Decoding the DIAGNOSTIC Edge Bars

I as well as a few other members here are trying to get some of the Diagnostic serial bars that have no controllers to be useful and get a controller made to be able to work these bars without rewiring them
ideally we would like to make an equivalent to a wecan control point.
we have another member @RS485 who has decoding done on some controllers

So far I have configuration #s

CT State Police
78
88
289

Mass Highway
422

Dip switch configs
78 1 off. 2,3,4 on. 5,6 off. 7 on. 8 off
88 is the same as 78
289 ALL OFF
422 1 off. 2,3 on. 4,5 off. 6 on. 7,8 off.

Now wit the CT controllers the RJ45 on the back is not used in their system,
The Mass Highway controllers are RJ45 connected to a traffic advisor controller

As for the internal boards we seem to have 2 confirmed part numbers of
Serial Control Receiver 01-0266955-00C
MC4 Serial Receiver 01-0268036-00C

We have not confirmed the differences in these yet

Now in the CT state police & Mass Highway bars off that main board the strobes then go into a Sense board
Part numbers
Serial Diagnostic Sense board 01-0266992-00B
Serial Diagnostic Sense board 01-0266992-00C
264000914_318498643614179_3390497593463996597_n.jpg
I have not seen these in any other bar yet, these are connected via a grey cable with 5 pin end on the white plug from the main board

On the Mass Highway bars there is a different board plugged into the far right plug black connector 8 pin plug which is the traffic advisor board
Part number
Serial Control Traffic Advisor 01-0266967-00C
267344517_974310830163454_5394192368229401195_n.jpg268178036_1559781114377267_550555421966168717_n.jpg269359046_608428810391897_3912882304806410989_n.jpg

For those that want to help, we can use the picture of the inside of your controller with the dip switches and configuration number.
And someone who can take the data from user RS485 and make something similar to a wecan control point for these bars
also any other data or knowledge that you have!

I have about 100 more CT state police edge bars to pull apart as well as some other random models in the parts piles those will be in the comments as I have time
 

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RS485

Supporting Donor
Aug 5, 2019
369
Central MA
I as well as a few other members here are trying to get some of the Diagnostic serial bars that have no controllers to be useful and get a controller made to be able to work these bars without rewiring them
ideally we would like to make an equivalent to a wecan control point.
we have another member @RS485 who has decoding done on some controllers

So far I have configuration #s

CT State Police
78
88
289

Mass Highway
422

Dip switch configs
78 1 off. 2,3,4 on. 5,6 off. 7 on. 8 off
88 is the same as 78
289 ALL OFF
422 1 off. 2,3 on. 4,5 off. 6 on. 7,8 off.

Now wit the CT controllers the RJ45 on the back is not used in their system,
The Mass Highway controllers are RJ45 connected to a traffic advisor controller

As for the internal boards we seem to have 2 confirmed part numbers of
Serial Control Receiver 01-0266955-00C
MC4 Serial Receiver 01-0268036-00C

We have not confirmed the differences in these yet

Now in the CT state police & Mass Highway bars off that main board the strobes then go into a Sense board
Part numbers
Serial Diagnostic Sense board 01-0266992-00B
Serial Diagnostic Sense board 01-0266992-00C
View attachment 233833
I have not seen these in any other bar yet, these are connected via a grey cable with 5 pin end on the white plug from the main board

On the Mass Highway bars there is a different board plugged into the far right plug black connector 8 pin plug which is the traffic advisor board
Part number
Serial Control Traffic Advisor 01-0266967-00C
View attachment 233838View attachment 233839View attachment 233840

For those that want to help, we can use the picture of the inside of your controller with the dip switches and configuration number.
And someone who can take the data from user RS485 and make something similar to a wecan control point for these bars
also any other data or knowledge that you have!

I have about 100 more CT state police edge bars to pull apart as well as some other random models in the parts piles those will be in the comments as I have time
This is SO cool. Clearly, there are more configurations than the 8-point DIP switch alone accounts for...but so far, I've systematically tested every DIP setting from 0 to 40 (on my way to all 256) and each one has resulted it different messages sent to the I/O board.

Here's an example of my test #40:

START TESTING...
DIPS?
00101000
CONFIG #40
41 42 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 7E 44
HOLD HI/LOW FOR 5 SECONDS
41 42 00 7B 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 BD 44
41 42 00 20 00 FF 00 00 00 00 00 00 61 44
41 42 00 20 FF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 61 44
41 42 00 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 62 44
41 42 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 7E 44
DONE
SW1/SW2/SW3/HILO
41 42 00 29 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C A7 44
41 42 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 7E 44
41 42 00 32 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C B0 44
41 42 00 3B 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C B9 44
41 42 00 1B 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 99 44
41 42 00 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 90 44
41 42 00 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 87 44
41 42 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 7E 44
DONE (BY KEY)
PRESS PB 1 ON
41 42 00 00 00 C0 00 00 00 00 00 3C 3E 44
41 42 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 7E 44
DONE
PRESS PB 2 ON
41 42 00 00 00 0C 00 00 00 00 00 3C 8A 44
41 42 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 7E 44
DONE
PRESS PB 3 ON
41 42 00 00 00 30 00 00 00 00 00 3C AE 44
41 42 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 7E 44
DONE
PRESS PB 4 ON
41 42 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 3C 80 44
41 42 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 7E 44
DONE
PRESS PB 5 ON
41 42 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 3C 7F 44
41 42 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 7E 44
DONE
TESTING COMPLETE

I tried to automate each test where my Windows machine prompts me to tell it what DIP settings I'm testing with, then systematically walks me through each mechanical movement of possible PCDS-9 controller switches. It's kind of tedious...but this _is_ all the controller can possibly tell the lightbar.

I'm not sure where this will all turn out...but its clear: We ELBers have proved that a Diagnostix lightbar without an exact-match controller, isn't necessarily a "brick".

More to come :)
 

firebuff17

Member
Mar 28, 2011
774
CT
Great work on figuring out the diagnostic style bar and pcds controllers!!! I will be following this along. Wish I could help out but I don’t have any diagnostic bars.

Being from CT, and an ELBer, I would be interested in just one of those bars. Drool!
 
Great work on figuring out the diagnostic style bar and pcds controllers!!! I will be following this along. Wish I could help out but I don’t have any diagnostic bars.

Being from CT, and an ELBer, I would be interested in just one of those bars. Drool!
Im only in mass ;)
 

JohnMarcson

Administrator
May 7, 2010
10,971
Northwest Ohio
This is great news. Over 20 years later and we are finally "de-bricking" these bars. I'm curious where the OSP bar comes in. It operates fully with just the power wires and two "data wires" connected and has 8 halogen flood/flashers and 8 strobes. Please keep posting updates as the process continues, the fact that this type of bar has hope of being used without the original controller is great. Thanks for the work everyone.
 
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RS485

Supporting Donor
Aug 5, 2019
369
Central MA
Attached are the behaviors DIP settings 000-255 cause as I observed from my PCDS-9 controller.

The attached pic identifies which output pin is turned on in response to each switch position or push-button.

If you look at @JohnMarcson 's OSP lightbar demo and the following example of DIP/Config #230 it kind of makes sense, especially when John explains how the rear halogen flashers can only be activated by PB5.

CFG:230 (11100110)
-----XENON--STEADY---PHASE1---PHASE2-
SW1: ..2.4 ........ ........ ........
SW2: .1234 ........ ........ ........
SW3: .1234 ........ 1..4...8 .23...7.
PB1: ..... ..34..78 ........ ........
PB2: ..... .2...... ........ ........
PB3: ..... 1....... ........ ........
PB4: ..... ....56.. ........ ........
PB5: ..... ........ .....6.. ....5...


That said, given @Ranger-Services.com 's observations of config#s above 255 (max of the DIP switches) and the confusing controller marked "88" with the same DIPS as "78", I'm not sure how important it is to get a perfect understanding of it all

For the purpose of developing an open-source controller, I think it would easier to just activate each output one-by-one and see what turns on (if anything)...it shouldn't be too hard to do.

Update: I've gotten the prototype to work with an "MC4 Serial Receiver 01-0268036-00C" @Ranger-Services.com mentioned above.
 

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RS485

Supporting Donor
Aug 5, 2019
369
Central MA
Quick update:
Bad news: There's no way I know of to get around having to hand-build (solder) a transmit circuit so the controller can correctly (electrically) transmit messages to the lightbar. There may be a better/easier solution but so far, I've not been able to find it.

Good news: The fundamental capabilities lie withing the I/O board in the lightbar.
I've tested with both boards @Ranger-Services.com identified (01-0266955-00C and 01-0268036-00C) and both behave in the exact same way in that they both respond to controller messages to activate strobes and halogen outputs the same way.

Bad news: TA is still undefined/mysterious.

Good news: If you press and hold the the PCDS9's hi/low power button for more that five seconds, it clearly/distinctively queries all the three components of their functional states: STROBES, HALOS and TA -- there are some hints about the TA picture in there.

STROBEs and HALOs are in-the-bag.

While TA itself is still somewhat mystererous, I'm _sure_ that the more we learn about it, the more it will fold inline with what we already know.

At this point, I think we have the design for a working controller for any Diagnostix lightbar that doesn't include TA.

TA was (at the time) an integral part of what Whelen offered...so it would be nice to "get it right" and fold it into an alternate controller.

Okay, that's it for now.
Please feel free to PM me with any questions!
-RS485
 

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RS485

Supporting Donor
Aug 5, 2019
369
Central MA
Update: Attached is the RX circuit so the Arduino can capture the diagnostic status message back from the lightbar.

Here's a vid showing a PCDS9 (with TA controller attached), talking to the Arduino acting like a lightbar

At this point, there isn't much mystery left. It's pretty clear how both TA and diagnostic status messages work.
 

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RS485

Supporting Donor
Aug 5, 2019
369
Central MA
@Ranger-Services.com sent me a MassHighway controller setup to test with (includes TA-Thanks!) and attached are the 256 configurations observed using only the slide-switch.

This PCDS9 controller has no pushbuttons except the low-power/self-test. The button housings and indicator LEDs are soldered in but inaccessible (see attached). Also of note, the MCU in the controller indicates customer firmware with "#422" hand-written.

Of the two samples I've looked at, there's evidence that the DIP switches do choose between 256 possible configurations given a set defined in the firmware on the MCU, which means if you have a genuine controller that doesn't match the lightbar you have, you have 255 other chances to stumble on some configuration more suited to your lightbar.

The actual main-board in the lightbar (i.e "Serial Control Receiver 01-0266955-00C") left the factory with no notion of specific configuration...it does whatever you want based on the messages it receives.

In retrospect, the "brickiness" seems more because of the controllers...not the I/O board.

It would be really cool to find a controller/firmware config that integrates TA with the pushbuttons. So far, it looks completely independent but there's no reason TA can't be tied to the slide-switch/pushbuttons of the controller (though it may not be practical to do so).

Wrong! -- TA _is_ integrated in several configs on my "230" controller...most often, a slide-switch setting will turn the "FLASH" function on in addition to strobes and flashing halos. In the case of config #43, pushbutton #4 and #5 do a left-sweep, right-sweep respectively.
 

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RS485

Supporting Donor
Aug 5, 2019
369
Central MA
Attached is everything I have to build a stand-in for a PCDS9 controller.
Unfortunately there's no way around building the TX circuit (with a soldering iron).

If you can't find a real PCDS9 or just want to roll your own, I hope the attached material is helpful.

I've had _a lot_ of fun learning about this early part of two-wire lightbar control history and only because of ELB, had the opportunity to do so. Thanks ELB!

Demo:

Configuring walk-through:
 

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JohnMarcson

Administrator
May 7, 2010
10,971
Northwest Ohio
Attached is everything I have to build a stand-in for a PCDS9 controller.
Unfortunately there's no way around building the TX circuit (with a soldering iron).

If you can't find a real PCDS9 or just want to roll your own, I hope the attached material is helpful.

I've had _a lot_ of fun learning about this early part of two-wire lightbar control history and only because of ELB, had the opportunity to do so. Thanks ELB!

Demo:

Configuring walk-through:
I love it. 25 years after the technology came and went we are cracking the "impossible" PCDS9 puzzle. Awesome work!
 

RS485

Supporting Donor
Aug 5, 2019
369
Central MA
Here's a pic of what we're talking about. This is a 1300 Ohm "dummy load" drawing enough current to fool the I/O board into thinking there's no problem on the seventh HALO port (i.e. there's something drawing current on port #7 so the PCDS-9 controller shouldn't detect/declare an error that would prompt the PCDS-9 controller to alert/bother the person driving the vehicle, with flashing LEDs

In context, port 1&2, 3&4, 5&6 were usually paired as we'd expect: TDs, ALLEYs, REAR flashers.

So why would Whelen "jumper" just port #7 with the 1300 Ohm resister? The fact that the resistor is there, implies there were PCDS9 controllers out there that incorrectly expected current drawn on port#7 (and they weren't in OH as OHSP config depended on all 8 HALO ports committed to ALLEYs(2), TAKEDOWNs(2), HALO PIERCER(2), and the very special rear worklights/flashers(2).

There might be a really intriguing story here...or it might just might be bug on in the controller, for which the cheapest, most practial workaround was to just slap a dummy load resistor in port #7 and be done with it!
 

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JohnMarcson

Administrator
May 7, 2010
10,971
Northwest Ohio
Here's a pic of what we're talking about. This is a 1300 Ohm "dummy load" drawing enough current to fool the I/O board into thinking there's no problem on the seventh HALO port (i.e. there's something drawing current on port #7 so the PCDS-9 controller shouldn't detect/declare an error that would prompt the PCDS-9 controller to alert/bother the person driving the vehicle, with flashing LEDs

In context, port 1&2, 3&4, 5&6 were usually paired as we'd expect: TDs, ALLEYs, REAR flashers.

So why would Whelen "jumper" just port #7 with the 1300 Ohm resister? The fact that the resistor is there, implies there were PCDS9 controllers out there that incorrectly expected current drawn on port#7 (and they weren't in OH as OHSP config depended on all 8 HALO ports committed to ALLEYs(2), TAKEDOWNs(2), HALO PIERCER(2), and the very special rear worklights/flashers(2).

There might be a really intriguing story here...or it might just might be bug on in the controller, for which the cheapest, most practial workaround was to just slap a dummy load resistor in port #7 and be done with it!
Ohio State Patrol was the main setup for these controllers, and other states adopted them but deleted the rear work lights and center halogen piercer. I think you are on to something with the idea of a dummy load to make the controller power non-OH bars.
 

Eric2.0

Member
Jan 22, 2020
201
East Coast
What other functions do these diagnostic bars do? Besides lighting up a light to tell operator it has a blown bulb. Special flash patterns? Anything else to justify having this one controller type(or it won't work at all) exclusive bar?
 

JohnMarcson

Administrator
May 7, 2010
10,971
Northwest Ohio
What other functions do these diagnostic bars do? Besides lighting up a light to tell operator it has a blown bulb. Special flash patterns? Anything else to justify having this one controller type(or it won't work at all) exclusive bar?
It was a way to use low current switching and wiring simplification. You could build a system without running larger wires directly to everything. The diagnostics were a selling point, not the main point necessarily.
 

RS485

Supporting Donor
Aug 5, 2019
369
Central MA
Can I assume your #230 controller doesn't make your lightbar do what you want? I.e. you have all red lenses in front...not much point in seeing red take-downs/steady. Do you have red lenses all the way around (do you have alley and rear halogen lights? Are they red-lens too?)

Is that piercer a strobe or halogen?

Beginning right here:
we figured out there's a DIP switch in the controller with another 255 possible configurations that may work better on a given Diagnostix lightbar.

If you're asking about something else, I apologize for possibly making things for confusing.
 
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FireSquad74

New Member
Mar 22, 2024
11
Columbus ohio
Sorry i guess i didn't word it correctly.... That's how the bar was when k received it and thought maybe it was set up that way for a certain department or something. I kno nothing about these bars i received and gonna try to get them up and running and then sell them. Which i seen above how to test(i think anyway). Thanks for the response RS485
 

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