Neil Hampson Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 I have a set of XTN radios, one of them has developed a fault on the internal microphone, making the gain very low, the mic does work, but at a very low level, increasing the internal gain setting doesn't compensate enough.I've opened the unit and I can see that the mic capule is a surface mount unit on the main board of the radio with a felt pad glued over the top. Can you buy the mic capule as a spare? (If so where from) The unit does work perfectly well when used with a headset, so I have no reason to suspect the electronics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin D Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 You could try ringing Motorola direct on 01256 790 790. However London Communications certainly used to be an official spare and repair shop. Bias Technology are also Motorola repair and spares specialists but they major on scanners. However, the guys there are particularly helpful so if you are stuck, it may well be beneficial to contact them. I have no link other than as a very satisfied customer on the bar-code equipment side. Good luck. Finding spares can be a nightmare. Edit: To remove quote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 I've got the exact same issue on another Motorola - different model. So if you get a response, it would help me too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Are these electret mics?? I did hear of one problem where an electret capsule had died because of a failure of the power supply resistor. Both had to be changed at once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Hampson Posted July 6, 2010 Author Share Posted July 6, 2010 I have sent a quote request to both London Comms and another company that does free quotes that came close to the top of a google search. I'll see what comes back. I have no idea what type of microphone they are, there is no reference number on them the best I can describe them is a button cell battery about 10mm diameter, 6mm tall. with a felt pad stuck on the top. surface mounted but I havn't dimantled the radio far enough to see the underside and the solder connections. looking at the radio internally it looks to have been wet at some point. I'm wondering if somethings got corroded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncanborrowman Posted July 6, 2010 Share Posted July 6, 2010 Presuming it is an XTN446 and not an XTN446i you may have problems. As our XTN446 parts page says: "07/12/2009 Spare parts for the XTN446 are no longer available from Motorola" Problem as far as I know is the the XTN446 was made for Motorola by another company, they ended the contract and when all the parts went, that was it. I can look to see if we have any small bits left, but I don't think so. Drop me an email. On the parts for another radio, look to see if it is lsted on our radio/headsets/intercom etc parts page, if not, again drop me an email. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Hampson Posted July 7, 2010 Author Share Posted July 7, 2010 Oh Well, I suppose it was a little nieve to think it would e a standardised part. (At one poit I even looked on RS to see if there was anything similar. The mic appears to be fixed with a clamp, rather than solder but I'm struggling to get to the solder side of the pcb as I can't get the volume knob off. Does anyone know how this comes off? do I just pull, or is there a spring clip somewhere? due to the aforementioned water damage, I'm going to try and remove the mic clean the conrtacts and try again. I did get an improvement in ssensitivity when I messed with the connection, but not back to the original. Duncan, if you could hunt around for me that would be great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 I'm guessing the one of the Maplin electret capsules like FS43W may suit or be a fair try if you have access to the board, and can't get manufacturers supplies, and feel confident at component level repairs. There may be others too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Hampson Posted July 7, 2010 Author Share Posted July 7, 2010 I'm guessing the one of the Maplin electret capsules like FS43W may suit or be a fair try if you have access to the board, and can't get manufacturers supplies, and feel confident at component level repairs. There may be others too! It's a shame the dimensional drawing is utterly useless on the maplin site, but that that does look identical. Advise coming from the net is basically, remove the battery and find the nearest bin. heres a quote for an Icom... So for lees than £3 I'm off to Maplin to give it a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncanborrowman Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 Yes, after a quick check here my advice was indeed find the bin and buy a new radio... (probably an Alan HP450, unless you have Motorola headsets, in which case an XTN446i or XTN446iD But do tell us if you find that the Maplin capsule is a direct fit replacement. It would be useful to know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted July 7, 2010 Share Posted July 7, 2010 That capsule also has a smaller member of the range at Maplin and one or the other seems to be an adequate replacement in some sound to light disco kit. I've even put them on the end of a stiff wire as headset mics. Be VERY quick to solder them the inside can drop off as you solder leads onto the pads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Hampson Posted July 12, 2010 Author Share Posted July 12, 2010 The smaller Maplin element mentioned above was still a bit to big to fit into the case of the radio so I bought this one of Ebay for 99p. It is much smaller than the one that came out.The original micrphone has pins pre-soldered on and they are just pushed through the pcb with what resembles a 2 pin IC mounting socket on the back, so there is no de-soldering requiredunlike the maplin mics, the one one I got from Ebay has the pins on, although the pins needed to be bent outwards a little and are not quite as long so a little glue gun may help make sure it stays in position.The microphone works a treat, if anything it's slightly more sensitive than the originals. Paul, for 99p it's got to be worth a shot to recover an otherwise useless radio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 I've ordered one! Thanks for that.P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaz Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 May be barking up the wrong tree but...... I had a similar problem with a motorola GP300. After checking it out I discovered it wasn't the mic that had died but the contact in the external mic jack (which disconnects/reconnects the internal mic when external one is plugged in/out) was not making good contact. A quick squirt of contact cleaner in the jack hole, plug the jack in and out a few times and it was sorted. Worth a try? Regards, Gaz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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