MPD 818
Member
This is a project I started yesterday and got finished up today. This is a DARE vehicle for the City of Brentwood TN Police Department. It was originally a slick top with a Whelen Dominator in the back, TIR 6s on the sides, a Slimlighter in the windshield and more TIR 6s in the grill. It also had a Code 3 "undercover" siren. I got to fun task to put on the new Federal Signal Valor Lightbar with the new Smart Siren Platinum! Pics below, and a video is in the process of being uploaded and will be posted once it is done.
We also added the front turn signal and fog light LEDS and the brake and back up light LEDs.
No one makes mounting brackets for a Dodge Nitro so I kind of had to take some existing mounting brackets and modify them to mount under the luggage rack. It ended up working very well, and with the luggage rack shroud back in place you cannot even see where the lightbar mounts to the roof.
I wish I had paid more attention to where I was taking this pic. I was trying to get a shot of the lightbar in "flood" mode where the entire front of the lightbar is solid white. Unfortunatley the sun in the background kind of drowns it out.
I mounted the brains for the Platinum underneath the passenger seat where the original Code 3 siren was. Looks nice and is easy to get to for service.
A quick shot of the rear cargo area with dominator and shotgun rack.
The Smart Siren Platinum control head. Fits very nicely into the cubby area on the dash.
Video- Sorry for the lack of detailed pictures and a short video but they were waiting to pick this up. Had to take what I could really quick.
http://s247.photobucket.com/albums/gg129/wcrs2346/?action=view¤t=DSCN0799.mp4
A quick review about my observations.
Federal Signal Valor Bar:
The Good:
- This is the brightest lightbar out there right now hands down. We had this vehicle pulled outside and even in direct sunlight it is still blinding!
- Obviously it changes colors. If you add the changing color feature with the brightness of the bar it is a win win. You cannot not notice the bar, the changing colors draws extra attention to it and increases visibility. This is also a nice feature where you can turn the Signal Master off and revert to blue, or when you turn it on have the same modules go back to amber (or whatever colors you want).
- The "flood" feature. This is the most awesome aspect of this bar to me. The fact that you can program the entire front of the bar to solid white is awesome. Once again even in broad daylight you can hardly look at it, I can only imagine what it would be like at night. It basically eliminates the need for a spotlight. Plus with the design of the bar it encompasses and area from driver A post to passenger A post in brilliant white light.
- The design of the bar ensures that there are no dead zones anywhere around the vehicle. The bar is just as visible and bright at 45 degrees as it is at 90 degrees.
The Bad:
-While the design of the bar allows it to shine light in great amounts anywhere around the vehicle, it does make for a slightly ugly and bulky looking bar. Very similar to its cousins the Vectors which were also very efficient lighting wise but very bulky. Everyone we have demoed this bar to hate the look of it, but love the light output and features. I just wish (and I am sure this is on the way) that Federal would have tried to incorporate this technology in a more traditional lightbar first.
- The way these are designed and sit on the mounting feet it causes them to sit a little higher than I like. I have not really been able to find a way to get it to hug the roof line like I can with a Legend or an Argent. Also the mounting feet have an option for extra take down and alley lights, but the brackets for these without the lights look kind of goofy and there is no way to remove them.
The Ugly: :-x
- The price. I know with all new technology the price is high at first, but it is going to need to come way down for there to be a market for individuals, or smaller departments with limited budgets.
I give it a 9 out of 10
Smart Siren Platinum:
The Good:
- I must confess that I did not have high hopes for the siren. About a year ago I actually got to install and test one of the very first prototypes from Federal Signal of the Platinum. I absolutely hated it. I kind not get it ti program right, there were a variety of glitches, and there were really no instructions to go off of. I am please to announce however that Federal seems to have taken the obscenity filled emails I sent and applied them to the market version. I really like having the options to do what I want with the buttons on the control head. It is nice being able to take previously un-modifiable buttons and be able to assign them to functions as I see fit. Also with the software it is very simple to change items around, literally at the click of a button.
- The brain unit is sleek and designed in a way that makes you almost want to mount it out in the open for people to look at. All of your fuses are on top along with all your troubleshooting mechanisms. Indicator lights assist in trouble shooting or relaying what functions are active. It does not take up much more room than an original Smart Siren so there are still plenty of out of the way mounting options.
The Bad:
-The brain box seems to have a couple of redundancies that I am not sure why Federal has not made internal connections instead of external. For example there are 6 serial interface connection ports on the back of the unit, 3 on the top and 3 on the bottom. However you have to use 2 of those ports to "connect" them together via a very short length of CAT 5 cable that is supplied by Federal. Another example is the harness for the siren functions. New out of the box there are 2 power and 2 grounds that are each tied together with ring terminal connectors. You are supposed to put the ground side on the ground input for the siren and the same for the positive side ( I realize if you have never been around one of these sirens that this does not make much sense, I am doing the best I can). I do not understand why these connections are not made internally instead of wasting space with extra wire. In essence you are connecting the controls to itself.
- The Cencomm and Platinum now share a certain hatred I have of extra wire. I do not like having a bunch of extra wire that I am not using. I prefer to run what I need and not have anything extra. Both the Cencomm and Platinum sirens have auxiliary wire harnesses with wire for each and every relay function in the siren. The problem I have with that is if I only use 2 auxiliary functions of a harness of 10, that leaves me with 8 extra wires I have to try to hide.
-I am not sure if it is because of how the control head communicates with the brain but at times there seems to be delays in activating a control and having the actual function take place. Likewise there were a couple of times I would try to turn off a function and I would have to do it once or twice before it would actually turn off. There is also a delay in some of the siren function between when a button is pushed and the sound actually comes out. Not much of a delay but enough to notice.
- The software is very easy to use, but getting the computer to communicate with the control head can be an aggravating process. The control head is programmed from the computer via an RJ 45 cable that plugs into the side of the control head. The irritating part is that you have to change some of your local area connection settings to get the control head to work with the software, and sometimes you have to try it a couple of times in a row to get it right. At least with the Cencomm you can just plug it into a USB and be done with it.
The Ugly: :-x
- I do not like how the control head now has 3 different things you have to plug into it. You have your control cable going to the brain box, you have your ignition harness that has several smaller cables in it, and you have your PA mic that plugs in. One thing I love about the older Smart Sirens is that the control head has one cable to worry about. Now you have 3 cables you have to worry about and do something with. Plus with the PA Mic plugging into the control head it limits you as to where you can put the PA mic. Also due to all the extra cables (and slight variations in size) the new control will not fit into face plates for older Smart Siren control heads.
Overall I give it an 8 out of 10, I think some improvements can be made to make it better, but despite what all I have complained about it is not that bad of a system.
We also added the front turn signal and fog light LEDS and the brake and back up light LEDs.
No one makes mounting brackets for a Dodge Nitro so I kind of had to take some existing mounting brackets and modify them to mount under the luggage rack. It ended up working very well, and with the luggage rack shroud back in place you cannot even see where the lightbar mounts to the roof.
I wish I had paid more attention to where I was taking this pic. I was trying to get a shot of the lightbar in "flood" mode where the entire front of the lightbar is solid white. Unfortunatley the sun in the background kind of drowns it out.
I mounted the brains for the Platinum underneath the passenger seat where the original Code 3 siren was. Looks nice and is easy to get to for service.
A quick shot of the rear cargo area with dominator and shotgun rack.
The Smart Siren Platinum control head. Fits very nicely into the cubby area on the dash.
Video- Sorry for the lack of detailed pictures and a short video but they were waiting to pick this up. Had to take what I could really quick.
http://s247.photobucket.com/albums/gg129/wcrs2346/?action=view¤t=DSCN0799.mp4
A quick review about my observations.
Federal Signal Valor Bar:
The Good:
- This is the brightest lightbar out there right now hands down. We had this vehicle pulled outside and even in direct sunlight it is still blinding!
- Obviously it changes colors. If you add the changing color feature with the brightness of the bar it is a win win. You cannot not notice the bar, the changing colors draws extra attention to it and increases visibility. This is also a nice feature where you can turn the Signal Master off and revert to blue, or when you turn it on have the same modules go back to amber (or whatever colors you want).
- The "flood" feature. This is the most awesome aspect of this bar to me. The fact that you can program the entire front of the bar to solid white is awesome. Once again even in broad daylight you can hardly look at it, I can only imagine what it would be like at night. It basically eliminates the need for a spotlight. Plus with the design of the bar it encompasses and area from driver A post to passenger A post in brilliant white light.
- The design of the bar ensures that there are no dead zones anywhere around the vehicle. The bar is just as visible and bright at 45 degrees as it is at 90 degrees.
The Bad:
-While the design of the bar allows it to shine light in great amounts anywhere around the vehicle, it does make for a slightly ugly and bulky looking bar. Very similar to its cousins the Vectors which were also very efficient lighting wise but very bulky. Everyone we have demoed this bar to hate the look of it, but love the light output and features. I just wish (and I am sure this is on the way) that Federal would have tried to incorporate this technology in a more traditional lightbar first.
- The way these are designed and sit on the mounting feet it causes them to sit a little higher than I like. I have not really been able to find a way to get it to hug the roof line like I can with a Legend or an Argent. Also the mounting feet have an option for extra take down and alley lights, but the brackets for these without the lights look kind of goofy and there is no way to remove them.
The Ugly: :-x
- The price. I know with all new technology the price is high at first, but it is going to need to come way down for there to be a market for individuals, or smaller departments with limited budgets.
I give it a 9 out of 10
Smart Siren Platinum:
The Good:
- I must confess that I did not have high hopes for the siren. About a year ago I actually got to install and test one of the very first prototypes from Federal Signal of the Platinum. I absolutely hated it. I kind not get it ti program right, there were a variety of glitches, and there were really no instructions to go off of. I am please to announce however that Federal seems to have taken the obscenity filled emails I sent and applied them to the market version. I really like having the options to do what I want with the buttons on the control head. It is nice being able to take previously un-modifiable buttons and be able to assign them to functions as I see fit. Also with the software it is very simple to change items around, literally at the click of a button.
- The brain unit is sleek and designed in a way that makes you almost want to mount it out in the open for people to look at. All of your fuses are on top along with all your troubleshooting mechanisms. Indicator lights assist in trouble shooting or relaying what functions are active. It does not take up much more room than an original Smart Siren so there are still plenty of out of the way mounting options.
The Bad:
-The brain box seems to have a couple of redundancies that I am not sure why Federal has not made internal connections instead of external. For example there are 6 serial interface connection ports on the back of the unit, 3 on the top and 3 on the bottom. However you have to use 2 of those ports to "connect" them together via a very short length of CAT 5 cable that is supplied by Federal. Another example is the harness for the siren functions. New out of the box there are 2 power and 2 grounds that are each tied together with ring terminal connectors. You are supposed to put the ground side on the ground input for the siren and the same for the positive side ( I realize if you have never been around one of these sirens that this does not make much sense, I am doing the best I can). I do not understand why these connections are not made internally instead of wasting space with extra wire. In essence you are connecting the controls to itself.
- The Cencomm and Platinum now share a certain hatred I have of extra wire. I do not like having a bunch of extra wire that I am not using. I prefer to run what I need and not have anything extra. Both the Cencomm and Platinum sirens have auxiliary wire harnesses with wire for each and every relay function in the siren. The problem I have with that is if I only use 2 auxiliary functions of a harness of 10, that leaves me with 8 extra wires I have to try to hide.
-I am not sure if it is because of how the control head communicates with the brain but at times there seems to be delays in activating a control and having the actual function take place. Likewise there were a couple of times I would try to turn off a function and I would have to do it once or twice before it would actually turn off. There is also a delay in some of the siren function between when a button is pushed and the sound actually comes out. Not much of a delay but enough to notice.
- The software is very easy to use, but getting the computer to communicate with the control head can be an aggravating process. The control head is programmed from the computer via an RJ 45 cable that plugs into the side of the control head. The irritating part is that you have to change some of your local area connection settings to get the control head to work with the software, and sometimes you have to try it a couple of times in a row to get it right. At least with the Cencomm you can just plug it into a USB and be done with it.
The Ugly: :-x
- I do not like how the control head now has 3 different things you have to plug into it. You have your control cable going to the brain box, you have your ignition harness that has several smaller cables in it, and you have your PA mic that plugs in. One thing I love about the older Smart Sirens is that the control head has one cable to worry about. Now you have 3 cables you have to worry about and do something with. Plus with the PA Mic plugging into the control head it limits you as to where you can put the PA mic. Also due to all the extra cables (and slight variations in size) the new control will not fit into face plates for older Smart Siren control heads.
Overall I give it an 8 out of 10, I think some improvements can be made to make it better, but despite what all I have complained about it is not that bad of a system.
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