PSR-500 Images

[DaveIN]

The neat lighting feature is the LED with audio alerts and display lighting settings during any broadcast.

I use a Chirp sound at the same time the display lights up and a brilliant blue color LED lights up at top right of scanner when PD prime TG's key up. Talkarounds get a softer blue but equally brilliant.

Prime FD get an Alert sound with brilliant red LED. 6 other colors are available.

Actually you can make many more color combinations by adjusting the RGB values in the global menu or using the PSREdit software if you wanted to.

 

[LEH]

You can adjust the colors of the LED, but I believe you can only have seven colors for the LED (eight if you want to set the 'off' setting to a color).

And as I have said before (and had it reinforced by other users). That LED is BRIGHT AT NIGHT. Grab your shades when it comes on. ("I wear my sunglasses at night.") Don't select Red or Blue flash and set the scanner on your dash.

 

[offsite]

You can adjust the colors of the LED, but I believe you can only have seven colors for the LED (eight if you want to set the 'off' setting to a color).

And as I have said before (and had it reinforced by other users). That LED is BRIGHT AT NIGHT. Grab your shades when it comes on. ("I wear my sunglasses at night.") Don't select Red or Blue flash and set the scanner on your dash.

LEH, I had the same first impression... but turns out you can fix this!

As near as I could tell without opening the unit, the "LED" display comprises a sort of light guide fed by three LEDs located inside the unit -- a red, a blue, and a green(?) one. [I gave my loaner back this morning, so I can't verify the color of these three LEDs].

At any rate, there is a menu branch in the GLOB tree (waaay down the list) that will allow you to adjust the output of the individual LEDs in steps from "zero" to "too bright" simply by pressing the numeric keys (for rough settings) or changing the Hex coded level for really fine tuning.

The factory setting is "too bright" for each of the three internal LEDs... : )

The output (what we see looking at the external portion of the light guide) is a combination of light from all three of the internal LEDs... and the various colors are produced by various mixtures of these.

For instance, "RED" would just be the red LED on and the other two off.

"PURPLE" would be the red and blue LEDs on and the other off.

But wait! There's more! LOL!

Since the intensity of each of the internal LEDs can be set independently of the others, not only can the whole external display be dimmed but by combining different levels of the three internal LEDs, a whole array of colors can be obtained (subject only to how good is our perception of color differences in this mode)

My hope would be a s/w mod that would add some additional space for "custom" colors we might come up with, and also an additional (faster) blink rate (or even a long/short combo, or a red/blue combo... etc).

Both of these mods would help expand the optical alert capability of this very cool unit.

 

[kikito]

The factory setting is "too bright" for each of the three internal LEDs... : )

But aren't we glad is at least adjustable?

.....and also an additional (faster) blink rate (or even a long/short combo, or a red/blue combo... etc).

I thought we already had the blink rate option. If you check out the "LED BlinkOn" and "LED BlinkOff" parameters, you can set how fast or slow the LED blinks by individually adjusting the time it stays off or on, manual page 98. Unless you meant to have individual blink rates per object instead of global.

On a related note and in the same area of the menu, you can also adjust the interval of the alternating text on the display with the "LCD BlinkOn" and LCD BlinkOff"!.

 

[KC9NEG]

(or even a long/short combo, or a red/blue combo... etc).

I beat ya to this one in the firmware wish list thread

EDIT: by three minutes

Todd/Indy

 

[offsite]

I beat ya to this one in the firmware wish list thread

EDIT: by three minutes

Todd/Indy

No contest, Dude... I've been reading posts here for a few weeks and you've come up with ideas I never would have thought of no matter how much time I had... : )

But I could at least try to stay in the game by saying "great minds.... "... LOL!

kikito... I wasn't complaining about the factory setting, I was cheering the foresight of the system designers to allow adjustment... : )

Also, I was suggesting a third blink state (solid, slow blink, fast blink) to get another easily discernible option to uniquely tag more objects (or groups)... and then it occurred to me that maybe we could have something like mil airfield split beacons (white,white, green)... and of course that opens up all kinds of alternating color options, etc, for very little additional s/w modification.

I think GRE is very fortunate that most all of us here are supporting this, IMHO, "only game in town" new scanner concept by brainstorming possibly simple s/w mods to make it even more functional, and as a result, irresistable. I know *I've* got one on order now that I've had a chance to play with it for a while.... : )

 

[DonS]

No contest, Dude... I've been reading posts here for a few weeks and you've come up with ideas I never would have thought of no matter how much time I had... : )

But I could at least try to stay in the game by saying "great minds.... "... LOL!

kikito... I wasn't complaining about the factory setting, I was cheering the foresight of the system designers to allow adjustment... : )

Also, I was suggesting a third blink state (solid, slow blink, fast blink) to get another easily discernible option to uniquely tag more objects (or groups)... and then it occurred to me that maybe we could have something like mil airfield split beacons (white,white, green)... and of course that opens up all kinds of alternating color options, etc, for very little additional s/w modification.

Depends on what you mean by "very little". From what I know about the radio's internal memory structure, adding additional colors to each object would start to reduce the number of objects you can store in the radio.

 

[offsite]

Depends on what you mean by "very little". From what I know about the radio's internal memory structure, adding additional colors to each object would start to reduce the number of objects you can store in the radio.

True!

But I've always tried to think outside of the box and let smarter people than me actually figure out how to make it happen... LOL!

 

[KC9NEG]

Yeah, it is fun to keep developers steppin' and fetchin', isn't it? hehe

Todd/Indy

 

[DaveNF2G]

Hmm. If each LED's blink rate is adjustable, then it should be possible to get alternating colors, shouldn't it?

 

[DonS]

Hmm. If each LED's blink rate is adjustable, then it should be possible to get alternating colors, shouldn't it?

I believe the "tri-color" LED's blink rate is adjustable as a whole, not as individual R, G, and B blink rates. That is, the radio says "user wants color X, which maps to RGB combination rr/gg/bb... write that rr/gg/bb value to the tri-color LED, alternating with 00/00/00, according to the LED Blink On/Off times in GLOB".