Motorola DP4801 Ex ATEX MOTOTRBO Digital Portable Radio

Overview

The Motorola DP4801 Ex is the full-keypad, colour-display model of the MOTOTRBO DP4000 Ex Series, a family of digital two-way portable radios certified to the European ATEX Directive and the IECEx scheme for use in explosive gas, combustible dust and mining atmospheres. Motorola Solutions designed the series for crews who work around flammable hydrocarbons, chemical vapours and gas leaks, where an ordinary radio is not permitted and where loud noise, long shifts and rough weather make clear communication difficult. The Motorola DP4801 Ex combines DMR digital voice and data with integrated GPS, text messaging, caller ID and a large colour display with day and night modes, so field teams keep the same feature set inside the hazardous area that they use elsewhere on site.

Seven Star LLC supplies the Motorola DP4801 Ex to refineries, gas plants, terminals and contractors across Oman and the GCC, with engineering support in Muscat. Our team helps buyers confirm the frequency band, the ATEX-certified battery and the hazardous-area accessories that must be ordered with each radio, so that the complete kit carried into a classified zone keeps its certification.

Intrinsic Safety Principle

The Motorola DP4801 Ex uses the intrinsic safety protection concept, marked “ib” in its certification codes. Rather than containing an explosion inside a heavy enclosure, an intrinsically safe radio limits the electrical and thermal energy available in its circuits, battery and accessory connections so that neither a spark nor a hot surface can ignite the surrounding atmosphere, even under fault conditions. This is why transmitter output is limited to 1 W and why only batteries and accessories certified with the radio may be used: each part forms part of the assessed system. The Motorola DP4000 Ex Series brochure lists a gas rating of II 2G Ex ib IIC T4 Gb, suitable for Zones 1 and 2 in the IIC gas group that includes hydrogen, with a device surface temperature not exceeding 135 °C.

For dust, the Motorola DP4801 Ex carries II 2D Ex ib IIIC T130 °C Db, Category 2 equipment for Zones 21 and 22 with a maximum enclosure surface temperature of 130 °C. A mining rating of I M2 Ex ib I Mb covers underground mines and surface installations that may be endangered by firedamp or combustible dust. The practical consequence is a single portable that can travel between process units, tank farms, powder handling areas and mine sites without changing equipment, provided every accessory carried with it holds matching certification.

Engineering Design of the Motorola DP4801 Ex

The housing measures 138.5 × 56.7 × 39.8 mm with its Li-Ion battery and weighs 482.5 g. Its bright blue colour lets supervisors and gate staff identify, at a glance, that a worker is carrying an ATEX/IECEx-approved radio into a hazardous area. Large push-to-talk, volume and channel knobs and five programmable buttons are designed to be operated with gloves, a prominent orange emergency button calls for assistance, and an LED shows radio status. The Motorola DP4801 Ex meets or exceeds MIL-STD-810 and is rated IP67 against dust and immersion in 1 m of water for 30 minutes; under ATEX/IECEx test conditions it is certified to IP64. Motorola also put the design through its Accelerated Life Test to simulate five years of hard use.

The Motorola DP4801 Ex operates from a 7.4 V nominal battery and supports up to 1000 channels in 250 zones. With an IMPRES Li-Ion battery on a 5/5/90 duty cycle, typical battery life is 16 hours in analogue conventional mode and 19 hours in digital conventional mode. IMPRES batteries and chargers manage charge cycles automatically, and Motorola states that an IMPRES battery can be charged 150 more times than a standard battery.

Key Features

The Motorola DP4801 Ex brings these capabilities to hazardous-area crews:

• ATEX/IECEx certification for gas (IIC T4), dust (IIIC T130 °C) and Group I mining atmospheres in one portable radio.
• Full keypad and large colour display giving access to text messaging, caller ID and other advanced features.
• Integrated GPS receiver that supports location tracking applications for lone and remote workers.
• Integrated man-down and lone worker functions that send an alert automatically if a mishap occurs.
• Intelligent Audio, which adjusts volume to background noise, and Transmit Interrupt, which helps urgent messages get through.
• DMR (ETSI) digital operation for integrated voice and data and longer battery life than analogue operation.
• Support for IP Site Connect, Capacity Plus and Linked Capacity Plus system configurations.
• A dedicated range of ATEX/IECEx-certified IMPRES remote speaker microphones, PELTOR headsets, batteries and carry cases.

Industrial Applications

In Oman, the Motorola DP4801 Ex suits operators and maintenance crews on upstream production stations, gas processing plants, the refinery and petrochemical complexes around Sohar, and the LNG and export terminals on the coast. Permit-to-work teams, fire and gas technicians and turnaround contractors can use its keypad and display for text messages and caller identification, while the man-down function adds protection for people working alone at wellheads or in remote compressor stations. The dust rating of the Motorola DP4801 Ex also makes it relevant to cement plants, grain and sulphur handling and the mining operations in the interior.

Seven Star LLC supplies the Motorola DP4801 Ex together with the compatible certified accessories for projects in Muscat, the Duqm and Salalah zones and the wider GCC. For radio networks that also include vehicle units, Motorola mobile accessories such as the Motorola RMN5127C keypad microphone are available, and site wireless infrastructure such as the Siemens SCALANCE WAM766-1 access point and the Siemens ANT795-6MP antenna can be sourced through the same enquiry.

Technical Specifications

The figures below for the Motorola DP4801 Ex are taken from the Motorola DP4000 Ex Series brochure; all values are typical and subject to change by the manufacturer.

How to Order

Send Seven Star LLC an RFQ for the Motorola DP4801 Ex stating the frequency band, quantity and the batteries, chargers and audio accessories you need, and our instrumentation division will confirm availability, lead time and the certification of each item in the kit. The Motorola DP4000 Ex Series brochure is available for download on this page. Seven Star LLC supplies Motorola hazardous-area radios to plant operators and contractors in Oman and the GCC, with engineering support from Muscat.