Home Patrol 1 "Illegal voltage"

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EJB

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I have had some problems lately with my HP1 regarding the AC adapter that I normally use to power my scanner. I never use this device to charge my batteries.

As I was using my scanner outside today with a new set of batteries (rechargables that I bought recently) I noticed that when I got inside after I hooked up the scanner to the adapter it was still on battery poer, i.e. the battery indicator was on, not the lightening bolt that would indicate it was running on AC.

So the battery indicator went on, time to charge the batteries so whe I went to shut off the HP it said illegal voltage.

I then charged up the batteries and put them back in and wanted to run the scanner with the adapter but each time I did the scanner wasnt recognizing the adapter i.e the battery power indicator wasnt on.

I am perplexed, what does illegal voltage mean? Why would my scanner suddenly say this and then not let the ac adapter run the scanner on AC? Its out of warranty of course and while it stopped doing this a few weeks ago this problem has returned.

Anyone have this hapenn???
 

garys

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I don't know about the HP specifically, but I've had that happen with cell phones in the past. Some of them are very picky about the voltage that they will work with and some of them will only work with the OEM charger.

Does the HP come with a plug in charger and is that the one you are using?
 

OCO

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You mentioned a few days ago that the Uniden AC adapter was dead - are you using something else? If you're getting the illegal voltage message, the next thing you get may be a plaid screen and then a trip (not free) to Uniden repair -search on the Uniden forum for "illegal voltage" or "plaid". Have you tried it with the power port adapter for use in a car? it should be work the same as the AC adapter does when the adapter is OK.. If it works OK with that setup, then it's the AC adapter. If still getting the issue, you may already have a fried HP1. I'm assuming that you've tried it with more than one set of batteries.... The best thing you could do is get a multimeter to use in checking these issues out - they're pretty cheap and all you have is two leads that touch to two points, like the plug on the adapter, or the two ends of a battery.
 

EJB

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OCO said:
You mentioned a few days ago that the Uniden AC adapter was dead - are you using something else? If you're getting the illegal voltage message, the next thing you get may be a plaid screen and then a trip (not free) to Uniden repair -search on the Uniden forum for "illegal voltage" or "plaid". Have you tried it with the power port adapter for use in a car? it should be work the same as the AC adapter does when the adapter is OK.. If it works OK with that setup, then it's the AC adapter. If still getting the issue, you may already have a fried HP1. I'm assuming that you've tried it with more than one set of batteries.... The best thing you could do is get a multimeter to use in checking these issues out - they're pretty cheap and all you have is two leads that touch to two points, like the plug on the adapter, or the two ends of a battery.

Gary and OCO: I am using the same AC adapter. Last week it seemed to be fine in my car hooked up to my car. I hope its just the adapter cause it would seriously suck if the scanner has issues. OCO; I will try and look at the Uniden site to see if others have run into this problem. By the way, what would a plaid screen be?
 

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Gary and OCO: I am using the same AC adapter. Last week it seemed to be fine in my car hooked up to my car. I hope its just the adapter cause it would seriously suck if the scanner has issues. OCO; I will try and look at the Uniden site to see if others have run into this problem. By the way, what would a plaid screen be?


.By "it" you mean the HP1, running on the DC adapter for the car? And it's the AC adapter that your getting the problem with? I don't know exactly what the plaid screen looks like but I'm guessing it would be what the screen looks like after the electronics have been overvoltaged..As I said, search the Uniden site.
 

wise871

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The only time I've seen the voltage message on my HP-1 was when I was using the 12vdc adapter in my car and it came loose and was causing the power to flux due to the loose connection. Once I reseated the main DC connector all was fine again.
 

EJB

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I checked out the Uniden forum, found a thread about this, something about a loose connection.

When I noticed this problem when I first posted about this tonite I turned the scanner off but left it plugged in. Four hours later I walked by my shack (lol) and noticed the HP1 said, charge batteries? I clicked no and saw that the adapter was working again.

???????

Tomorrow I will plug the car adapter and see how it goes.
 

EJB

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.By "it" you mean the HP1, running on the DC adapter for the car? And it's the AC adapter that your getting the problem with? I don't know exactly what the plaid screen looks like but I'm guessing it would be what the screen looks like after the electronics have been overvoltaged..As I said, search the Uniden site.

I am having troubles with the AC adapter that I plug in, The last time I had issues with this the car adapter worked well.
 

OCO

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Based on what you have posted, your Uniden AC adapter is going bad. The "illegal voltage" message and the random operational status of the adapter lead me to forecast that if you continue to use it, you'll most likely own not only a bad AC adapter but also a brick that looks like a HP1...
 

OCO

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I really, really would - especially if it's still working fine on the DC adapter for the car (do you have a 12 volt CB power supply around? You can use that with the DC adapter until you get a new wall wart..) Good luck!
 

EJB

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I really, really would - especially if it's still working fine on the DC adapter for the car (do you have a 12 volt CB power supply around? You can use that with the DC adapter until you get a new wall wart..) Good luck!

OCO: I ventured out into the rain to a local electronics store called Sayal here in Burlington and got a new adapter. It is a regulated Universial Adapter with extra detachable plugs, made sure I set it to - (negative) like the original HP 1 adapter and it works fine.

I also checked again if the car adapter worked and it works fine. Hopefully this adapter will do what I want it to do, allow me to use the scanner primarily on AC (I hate having to charge batteries all the time).

Its too bad, I had an adapter like this before when I bought a R/Shack scanner way back in the mid 90's but gave it to a friend years ago.

We are expecting to get some snow and cold weather tonite (it would be the first time that the road crews would have to get on the road since last March) and I am ready if it does to tag all those MTO Rids to match my extensive Trunk 88 programs. :)



Thank you and all the others for your help.

Eric- Toronto Canada
 
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