FAQS

Your power platform will remain a quality asset for many, many years, and as you know camera and communication technologies are changing fast. Our solutions put you in control allowing effortless upgrades and modifications as new technologies come out. Our competitors produce systems that are designed with technologies available at the time they are produced and are extremely difficult to repair and update.

The standard in the industry has been to provide loose fitting telescoping masts. This is not acceptable for use with cameras. If the camera is wobbling in the wind, your image quality is greatly compromised and makes technologies such as motion detection, motion tracking, and higher compression rates totally useless and compromises the trust in the system to detect and protect. Mobile Pro Systems provides an engineered mast stabilization system that greatly improves the camera’s usefulness and accuracy.

Mobile Pro Systems offers easy mount/release tool-less brackets for cameras and other external equipment so that you can store them inside the trailer while traveling. The key is to be able to deploy with one person, who has limited technological experience, in as short of time as possible.

Others have inadequate mounting systems for their cameras and communications equipment. Some force the need to travel with your vibration sensitive electronic hardware permanently mounted to the mast, or you need a toolbox and higher level technical know-how and possibly a ladder to mount and attach the electronics for deployment.

We design our equipment to be totally modular, where component modules can be un-plugged and removed without the need to unwire and rewire the system.

Others have taken a trailer and enclosure and installed electronic hardware using archaic installation methods. Bolting items into structures greatly reduces usefulness and flexibility, and greatly increases maintenance costs.

Mobile Pro offers a solar solution that removes those concerns by providing highly stable single person deployment designs. We provide solar connections and active components as a default in every system making every system “solar ready” without modifications. The panels are all designed to attach to the system even after the original order, and the mountings are stable and theft proof. The embedded solar systems travel & are stored right on the system; deployment is as simple as pulling a couple pins and positioning the panels.

Our competitors solar systems either permanently mount a solar assist panel to the top of the enclosure or provide large solar run systems that are difficult and clumsy to install. The larger solar systems are an invitation for theft with unsecure methods of attachment and require two or more people for deployment.

When longer deployments are desired, there are some key criteria that needs consideration. The objective is to dependably deploy a system for many months without additional costs in maintaining the system. The MPS Commander and Falcon trailers were designed from the ground up to be fully functional, true hybrids with an extremely energy efficient power platform. We offer both gasoline and diesel generators along with various solar configurations to charge the batteries in the trailers. This system provides effective, efficient and reliable power for the various technologies that may be integrated onto our products.

Typically, mobile security systems are going to be remote to some degree. Mobile Pro Systems’ products are the only systems that include a fully embedded Status Monitor and Control software. Some of the items available for monitoring and control are: battery voltage, battery & system current, GPS location, enclosure temperature, solar power production, wind power production, along with: 2-8 input statuses (motion detection, door tamper, moment detectors) and can control up to 8 control relays for lights, camera power, and any other device. Access is available via a web page or phone application that displays all of your resources under one list.

Our products are designed to be ready for various technology options, whether they are included at the time of the order or later, as new technologies arrive on the market. The ability to update the system to see maximum ROI is key. Our systems are well engineered, allowing for options such as local area lighting, 2-way audio, backup & alternate communications such as mesh and WiMax, advanced camera technologies, various types of signage, motion detectors and many more. The power platforms are pre-cabled for most of these technologies.

Our competitors provide solutions that are specific to the original order. To make changes to the technology, if they can even accomplish it, requires factory modifications at great expense. This makes it extremely difficult to upgrade at all.

It is all about the reliability that it is up and operating, and the life of the batteries. When the batteries are run deep into the capacity of the battery, the life expectancy is significantly reduced each time this occurs. The hybrid trailer systems restrict the batteries from discharging as deep, and provides frequent charges greatly extending the life expectancy of the batteries. Leaving the system on a never-ending charge is not the best either, the best is just how the system normally operates where the batteries are charged and discharged on a cyclical schedule.

We use device hours. On an average one device will consume about .75 amps at 12vdc (9 watts). If you have a 1200Ah (14,400 watt hours) battery pack you have 1600 device hours. The total devices need to include everything from cameras, communications, power regulators, POE power supplies, inverters, transformers, and the status monitoring system. So a system with 1 PTZ Camera (no heater) , 1 camera power supply, 1 communications device, 1 Status monitor = 4 device hours x 24 hours = 96 device hours / day. Then 1600 device hours ÷ 96 device hours/day = 16.6 days.

This is totally dependent on the equipment load configured on the system. Typically, with a 1200Ah (14,400 Wh (watt hours) battery pack operating 1 PTZ camera and a communications device, it should last about 10 – 12 days. Although it is advisable not to drain your batteries below 50% of its charge capacity 10.8vdc.

A generator provides the ability to maintain a proper battery charge and maintain a well running system. This is true even if you are planning on using the system for short durations or plan on that it is going to remained plugged in. Our experiences prove that the usefulness of the products will most likely have you use it in situations other than originally planned. The generator is insurance that if the system loses external power or needs to be deployed longer than expected the generator will take over and most importantly will not allow the batteries go low and compromise the life of the batteries.

• Diesel fuel is safer for transport.
• In industrial settings diesel may be more plentiful.
• The fuel will maintain a longer freshness in the tanks.
• The diesel generator has a much longer expected life, where the gas generator has an expected life between 2000 – 3000 hours, the diesel has an expected life of 10,000 to 16,000 hours; but of course it is all about how you maintain your system.
• The diesel configuration is better sized to the application. Gas generator is a 4000 watt and the diesel has a 3000-watt capacity; the system draws about 2000 watts while under full charge.
• Diesel fuel is more efficient and operates nearly twice as long on a fill of fuel.
• The diesel generator has less critical components such as a carburetor and a complex control system.
• The diesel generator has a liquid coolant cooling system and the system radiator removes the heat better. The gas generator is air cooled.
• The Diesel system runs cooler and is better for warmer environments.

• Diesel has an odor both in the transportation, filling, and operating.
• Diesel is somewhat louder (78db) than the gas version (68db).
• In very cold weather the generator needs to be preheated via battery.
• In some cases, diesel fuel can gel and cause issues because it can’t be pumped as easily and in super cold weather.
• There is a little additional maintenance with the diesel engine: you have coolant to check, special diesel oil to use, and it is more important that the oil change schedule is followed.

If it is determined that a battery has failed it is possible to change out that battery within the first year. After that it may be necessary to change out the entire battery pack. The batteries change chemistry over time and use. If you were to change only one battery, that battery could charge at a higher rate than the rest and could charge too rapidly and which could cause it to fail. It is best to simply disconnect the troublesome battery from the bank.

Normally the AGM batteries have a life span of 3 to 5 years or 100 – 250 charge cycles before you reach the 50% capacity after a charge. It is all about how deeply you discharge the battery pack. If you operate under full discharge – recharge conditions, your battery pack may last 1 – 3 years. On the other side, with the 3400 Hybrid system the batteries only go down to 60% of the capacity before they recharge and this should provide 5 years of continuous use under light to medium loads. Leaving your trailer unattended and unpowered may be the most significant battery abuse. Our 2018 model uses a low voltage full disconnect functionality that further extends the battery life.

This is dependent on what charging configuration you have installed. Below, is the time based from a full discharge state of 10.8vdc. The MPS system, since January 2017,  are designed to only operate one charger @ 55A when the system is on shore power, during generator operation the system is charged at 110 Amp.

MPS-3400 – 110A – 12 hours (Generator)
MPS-3400 – 55A -24 hours (Shore Power)