Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Solution to Battery Life Indicator Issues Released

DPS has been notified by the Harris Corporation that a solution has been created for the P7200 series portable radio battery life indicator issues some of you may have been experiencing. For those of you who are unaware of these issues we will provide a little background.

Several months ago, DPS began receiving complaints regarding the battery life on portables. Within our own office a number of portables also exhibited premature battery life based on the battery indicator icon on the display screen. DPS immediately began working with Harris to address the issue and it was discovered that it was not in fact a battery issue, but rather the battery display icon. This means that while the portable was displaying a low battery symbol on the screen, the battery was in fact well charged and had several hours of performance available.

DPS office radios with the faulty display exhibited at least two different conditions. The one radio displayed a partially filled battery indicator when a fully charged battery was first used, and quickly emptied. Another radio displayed a full battery indicator with a charged battery, but within two hours the battery display indicator was empty. In both cases the portables continued to function for another eight or more hours until the battery empty indicator started to flash and the audible low battery indicator activated.

Harris has worked diligently to find a resolution to this problem and is ready to deploy a solution at this point in time. The solution does require the portable to be touched, but only portables presenting the problem will need worked on. Harris technicians will recalibrate the portables, a process that takes less than two minutes.

If you have radios that have been experiencing the issues described in this notice, please contact Brian Hamilton (bhamilton@ccpa.net) so that we may compile a list of portables requiring recalibration.