PRS 800 powers down

[Tillertruck]

I just got the PRS 800 and I had planned on installing in my car. Placing the unit in my center console with a remote speaker. However it seems that you have power up the unit every time you start the car. Does anyone know of a way to have the PRS 800 power on itself. I have the power cable connected to the ignition of the car so when I start the car it gets power

[IowaGuy1603]

Put a dedicated power outlet in your car and leave it turned on at all times. (I dont' recommend this)

The unit needs to be manually powered on in order to turn it on..............there is no "auto on"

[bgav]

I'd recommend NOT leaving it attached to an always-on power supply, and to recharge the batteries using an external charger instead of the built-in charging circuit. A recommendation is to set the battery type to NiMH and set the "Charging Time" to "00".

[IowaGuy1603]

Originally Posted by bgav

I'd recommend NOT leaving it attached to an always-on power supply, and to recharge the batteries using an external charger instead of the built-in charging circuit. A recommendation is to set the battery type to NiMH and set the "Charging Time" to "00".

Yep!!!!!!

[Halfpint]

Originally Posted by bgav

I'd recommend NOT leaving it attached to an always-on power supply, and to recharge the batteries using an external charger instead of the built-in charging circuit. A recommendation is to set the battery type to NiMH and set the "Charging Time" to "00".

Nothing really wrong as to leaving it attached to an `always on' power source, per se. The caveate is that whenever you aren't really actively listening to it it should be turned off. (I *have* had my 800 attached to an `always on' power source and had a series of power `glitches' followed by a total outage and not suffered any problems.) Also make certain that the scanner has the battery type correctly set and `charge time' is set to 0 if the battery type is set to NiMH.

As for trying to, or even thinking about, charging the batteries *in the scanner*... *NO WAY*, NOPE, NIX, ETC*!!! As has been explained here *many* times the `so-called* chargers' are *not* `real' chargers! Yeah, the *might* work once or twice without any problems in an unusual `emergency' but, even then one is just courting disaster / `fried scanner'! Get a *DEDICATED* charger for the job and keep at least 2 sets of precharged batteries around to replace the rechargeables that are already in the scanner.

[IowaGuy1603]

Originally Posted by Halfpint

(I *have* had my 800 attached to an `always on' power source and had a series of power `glitches' followed by a total outage and not suffered any problems.) .

I agree with everything but want to emphasize one point here.

I still don't' want to take a chance of a power surge hitting my (roughly) $500 scanner even if the power switch is off.

Might not hurt it for 10 times, but the 11th takes out the board.-----------------I unplug mine from the source EVERY time I am going to be leaving it unattended for more than a few minutes.


That's just me-----------------your mileage may vary.

[Halfpint]

Originally Posted by IowaGuy1603

I agree with everything but want to emphasize one point here.

I still don't' want to take a chance of a power surge hitting my (roughly) $500 scanner even if the power switch is off.

Might not hurt it for 10 times, but the 11th takes out the board.-----------------I unplug mine from the source EVERY time I am going to be leaving it unattended for more than a few minutes..

I live out in the country and exactly because of that pretty much, with only a miniscule number of exception, all of my assorted electronics are behind various surge protection systems, UPSes, large `backup' type power supplies, ETC. Just from where I am currently sitting I can see 12 scanners, 4 SWLing radios, 4 computers, a CCTV system with a DVR/camera scanner, a `Quad' sound system, and a `Digital' LCD/LED TV.

Under my `bench'/`desk' there are 4 big `Optima' deep discharge batteries powering the radios. Each computer has it's own UPS whilst the CCTV system is on it's own `Optima' 2 battery battery `system' and the TV is on yet another UPS.

Outside the houses there are either `automatic switch-over' gensets or gensets that have to have `human' intervention to do the switching and then start up.

While I don't expect that everyone should go as far as we have out here a few decent large UPSes and proper surge protection setups (Along with getting away as much as possible from just using `wallwarts' and using a quality large 12VDC power supply for equipment that needs 12VDC.) can go *a long way* towards protecting equipment. Now... If one is going to leaving one's house, and equipment, for an extended period shutting things, with a possible exception for something like a CCTV system that has a recorder running, down `hard' definitely makes sense. For us, because of the rural cirmcustances and the fact that we have a `hired hand', the majority of our `stuff' (Yep! SWMBO also is somewhat of a `scannaholic'/`SWLer'. {VB GRIN!}) hardly ever is shut down. And... even if a scanner or HF radio *might* appear to be off and antennas disconnected it can still end up be Bar-B-Qued. {GRIMACE!}

[IowaGuy1603]

Originally Posted by Halfpint

I live out in the country and exactly because of that pretty much, with only a miniscule number of exception, all of my assorted electronics are behind various surge protection systems, UPSes, large `backup' type power supplies, ETC. Just from where I am currently sitting I can see 12 scanners, 4 SWLing radios, 4 computers, a CCTV system with a DVR/camera scanner, a `Quad' sound system, and a `Digital' LCD/LED TV.

Under my `bench'/`desk' there are 4 big `Optima' deep discharge batteries powering the radios. Each computer has it's own UPS whilst the CCTV system is on it's own `Optima' 2 battery battery `system' and the TV is on yet another UPS.

Outside the houses there are either `automatic switch-over' gensets or gensets that have to have `human' intervention to do the switching and then start up.

While I don't expect that everyone should go as far as we have out here a few decent large UPSes and proper surge protection setups (Along with getting away as much as possible from just using `wallwarts' and using a quality large 12VDC power supply for equipment that needs 12VDC.) can go *a long way* towards protecting equipment. Now... If one is going to leaving one's house, and equipment, for an extended period shutting things, with a possible exception for something like a CCTV system that has a recorder running, down `hard' definitely makes sense. For us, because of the rural cirmcustances and the fact that we have a `hired hand', the majority of our `stuff' (Yep! SWMBO also is somewhat of a `scannaholic'/`SWLer'. {VB GRIN!}) hardly ever is shut down. And... even if a scanner or HF radio *might* appear to be off and antennas disconnected it can still end up be Bar-B-Qued. {GRIMACE!}

Yea, I am not going to all that trouble............unplugging a item is much easier.