CDM1250 External Alarm

cshort1987 · Mar 2, 2015

Does anyone have any experience with programming an external alarm for a cdm 1250? I am trying to set it up to activate a bell when our fire department tones drop. I currently have a sensitive relay configured to a 12v coil 110v relay. I need help with actually setting up pin 4 in the programming.

SteveC0625 · Mar 2, 2015

cshort1987 said:
Does anyone have any experience with programming an external alarm for a cdm 1250? I am trying to set it up to activate a bell when our fire department tones drop. I currently have a sensitive relay configured to a 12v coil 110v relay. I need help with actually setting up pin 4 in the programming.

Hi and welcome to the forums.

There's quite a bit to be found with the search function right here on RR. I found the following threads which should be helpful:

http://forums.radioreference.com/motorola-forum/292141-cdm-pin-4-external-alarm-issues.html

http://forums.radioreference.com/motorola-forum/284283-cdm-alarm-system.html

There are more here if you'll search a bit further.

Out on the net, there's a bunch, too. This one seems to have enough detail to build the system from scratch. He uses a PA setting in the CPS and it seems to be a good way to go:

Fire Station Alerting System Design

cshort1987 · Mar 2, 2015

Thats what im trying to do on the ray Vaughan website. what im trying to figure out is how many volts is sent out on pin 4 and if i have to set the programming to activate pin 4 on our tone, everything is set like the setting on the ray Vaughan setup
Fire Station Alerting System Design

Or are there any forums or documents on actually programming the radil with the cps software

My main problem is the settings within the radio, just unsure about settiings, considering to test it everytime i have to get dispatch to do a test page, they get irritated easily after about 10-15 test pages lol

SteveC0625 · Mar 2, 2015

cshort1987 said:
Thats what im trying to do on the ray Vaughan website. what im trying to figure out is how many volts is sent out on pin 4 and if i have to set the programming to activate pin 4 on our tone, everything is set like the setting on the ray Vaughan setup
Fire Station Alerting System Design

Or are there any forums or documents on actually programming the radil with the cps software

My main problem is the settings within the radio, just unsure about settiings, considering to test it everytime i have to get dispatch to do a test page, they get irritated easily after about 10-15 test pages lol

Ray's site shows several screen shots of the the CPS. I think that's enough to do the programming.

There is no single place or document that I know of the has all the info on programming the Pro Series. You've got to do a bunch of searching to gather the info. I've been prowling the net, batlabs, RR, and a couple of other forums for four years now learning about the Pro and Commercial series plus a couple of side trips on other Motorola radios. Everything I find gets digested, and in many cases, added to a pile of notes that I keep in a binder here.

If you are just doing station alerting without all the bells and whistles that Ray documents, you may have better luck using the Alarm function instead of the PA system. It just requires Pin #4 to be set to Alarm (Output). I think you set the active level HIGH which will power the relay briefly and trip whatever you are controlling.

We have a similar setup on our base, but it triggers a Zetron Model 19 which records the dispatcher's message and the blows our tones and plays the message. I will take a look at the programming and see how our shop set it up. It was an old system that they built in the '90's based on a GM300. When we purchased a new CDM1250 two years ago, we had them come back and move it over. They had some problems along the way and had to install a new trigger relay. Also, somewhere in the move, the alarm transistors got blown in the radio which necessitated another repair. Something to keep in mind.

cshort1987 · Mar 2, 2015

Yea all im wanting it to do is trip a relay that sets off a very annoying horn (to wake the dead), will pin 4 and pin 7 be connected to the relay? (I think 7 is the ground)
Thats one thing i couldnt figure out, the difference between active high and low.

cshort1987 · Mar 2, 2015

Oh by the way im using the elk-924 for my relay to trigger the horn

cshort1987 · Mar 2, 2015

Sorry for so many replies but we also have two different identifier tones, the alarm needs to be activated on the second tone, would i set for A/B tones or just A

cshort1987 · Mar 2, 2015

For some reason my last post didnt post. Do you know the difference in active high and low

cmdrwill · Mar 3, 2015

cshort1987 said:
For some reason my last post didnt post. Do you know the difference in active high and low

In the CPS programmed for:
ACTIVE HIGH, the pin puts out 12 volts to the relay and the other side of the relay coil is ground.

ACTIVE LOW pin 4 switches to ground, the other side of the relay coil has 12 volts on it.
Radio 'grounds' the relay coil.

Make sure the relay coil has greater than 160 ohms..

cshort1987 · Mar 3, 2015

so with the elk-924 would you switch active high or low?

SteveC0625 · Mar 3, 2015

cshort1987 said:
Sorry for so many replies but we also have two different identifier tones, the alarm needs to be activated on the second tone, would i set for A/B tones or just A

You will have to clarify this. Are you using a standard Quick Call II tone pair with timing of 1sec/3 sec or are you using a long single tone? Both are possible and standard with QC-II, but before you can set up the CDM1250, you have to know exactly what the tone code is that you want to trip the decoder and activate the alarm. It likely will be same code that trips your pagers.

(The way you phrased your question, it almost sounds like you want to activate on one half of a standard tone pair. That would be highly unusual and probably would not work out very well. If you are looking for guidance on tones, you'll want to tell us more info about what activates your pagers, sirens, etc. and then what you want the CDM1250 to activate on.)

cshort1987 · Mar 3, 2015

We have 3 different departmens that are toned on the first tone, then the specific identifier is the second tone, i want to trip on the second tone, we use a A/B tone. A tone designates lower end dispatch, second tone determines which department

cshort1987 · Mar 3, 2015

The tones are more like 1second /1second tones as far as length

SteveC0625 · Mar 3, 2015

cshort1987 said:
We have 3 different departmens that are toned on the first tone, then the specific identifier is the second tone, i want to trip on the second tone, we use a A/B tone. A tone designates lower end dispatch, second tone determines which department

That's not how the decoders in these things work. The radio needs to see both tones to decode and alert. For example:

Department #1 uses 928.1/832.5
Department #2 uses 928.1/879.0
Department #3 uses 928.1/553.9

928.1 is a common tone for the three agencies, but each department's pagers, etc. need to hear both tones in order to alert. That's why it's called two tone paging.

cshort1987 · Mar 3, 2015

Right, thats how ours are, first tone for all 3 is the same, only difference is b tone

ramal121 · Mar 4, 2015

You need both tones to decode a page. Set radio for A-B and use the correct tone pair for your station.

There is no active level select for the alarm output on a CDM. When activated it puts out 12 volts for the specified duration. The off state just floats (no voltage, no ground). Tie the alarm output to the + trigger of the Elk 924.

cshort1987 · Mar 4, 2015

On pin for configuration it has option for active high/low

ramal121 · Mar 4, 2015

Whoops. Had to check my notes. CDM alarm 4 output will sink current to ground and it is pulled up to +12 volt when off. So to answer your question, pin 4 to the + trigger of the 924 and use active high as the logic level type.This will ONLY work for the 924. The 12 volts out of pin 4 will not run a relay directly (you'd have to use active low to ground one side of the relay coil). The reason to use active high in your case is there is a good possibility the station alert would go off when you power down the radio if you'd use active low.

cshort1987 · Mar 4, 2015

OK so once my individual tones are put in will it automatically configure or is there something else

cshort1987 · Mar 4, 2015

CDM1250 External Alarm

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