Service manual
Guide to ASTRO™ Digital Radios
FLASHport™ Technology
FLASHport™ is simply a fancy name which means “upgrade”. By upgrading, you may add
features (FLASHport™ options) and/or update the host and DSP firmware in a radio. This is accomplished
by putting the radio into bootstrap mode and communicating with the flash ROMs and EEPROM.
In older ASTRO™-series radios, a Smart Radio Interface Box (SRIB), a flash/programming cable
and an i-button were required hardware for this procedure. On the newer ASTRO25™-series platform, a
simple flash/programming cable is all that’s needed; Motorola Inc. did away with the RIB hardware.
All Motorola Inc. ASTRO™ and ASTRO25™ radios contain a “flashcode”. This is a 13-digit
hexadecimal number which represents options enabled in the radio codeplug. It looks like this example:
599108-1C5E00-1
FLASHCODE
5
9
9
1
0
8
-
1
C
5
E
0
0
-
1
POSITION
12
11
10
9
8
7
-
6
5
4
3
2
1
-
CHECKSUM
Figure 10.1 A chart which breaks down the FLASHport™ address positions.
There are really only 12-digits in the flashcode, as the last digit indicates the checksum. Each
position of the flashcode could be a hexadecimal digit from 0-F.
For each FLASHport™ digit position, there are four possible FLASHport™ options which could be
represented through the binary weight of B1, B2, B4 and B8.
Take position 12 for example. The flashcode binary weight is 5. This means it has two
FLASHport™ options installed: The options of weight B1 and B4. Those are:
B4 G806/Q806 ASTRO™ Digital Operation (CAI)
B1 G14/H114 Enhanced Digital ID Display
Position 11 has a binary weight of 9. This means options B8 and B1 are installed. These options
are:
B8 G298/Q498 Hardware Mutlikey Encrytpion with OTAR
B1 G101/H101 Repeater Access
It is important to note Motorola Inc. uses the FLASHport™ system for other radio platforms and
some options are not compatible with ASTRO™ and ASTRO25™ product platforms.
The following table is a complete list of known FLASHport™ options. There may be several
undocumented options, or options which differ between product platforms. Some ASTRO™ and
ASTRO25™ FLASHport™ options are exclusive to each others’ product-family.