General Information

All of these radios belong to the same family and are covered under the same service manual, hence, most of the information should be common to all models.

BEWARE: Take note of the following we received, "It seems after attempting to write the codeplug of a NEW MCS2000, I got a fail message on the screen. It corrupted the codeplug and this brand new radio had to be sent back to the big M. I talked to the local Motorola dealer and they said that programming these radios with older RSS than they had last been programmed with would indeed corrupt the codeplug".

Are you having a problem with the control heads on your MCS2000? There is a bulletin out the 5 volt regulator is falling off of the board in the radio (not the head). It should be U500 and its next to the audio IC. Where the metal fingers clamp down the board you need to reflow the solder to this regulator if it has not already come undone. Also, cut the middle finger off the metal clamp that presses down on it. This clamp puts to much pressure on the solder joint. The common failure is the 01/90 fail code or the radio is just plain dead. It has been rectified on the later models after 1999.

It may be possible to bring a GM/GP900 which has a corrupted codeplug in it back to life. You will need to use MTSX Lab or Astro Lab RSS in order to do it, both will work fine.

You will not be able to unpack the codeplug when reading it, of course, but you can read/write to the radio fine. You need to use the F4 Read/Write Radio with No Pack/Unpack option to get the corrupted codeplug out of the radio.

The first thing you can try and do is get the codeplug out and save it to disk (use the F6 menu to save the archive). Then, open the codeplug in a HEX editor and take a look at it. Quite often what happens is that the model number gets corrupted during write and the RSS no longer recognizes the radio. If this is the case, you should be able to fix the model number and dump it back into the radio (reading it back into RSS using the F6 menu and writing with F4), and it should be okay.

Otherwise, you can try reading a good codeplug for this radio from disk (using the F6 menu for reading and not F3), and reprogram the radio with the good codeplug from this radio.

Are you looking for replacement buttons for your MCS2000 radio? Then you will want to check out this page of part numbers.

Pinout for the Accessory Connector Programming Cable

Pinout for the Microphone Connector Programming Cable

Converting a GM/GP1200 trunked radio into a conventional MT/MTS2100 radio

The GM/GP1200 (Jedi) trunked radio can be converted easy into a MTS/MCS2100 (European) Skywalker radio. This is great for ham use, you can have up to 250 conventional channels. The GM/GP1200 have only 10 and some trunking channels!

For this you need the 2100 series RSS, the 2100 series upgrade tool, MTSX LAB or ASTRO LAB RSS, and a modified RIB.

The modified RIB is just a standard RIB with some minor changes. A schematic showing the changes can be found here. This modified RIB has a switch to change between normal and modified mode.

Create a codeplug with the 2100 series RSS for your GM/GP1200 (have a look for the same band, bandwith, display etc.). Save this codeplug to disk and rename to something like "default.ds". Now start the MTSX LAB RSS and load the file with no unpack. Connect the GM/GP1200 with a standard RIB and write the codeplug with no pack/unpack.

Now the the radio will give you an Error 2, but donīt worry. Switch the radio off and connect it with the modified RIB and service cable. Attention: The flashing voltage must be 13V +-0.5V. Use the modified RIB only for flashing the radio.

Start the 2100 series upgrade tool and turn the radio on. Start the flashing process and flash the radio. After flashing, retune the radio with the 2100 series RSS, and fill in the frequencies you need.

Now you have a radio with up to 250 channels with PL and select-5 (DTMF is possible too, if your radio has a keypad). This all is only possible because the 2100 series RSS can create native codeplugs.

Now the second part of the story... You can even do this with a MTS/MCS2000 American radio (even if your radio has a toolproof error!). You can only convert or reactivate radios, working in the 4m, 2m or 70cm band. After the conversation your radio is a 2100 series radio and can only configured/tuned with the 2100 series RSS. No SMARTRIB and dongle is needed for this procedure.

Radio Error Codes

The following list details the error codes that may be displayed on your radio, as well as their cause.

Model Breakdown Chart

This is the model breakdown chart for the MCS2000:

*450-520 on some models. Values given represent range only; they are not absolute.

The current list of available MCS2000 models is as follows:

*The radio will operate with some degradation in receiver performance in 433-438 MHz frequencies.

Service Manuals

Here are a listing of the Service Manual part numbers for the MCS2000:

• 6881083C20 -- Includes common features for all units except 25W VHF and UHF
• 6881080C43 -- 800 MHz Service Manual
• 6881080C44 -- 900 MHz 110W Service Manual
• 6881080C42 -- UHF 110W Service Manual
• 6881080C49 -- UHF 25W Service Manual
• 6881080C41 -- VHF Service Manual
• 6881080C48 -- VHF 25W Service Manual
• 6881083U25 -- SecureNet Service Manual
• 6881083C48 -- Short Form User Guide Model I (English Only)
• 6881083C49 -- Short Form User Guide Model II & III (English Only)
• 6881080C35 -- Detailed User Guide
• 6802058U25 -- Installation Manual

Pinout for the CS Option Connector

1   A+ CONT
2   +5V
3   2.1 MHz
4   GND
5   DISC
6   9.3
7   AFIC PRE-EMP OUT
8   ASFIC MIC AUD OUT
9   AUX RX IN1
10  UNIV IO
11  GND
12  RESET
13  C CTRL HD2/O KEYFAIL
14  AUX TX IN1
15  RX DATA/KID
16  RTS/DVP WE
17  CLK
18  SPI TX DATA
19  MISO
20  O JABBA INT/C DTMF DATA RDY
21  O JABBA SEL/C DTMF SEL
22  ASN INT/OPT TX
23  ASN SEL/OPT CTSB  
24  N/C
25  RSSI

Pinout for the SS Option Connector

1   A+ CONT
2   +5V
3   2.1 MHz
4   GND
5   DISC
6   9.3
7   AFIC PRE-EMP OUT
8   ASFIC MIC SUD OUT
9   AUX RX IN3
10  UNIV IO
11  GND
12  RESET
13  C CTRL HD2/O KEYFAIL
14  AUX TX IN3
15  RX DATA/KID
16  RTS/DVP WE
17  CLK
18  SPI TX DATA
19  MISO
20  O JABBA INT/C DTMF DATA RDY
21  O JABBA SEL/C DTMF SEL
22  ASN INT/OPT TX
23  ASN SEL/OPT CTSB  
24  N/C
25  RSSI

Pinout for the Accessory Connector

1   SPKR+
2   INT SPKR+
3   SPKR-
4   DIGITAL GND
5   BUSY
6   BUS+
7   I/O 8
8   I/O 5
9   EMERGENCY
10  ANALOG GND
11  FIL AUD OUT
12  AUX RX IN2
13  MIC IN
14  SW B+
15  IGNITION
16  I/O 2
17  LH RESET
18  BUS-
19  SCI RX DATA
20  I/O 4
21  I/O 3
22  RSSI OUT
23  EXTERNAL MIC IN
24  AUX TX IN2
25  UNIV IO OUT

Pinout for the Control Head Connector

1   INT SPKR+
2   INT SPKR+
3   MON/BUSY/OPEN LH RESET
4   PTT/BUS-
5   CLK
6   SPI TX DATA
7   GND
8   RX HI
9   MIC IN
10  C CTRL HD1/O DVP WE
11  C CTRL HD2/O KEY FAIL
12  C CH EN/O KID
13  C VOLUME/O GND
14  C OPT SW B+ SENSE/O BUSY
15  AUX/BUS+
16  +5V
17  PWR ON
18  SW B+

Pinout for the Microphone Connector

1   OPT SW B+
2   SPKR- / KEY LOAD
3   MON / BUSY / KID
4   GND
5   MIC / ON-OFF
6   PTT / BUS- / /WE
7   AUX / BUS+ / KEYFAIL
8   SPKR+ / HANDET AUDIO

Pinout for the Keyloader Cable

The pinout of the MCS2000 keyloader cable (TKN9152A) looks something like this:

   KVL             KVL                MIC 
 Conector                             RJ45
  o1  o10          2      Keyload     2
  o2  o9           6      KID         3
  o3  o8           7      /WE         6
O o4  o7           8      Keyfail     7
  o5  o6           9      Ground      4

( O is screw)

Pinout for the Hand-Held Control Head Cable

Radio Connector		Description		Control Head
18 Pin						15 Pin
1			SPKR+				8
2			SPKR-				7
3			HUB				6
4			PTT				2
5			SPI CLK				13
6			SPI DATA			1
7			DIG GND				3
8			N.C.
9			MIC				11
10			A1				4
11			A2				5
12			N.C.
13			WIPER				10
14			N.C.
15			N.C.
16			+5V				15
17			A+				12
18			SW B+				9

Out Of Band Information

Out of band for the GM900/MC2100/MCS2000 is similar to the MTSX out of band hacks.