Best setup for TRX-2 as mobile?

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theTastyCat

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Hey all - bit of context. I'm an active ham (despite being under the age of 800) and have been out of the scanner game since pre-trunking (!!!), and finally looking to go mobile again. Local department is NXDN, so I was thinking BCD536 vs. TRX-2; the remote head on the TRX-2 made it a pretty easy decision.

Only thing that's unfortunate is that the TRX-2 won't power on when the vehicle turns on. Coupled with the long boot time I'm reading about, I'm thinking of just leaving it on all the time, turning it off by hand when it will sit for more than a day.

However, I'm already running a Kenwood V71a dual-band rig in the truck, which stays on all the time, but when I start the truck, it beeps and power-cycles. Thus, I figure there's a decent chance the TRX-2 could do the same thing.

My knowledge of electrical is enough to know that I need to ask people who *actually* know; what's the best option to prevent this? I found this is another thread here:

DC/DC Power Supply Single Output 12 Volt 4.2A 50.4W 5-Pin
SD-50A-12: Mean Well : DC/DC Power Supply Single Output 12 Volt 4.2A 50.4W 5-Pin : Power Supplies & Wall Adapters

Would this be what I need or would it just prevent power spikes? Seems like what I really need is something that functions like a capacitor, to maintain the current while the battery voltage drops when cranking the motor; is there something better?

Any other tips on how best to run a TRX-2 mobile?

Many thanks, all!
 

N8IAA

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Hey all - bit of context. I'm an active ham (despite being under the age of 800) and have been out of the scanner game since pre-trunking (!!!), and finally looking to go mobile again. Local department is NXDN, so I was thinking BCD536 vs. TRX-2; the remote head on the TRX-2 made it a pretty easy decision.

Only thing that's unfortunate is that the TRX-2 won't power on when the vehicle turns on. Coupled with the long boot time I'm reading about, I'm thinking of just leaving it on all the time, turning it off by hand when it will sit for more than a day.

However, I'm already running a Kenwood V71a dual-band rig in the truck, which stays on all the time, but when I start the truck, it beeps and power-cycles. Thus, I figure there's a decent chance the TRX-2 could do the same thing.

My knowledge of electrical is enough to know that I need to ask people who *actually* know; what's the best option to prevent this? I found this is another thread here:

DC/DC Power Supply Single Output 12 Volt 4.2A 50.4W 5-Pin
SD-50A-12: Mean Well : DC/DC Power Supply Single Output 12 Volt 4.2A 50.4W 5-Pin : Power Supplies & Wall Adapters

Would this be what I need or would it just prevent power spikes? Seems like what I really need is something that functions like a capacitor, to maintain the current while the battery voltage drops when cranking the motor; is there something better?

Any other tips on how best to run a TRX-2 mobile?

Many thanks, all!



What you need to know about the latest SD card scanners, is that when you power up a vehicle with the scanner on, it corrupts the card and makes the scanner useless.
Also, my opinion, the long boot time is because people have not made their scan lists correctly. I have twenty-eight scan lists enabled on my 1088, it takes less than 15 seconds to boot. It is actually faster than my PSR-800. A lot of people have gone to bigger SD cards. These also take a longer time to boot. (Though I could be wrong.)
Use common sense and turn the scanner on after starting the vehicle.
HTH,
Larry
 

theTastyCat

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Hey all - thanks for the responses. Yes, I was planning to hardwire straight to the battery. Yeah, I did read that SD card corruption is the danger here; is there *no* safe way to run it all the time? No sort of capacitor-like device to guard against low battery voltage?
 

norcalscan

Interoperating Spurious Emissions
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I'm running a 1098 mobile and while I started with a love hate relationship (love only the remote head, hate everything else because I come from 18yrs of mobile uniden (non-SD card) scanning, but it's grown on me. Not having ignition sense or babying the SD-card corruption stuff or waiting for 25 seconds before the radio actually starts scanning was trying my patience.

I ran power directly from battery (I run multiple radios so I have a properly fused/gauged power bus straight from battery to my radios). This lets me run the radios whenever, regardless of ignition. When starting my car, if the battery is fresh then I won't get a voltage drop enough to turn off the radio, but it does happen enough. What helps me avoid corruption is I don't record anything. My anecdotal evidence, and from a few others I've read here, is if the radio is not writing to the SD card, then corruption is rare. Recording would definitely write to the card, as would potentially making any changes to the settings or parameters of the radio. If I make changes I try to shutdown properly afterward. Otherwise I leave my scanner on when making runs around town etc. If I'm parking for a while or don't mind the startup delay when getting back in, then I'll powerdown the radio. I have not had a corrupted card from unexpected power downs yet this last year. If it becomes a thing though, my plan is to have 3-4 SD cards (they are cheap) and just keep 3-4 duplicates. When one goes corrupt on a trip I just pop the next one in. When I get home I can just rewrite the corrupt cards from EZ-Scan. When changing programming I'd just copy to 3-4 different cards.

For battery timers and voltage disconnect protection, Powerwerx has some great products that might help if you're concerned. https://powerwerx.com/emergency-vehicle
Something like the ITS-12 will provide a timer for your radios as well as a low voltage disconnect to protect battery and overvoltage protection for starter surges. The NS-12-20 would be like a small UPS in the car that switches the radio load to an internal battery temporarily if it senses the source voltage dropping or surging - basically avoiding the dropout while starting the car. If you think you need
 

wbswetnam

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I have a WS-1095 that I have in the car (a 2013 Ford Fiesta, I have the scanner mounted on the right side of the center console). I simply turn it on after I start the car, and make sure to power it down before I turn off the ignition. I guess for me, to take those precautionary steps are not a big deal.
 

KR3LC

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I recently installed a BCD536HP in my car. It is trunk-mounted and I am using the wifi dongle and a cheap Android phone for display. In this scenario I have no way to turn the scanner off or on from the passenger compartment. The radio is powered directly from the vehicle battery as is my amateur equipment. I tend to leave the scanner on all the time except if I will be away from my car for more than a day. Upon vehicle startup the radio sometimes would restart.

Knowing that eventually this could corrupt the SD card I took the following action:

I installed a 7 Ah sealed battery (it's what I had lying around) and wired it with a diode to prevent it from back-feeding the vehicle DC buss. The scanner picks up power after the diode, and as long as the small battery is charged up (it trickle charges from the vehicle battery), when I start the car the scanner does not react. It is still getting about 12 v.

About 3 weeks on now and it is working fine.

Rick
 

theTastyCat

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Great input, all - thank you very much! Now that NXDN's official (or 12 hours away), time to just order me the thing. I'll put it in and then figure out how best to deal with this after a few days of playing with it. Thank you all very much!
 

milcom_chaser

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Messages
979
Hey all - bit of context. I'm an active ham (despite being under the age of 800) and have been out of the scanner game since pre-trunking (!!!), and finally looking to go mobile again. Local department is NXDN, so I was thinking BCD536 vs. TRX-2; the remote head on the TRX-2 made it a pretty easy decision.

Only thing that's unfortunate is that the TRX-2 won't power on when the vehicle turns on. Coupled with the long boot time I'm reading about, I'm thinking of just leaving it on all the time, turning it off by hand when it will sit for more than a day.

However, I'm already running a Kenwood V71a dual-band rig in the truck, which stays on all the time, but when I start the truck, it beeps and power-cycles. Thus, I figure there's a decent chance the TRX-2 could do the same thing.

My knowledge of electrical is enough to know that I need to ask people who *actually* know; what's the best option to prevent this? I found this is another thread here:

DC/DC Power Supply Single Output 12 Volt 4.2A 50.4W 5-Pin
SD-50A-12: Mean Well : DC/DC Power Supply Single Output 12 Volt 4.2A 50.4W 5-Pin : Power Supplies & Wall Adapters

Would this be what I need or would it just prevent power spikes? Seems like what I really need is something that functions like a capacitor, to maintain the current while the battery voltage drops when cranking the motor; is there something better?

Any other tips on how best to run a TRX-2 mobile?

Many thanks, all!

For the price, that's an interesting idea. However, how does it behave if the voltage during starting drops below 9VDC?

Why not wire up a separate, small, sealed Lead-Acid battery directly to the radio that gets a trickle charge from the 12V Buss when the car is running. The battery is going to behave like a HUGE capacitor. Could even wire a relay that isolates the battery from the 12V Buss during the start cycle if your really concerned.

Here's a battery for example:

https://www.amazon.com/UB1250-Seale...9733&sr=8-2&keywords=sealed+lead+acid+battery
 
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theTastyCat

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Hmm...you've all got me really thinking now. I've got several 12v security-related systems in the house that run off 12v batteries that trickle-charge when the power is on...would it be so ridiculous to do the same thing with a radio in a vehicle? Could even be a small battery - my home alarm had a 4aH 12v in it until recently. KR3LC, would you mind sharing how you wired up that diode and exactly what it does?
 

milcom_chaser

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What you need to know about the latest SD card scanners, is that when you power up a vehicle with the scanner on, it corrupts the card and makes the scanner useless.
Also, my opinion, the long boot time is because people have not made their scan lists correctly. I have twenty-eight scan lists enabled on my 1088, it takes less than 15 seconds to boot. It is actually faster than my PSR-800. A lot of people have gone to bigger SD cards. These also take a longer time to boot. (Though I could be wrong.)
Use common sense and turn the scanner on after starting the vehicle.
HTH,
Larry

Larry, can you elaborate on what constitutes a correct scan list for faster load time? Frequencies are
sorted?
 

milcom_chaser

Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2010
Messages
979
I recently installed a BCD536HP in my car. It is trunk-mounted and I am using the wifi dongle and a cheap Android phone for display. In this scenario I have no way to turn the scanner off or on from the passenger compartment. The radio is powered directly from the vehicle battery as is my amateur equipment. I tend to leave the scanner on all the time except if I will be away from my car for more than a day. Upon vehicle startup the radio sometimes would restart.

Knowing that eventually this could corrupt the SD card I took the following action:

I installed a 7 Ah sealed battery (it's what I had lying around) and wired it with a diode to prevent it from back-feeding the vehicle DC buss. The scanner picks up power after the diode, and as long as the small battery is charged up (it trickle charges from the vehicle battery), when I start the car the scanner does not react. It is still getting about 12 v.

About 3 weeks on now and it is working fine.

Rick

How are you regulating current to the smaller battery?
 

milcom_chaser

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Joined
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Messages
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Hmm...you've all got me really thinking now. I've got several 12v security-related systems in the house that run off 12v batteries that trickle-charge when the power is on...would it be so ridiculous to do the same thing with a radio in a vehicle? Could even be a small battery - my home alarm had a 4aH 12v in it until recently. KR3LC, would you mind sharing how you wired up that diode and exactly what it does?

The Diode acts like a one-way street: it only allows current to flow in one direction.

Car Battery ---I>|--- Small battery. Current flows to the right.
 
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N8IAA

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Larry, can you elaborate on what constitutes a correct scan list for faster load time? Frequencies are
sorted?

This is just how I do it, your mileage may vary. I make my lists specific to what I want to monitor. FD in one, PD/SO in another, with the exception of small systems. When my county was in the clear, I had FD in one, city PD's and SO in another.I monitor a lot of stuff, Fed, state freqs, and local systems I use multiple scanners for this reason.
When I have two or more scan lists on my 1088, it is still a short time to boot. I realize that a lot of members here use large SD cards for recording the action on the scanner. It has been mentioned that the larger the card, the longer the boot time. I've never used any card but the original that came with the scanner.
I, also, do not take out the card to do updates. I'm patient enough to go from the scanner to the PC. Less chance of something going wrong. Plus, I don't update the scanner every week. Waste of time unless there is a major change of frequencies, etc..
Remember, this is the way I do it:)

HTH,
Larry
 

03msc

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What you need to know about the latest SD card scanners, is that when you power up a vehicle with the scanner on, it corrupts the card and makes the scanner useless.

This statement shouldn't be made as a definitive fact - it does not always happen. I've done it numerous times and have yet to corrupt a card. Yes, I know it could happen but to say it will is too strongly stated.

Plus, many have said that if you don't have recording turned on then it won't corrupt it as it isn't writing to it. Maybe that's why I've not had any issues.

Just responding for those who saw the above post and thought it was 100% factual.
 

theTastyCat

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Oct 6, 2007
Messages
151
Hey all - finally got the TRX-2 installed in the truck and am getting pretty tired of having to power cycle every time I turn the ignition. I'd like to go with a small SLA battery and diode to maintain constant power. Just a few questions:

Would I be able to wire like this?

Truck battery positive terminal ---> 4aH SLA battery positive
4aH SLA negative ---> diode ----> radio positive
Radio negative ----> ground

Would that qualify as trickle-charging the 4aH? Or do I need something proprietary to do that?

Also, which diode would you all recommend?

MANY thanks!
 
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