Motelona 158x - Moddable?

[AndrewGS]

Hi,
It IS soldered to the board, just not at the square pad (large and left of antenna trim pot).Both phones have them soldered at that same place, except the 1st phone that I opened up, the antenna wire came loose from where is was soldered and the 2 front escutcheons, one over the LCD and the lower one that says Motelona, they fell off and have to be re-glued.

So to sum it up. The antenna wire is indeed soldered, but just not to the V180's antenna contact pad (square tinned pad). Would you recommend I solder it back to that square pad? In what scenario did you hear RFI? There must be a reason they soldered it back toward the trim pot, but to find out would probably take a translator hours and hours while face to face with the 8 year old child who spends 18 hours every day putting then together I also noticed that there is a .3 ohm resistance (on 200 ohm scale) between the center pin of the antenna and the screw threads of the antenna and I get continuity beep from the solder contact to BOTH sides of the antenna terminal. I'm a HAM operator and this goes against everything I studied about antenna design. Then again, there is quite a bit of circuitry underneath and right of the square antenna contact pad. Here is a pic of where the antenna wire was soldered.

Mine had some solder splashed across a few of those components near the spot your antenna was soldered on. I knew something was wrong there so I carefully removed it when I soldered the antenna wire to it's pad. With the antena properly hooked up I get RFI to the speaker.

73s,
KD5FHW

[pace1960]

Mine had some solder splashed across a few of those components near the spot your antenna was soldered on. I knew something was wrong there so I carefully removed it when I soldered the antenna wire to it's pad. With the antena properly hooked up I get RFI to the speaker.

73s,
KD5FHW

CQ Kilowatt Delta 5 Foxtrot Hotel Whiskey, here is Whiskey 5 Lima Papa Sierra,

Nothing about the antenna output on this phone seems proper. According to the schematics on both the V180 and V220 Motorola units, a chip set called "Eagle" dictates what VCO values are sent to the "stub antenna". I know the antenna wire is just a single piece of wire rather than TRUE coax. The more I think about it, the more CRAPPY this China rig is! You and I both know that an antenna has a "radiating" element AND a "ground plane" element. What is missing in this phone is the balance of the 2.

My 1st order of business is to get a some RG-174 see:

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/cable/2632.html

I would use the RG-174 not only for the antenna feed, but the speaker leads as well!

I would solder the center conductor of the RG174 to the square pad and the braid to a full wave 1900Mhz cut of wire taped inside the housing as it's ground plane. I would then solder the center conductor of the 174 to the center pin of the antenna connector and the braid to the threaded part of the antenna connector. While digging and scratching with the soldering iron, I would replace the 2 FAT speaker wires with one run of the 174 coax AS the speaker wires. That should clean up ALL spurious RF leaks! Then, check to see that the advertised 2.5db gain antenna is a "real" antenna, if not, order a USA made injection molded replacement!

There still has to be a "reason" that they didn't just solder the antenna wire to the large square pad! I wanna know why! Ooopss...perhaps they didn't want to use "balanced feed line" like RG174...never mind...that's why. Slap it together and blow it out the door! With the cost of return shipping, most of us will just drop the phone in the nearest dumpster. Well, NOT me! I'll gut this puppy and go here:

http://www.telit.com/en/products.php...&p_ac=show&p=7

A good idea always has room for improvement
and or, put that in your pipe and smoke it!

73's from
W5LPS

[mosquito_R]

I just got my Motelona. It's not called 158x but XY968, but, meh, it's the same thing. Unfortunately, the ringer doesn't work. Does anyone know where the ringer is located and if I should check the connection first prior to resorting to return the thing?

Thanks in advance.

[pace1960]

I just got my Motelona. It's not called 158x but XY968, but, meh, it's the same thing. Unfortunately, the ringer doesn't work. Does anyone know where the ringer is located and if I should check the connection first prior to resorting to return the thing?

Thanks in advance.

I have 2 and one of hen is the XY968 and is indeed the same Motelona. Have you gone to ring styles, then select details and select through the list? I deleted all the Chineese mp3s useed as ring styles and just chose Classic as the ring tone and use siren as the alarm tone. Both of my units do NOT vibrate although they both have vibrate motors in them. I am still waiting for my USB flash cable and the small smart charger I bought does not charge my 5 batteries enough. My 5 batteries get ONLY 8-10 hours of stand-by with no call usage! I am going to have to get the MAHA MH-C777Plus II analyzer to get the true battery mAh capacity. I hope I do not have to cut open the batteries to re-cell them! I may send one to The NiCAD Lady as they have done great work for me on other custom battery projects. After I get these problem with the Motelona phones worked out, my next endeavor is to modify a TRUE Motorola 8000 FULL size brick phone with a Telit Quad band GSM module and interface it with the original Motorola LED display!

By the way, the cases for the full size Motorola work with the 158x but are tight as the 158x phones are about 2mm wider and 3mm taller than the Motorola Ultra Classic phones that they are designed around.

Have fun and enjoy!

[mosquito_R]

Have you gone to ring styles, then select details and select through the list?

Yes, I went through the ringtones as well as ring volumes, but there was no sound. However, the touch tone sounds work as well as the "beep" sound when scrolling through menus. I can listen and talk on phone calls, so I know at least it's functional as a phone. Now if only I can get the ringer to work...

[pace1960]

Yes, I went through the ringtones as well as ring volumes, but there was no sound. However, the touch tone sounds work as well as the "beep" sound when scrolling through menus. I can listen and talk on phone calls, so I know at least it's functional as a phone. Now if only I can get the ringer to work...

I remember now that I have the same problem with the 1st one I bought. I thought it was because I deleted all themes and ring tones that were the Chinese pre-load, but I too can not hear the standard ring tones. This 1st phone also draws 150+ Milli amps even while turned OFF. I decided to keep it and not return it due to high shipping, but you may want a replacement from the vendor that sold it to you. My 2nd unit seems to work fine (except no vibrate), I just hope to straighten out the battery issue. I hope you can get a replacement in short order!

[mosquito_R]

I remember now that I have the same problem with the 1st one I bought. I thought it was because I deleted all themes and ring tones that were the Chinese pre-load, but I too can not hear the standard ring tones.

Do you think just a straight-up reflash will help things?

[pace1960]

Do you think just a straight-up re-flash will help things?

I tried to re-flash my 1st unit and the Motorola program said it already had the current up to date flash and the only option was to exit the program. I'm not that familiar with flashing phones. Maybe someone else here knows more about "force" flashing. If you do end up having to exchange it and send it to China, I would send it airmail but register it for an extra $7. Maybe they will swap just the phone to save weight and $s. Then again, maybe you can find someone who knows if the ringer is disabled via a "seem" file and can tell you how to edit it. Do a Google search for "Motorola V180" seem files.

I wish you the best of luck, and do let us know about how much life you get out of a single battery charge.

[mosquito_R]

I think I'll flash it to V220 (per AndrewGS's instructions) so that I can avoid the Motorola program upgrade. How much did you pay for postage to China? I'm not too keen on shipping it back; I'd much rather do a quick flash here and be done with it (although I must admit that I don't think it's good practice selling half-baked goods on eBay). Anyway, I'm gonna give it a try tonight and see if I'll end up with a functional (rather than bricked) brick.

Pace1960, it's good to know I'm not the only one with a semi-functional phone.

I'll keep you all posted!

[mosquito_R]

I actually decided to open the phone up to check it out (well, flashing will require me to open it up anyway). I found a loose connection, as follows:


This photo shows the two green wires which go to the earpiece. The green wires are soldered onto a black piece which is then (possibly) attached to the circuit board. I put a square around it in this photo.


On my phone the wires are yellow instead of green. The black piece has been lifted up in this photo because it is loose. The two red lines show the two points where the black piece should sit on the board.


This is a second photo.

So, should I solder the black piece to the board using those two points?

Or, is it some other problem altogether?

Thanks in advance!

[pace1960]

I think I'll flash it to V220 (per AndrewGS's instructions) so that I can avoid the Motorola program upgrade. How much did you pay for postage to China? I'm not too keen on shipping it back; I'd much rather do a quick flash here and be done with it (although I must admit that I don't think it's good practice selling half-baked goods on eBay). Anyway, I'm gonna give it a try tonight and see if I'll end up with a functional (rather than bricked) brick.

Pace1960, it's good to know I'm not the only one with a semi-functional phone.

I'll keep you all posted!

I haven't sent one back to China, although registered airmail would be cheaper than express. Not sure on price as I have no scale for weight to look it up on USPS.com.

Hope it works out for you and keep us posted

[fmstereo883]

The wall wart shows 6.5 volts! That is WAY too much for lithium-ion batteries.

I got the 'XY968' version of this phone in last week and the charger plugs directly into an AC outlet, as opposed to having a wall-wart.

Haven't had a chance to take a multimeter to the charging terminals yet, but the bottom of the charger has a sticker that states an output of 3 to 5 volts (which could be totally meaningless).

The battery seems to be holding OK. I am getting about 2 to 3 days run time with a 5 to 6 hour charge.

What is the recommended charge time using the charger that came with the phone?

I also got another version of this phone from eBay, which is a bit smaller and has the branding 'YF' on it and the model number of YF718 (as opposed to Motelona). Same innards, Motorola V180. No volume control buttons on the keypad. The box it came in has in English, "Move The Commercial Telephone" .


-M

[daddysupreme]

The YF 718 (given to me by FMStereo883) is just a bit smaller than the Motelona and has less frills. Standard hard-shell plastic casing instead of the rubberized plastic of the one he talks about above. It also, like he says, is missing a row of buttons at the bottom of the keypad. The up and down volume buttons and what I'd assume in the middle is a mute button. Alas, FMStereo883 has the new model Motelona, so I haven't had a chance to look at it in full or with it's case open.

Just tonight, I traveled to Radio Shack and bought a Torx Ratchet set for about $15. and some light duty rosin-core solder 60/40 .032 dia. for when I'm ready to rewire that antenna.

I've been getting horrible reception. Down to 1 bar as soon as I enter an enclosure like my car or a building. Most of the time, my carrier dissapears and it says Emergency Only. I've tested it with my same sim card and my other phone and usually I have full bars in the same area where the YF 718 has none.

I'm hoping this will be fixed by re-soldering the antenna in the way you guys mention. I'm also planning on getting shielded cable for the earpiece as I don't want that nasty interferance in my earpiece.

The software also has it's quirks. I'm not able to connect to GPRS, the menu item is missing to insert my voicemail number so I can actually use my voicemail without making it an actual phone contact in my phonebook.

To open mine it took both a T7 and a T8 torx, but once I got it open I was able to get to the miniusb so I could do some seem editing and possibly address some of these problems. (Plus upload custom content.) Whoever assembled these phones did them very haphazardly. There's strings of hot glue and tape all over the inside of mine.

FMStereo883 and I plan on getting together and seeing what other possible differences these phones have.

I'll post some pictures soon.

[pace1960]

Can you tell us the eBay user ID that has (or had) the smaller YF718 units? I know the 158x units are about 3mm taller and 2mm wider (approx) than the original Moto UC phones, and case fitting is tight if not impossible on many cases. I'd like to buy one from the seller who has the non-rubberized housing model. Have you all measured the differences in size between the 2 units? I'd be anxious to know! Thanks!!

[pace1960]

Just a quick note...the battery tracks of the rubberized 158x battery are much wider then the tracks on the genuine Motorola Ultra Classic. You would think, if they were re-inventing the Brick, they would get the dimensions right the 1st time??