PM1500 power-up problem

[kf4sqb]

Or perhaps "lack of power-up" problem would be a better way to word it. A local small-town police department has (had) a PM1500 installed in one of their cruisers. It worked fine for over a year, then decided to stop working one day. It was literally turned off at the end of a shift, and wouldn't power back on again. Checked all fuses to head and drawer, as well as verifying that there was actually power in the plug that plugs into each part of the radio. The cable between the drawer and head was properly seated on both ends as well. The reason why is kind of a moot point now, as its been replaced with a new Vertex (the local MSS wouldn't even touch it, & the PD didn't want to pay the depot fee), but I'm curious as to whether this might be a common problem.

[Bill_G]

Never heard of it. But, it looks current. I'll probably see one someday. It was cheaper to put in a Vertex than pay for depot?!? Amazing. Radios as a consumable.

We just ran into that with a big name vendor on a large project. Part of the customer's rfp required full test and maintenance procedures along with training for their techs. The vendor's response was "they replace failed units, not repair them". So, that begged the question how long will they be making this model, and what spares ratio does the customer have to buy to maintain the system for a minimum of ten years and a maximum of twenty? They are still using UHF SRA Syntors and KMA Spectras from the mid 80's, and we've been able to support their fleet of 1500 vehicles by scrounging every Syntor and Spectra we can find.

[Jim202]

One of the early issues that became a problem was when these radios first came out. They had a scan / RX
issue with the O3 head. Seems that the radio in scan would receive the channel activity on the first transmission.
After that the radio would never open up in scan. Take it out of scan and it would work just fine. Mother M
had to come out with a firmware fix for the problem. If you were in carrier squelch mode, the problem would
not show itself.

Haven't run into any power up issue with the unit we have. Then again, I have a rather early unit that has
had only one firmware upgrade.

Jim

Never heard of it. But, it looks current. I'll probably see one someday. It was cheaper to put in a Vertex than pay for depot?!? Amazing. Radios as a consumable.

We just ran into that with a big name vendor on a large project. Part of the customer's rfp required full test and maintenance procedures along with training for their techs. The vendor's response was "they replace failed units, not repair them". So, that begged the question how long will they be making this model, and what spares ratio does the customer have to buy to maintain the system for a minimum of ten years and a maximum of twenty? They are still using UHF SRA Syntors and KMA Spectras from the mid 80's, and we've been able to support their fleet of 1500 vehicles by scrounging every Syntor and Spectra we can find.

[Bill_G]

Well, I may get to work on this model after all. Just yesterday we received a request from the commuter rail for a dual control head radio, and the PM1500 has an option for a 130ft cable. Car length is 85ft from aero to blunt. So, 130ft will probably just barely meet the required total when you consider cable routing.

[kf4sqb]

Oh, I forgot to add that the radio will power up and work normally if a hair dryer or heat gun is turned on it, and the problem first showed up on the first cold day in this area this year.

[Bill_G]

Using the heat gun and freeze spray, have you narrowed it down to a specific board?

[kf4sqb]

I haven't actually had my hands on the radio. The person who discovered it could be made to work with a heat gun was just heating up the outside case of the radio. I was just wondering if this was a common problem, and, if so, what causes it.

[RadShop]

Actually, not related to the power problem, but related with the "temperature" issue..

Local department here is having issues with a PM1500 that when it does turn on, it's instantly going into fail if the head is cold. We've isolated the issue to the control head.

When it's cold, the board that has the connectors for the control head doesn't like to play nice. When it's warm, it operates normally.

We ended up just sending it to the Depot...

[kf4sqb]

What symptoms does it exhibit?