Greetings. I am new to the forums, although I have used the excellent RadioReference site many times over the years. I am not an "enthusiast" as most of you folks are, so please cut me a little slack on this very simple question. Thanks in advance.
I am a police officer in a rural-ish area, and have two older, lower end Uniden scanners that allow me to keep up on what is going on in my jurisdiction at home without carrying my portable with me around the house. They do a good job as most of our routine traffic is still analog VHF. If something happens and traffic goes to our selectively used digital gear, I retrieve my portable. I have one Uniden unit upstairs and one downstairs for when I am banished there for one reason or another. That's another thread completely.
Recently a couple of Amazon Alexa devices have interjected themselves into the family and I am learning to tolerate them. Actually I have found them to come in handy on occasion. I have a potential use for them, but I want to be certain that this will not damage my units. I called Uniden support. Their response was that since what I propose in not officially tested by them, they understandably would not take a stand either way. They suggested I contact users on the internet and this site was one of their suggestions. So... here I am.
Very simple. Both of my units ( a BCT8 and a BC355N ) came with hardware for and support 12v power input for mobile use. The install docs specifically state to connect them to the accessory circuit in a vehicle, which to me seems to indicate that the units would not be harmed by the power supply being dropped when the ignition is off, and subsequently re-established when the vehicle is started while the unit is in the "on" position at the unit itself.
So, what I want to do in the house is put each on a good quality, certified smart plug that would be controlled by Alexa to turn the off and on. One of the plugs would be on a circuit that is on a UPS as well. I know there are a lot of questionable quality smart plugs available at very low prices, but I intend to use something that is to the best of my ability, verified as being something built without a lot of corner/cost cutting.
This seems to me would subject the units to the same type of "on/off at the power source" operation as when installed in a vehicle, and SHOULD be even more stable since the condition of the power supply in a vehicle can vary greatly depending on the vehicle condition, battery condition, as well as what could be an erratic off-on-off-on series of changes as the car is started one some older vehicles.
So... I said all that to ask this. Does anyone out there have any experience powering a unit running on house current through a smart plug? Pros / Cons? First hand experience, good or bad? Basically is this going to be harmful to my scanners. Replacing them would not be something I can just do out of hand if I "hose" one or both.
Thanks in advance for any first hand knowledge that comes back my way (hopefully) from this post.
Thanks,
Bewf
I am a police officer in a rural-ish area, and have two older, lower end Uniden scanners that allow me to keep up on what is going on in my jurisdiction at home without carrying my portable with me around the house. They do a good job as most of our routine traffic is still analog VHF. If something happens and traffic goes to our selectively used digital gear, I retrieve my portable. I have one Uniden unit upstairs and one downstairs for when I am banished there for one reason or another. That's another thread completely.
Recently a couple of Amazon Alexa devices have interjected themselves into the family and I am learning to tolerate them. Actually I have found them to come in handy on occasion. I have a potential use for them, but I want to be certain that this will not damage my units. I called Uniden support. Their response was that since what I propose in not officially tested by them, they understandably would not take a stand either way. They suggested I contact users on the internet and this site was one of their suggestions. So... here I am.
Very simple. Both of my units ( a BCT8 and a BC355N ) came with hardware for and support 12v power input for mobile use. The install docs specifically state to connect them to the accessory circuit in a vehicle, which to me seems to indicate that the units would not be harmed by the power supply being dropped when the ignition is off, and subsequently re-established when the vehicle is started while the unit is in the "on" position at the unit itself.
So, what I want to do in the house is put each on a good quality, certified smart plug that would be controlled by Alexa to turn the off and on. One of the plugs would be on a circuit that is on a UPS as well. I know there are a lot of questionable quality smart plugs available at very low prices, but I intend to use something that is to the best of my ability, verified as being something built without a lot of corner/cost cutting.
This seems to me would subject the units to the same type of "on/off at the power source" operation as when installed in a vehicle, and SHOULD be even more stable since the condition of the power supply in a vehicle can vary greatly depending on the vehicle condition, battery condition, as well as what could be an erratic off-on-off-on series of changes as the car is started one some older vehicles.
So... I said all that to ask this. Does anyone out there have any experience powering a unit running on house current through a smart plug? Pros / Cons? First hand experience, good or bad? Basically is this going to be harmful to my scanners. Replacing them would not be something I can just do out of hand if I "hose" one or both.
Thanks in advance for any first hand knowledge that comes back my way (hopefully) from this post.
Thanks,
Bewf
