Maratrac Siren

[tomhennis]

I am trying to figure out how to hook up a maratrac siren kit HLN1318A. I have a VHF High Maratrac with a HCN1089A (A7) control head, HLN1393A DEK, and all their respective cables. I cannot find any documentation on how to properly connect everything however.

The cable that connects the DEK to the radio control head (possibly HKN4337A) has a yellow and a red wire that I have no idea what to do with. Also, there is a black wire paired with a black/blue wire that I have no idea what to do with.

The cable that connects the siren box with the DEK (possibly HKN4338A) has an orange wire and green wire that I'm unsure of. There is also a pair of wires that are black/orange and black/green extending about 4 inches out from the radio control head connector that are labled "connect to spkr only" and I'm wondering how I will get audio to the speaker inside my vehicle if I connect the speaker to this.

Also on this cable, there are two black wires that look exactly like a 110 VAC power cord that I'm assuming go to the siren speaker.

Does anyone have any insight here or some documentation that may assist me with this installation? I'm pulling my hair out here! Thanks.

 

[fineshot1]

I am trying to figure out how to hook up a maratrac siren kit HLN1318A. I have a VHF High Maratrac with a HCN1089A (A7) control head, HLN1393A DEK, and all their respective cables. I cannot find any documentation on how to properly connect everything however.

The cable that connects the DEK to the radio control head (possibly HKN4337A) has a yellow and a red wire that I have no idea what to do with. Also, there is a black wire paired with a black/blue wire that I have no idea what to do with.

The cable that connects the siren box with the DEK (possibly HKN4338A) has an orange wire and green wire that I'm unsure of. There is also a pair of wires that are black/orange and black/green extending about 4 inches out from the radio control head connector that are labled "connect to spkr only" and I'm wondering how I will get audio to the speaker inside my vehicle if I connect the speaker to this.

Also on this cable, there are two black wires that look exactly like a 110 VAC power cord that I'm assuming go to the siren speaker.

Does anyone have any insight here or some documentation that may assist me with this installation? I'm pulling my hair out here! Thanks.

Hope this helps...

Batboard • View topic - Motorola MaraTrac Mobile

A Quick Look at a Motorola MaraTrac Mobile Radio

http://www.repeater-builder.com/motorola/maratrac/mrtrc/MaraTracAccessories.pdf

 

[tomhennis]

Been there, done that...

Hope this helps...

Batboard • View topic - Motorola MaraTrac Mobile

A Quick Look at a Motorola MaraTrac Mobile Radio

http://www.repeater-builder.com/motorola/maratrac/mrtrc/MaraTracAccessories.pdf

Thanks for the links. I've been to all of those and then some. While there is some good info there, it's geared mainly toward programming a maratrac out-of-band or modifying it for use as a repeater/extender. It's just frustrating having everything sitting here and no documentation to hook it up properly. Thanks again!

 

[davidgcet]

I am trying to figure out how to hook up a maratrac siren kit HLN1318A. I have a VHF High Maratrac with a HCN1089A (A7) control head, HLN1393A DEK, and all their respective cables. I cannot find any documentation on how to properly connect everything however.

The cable that connects the DEK to the radio control head (possibly HKN4337A) has a yellow and a red wire that I have no idea what to do with. Also, there is a black wire paired with a black/blue wire that I have no idea what to do with. not sure on this one.

The cable that connects the siren box with the DEK (possibly HKN4338A) has an orange wire and green wire that I'm unsure of. There is also a pair of wires that are black/orange and black/green extending about 4 inches out from the radio control head connector that are labled "connect to spkr only" and I'm wondering how I will get audio to the speaker inside my vehicle if I connect the speaker to this.

Green goes to constant power, orange goes to switched power if you want to disable the siren when the engine is off or constant if you want all features whether the engine is on or not. the radio cable should also have these wires and green is hot orange is switched or hot however you want. the bl/or and bl/gr should be the internal speaker i think?

Also on this cable, there are two black wires that look exactly like a 110 VAC power cord that I'm assuming go to the siren speaker. sirens are drivers, not speakers, but yeah this sounds like the siren hook up.

Does anyone have any insight here or some documentation that may assist me with this installation? I'm pulling my hair out here! Thanks.

if you can post some pics of what you have i may can help. i have not done a maratrac with a siren option, but have done several other style mobiles and they are all basically the same. not all wires on some control cables are used, many times the same cable works for different radios and different options so some wires are unconnected. i'll look to see if i have a manual around here somewhere telling how to connect the maratrac and siren.

 

[tomhennis]

if you can post some pics of what you have i may can help. i have not done a maratrac with a siren option, but have done several other style mobiles and they are all basically the same. not all wires on some control cables are used, many times the same cable works for different radios and different options so some wires are unconnected. i'll look to see if i have a manual around here somewhere telling how to connect the maratrac and siren.

Here are the pics. Let me know if I can be more specific with something. Thanks a LOT!

On another A7 to DEK cable that I have, someone attached a momentary SPST switch between the red and yellow wires, the one in this pic of course, has that two position interlocking connector on it. I'm not sure if that's a good clue as to what they are for or not.

The pics, top to bottom, are as follows:

1. Front facing DEK above A7 control head
2. Rear facing DEK above A7 control head
3. Obvious connections made between DEK and A7 as well as the siren control cable attached to the DEK
4. DEK to A7 cable
5. Siren control cable from DEK to siren box

 

[davidgcet]

i'll look for the manual tomorrow at work. MOL does not have it avail online, and honestly i don't know if i have one or not.
68-80102W29 is the part number for the siren manual if you want to do some searching for it and the HLN1318, i am coming up empty online though.

 

[tomhennis]

Thanks, I'll continue with my on-line search. It sounds as though we're both having about the same luck there though. It's amazing to me that such a popular setup would have so few on-line resources available. Thanks again!

 

[OpSec]

Wow. I've never seen a complete MaraTrac siren setup before. I've seen single parts, but not what you have pictured. I don't know about your part of the country, but it is not a popular setup in my parts.

The yellow and red wire -may- be a VIP interface, possibly for the "manual" input for a momentary input such as the horn ring. That is the only logically theory in my mind why those wires would have a momentary switch.

Is there a speaker zipwire coming out of the connector from the siren amp? That has always been the external 11ohm speaker hookup.

 

[tomhennis]

OpSec,

Around here (Minnesota) I've seen a rather large number of these setups. I think you're right with regard to the yellow and red wires.

There is what I suspect to be a speaker wire connection coming out of the siren box connector end of the cable shown in pic 5. I assumed that would probably go to the 100 watt siren driver (speaker) as it is probably 25 feet in length.

The cable from the Maratrac radio that connects to the A7 control head has a speaker wire on it that is approximately 4 inches long and connects to the speaker inside the vehicle. I'm not sure what to do with that. As pic 3 shows, there is another speaker connector from the DEK. It looks to me like the other connector from the DEK (the one with the two black/blue wires directly beneath the one labeled with the blue tag) would also be for an internal speaker.

I suspect that the speaker out wire from the A7 control head connects to the two black/blue wires that go into the VIP connector side of the DEK and then the wires with the blue label connect back to the speaker inside the vehicle. Thus, routing the sound from the control head, through the DEK (possibly for the Ex Rad feature) and then back out to the vehicle's internal speaker. This however, is all speculation at this point.

Does that answer your question or have I made this WAY TOO COMPLICATED? I'm good at that.

 

[b7spectra]

I'd like to have one of them just to mount on top of my Spectra 9 head just for the looks of it!

 

[n3obl]

in the pic you have the radio cable going to the siren head. I think that goes to the radio head

Frank

 

[davidgcet]

that's the DEK to siren cable, the radio cable has the same plug on the head end, but a different one on the radio end. i thought the same thing at first glance too.

 

[tomhennis]

Ok, I've hooked this all up as I would expect the speaker connections to be and so far, the control head powers up, the speaker and mic functions are all good. The DEK however, does NOT light up, and there are no functions on the DEK that work. It's as though it's not there.

 

[chief21]

I'm not sure about the Maratracs, but other Motorola mobile control heads need to have their programming adjusted in order to recognize a DEK and/or siren/PA unit.

Has your Maratrac head been programmed appropriately?

 

[tomhennis]

chief21,

I did access it in the RSS but did not see any specific settings for a DEK or anything that seemed to address accessories through the VIP port. So...I'm not sure if I'm missing something there but I don't see anything to that effect. The Maratrac RSS is fairly simple and straight-forward so maybe I need lab RSS vs. the standard RSS.

 

[FFPM571]

Its in the radio wide settings in the RSS the VIP has to be enabled.

 

[tomhennis]

hmmm... I was in there. All I saw was the option to change control head types (which just allowed me to select Clamshell w/wo scan and Advanced. I'll check again tomorrow. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[tomhennis]

I just went through the RSS again and I can't find anything about the VIP port anywhere in there. I must be missing something but I don't know where else to look.

 

[tomhennis]

Update:

After MUCH trial and error, I have figured out how to hook it up properly. Now, it looks like the Siren/PA to DEK cable is bad. If I wiggle it and tilt it and hold it just right...the unit works, although very muted. You can sit right in front of the siren driver and still strain to hear it.

As I move the connector at the siren/pa end around, it clicks and pops and gets a little louder but then soft again. I've opened the connector and played with it, reseating the ends, but to no avail.

I'm guessing, at this point, that it's a bad cable. Anyone? Any thoughts on this?

 

[tomhennis]

Finally

Ok, I've completed the install and all is working well. I cleaned up the contacts and made sure they were making good contact, I then hooked the unit up to the vehicle battery.

It dawned on me that I was using a 3 AMP max. power supply to test the unit. Without any documentation, I had no idea what kind of draw this setup would have but decided since it was a least 100 watts, it would probably require quite a bit more than 3 amps. I was right.

After hooking it up to the vehicle, it's working perfectly. If I were smart, I'd diagram and document this all so as to save myself and possibly others some difficulty in the future. Sadly...I'll probably just fight this battle again and wish I had actually scribbled something out.

Thanks to everyone who helped!