Whelen CenCom Horn Ring question

jedi_saber · Post by **jedi_saber** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 8:07 am

Can't figure out how to get the horn ring function to work when the unit is in standby mode with nothing enabled:

Got this shiny new cencom in my new whip and in the programming, hornring is selected to be active for all three slideswitch positions and the siren inactive tone is set as: Airhhorn. So when the slider is on, everything works beautifully, and in the HF mode, it cycles with every tap on the horn - so I know the horn ring is properly connected.

However, as with the older HFS295 style sirens, you could leave the selector in PA mode and everytime you hit the horn, it would yield airhorn. When my slider is all the way in position "0" and I hit the horn, all I get is the lame car horn... Any suggestions to remedy this problem?

Many thanks!

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 8:18 am

Digging through the software and playing with mine on the bench...

It looks like there needs to be something to activate the horn transfer relay (I assume you're using a transfer relay?). I'm assuming you're making the slider positions work by activating Horn Relay in the "Outlets to Activate" section. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there's a way to make SL0 activate anything.

Are you using the two input lines? What about taking the input line to constant +12 (whatever you're using to feed the amplifier... I wouldn't necessarily want to have +12 sitting on an input while the brain didn't have power to it... shouldn't make a difference, but good practices and all...) and setting that to activate the Horn Relay? Theoretically, the horn relay should go active any time the input has +12, which would be any time the brain had power.

You could also use one of the Aux positions to activate the transfer relay, so you would have the option of disabling it.

jedi_saber · Post by **jedi_saber** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 10:50 am

Good call, thanks for the insight bro.

I didn't even think of the input options. Perhaps I will just ignition switch the input - that might take care of it.
I also like the idea of programming something like the low power button (I don't believe in low power settings anyway) so I can selectively activate.

I previously had a Unitrol Omega 8000 and you could make the aux switches normally closed circuits if you wanted to, so when you flicked it, it'd be open - no such luck on this I assume? Cool thing about the unitrol too was that it drew ZERO juice when hooked up, but nothing turned on - so needless to say my alarm was hooked into the horn ring!

All in all, this is a very pimp unit. I am just figuring out all the little intricacies of it.

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 4:09 pm

Bear in mind activating LP also dumps your Traffic Advisor, if equipped, to low power.

I believe no such luck on the open/closed circuits.

My alarm will fire the master power busses (2) before activating the horn ring and the external Alpha22M.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 5:54 pm

There is one (maybe two?) circuit in the CenCom that you can configure as NC.

One one particular install, I set up that circuit with the 5-second timer as a back-up alarm kill.

I haven't done one in forever though, so the exact circuit escapes me.

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 6:09 pm

Good call... I forgot about that. You can move the minifuse for Outlet 8 from one position to another, making it a 10amp isolated relay with Common, NC, and NO available as pins 1-3 of the Molex connector.

The Cencom has so damn many options, it's hard to keep them all straight.

On edit: Don't forget to ensure you're running the latest Cencom version, available from http://www.whelen.com/downloads. The later software has all sorts of new options not available in the earlier stuff. 3.1.4 is the latest revision, I believe (although it's known as 3.4 in places due to a typo).