How do you have your LED programmed (PSR-500/etc)

[jimboyle]

red fire disp
flash red fire tac
blue pd disp
flash blue tac channels
green ems

 

[FFEMTCURRENCE]

Flashing Light Green-My County Dispatch/Response
Solid Light Green-My County Incident Channels
Solid Light Blue-My County PD Channels
Solid Dark Green-My Counties Known TG's New 700 System Going Up Sooner or Later
Flashing Dark Green-Wildcard TG's on My Counties New 700 System
Flashing Red-F/R Dispatch Channels
Solid Red-F/R Response Channels
Solid Dark Red-F/R Incident Channels
Solid Blue-PD
Flashing Blue-VA STARS TG's
Solid Orange-Hospital TG's/HEAR

 

[gmclam]

Psr-500 / pro-106 led

Thank you for all the responses. It looks like most of us program the LED with the same idea - to indicate the type of channel being received.

 

[darrylcn]

Maybe I'm not thinking outside the box this AM, but how else would you program it?

 

[gmclam]

Maybe I'm not thinking outside the box this AM, but how else would you program it?

Perhaps you use a different color for each county or city. Perhaps you use different colors to indicate channels you have or have not verified. Perhaps only a few specific channels make the LED illuminate, and the others don't. Dozens of ways.

 

[darrylcn]

Yeah, that (and coffee) clears it up. I'm thinking of adding a version of my scanlists that doesn't use the led at all to save batteries while I'm at work. I like it in the car or on the ac adapter at home but I think it's a big drain to have it on with batteries.

 

[Tom_G]

I also use it sparingly on my PSR-500.
I use it alot on my PSR-600.
I use blinking for the real "interesting" talkgroups.

 

[gmclam]

I'm thinking of adding a version of my scanlists that doesn't use the led at all to save batteries while I'm at work. I like it in the car or on the ac adapter at home but I think it's a big drain to have it on with batteries.

I believe there is a global setting which will turn it off so you don't need two profiles. Although using 2 files in V-scanner might be easier than the global setting.

 

[darrylcn]

Yeah I've been using the light button during power on, takes you right to it, but a new scanlist might be even easier in case I want to switch and miss it or whatever.

 

[N8DRC]

DARK BLUE: Local Police
FLASHING DARK BLUE: Police TAC
LIGHT BLUE: Prison, DX Police
YELLOW: LEIN, Gas Company
RED: Fire, Power Company
FLASHING RED: Fire Tac, Fire Ground
GREEN: Police CAR/CAR, parks
PINK: Hospitals/EMS
FLASHING WHITE: New Talkgroups, I-Calls

Also does anyone know the setting to turn the LED off without going through every channel? My psr500 in the mobile I would like to turn it off at night while driving..has anyone had any problems with the LED on the psr500? My dark blue does not work most of the time, I need to send it in to get it fixed..

 

[darrylcn]

I've heard of at least 3 ways:

1. Making a separate No LED scanlist, or (2) you could store a No LED copy in a V-Scanner folder and load as appropriate, (3) if you hit the light button during power on you'll go straight to the light setting in the menu and set to Stealth.

 

[N8DRC]

(2) you could store a No LED copy in a V-Scanner folder and load as appropriate,

Thanks, I guess I will make the second V-Scanner, I want the backlight on but the LED off or at-least dim it, it is very bright at night in my truck..Maybe GRE can make the next models to do this, shut off the LED completely..The psr600 and pro-197 you can dim the LED which helps out alot..

 

[SOFA_KING]

Feds = Teal
Police = Blue
Fire = Red
Public Safety & CAP = yellow
Forestry = Green
CB, Marine, MURS, FRS, GMRS, Whatever = White
Amateur Radio = Megenta

Anything priority or important (or rare...listen up!) falshes fast.
Anything super important chirps. Digital = single chirp, and analog = 2-chirp.

Works for me!

 

[DonnieDog]

Blue - LE
Blue Flash - Special LE
Red - Fire
Red - Special Fire
Orange - EMS
Green - Forestry / Wildlife / USFS
Purple - Special
Magenta (LOL) - EMA / State EMA
Yellow - Federal


My Color Chart Pro-197
Color 1 - FF0000 - Red
Color 2 - FFFF00 - Yellow
Color 3 - 007100 - Green
Color 4 - FF3900 - Orange
Color 5 - 0000FF - Blue
Color 6 - FF00FF - Purple
Color 7 - FF0060 - Magenta

 

[djeplett]

Blue=Public Safety
Red=EMS/Fire
Flashing Yellow=Unverified Frequencies/New Talkgroups/etc.
White=Special "empty" channel that is locked out but I can tune to and then use the radio as a flashlight!

I have toned down my LED's brightness for the blue and the red but left it at the default bright level for the yellow. The default flash really gets your attention. My 500 is usually sitting next to my PC as I work, so I like a good attention getter. I also use the Hi-Lo alarm for new talkgroups.

I have a channel programmed for 25.00000 which is locked out all the time. I labeled it "Flashlight" and I can manually bring that channel up, open the squelch all the way and turn the volume down, thereby causing the light to come on. I have the LED programmed for white and I then use the radio as a flashlight when I walk around the house. Keeps the toes from getting stubbed on furniture!

 

[n1das]

Regardless of what color(s) I program, I adjusted the "on" time and "off" time of the flash rate. I didn't like how it flashes in narrow pulses instead of giving a nice and regular on/off blink.

LED "off" time = 25 (25 = 250 milliseconds)
LED "on" time = 25

20ms ON time and 25ms OFF time makes a nice on/off blink rate that Motorola Radius series portables and mobiles used years ago. It also looks similar to the CALL or CHANNEL BUSY light blinking on a dispatch console. It gets my attention better than a blink rate that's too fast or too slow.

LED dim with light = ON
Backlight brightness = DIM

Both are too bright when at the bright setting.

 

[0077]

blue led's

What happens when all the colors turn blue? I used to have my LED's all different colors like the rest of you, but then the red went out, and the blue & greens are all light blue, no more yellow or anything else. Sometimes the red comes back, but more often not.

The LED's lasted about a year from purchase. Is there any sort of reset or anything I can do?

 

[desert-cheetah]

I don't have one yet to have a color combination, but I'm getting one soon and I was looking forward to settting up all the different colors, but now I'm not sure I should. I work in an office setting and our cubicle walls aren't very high so my co-workers might complain about the flashing colors. My co-workers like to stick their noses in everyone else's business and complain about stuff. Bunch of Mo-Fos

 

[RickS31]

What happens when all the colors turn blue? I used to have my LED's all different colors like the rest of you, but then the red went out, and the blue & greens are all light blue, no more yellow or anything else. Sometimes the red comes back, but more often not.

The LED's lasted about a year from purchase. Is there any sort of reset or anything I can do?

Without the red segment of the color LED, you won't get yellow. The only colors you can get are from dark blue through the light blues to green. There is no reset I know of for the color LED. It sounds like the Red segment of the LED is or has gotten intermittent or is failing. Not normal for a LED less than a year old. They usually have 40k-50k hour lifetimes.

 

[geoff5093]

I have a 996XT, but the same colors apply.

Blue = State Police / Sheriff
Cyan = City / Town Police
Red = Fire
Yellow = EMS
Green = DOT / Private Companies / Utilities / Etc.
White = Federal
Magenta = Testing

I have my scanner mounted in my car, and I found that having the backlight constantly flash is a distraction, and certain colors make it difficult to easily read the text.