I have an XTL5000 (05 head) attached to the 9000 series siren/pa that works for random lengths of time and then the DEK box stops responding to button inputs - no status light changes on the DEK and no mode changes reflected on the 05 head. Cycling the bus power to the radio system restores siren operation until the next failure. Both the siren amp ("B" version) and the DEK box (the "C" version replaced with a "D" version) have been replaced without any improvement. Vibration does not seem to be the problem as the same failure has been observed when the vehicle remains parked with the engine off. This set up includes DEK box programing to accomodate a non-standard button arrangement. Time between failures varies and I have not been able to identify any conditions (heat, vibration, etc.,) that correlate to the issue. I'm out of ideas, any help would be greatly appreciated.
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XTL5000 and system 9000 siren amp intermittent failures
- Thread starter danplane
- Start date
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- Dec 15, 2015
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- 403
Are the siren and DEK box able to be temporarily taken out and put on an identical or even similar XTL to see if the problem is duplicated there? I have an extra 9000 siren amp I can give you for free if the issue ends up being the amp.
I haven't had your issue before and I've been in multiple setups with an XTL series radio and the 9000 series siren. Although most of the ones I've been in don't have DEK boxes, the siren buttons are on the control head or if it's an APX they use the O9. Let me know if theres anything I can do to test out something on my end to help. I currently have access to a vehicle with a XTL5K setup with the 9000 series siren amp, no DEK though.
I haven't had your issue before and I've been in multiple setups with an XTL series radio and the 9000 series siren. Although most of the ones I've been in don't have DEK boxes, the siren buttons are on the control head or if it's an APX they use the O9. Let me know if theres anything I can do to test out something on my end to help. I currently have access to a vehicle with a XTL5K setup with the 9000 series siren amp, no DEK though.
Check your B+. Have seen lots of issues on the XTL/ Siren combo with low voltages. How are they wired, Both cables to battery ? Junction block ?
Your offer is much appreciated! I have changed the DEK box from a "C" version to a "D" version which is supposed to play nicer with XTL but the same issue is showing up. Also changed the amp out with another "B" version that I had on hand again, no improvement. I have heard that the "G" version was supposed to be for the XTL - but I have never found any confirmation of that or even of the differences between the various versions. I am thinking that Jeepsandradios thought on the voltages might be an issue, which I will follow up with in response to his comment.
This vehicle (Tahoe XLT with all the bells and whistles - it's good to be the chief!) has a bus line directly to the battery. B+ is direct to the battery and is always hot per moto manual. The yellow switched line runs from the battery bus through a master comm switch. This XTL does the vertical streaking at startup but otherwise, has always behaved. This vehicle does have a history of seemingly random voltage dips that occasionally cause various modules to fail until a hard reset is initiated. We discovered this because the tailgate lift and latch release mechanism (all electrically powered - what could possibly go wrong!?) has failed several times preventing any access to the back of the vehicle (where the aft radio bay is located) and there is no manual override. Hard rebooting by disconnecting the battery for about 30 seconds has always cured the issue. Cycling the radio buss, causes the radio to cycle through it's startup process and resets the DEK/amp until the next failure.
The battery was load tested several days ago resulting in a full-load capable reading. All that said, since this is the only XLT sheriff vehicle I have ever worked on, I have nothing else to compare it to. I have noticed that after ignition off, there are various vehicle related things still operating (making noise) buried deep behind the dash that we have never been able to identify. Battery voltage seems to remain reasonably constant though, a transient dip would not be detected.
RFI-EMI-GUY
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- Dec 22, 2013
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- 6,868
Don't rule out a bad battery that reads good, but has high ESR and cannot support high transient current.
What size buss line to the battery ? I ask as I've seen some installs drop a single 8g in and run siren and radio and other stuff off the same B+.
Does this vehicle have an accessory battery or just the main battery?
The noises you hear about a minute or so after shutdown are normal, it's the vehicle vents closing. It's normal.
It sounds like you have a bad ground somewhere. If you have a multimeter available, I would pull the power plug off the back of the transceiver and check to make sure you don't have stray voltage on ground. I've seen this happen before. I would also disconnect the antenna and from the transceiver and if everything goes haywire, that means everything was getting it's ground through the radio.
Turns out that the B+ on this unit (10ga) is wired to the powered stud on the fuse box, not directly to the battery. Supposedly, the studs are direct connections to the battery but, auto manufacturers are notorious for doing strange things electrically that are not immediately apparent. As for the ground, GM grounds the chassis through the engine block with a secondary wire to the frame. The engine ground was suspicious looking and was dismantled and cleaned. Both the head and the transceiver are grounded to the body and the connections appear to be intact. Next up is verifying the B+ source and probably a temporary direct battery connection to rule out any GM induced issues.
Update: this install had the B+ wired to one of the studs (always powered) on the main fuse array. Apparently, the studs are not direct to the battery as moving the B+ to the battery terminal (bypassing all GM control systems) and the DEK has operated properly so long as the engine is not started or restarted while the radio is powered up. After the radio is powered up (engine running) stopping and restarting the engine does nothing to the radio but does disable the DEK. I'm wondering about the battery, though it checks out.
