesting result from one of the combinations. With one DTR and its half-wave antenna standing vertical in our condo’s kitchen counter on the second floor, I was able to establish a connection using a DLR 2.5 miles away at one of the discovered fringe hot spots. Repeating the same location experiment, but with two DTRs and using the stubby antennas on both of them, I was also able to establish a connection, although it was just a smidge weaker and a little more position dependent at that location. This fringe hotspot 2.5 miles away is by no means a direct line of sight (LOS). Even though the location is elevated with businesses all around, it is blocked by a series of hills starting about a quarter mile away. Lots of condo complexes and homes lie in between the other 2 miles, and lastly with our condo butted up against yet another hill… on the other side. I was able to verify the connection by taking advantage of the monitoring feature introduced to the DTRs with the latest firmware update. Without this verification, I would have found the supposed connection not to be trusted or even believed, especially in light of the arguments that VHF is way better than UHF for use around hills. Maybe it’s due to all the man-made structures, cars, sidewalk pedestrian railings, etc., that serve to act as ducting for the UHF waves.
In short, I was hoping the stubby antennas were closer performance-wise to the longer half-wave antennas. When one factors in the thinner, more flexible half-wave variant, I’m leaning towards defaulting to the half-wave and only using the stubby ones when space is an issue (like fitting them into a Nanuk 310 case). n1das has a good suggestion about wanting automatic gain control (AGC) implemented on the Tx side of the DLRs. If that did happen and they had the vibrate feature for silent alerting, I would be using them almost exclusively when absolute range or the extra features of the DTRs aren’t needed. They are just so discreet.
Apologies for the off-topic power/range postings. Thanks Andy for moving them to a new thread.
This afternoon around 2:30pm PST, one of my DTR700s experienced another one of these lockups. The display was active, but the radio would not respond to any buttons. I pushed the PTT button quickly a few more times and it then rebooted. Afterwards, it started working again. This lockup was with the latest R01.02.01 firmware. n1das mentioned that it might have something to do with ESD. With experimental rubbing on various materials, enough static electricity was generated such that I experienced crackling sensations all around me. Repeatedly, I reached for the radio to see if I can shock it into this state. I wasn’t able to.
I don’t know if the lockup behavior is ESD related or not. I’ve had the lockup behavior happen a couple of times on each of my DTR700 radios in my DTR700 fleet. In one case I had to pull the battery from the radio to reset it. That was before I learned that it will eventually reboot itself if you keep pressing PTT or the power button multiple times after it has lost its mind. The behavior is also independent of operating mode so it doesn’t matter whether it’s operating in a public or private group or Profile ID mode group. The behavior is random like you said.
I learned in another forum that in order to get problem reports and feature requests communicated to the right people inside Motorola, you need to contact your Motorola dealer and have them forward the information along. Motorola will do nothing and not respond if you try to contact them directly. All requests for new features and/or problem reports have to be communicated through a Motorola dealer. I don’t like it but that’s how Motorola chooses to do business.
I recommend contacting your Motorola dealer and report/complain about the DTR600/700 strange lockup behavior and ask that the information be forwarded to Motorola. You are not alone. Hopefully Motorola will address it. Also request that Motorola add automatic gain control (AGC) to the DLR transmit audio like they did in the DTR600/700 models. The DTR600/700 has the best audio thanks to AGC in the Tx audio. The DLRs have the worst audio. The legacy DTR410/550/650 models fall somewhere in between.
I reported the DTR600/700 lockup behavior to my Motorola dealer. I also sent them a feature request to add AGC to the DLR transmit audio to help clean them up.
Looks like you have the original firmware. My DTR700 fleet was also manufactured in December 2018. Upgrading to the latest FW adds scan capability, adds OTA programming, fixes a couple of bugs, and adds Manager Mode and canned text messaging capability.
Motorola has released another FW update for the DTR600/700 models.
Copied and pasted below from the FW update instructions…
Motorola DTR600/700/720 series two-way radio
Firmware Update info
6-July-2020
DTR600/700/720 two-way radios firmware to be updated to:
Firmware Version: R01.02.02
Codeplug Version: R01.02.01
Keypad Version: R01.02.00
FW R01.01.02 provides enhancement listed below:
Fixed Renoir freeze screen issue.
Note: When the issue happens, the radio’s screen freezes but the radio is
still able to transmit call, receive call and can power down radio via on/off
button.
“Enable Profile ID pin” setting for DTR600 is changed to
enable/checked in factory settings. No change on DTR700 and
DTR720.
Note: New factory settings will only take place if users upgrade firmware
with “Restore Radio’s personality” NOT select.
Updated Motorola Business Radio CPS was also released. The latest CPS version is R08.02.
