Bryon, Thanks for the response. I hadn't thought about EEPROMS having a finite lifetime- but it sounds reasonable. This RC-96 controller has been in service for just over 16 years.
I should have mentioned that, once I disconnected the power to the RC-96 and reconnected it about 20 seconds later, it responded with the expected "Controller Ready" announcement. It seemed to be behaving well at that point, but I took it back to the shop for "forensic investigation" anyway, rather than walk away thinking everything was okay. 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bryon Jeffers KØBSJ Sent: Friday, November 09, 2007 7:22 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] RC-96 Controller Problem Eric, Eproms are only good for so long.. One or more is starting to lose its stored/burned bits. I have not had this happen to an ACC controller but other older eprom devices. The last item had a Eprom about ten years old in it when it started to go crazy... Hope this helps! Bryon KØBSJ Eric Lemmon wrote: > One of the repeaters I maintain has been working perfectly for almost a year > since its last checkup. It is a 6m repeater that has a link to several > other 6m repeaters, and is controlled by an ACC RC-96 controller. It is > powered from a very large commercial UPS that ensures no-break power. > > One evening, the controller went berserk, for no apparent reason. It > started transmitting a string of Morse characters on both the primary and > secondary ports: "dit dah dit ... dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah > ..." for about two minutes. It would then be quiet on both ports for about > 30 seconds, and would then repeat. During the brief silent periods, the > repeater would operate as a repeater, but the Morse string muted any other > audio, once it began. The controller would not respond to my DTMF commands > on either the primary or secondary ports. To make matters worse, the > telephone line that gives me backup control to knock down the repeater was > dead at the hilltop end! I had to make a hasty trip to the mountaintop site > to take the beast off the air. > > As a result of this experience, I am adding a dedicated UHF control link to > give me positive control of the repeater. > > Has anyone else had a similar problem with the RC-96 controller? Note that > there is no lithium or similar memory battery inside the box that might go > bad. Oddball malfunctions like this can add more gray hairs than I want! > Any ideas, case histories, or suggestions will be appreciated. > > 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > >
