How to change battery settings on psr800?

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txscan

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can someone tell me how to change the battery settings on the psr800. Is it done on the radio it self or in ezscan, and how is it done?


Thanks
 

Halfpint

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It's done via the EZ Scan Digital software.

To do it you need to be using Software Ver 1.05 and have the latest firmware version, Ver U1.5, installed in the scanner.

In the EZ Scan Digital software you, if you haven't yet done it, go to the Advanced Menu entry and enable the Show Advanced Tab option. Once you have that enabled then you bring up the Advanced Features tab you'll find at the bottom of the screen. There you'll find the Battery Indicatior / Alert Values `box' that will allow you to change the settings for both NiMH and Alkaline batteries values/settings for how the battery indicator on the display is shown and what the alert value that you want the scanner to use to warn you that you are `at the end of the road' for whatever type of batteries you are currently using.

There is at least one `thread' here in this forum that has some other user's values you might want to check out.
 

6Paul21

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Try these values.
14 Bars 4.8
12 Bars 4.7
10 Bars 4.6
08 Bars 4.5
06 Bars 4.4
04 Bars 4.3
02 Bars 4.2
00 Bars 4.1
Alert 4.08
They seem to work ok for me until we get an upgrade.
 

tbags

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how do you know if you have the ver U1.5 firmware, and how do you get it???
 

kruser

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how do you know if you have the ver U1.5 firmware, and how do you get it???

Hold down the menu key while hitting the power button or plugging in the USB cable. It will show the versions on that screen.

Hit just the menu button to get out of that screen.

I think the version you are after is listed last in the list that will be displayed.

You get the new version from the EZScan software updates menu.
Open that menu and click the CPU Upgrade and follow the instructions carefully.
That will also tell you if you need a new version or not.
 

BeerNutz

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Thanks for sharing those settings. With the unacceptable default setting, I bet a lot of radios have been returned as defective and/or a ton of batteries purchased. Until I read on here what was going on, I thought my radio was all of a sudden eating batteries or my not so old batteries took a dump.

GRE... This is a great radio, but this has to be fixed NOW.
 

frank-ortiz

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Hi, I have a PSR 800 and I enabled the advanced setting in the software in which the software version is current as well as the PSR 800 firmware is current. When I tried to change the battery settings it would not let me and the software would say the value is less than the value below?

Is this a software bug or am I missing something within the software that I did not enable?
Any help would be great with this issue thanks.
 

simmsrep

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When you enter your values start from the alert and work your way up. The alert value has to be lower than the 0 bar value, the 0 bar value has to be lower than the 2 bar value and so forth all the way to the 14 bar value. If you enter a value, ex. 2 bar value 4.8 and your 4 bar value is 4.7 you will get that error message. The 4 bar value has to be at least 4.9 for it to be accepted. My personal settings-
14-4.55 These settings work great for me. Just start at the bottom (alert) and work your way up.
12-4.50
10-4.45
8-4.40
6-4.35
4-4.30
2-4.25
0-4.20
alert-4.15
 

frank-ortiz

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I will try this when I get home from work, I hope this solves the battery drain issue. I charged a fresh set of batteries and then like 10 min later the bar drops like the battery is drained, when I know it's not fully drained. I hope I get more than an hour of use with these settings.

Did you have the fast drain battery issue also? Did the settings you suggested for the battery give you more than 8 hours of use on your PSR 800?

Also when I am done entering these battery settings, what button do I click on in the PSR 800 PC software to transfer these new battery settings to my PSR 800?
 

simmsrep

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I got my PSR 800 used off Ebay. I have other digital scanners (pro 106, bcd396xt) and had always gotten at least 10 hours out of a charge using the energizer 2300 batteries and energizer charger i got from wal mart. When I used the same batteries and charger on the 800 I got only 4 hours to a charge. I looked over the threads here and found other people having the same problem. I purchased a La Cross BC-9009 charger and using the same energizer batteries I now get around 10 hours of a charge. When the firmware was updated on the 800 and they put in the battery settings I was still getting the same amount of time per charge but the battery indicator on the screen would show an empty charge within an hour or two. I played with the settings and those that I posted worked best for me. I recently purchased some nimh 2300 batteries from Harbor Freight and am getting from 11 to 12 hours per charge. These cut rate batteries usually start off good but within a few months they start to decline. We'll see. To answer your last question after you enter your values go to scanner/sd card at the top of the page, click copy configuration to scanner/sd card and that will load your settings.
 

frank-ortiz

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I have a Pro-106, a Pro-18 and I just got a PSR 800 as a early birthday present. I had the Uniden home patrol but it was limited, so I exchanged it at the radio shack and picked up a brand new Pro-18.
Do you know off hand if the Pro-18 can have the battery settings adjust like the PSR-800?

You mentioned after you adjusted the battery settings on your PSR-800 your now getting 11-12 hours of use on the enegizer 2300's?

is the battery gage more accurate on the PSR-800 since the adjustment to the battery settings?
 

jackj

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Frank-ortiz and others, there appears to be a misunderstanding regarding the battery icon. The battery 'fuel gauge' is just an indicator of the battery's state of charge. You can make it read anything you want but it has no effect on how long the scanner will run. There is a voltage level below which the scanner shuts down to protect itself and the battery but you can't change that trip point.
 

simmsrep

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To jackj: Yes this is true. When I was using the energizer charger from wal mart I was only getting 4 hours charge so I purchased the LA Cross charger and got 10 hours on a charge. The charger made the diffrence. Before the firmware was updated to give an adjustment, the battery bar on the screen would pretty much be in line with the charge of the batterys. After the update after about an hour or two the bar would show an empty battery after an hour or two. The batterys still lasted 10 hours. The settings I gave will now show a full charge for about 4 or 5 hours then start going down slowly after that. All I did was match the settings to my batterys. Same charge time with the batterys, but you can make the battery indicator read whatever suits you.
 

buggiecar

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I would never have believed it....

I had been having huge problems with battery life with my PSR-800...I contacted GRE and was told to try Sanyo Eneloop 2400mh batteries which I did and saw an improvement in run time...to about 9 hours but the battery gage would drop within an hour to nothing but I would let it run...I saw the post on how to reset the settings with the software and did...I have gone about 14 hours now and have 50% showing...adjusting these settings seem to have done the trick...I love this scanner again...and I also put sets of these batteries in my GRE-500 and Uniden 396XT and have incredible runtime....the 500 does almost 30 hours at a clip...and the Uniden close to that...these batteries are great.
 

frank-ortiz

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Hey simmsrep, I changed the battery settings to the ones you suggested and my PSR 800 is running on the radio shack 2500 mah enercell rechargeable batteries, and my PSR 800 has been on since 10:30am this morning and it is now 11:24pm right now, my PSR 800 just started to let me know the battery is almost drained. That's a little over 13 hours of continuous use all day.
 
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Ok I went to update the firmware so I can adjust some settings. When I plugged the USB cable into the scanner per instructions, I get a message on the scanner display below the CPU Update line that reads:

Waiting on USB

What does this mean? I tried different USB ports on my computer, but get the same message. I am supposed to use the cable that came with the scanner, right?

I know I updated the firmware when I got the scanner earlier this year, but I dont remember this message.

Can someone shed some light on this issue?

Thanks!!!
 
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