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nhfdcadet

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With some help from a few people to get me past a couple of walls I ran into, I was able to figure out how to use a CDM as a station alarm for when the tones go off.
This radio was pulled out of our ambulance because it stopped making PL tones on transmit, but it decodes PL fine and receive sensitivity is within spec.
Because this radio is RX only, I saw no need for anything fancier than a scanner antenna.

I used an 8A 12V power supply that I found on amazon for around $30, this is powering a CDM at idle and 2 feniex T3 LED lights, since this radio will never transmit, I figured more than that would be overkill, and more money for no reason.


This is the finished board with the system on it. You will notice connections on the terminal block for external speakers, and for the lights. Also was able to add a reset button
1614618607338.png

PROGRAMMING:
You need to have your accessory pins configured as follows:
1614618716872.png
Accessory configuration as follows:
note: you can set the external alarm duration to whatever you want (1-20 sec)
I set it to 20 because I am not using an external timer, so I wanted to have a decent amount of time with the flashing lights on.
Also have the radio set for ignition power, in the event of a power failure, the radio will turn back on automatically after it is switched to generator, or when the power comes back on (this is not powered through a UPS)
1614618754369.png

Quick Call 2:
I found that these worked best, the radio will alert once and stop beeping so that it wont beep over the dispatcher talking
1614618935202.png
conventional personality/signaling:
This is an RX only personality, and is the only personality in the radio. When the squelch is set to AND, it requires both carrier AND tones to open the radio. If that is set to OR, the radio will still alert for the tones, but it will remain open all the time, receiving every transmission.

1614619024156.png



This is my concept drawing of the whole system, you will see from the first picture that I used a terminal block and fuse block which are not shown in this drawing, but all connections are the same. Relay gets ground from pin 4 when the radio alerts, stays closed for 20 seconds, then opens when it times out.

for reset, I am using a momentary button which is mounted in a light switch fixture on the wall. A momentary ground to the EXT PTT (pin 3) will reset the radio once it has been opened, so that you dont have to listen to everything else up until your tones go off.
1614619224128.png

SPEAKERS/LEDs
These are Motorola speakers with a Feniex T3 LED grill light mounted to them. I used regular angled aluminum to make the L bracket because it was available locally and cost about the same for the whole piece as 1 feniex L bracket costs from the factory. Spraypainted it black after drilling the holes just to make it look nice.
As you can see, the speaker bracket has mounting holes on two sides, one side was used to attach the light, the other side will be used to attach to the wall.

1614619695879.png1614619720739.png

I bought a 50' roll of 18AWG 4 conductor speaker cable to run to the speakers, there will be two of them in different rooms of the headquarters building.
 

kb4mdz

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Apr 28, 2003
Messages
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Cary, NC
You done good! Nice layout on the board; good neat wiring, excellent use of terminal & barrier strip, and the LEDs on the speaker bracket is cool. Excellent labeling, too.

Suggestion: when you deploy it, make this main portion inaccessible, so wandering fingers don't mess things up. (tho you've done a good job of making it futz-proof). A clear box, with some sort of lock or lockable. Of course, move the reset switch outside of it.
 
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nhfdcadet

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You done good! Nice layout on the board; good neat wiring, excellent use of terminal & barrier strip, and the LEDs on the speaker bracket is cool. Excellent labeling, too.

Suggestion: when you deploy it, make this main portion in accessible, so wandering fingers don't mess things up. (tho you've done a good job of making it futz-proof). A clear box, with some sort of lock or lockable. Of course, move the reset switch outside of it.
I definitely hear that!
we have been trying to come up with a plan for mounting. Unfortunately this power supply only has like 3' of cord on it, I think I will definitely need to add an extension cord to it.

Optimally, itd be mounted inside a lock box on the wall similar to what you might find an alarm panel inside, but those that i was able to find were pretty expensive.
My other thought was to mount it on the wall pictured below, this is out in our garage bay, 10 feet or so in the air, there is a plug right there, and an existing hole that I can use to run the speaker/light wires through. That just brings the question of how do I shield it from garden hose overshot. Other possibility would be on the other side of that wall, which would be above a drop ceiling, but I'd be able to use some sort of extension cord down through that same hole to power this from that same plug
1614624106835.png
 

ramal121

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Optimally, itd be mounted inside a lock box on the wall similar to what you might find an alarm panel inside, but those that i was able to find were pretty expensive.

Look for low voltage, structured wiring, or network enclosures. They won't be waterproof but you can make them fingerproof. Probably find something for less than a hundred.
 

mmckenna

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Jul 27, 2005
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23,618
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Hiding in a coffee shop.
I agree, put it in a box. Last thing you want is someone trying to "fix" it if they think it's not working the way it should. An enclosure can keep wandering fingers out of it.
Also, power supplies won't like long term dust build up. Keeping them clean and dry will help this last a long time.
 

nhfdcadet

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1614954748693.png
I made this change to the programming.
After multiple test runs at home with using the ext ptt to reset the radio, once it was all hooked up it decided that it wasnt going to do that anymore.
So this worked.
 

GlobalNorth

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Fort Misery
Check around and see if you can find a commercial building being demolished or remodeled. A lockable fire extinguisher housing would be cheap / perhaps free and just about perfect for your application.

As to your alarm, that's a great idea and well executed.
 

scott_mack512

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Joined
Jun 10, 2008
Messages
21
As for a box to put it in, search for a Wiegman nema3r box. Weatherproof and lockable. Amazon, Ebay, Electrical supply store.
 
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