MCS2000 startup

fire_master_21 · Post by **fire_master_21** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 9:33 am

At my department we have a MCS2000 in the cheif's jeep. Now he wants me to put that radio in a air support truck. The cheif also wants this radio hooked up without ignition sense. How ever anytime the radio is off and it has power applied to it the radio turns on. Is there a jumper for this or is there a section in the cps to disable this. I have ordered the manuals for this radio but would like to get this fixed and installed today. Can anyone help? BTW this is a 110w

HLA · Post by **HLA** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 1:15 pm

the simplest way would be to just connect the ign sense wire to the same hot as the radio. or look here for the pinout http://batlabs.com/gm900.html

Post by **wavetar** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:24 pm

That's the problem with the MCS not having a hard-set power switch. There is no RSS setting to make the radio NOT turn on when power is applied to the main leads...sounds strange I know, it makes you wonder why you'd need an ignition sense lead to begin with...according to Motorola, there's no guarantee the radio will turn on to the same channel it was turned off at, if you don't use the ignition sense lead (with constant power to the main leads, of course).

Long story short, you need an external switch hooked up if the chief doesn't want it to follow ignition.

Todd

fire_master_21 · Post by **fire_master_21** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:26 pm

Thanks Todd and Jeff. I will just put in a switch for that.

jackhackett · Post by **jackhackett** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:29 pm

If I'm getting this right, the problem is that you are putting this radio in a vehicle where the main power will be switched off (battery switch) and when you turn the power on the radio turns on, which you don't want for some reason.

I don't recall exactly how the MCS2000s react to this situation, but some radios will remember whether they were on or off when main power was removed, so that if you switch the batteries off with the radio on, the radio will go off but come back on when you switch the batteries back on. If the radio is shut off before you switch the batteries off it will remain off when you turn the batteries back on.
Try that and see what happens.

I don't think there is any programming that will affect this problem.
These radios weren't really designed to have their main power switched off, they're meant to have constant main power and use the ignition sense if you want it to go off with the key.

I don't have a high power model available, but I've got a dash mount MCS at work I can play around with and see if there's any other way to solve this.

HLA · Post by **HLA** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:39 pm

mine turns on and off with the car with just the main power lead, i don't use the ignition sense and it goes back to the last channel and settings. do you also realize that the power button for the radio is the center of the volume knob?

fire_master_21 · Post by **fire_master_21** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:55 pm

The truck doesn't have a master switch on it. This radio will be used for mutual aid and doesn't need to come on everytime the truck it turned on. Yes we know where the power button is. But thanks for the info so far.

jackhackett · Post by **jackhackett** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 7:38 pm

A bit hard to understand exactly what you were asking for in your first post, if all you want is the radio to not come on with the ignition, just don't hook up the ignition sense wire.

There are several settings in the programming for the ignition sense, if I recall correctly they are:

Disabled - the radio turns on/off with the power switch
Soft Power Off - the radio turns on/off with ignition, or with the power switch
PTT TX Inhibit - the radio will not transmit with PTT when there s no ignition sense voltage but emergency will still transmit.
TX Inhibit - all TX is disabled when there is no ignitin sense voltage.

Either of the first two (it's most likely the second) you should be okay just leaving ignition senses disconnected, if it's set for one of the TX Inhibit settings you'll need to change it.

HLA · Post by **HLA** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 7:54 pm

sounds like your best bet is to set the ignition sense to disable, don't use the ignition sense wire, and just use the power button to turn it on and off. it don't get much simpler than that.

Post by **wavetar** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 2:04 pm

jackhackett wrote:A bit hard to understand exactly what you were asking for in your first post, if all you want is the radio to not come on with the ignition, just don't hook up the ignition sense wire.

No, he's saying that with the power just hooked to the main leads, the radio will turn on when power is applied. This is normal operation for the MCS2000 with all but the oldest firmware. The units originally would not turn on without ignition sense AT ALL, if were programmed for "soft power off" in the CPS...the power switch wouldn't even turn it on. This was a huge pain in the @ss if you wanted to program or flash it with the accessory connector programming cable...you would have to use the standard mic programming cable to read the radio, disable ignition sense, write to the radio, THEN you could use the other cable. I once flashed 106 mobiles in that exact fashion...once they had newer firmware, that went away and they turned on with power applied to the main leads...no ignition sense required.

HLA wrote:sounds like your best bet is to set the ignition sense to disable, don't use the ignition sense wire, and just use the power button to turn it on and off. it don't get much simpler than that.

For some radios yes, but as shown above, that's not how the MCS works as it's not a "hard" switch like in the Maxtracs, but rather a momentary push-button type which the radio ignores when power is applied to the main leads.

Todd

jackhackett · Post by **jackhackett** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:21 pm

wavetar wrote:
jackhackett wrote:A bit hard to understand exactly what you were asking for in your first post, if all you want is the radio to not come on with the ignition, just don't hook up the ignition sense wire.
No, he's saying that with the power just hooked to the main leads, the radio will turn on when power is applied.

See, now this is the confusing part, if the vehicle has no master power switch in it as he says, the only time the radio would 'turn on when power is applied' would be when it's first installed and you connect the main power cable. After that the power should be there all the time, so what's the problem?

Post by **wavetar** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 8:47 pm

jackhackett wrote: See, now this is the confusing part, if the vehicle has no master power switch in it as he says, the only time the radio would 'turn on when power is applied' would be when it's first installed and you connect the main power cable. After that the power should be there all the time, so what's the problem?

It's obvious to me he has it hooked to a switched ignition source...so yes, he could have it hooked to a constant power source and thus turn it on & off as desired with the MCS power switch, assuming a constant power source is readily available. I had overlooked such a simple configuration.

Todd

fire_master_21 · Post by **fire_master_21** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 9:20 pm

I think I am just going to hook this thing with ignition sense, and if the chief wants it a differnt way he can hook it up him self. This was not my idea to do the install using just the power button. All of mine are set with ignition sense.