Federal Signal Valor Trouble Shooting

[Carlos SpicyWeiner]

I am really starting to despise FedSig LED products after dealing with this project. I have a customer that just had to have a Valor on his vehicle despite only having about $1300 to spend on the bar. There was one located NOS Mass SP spec model in 51" we located for his charger. I won't even get into the fact that its almost too big for the car and the modifications we made for it to mount.

The problem I'm having is I can't get it to change patterns per the programming instructions.

I got the flood mode to work finally but now he also wants use of left and right alley lights alone.

The biggest problem is we have an intermittent issue where the left alley light is coming on when various functions are discontinued on the bar. The left alley light wire is not touching anything. To me it looks like it is doing some sort of test. This only happens sometimes and the ONLY way to get it to stop is to disconnect the CAT5 and control wire connectors from the breakout box for a moment and plug it in.

The left alley light will randomly come on at times without anything being activated as well. Additionally, sometimes when functions are turned off they will still stay on. The only way to get them to stop is to once again disconnect the breakout box. Even then the patterns are still staying on for a few seconds afterward.

Anyone have any ideas on this thing?

 

[SafetyLighting]

I wasn't aware that MSP was using the Valor, but if it was an actual MSP spec then the patterns/programming are probably not like normal bars and may not even be changeable.

 

[Carlos SpicyWeiner]

Well this is NOS so I'm guessing this bar is a few years old. I might be wrong on that aspect but I know the origins and Ithought it was originally listed on this site as that.

 

[SafetyLighting]

I would reach out to FedSig with the serial number and see what they say.

 

[dcb]

IIRC, some of the earlier models were quirky, you could program to use Left/Right OR Flood but not both. And like John said, it may be customized for the original user. Tech Support should be able to help - maybe see if any upgrades are available for the breakout box.

 

[acs680]

Depending on how old you could be experiencing some firmware issues, and believe me there were quite a few. I would check on getting a new control board for the bar if you can't get the erratic behavior to stop. But first off, try resetting the control board via the instructions here. http://www.fedsig.com/docs/25500038.pdf

How are you attempting to change the patterns via the mode wires, dip switch on, white button, etc? Is it scrolling through patterns and just not retaining them or not scrolling through?

 

[Carlos SpicyWeiner]

So for no apparent reason it started acting fine. Still didn't want to take pattern changes and store them but it did after I did the reset of the control board.

Yes, we were using the dip switch and white button. Why are companies still using this type of technology?

The bar is on the car, the customer is happy. I like the look of the bar, hate the electrical engineering behind it.

 

[acs680]

So for no apparent reason it started acting fine. Still didn't want to take pattern changes and store them but it did after I did the reset of the control board.

Yes, we were using the dip switch and white button. Why are companies still using this type of technology?

The bar is on the car, the customer is happy. I like the look of the bar, hate the electrical engineering behind it.

Most people aren't using the interface module anymore. It was pretty popular before the SmartSiren Platinum came out, but was a huge PITA. Now most of us use the Platinum and just program the lightbar with the software.

 

[Carlos SpicyWeiner]

Most people aren't using the interface module anymore. It was pretty popular before the SmartSiren Platinum came out, but was a huge PITA. Now most of us use the Platinum and just program the lightbar with the software.

I figured that would have made it easier but he didn't have the budget to do the SSP and wanted bluetooth capability. It's just a product demonstration vehicle for a wheel lock company but he was set on the valor.