RH96 Control Head Remote Kit - First Look

[K4APR]

Great price, Motorola would charge at least a hundred bucks for something like this if it were for one of their 2-way radios.

After five years with Moto, I know all too well what they charge for things like this.

What's the longest Cat5 run you have tried?

So far I have a coiled up run of 50' in my shop working fine with this kit. I am going to eventually try even longer runs.

 

[K4APR]

...and LEDs and whatnot.

Actually, they did'nt show up too well in the pictures, because of the flash, but I did add power LEDs on both of the boards to indicate power is getting to the boards.

 

[K4APR]

As I said last night, I played around a bit with mounting the head board on the back of the RH-96 head. It works, but I am not happy with the size since it gets in the way of the bracket. Sizing the board down will take care of this.

Here are a couple of pictures of the board mounted to the back of the head with some quick made up cables to go between:

Also, while I was at work, I started to think about how I could test long distance and it came to me! I have an ethernet patch panel in my rack at home that ties all of the ethernet jacks in the house to my switch. All I had to do was take one of my jacks on the opposite end of the house out of service, isolate from the switch and use that as the link.

I connected the radio end at the patch panel and then went to the other end of the house (living room) and used the jack in there for the control head end. Below are some pictures of that:

If people are interested, I could probaly make up a short little video of the long distance test. Start in the radio room and work my way to the living room, where the functioning head is.

 

[ResQguy]

Now this right here is quite amazing. Keep up the good work.

 

[N9JIG]

Am I missing something here? With the RH96 all you have to do is plug in the remote head to the radio with a single wire (supplied with RH96) & external speaker if needed/wanted. That's pretty straight forward hookup. What advantage would someone get by hooking up the RH96 via eithernet cable? Now instead of 2 wires (RH96 and speaker) for the normal RH96 setup, your setup requires an additional audio wire feeding the 396T board & ethernet cord.

Normal RH96 setup requires 3 cords (speaker, control, power), your setup requires 7.

What am I missing here?

BTW, great job on the circuit boards - 100% professional!

I for one would be buying several of these when available. I have 3 Unidens (996T, 996XT and a BC15) in the rear cargo area of my SUV and the RH-96's up front. I needed to run speaker cables and extensions to the RH96 cables to make the radios usable for me. This would allow me to replace all that with a couple Cat5 cables.

Great work on this project, and I will pay extra for cases if needed!

 

[N9JIG]

As I said last night, I played around a bit with mounting the head board on the back of the RH-96 head. It works, but I am not happy with the size since it gets in the way of the bracket. Sizing the board down will take care of this.

Have you considered replacing the jacks for the power and data to the RH96 with short patch cords instead coming off the remote board, and matching cables for the radio (also including the speaker lead)? The remote board would only then require a speaker jack and RJ45 jack. The radio board would only require the RJ45 jack.

This would reduce the size of an enclosure dramatically and may reduce component costs. The smaller boxes could double stick the the RH96 and rear of the radio.

 

[N9JIG]

I must clarify somthing, the CAT5 network cable is NOT for ethernet, there is zero ethernet being used here. I am simply using a readily available cable, with decent data and audio carrying capabilities. The twisted pairs allowed me to use one wire in each pair for ground, thus "shielding" each signal. Not perfect, but it is working well in my tests.

The ScannerMaster BC796 and BC780 remote heads that was the inspiration for the RH96 used Ethernet cables, they are plentiful, come in many colors and well suited for this type of work.

I use Ethernet cable and dual jacks to remote the mics for my CDM1250 and TM-D700 radios. In one of my vehicles before I even used a Radio Shack jack box to make easy access to the mic jacks by using dual RJ45 jacks and Cat5 cables to the radios. This way the mics could be up front while the radios were mounted off to the side or under the seat.

 

[DaveIN]

If people are interested, I could probaly make up a short little video of the long distance test. Start in the radio room and work my way to the living room, where the functioning head is.

Please do. I'd be interested in that.

 

[K4APR]

Have you considered replacing the jacks for the power and data to the RH96 with short patch cords instead coming off the remote board, and matching cables for the radio (also including the speaker lead)? The remote board would only then require a speaker jack and RJ45 jack. The radio board would only require the RJ45 jack.

Yes, I have considered this, in fact it was mentioned earlier in the thread. My only problem with that is it severely limits the end-user's choice for cable length, where to put the boards, ect. I think for most, they are going to just stick them on the back of the head and the top of the scanner, but I hate limiting to just that. I will give it some thought.

The truth is, I could always use the same board and hard-solder the leads right to the SMT pads meant for the jacks.

IF I went with some kind of hard-soldered version, I would slim the board down to the point where I could slide large heatshrink over the entire board and just cinch it up with a heat gun. That would eliminate the need for a special case.

One gripe, I can't automate the assembly when I have to hand-solder the leads on. By going with an all SMT (surface mount) design, I can assemble a bunch of these at a time using my in-house solder paste and hot skillet method. If I need more than that fast, I can send everything to my pick and place shop and they can have hundreds back to me in a matter of a week.

 

[K4APR]

The ScannerMaster BC796 and BC780 remote heads that was the inspiration for the RH96 used Ethernet cables, they are plentiful, come in many colors and well suited for this type of work.

I have to admit, my 796D remote head kit from SM gave me the idea to use the CAT5 cable. It just seemed like the easiest and lowest cost way to go, without sacrificing quality and performance.

I use Ethernet cable and dual jacks to remote the mics for my CDM1250 and TM-D700 radios.

I have done almost the exact same thing with my CDMs. Instead of a jack plate, I used keystone jacks with 110 punch slots.

On a side note, I have a product that has been in dormant development for the last year that uses RJ45s for interfacing to two mobile radios and allows for a single microphone. I got the idea from installing dual CDMs in public safety vehicles and then having to deal with multiple microphones. I realized I could use a simple PIC and DPDT relays to route the audio, PTT and other signals for a very easy to use switchbox that even memorizes the last radio port that was selected.

The neat thing was, you could plug in a Moto mic, use two CAT5 patch cords from the radio ports to the radios and that was it!

Here are a couple of pictures of the first prototype (might be a bit large):

http://www.rpc-electronics.com/img/micswitcher/micswitcher001.jpg

 

[K4APR]

Please do. I'd be interested in that.

I'll work on this tomorrow, after I get back home. Thank God for the weekend coming up!

 

[kyguy]

This is just the setup I need !! (the remote setup- not the mike)
I'm ready to order one --give me order details and $$ is on its way!!

 

[aliby19]

Awesome! Any idea when this will be available for sale? I'd definitely take at least one!

Also, I do like the previous idea of wiring short jumper leads to the board instead of using the jacks. Just my two cents.

 

[cg]

there is room inside the shell on the back of the RH for a RJ45 connector. The problem would be how to mount the jack to something strong that would allow for pulling to disconnect.
A better solution might be to hardwire a short length of cat5 cable and end in regular RJ45 plug. Then use a RJ45 double female to plug into the long run of cable. One advantage is the cable would go through the RH case via a simple round hole. Obvious down side is the hole.

chris

 

[N2JBO]

I want one, also.

This is just the setup I need !! (the remote setup- not the mike)
I'm ready to order one --give me order details and $$ is on its way!!

I'll second that.
I want one, please.

73 de Dave - N2JBO

 

[Uplink]

Yes, I have considered this, in fact it was mentioned earlier in the thread. My only problem with that is it severely limits the end-user's choice for cable length, where to put the boards, ect. I think for most, they are going to just stick them on the back of the head and the top of the scanner, but I hate limiting to just that. I will give it some thought.

Agreed, pigtails would limit mounting versatility, I think it's fine how you have it. Nice Job.

FYI, All Electronics carries a huge variety of molded coaxial power cables, and audio cables with molded mini (3.5mm) plugs and jacks for much cheaper than the Shack.

: )

 

[ksduster]

very nice

I read through this, and thought, wow.. how much easier it would have been to install my BCT15X and RH96 in my car..
instead of running 2 wires to the trunk, and then 2 wires back the front, could have just ran some cat5, and the external speaker cable and been done..

2 wires to back.. power, remote cable for rh96, and 3rd would be external speaker cable.

and up front i had to run power to the rh... took hours of pulling molding off the sides and base of my impala..

one wire (cat5) and running remote speaker up front from one of these little setups would have saved alot of time and energy.

 

[K4APR]

there is room inside the shell on the back of the RH for a RJ45 connector. The problem would be how to mount the jack to something strong that would allow for pulling to disconnect.
A better solution might be to hardwire a short length of cat5 cable and end in regular RJ45 plug. Then use a RJ45 double female to plug into the long run of cable. One advantage is the cable would go through the RH case via a simple round hole. Obvious down side is the hole.

In theory, this is a great idea. In reality, it would be a support nightmare:

First, the head would have to be milled for the connector. This would either have to be done by hand, by the end user or they would have the send the head to me and I would have a milling shop do it. Either way, expensive and time consuming. Not to mention the warranty issue. I would have to get people to sign a warranty waiver.

Second, mounting the board inside would be a bit of challenge, short of double-sided tape.

Third, all of the connections would have to be soldered to the current connectors in the head. That would mean "tacking" the wires to the solder points on each connector to tap into the signals. Again, time consuming and expensive.

In reality, THIS is exactly what Uniden should have done in the first place. I was looking for the best external solution that I could come up with, without altering the head physically. Somthing that could be universally added on.

UPMan, are you following this thread? I hope you are taking some notes!

 

[K4APR]

I shot a quick video this morning demo'ing the extension kit:

YouTube - RH-96 Remote Head Extension Kit Overview

EDIT: Its taking a long time for the video to process on YouTube, so the quality will be crummy until it finishes.

 

[garys]

I shot a quick video this morning demo'ing the extension kit:

Very impressive. Now you just need to get it into production so we can buy them.