Batboard

I'm going to be putting together a new squad car in a few weeks, and most of the components are going to be new, but they're going to be on a budget also.

Somebody brought the Federal Signal PA-640 to my attention, and indeed it looks like a decent light/siren controller in the $350 range (plus or minus $25 depending on source). Has anybody installed/used/heard anything about this controller? It's fairly new, so I have had trouble finding much help locally.

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If i am not mistaken, you might want to consider that this unit only puts out 100W. Most fire and ems apparatus usually pushes 200w. In that price range, you might want to go with the Whelen 295HFSA6.

This unit should be right around $330ish, has a slide switch, man/ah and selector knob functions. The accessory buttons are all positive feel and lit, so no mistake if something is on or off. Just something to consider.

Just to be clear, this is going in a police car...

As far as the problem with leaving lights on, it does have a ten second beep feature if a function is left on that you may want to investigate (that could get annoying though)

Nix the 10-second reminder beep. I used to sport a unitrol touchmaster and a smart siren - that activity beep or clicking drove me nuts. Fine during response, but during traffic stops, or sitting there with your rear flashers on, I wouldn't be surprised if officers start tapping the unit with an ASP or flashlight to make it stop...

Oh and yeah, just bec it will be a pd cruiser doesn't mean you shouldn't put 200W worth of speakers in!

Just remember, you can never have too many watts (be they RF, audio, or whatever)!

I'm not sure if I'll like the activity tone in my new Cencom... jury's out at the moment.

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Just to be clear...

The buttons do not light up when they are on? The literature says that they are backlit, so are you saying that the backlighting stays the same whether they are off or on?

Seems more and more like it's time to look at something else.