Pro-668 Battery / Power Icon Behavior

[garysauctions]

If you're into ferreting out contradicting statements, you might find the following of interest:

10 May 2015

13 May 2015

First comment was based on initial impressions before the firmware was updated, second was post.
You do realize they were made several days apart .... right!
Yes in just three short days with the 668 my opinion has changed ..... is that not allowed?

Nice try though!


EDIT: Oh and for the record today we discovered another anomaly with the 668. One that may be the scanner itself or once caused externally. It is being investigated and once we can pin it down, if it is with the scanner we will bring it to light.


73's

 

[DonS]

I believe the 668 is known for 'eating batteries' regardless of the firmware version.

The PRO-668 doesn't "eat batteries" any more than the PSR-800, PRO-18, or WS1080.

My issue is now with this new power management scheme the batteries inside the charger are NOT CHARGING when audio is not muted.

Under the old power management scheme this was not the case.

You're sort of right. Under the new scheme the batteries are NOT CHARGING when audio is not muted. Under the old scheme, the batteries are NOT CHARGING when audio is not muted AND when audio is muted - in fact, under the old scheme, the batteries are NOT CHARGING if the scanner is POWERED ON.

With the new scheme, at least the batteries are charged during some portion of the "powered on" time.

Old scheme:
Batteries Charging = External power connected AND NiMH selected AND charge timer not expired AND scanner powered off

New scheme:
Batteries Charging = External power connected AND NiMH selected AND charge timer not expired AND (scanner powered off OR audio muted)

 

[garysauctions]

The PRO-668 doesn't "eat batteries" any more than the PSR-800, PRO-18, or WS1080.

Never used any of those other scanners, but feedback I ma getting from people who got 668's from me indicates they are surprised at how fast a set of alkaline batteries run down.

I urged them to go with rechargeable batteries, like we have in all of our handheld transceivers.

But even one of those transceivers is a battery eater ..... and it's digital ..... Yeasu's FUSION system. ( FT-1DR )

 

[DonS]

Never used any of those other scanners, but feedback I ma getting from people who got 668's from me indicates they are surprised at how fast a set of alkaline batteries run down.

I'm not at all surprised at the PRO-668's battery life, given that a set of 1900mAh Eneloops powers my scanner for 9 hours, while scanning a P25 system and recording every transmission to the SD card. Just like the PSR-800 and WS1080.

 

[buddrousa]

Don I wiped the scanner reloaded the CPU Firmware 2.3 and the DSP Firmware reloaded my same old programming into my 668 I got back to the station at 15:30 and it is now 19:00 this is the same set of batteries that were lasting 4.5 hours the battery meter has moved for 14 bars to now showing 12 bars. I am going to let this discharge until it powers off recharge and test again and see what the results are but from what I see it is acting better and I am recording 2 TG's and 4 channels.
Thanks ATLAS for reminding me to try the reload. So far so good.

 

[nyscan]

Just to be clear...when we say audio muted...do we mean just not receiving a transmission at the moment or actually having the scanner muted (audio off)?

 

[garysauctions]

I'm not at all surprised at the PRO-668's battery life, given that a set of 1900mAh Eneloops powers my scanner for 9 hours, while scanning a P25 system and recording every transmission to the SD card. Just like the PSR-800 and WS1080.

Since I have your ear, let me ask you about a couple of things .....


1) At times when the scanner locks on a signal (P25) initially the audio is 'garbled' but clears up. Almost as if it was a weak signal that got stronger. However the signal strength meter indicates full strength. Is this just the scanner 'locking on' to the P25 signal initially. It does not happen all the time, it is random.

2) Here again, randomly the audio of a P25 signal drops out, the signal strength meter on the display indicates a full strength signal ... just a loss of audio. " Dead Air " is a term that comes to mind.

I read about the need for the attenuator in highly RF congested areas, evidently because of front end overload. Even thought I am not in one of those areas, I did turn on the attenuators. This had no effect so I installed an external step attenuator between the antenna and and scanner. Here again no change.

I am not ready to blame the scanner yet as we are investigating an external source of trouble for us causing interference on VHF FM frequencies in the 140 - 160 mhz range.

We are looking at the US Military as the source of trouble in the VHF frequency range because some of that interference showed up when a radar blimp was put in the air over Aberdeen Proving Grounds.

 

[garysauctions]

Just to be clear...when we say audio muted...do we mean just not receiving a transmission at the moment or actually having the scanner muted (audio off)?

Both from what I have seen.

When no signal is received or when the audio is turned all the way down to " Mute ".

 

[AtlasFBG2]

Since I have your ear, let me ask you about a couple of things .....


1) At times when the scanner locks on a signal (P25) initially the audio is 'garbled' but clears up. Almost as if it was a weak signal that got stronger. However the signal strength meter indicates full strength. Is this just the scanner 'locking on' to the P25 signal initially. It does not happen all the time, it is random.

2) Here again, randomly the audio of a P25 signal drops out, the signal strength meter on the display indicates a full strength signal ... just a loss of audio. " Dead Air " is a term that comes to mind.

I read about the need for the attenuator in highly RF congested areas, evidently because of front end overload. Even thought I am not in one of those areas, I did turn on the attenuators. This had no effect so I installed an external step attenuator between the antenna and and scanner. Here again no change.

I am not ready to blame the scanner yet as we are investigating an external source of trouble for us causing interference on VHF FM frequencies in the 140 - 160 mhz range.

We are looking at the US Military as the source of trouble in the VHF frequency range because some of that interference showed up when a radar blimp was put in the air over Aberdeen Proving Grounds.

Try using custom trunking tables. My 652,651,668 all did this. It completely cleared up the marcs system but the marcs-ip system still does it once in awhile.

 

[garysauctions]

Try using custom trunking tables. My 652,651,668 all did this. It completely cleared up the marcs system but the marcs-ip system still does it once in awhile.

I'm beginning to think my 668 is haunted/possessed.

Up until and 3 hours ago it was hearing everything.

Now nothing .... oh it locks up on a signal ..... but all I hear is silence.

I'm trying to get it to work, work well and work CONSISTENTLY.

I'm not even sure I have confidence the software on the computer is working as it should. Often times it will lock up when connected to the scanner via USB cable.

 

[KA4YBL]

Battery problem with usb

I just received my Pro-668 this week. After installing the software by copying the files off the card to my hard drive and doing an install when ever I plug in the usb cable to the computer and scanner, my computer locks up. Unplugging the scanner brings the computer comes back to life. If I hook the scanner to the computer without the batteries installed I can check the scanner to up date. I have installed the software several times, searched this site for answers, changed different types of batteries, changed usb cables. My system is using Windows Vista software and even tried booting into a no driver licensing state, still no luck. I have even tried going through a powered hub. Any thoughts? The scanner works otherwise.

Thanks,
KA4YBL