Whelen Edge

Discussions regarding lighting, sirens, and other PS/Emergency response equipment can be had within this forum.

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wb4bsd
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What radios do you own?: XTS5000v, MTS2000v, MTS2000u

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Post by wb4bsd »

Some of the other guys at work have their whelen bars setup so they can change the flash patern.. i want to be able to do this but they work on a diff shift..

any whelen experts out there that can help me?

PM me please....
Rusty
(I no longer have nextel. I now have an iPhone)
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DaBigBR
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Post by DaBigBR »

Go to the whelen website and find the wiring guide for your specific bar.

Check out the wiring diagram and find out what wire is used to change patterns (whelen calls it "ScanLock")

Trace that wire out in the wiring harness.

Attach it to a powered momentary switch or something like that, and you should be in business.

(If your bar is pre-ScanLock, it's probably more complicated)


We have a car running a patriot that we built a little "remote" (its on a cord) that velcros on to the trunk tray that can change the flash patterns for the lightbar LEDs, lightbar strobes, corner strobes, and cage mounted strobes.

It's kinda cool, but I don't think that anybody has ever used it.
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IMBEJames
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Post by IMBEJames »

Go to the whelen website and find the wiring guide for your specific bar.
You may want to look for the Whelen Lightbar Wizard... you can design bars and it will spit out everything, including current list prices and wiring color codes. Just re-design your bar....

Most newer stuff with ScanLock just need a monentary +12VDC applied to the white/purple wire, then when you find the pattern you want, let it run for a few seconds to lock it in. It'll be one of the 20 or 22ga wires in the control cable.
James Eslinger

York, Maine
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Pj
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What radios do you own?: X9000 thru APX

Post by Pj »

You need to find out the exact model of the bar.

1997 era: Later 943x and all 962x series bars used a two wire control for flash patterns:
No wire connected - Comet flash (4 flashes)
White/Blue to 12vDC - Double flash
White/Violet to 12vDC - single flash
Both together with 12vDC - Action Flash or Sequencal Flash (3 rounds of Comet Flash followed by 6 singles, repeat same).

First generation LFL/9M's (usually had the personaility chips installed) did a simalar setup.Comet, Action Double, Single and longburst (5 flash). These bars may or may not have been equiped with the scan lock cable. Each wire in the scanlock cable corrosponded to a pair of lights. With the pair(s) of light that was on, you can control the pattern for just that pair.

Current bars use one wire "scanlock" to control the patterns for all the strobes and/or LED or combo of. An option scanlock cable for individual control is still an option.

For all the above bars (except the above 94/96 series) you only need momentary 12vDC to activate or change the function. the 94/96 required full time + on the wire.

Also see:
http://www.whelen.com/pb/install/manuals/lightbars.html
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wb4bsd
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What radios do you own?: XTS5000v, MTS2000v, MTS2000u

Post by wb4bsd »

Good Info guys, thanks!

I think mine is a 94 series.

I took it apart yesterday and tried to figure out the non-scanlock flash patern change but couldnt do it. I would have hated to pop a tube or something and have to explain what i was doing when it happened..hehe

I just dont like the randomness of the flashes between the right and left after they have been on for a little bit.
Rusty
(I no longer have nextel. I now have an iPhone)
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Pj
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What radios do you own?: X9000 thru APX

Post by Pj »

If its a 94xx series bar, these are not scanlock bars. In the control cable itself, it will have those two wires. To activate the function a constant 12vDC + must be applied (not momentary).

If you are really curious, open up the bar. If the power supply is an EB6, your good to go. Anything else will be cometflash. If its an 8 strobe bar, I find the comet flash works very nice for the "randomness" and give it a good warning look rather than the left/right. You typically only find that on some of the older bars and how the power supplies were designed. If the inner strobes are the helix strobes, you cannot have those fire at the same time (same connector output) as the corners due to the impendance. If you do, both strobes will be noticably dimmer. If both the inner strobes and outer are of the straight tube design, then you could fanagle it, but you may not be able to have a normally switched bar.

Kind of hard to explain, but I think you will get it.
Lowband radio. The original and non-complicated wide area interoperable communications system
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