SDS200 volume issue

[Emoney250]

I've had my 200 for over a year. I use an external speaker. I've NEVER dropped the scanner. Today, I had the volume go on MUTE. Scanner would stop on transmission (looking at screen), but no audio. I reached back and jiggled the plug in for my external speaker thinking it came disconnected. That wasn't it. I jiggled the wires on my speaker, that wasn't it (I had the scanner stopped on my local NOAA weather channel as I was trying to get audio to work.
So I decided to turn off/on the unit just for kicks. It WORKED!! Got the audio back!!
It happened again later in the day (no audio when scanner stopped on transmission). Without messing with any wires or plugs this time, I turned the unit off/on and it started working again.
This doesn't seem to be good news as I'm sure this glich just won't go away. I'll try formatting the SD card and see if that resolves it.
Any one else have similar issues?

 

[RadioSc]

Look at your filter settings. Mine my filter was set on Wide auto. And it missed with the audio and everything else. (On certain systems). I put back on Global and everything was smooth sailing again

 

[jwpottberg]

I've had my 200 for over a year. I use an external speaker. I've NEVER dropped the scanner. Today, I had the volume go on MUTE. Scanner would stop on transmission (looking at screen), but no audio. I reached back and jiggled the plug in for my external speaker thinking it came disconnected. That wasn't it. I jiggled the wires on my speaker, that wasn't it (I had the scanner stopped on my local NOAA weather channel as I was trying to get audio to work.
So I decided to turn off/on the unit just for kicks. It WORKED!! Got the audio back!!
It happened again later in the day (no audio when scanner stopped on transmission). Without messing with any wires or plugs this time, I turned the unit off/on and it started working again.
This doesn't seem to be good news as I'm sure this glich just won't go away. I'll try formatting the SD card and see if that resolves it.
Any one else have similar issues?

Yes! I have the same exact problem with my 200. About one in ten times I turn it on it is completely muted. So far a power cycle always fixes it. My filters are always set to Global, that has never changed. Maybe a bug in the audio mute firmware for the hum problem? (I don’t need to use that feature) I’ve gotten used to listening for the little “pop” that happens when you first turn it on. Once I hear that, I know it’s good to go.

 

[Emoney250]

I haven't changed any settings. I've had the unit for about a year and it is JUST NOW starting to do this. I haven't downloaded a new firmware for quite awhile either, so that wasn't the culprit.
Hmm. I'll reformat the card and see what happens.
thanks for replies

 

[jwpottberg]

Update: This weekend I was at a place where it was much colder in the morning and the SDS 200 in my car would fail (no audio) when first turned on every time (sometimes the first several times). At the time the temperature of the case was 55 F or less. During the past several months at home I can’t remember a time where it did fail, but it was summer and my car gets the early sun. So FWIW in my case at least it seem low temperature exacerbates the problem.

 

[Giddyuptd]

Odd. Sounds like cheap Chinese speakers. I would expect that from refurbished endless Chinese vendors for the xts, ht1000, wars radios floating out there but a uniden, wow.

Anyone that got a Chinese refurb like new xts or waris has ran into the below 60 speaker muting. Had people bring them to me before and I'd suggest new oem speakers and they get upset.

 

[tvengr]

Temperature related problems are common in electronic equipment. Components sometimes fail as they heat up after the equipment has been on for a while. The same is true with solder connections. Usually, solder connections don't fail until the circuit board is about 10 or 15 years old. Try using a hair drier to heat up the scanner to see if that speeds up the loss of audio.

 

[Ubbe]

You can test an older pre-hum firmware to rule out any hum fix issues. The 1.07.02 seems to be a good one. Drop that into the firmware folder on the SD card.

sds200 - Google Drive

drive.google.com

/Ubbe

 

[tvengr]

I never saw a mention that you unplugged the external speaker and tried the internal speaker. If the internal doesn't work, that could be due to the speaker contacts not closing when you remove the speaker plug or dirty contacts. Either is possible since you have been using the external speaker for a long time. Try inserting and removing the speaker plug numerous times. The later Uniden scanners use balanced audio outputs. If your external speaker has a mono plug, you may have damaged the audio output amp.

 

[Ubbe]

The speaker out jack are mono connected, so no risk that you shortcircuit one lead to ground if you do not use a stereo plug.

/Ubbe

 

[jonwienke]

I never saw a mention that you unplugged the external speaker and tried the internal speaker. If the internal doesn't work, that could be due to the speaker contacts not closing when you remove the speaker plug or dirty contacts. Either is possible since you have been using the external speaker for a long time. Try inserting and removing the speaker plug numerous times. The later Uniden scanners use balanced audio outputs. If your external speaker has a mono plug, you may have damaged the audio output amp.

That's true of the headphone jack, but not the external speaker jack. But in either case, you do not want to connect any audio output line to ground.

 

[tvengr]

If you plug in an external speaker, it mutes the internal speaker. There is always the possibility that his external speaker is bad as well as the contacts on the speaker jack if the internal speaker doesn't work. Now that you mention it, the headphone jack could be killing the speaker output also.

 

[Emoney250]

Posting update: I will also start new thread with my update.

I did reformat my SD card as suggested above. I've had my SDS since April 2019 and this issue has only been happening for a couple of months.

I was using my SDS200 in my work truck a week ago and had the audio MUTE at least THREE TIMES in a couple of hours. I had to turn unit off/on to reset and audio worked again.
This issue happens when I am doing NOTHING with the scanner (pressing keys, turning off/on truck, etc).

So I brought my SDS inside my place, hooked up to 120v power, and I've left it on for the last 48 hours and it DOES NOT FAIL and go to muting the audio.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the 12v power from a vehicle? That seems to be the ONLY thing that changed in thcase of my SDS200 (using 120v instead of 12v vehicle power).

 

[jonwienke]

If switching power sources makes the problem go away, then you definitely need to look at the power source. Something about your car power is causing problems. It might be voltage sags, voltage spoikes, excessive RFI or some other AC component on the line, but something. At least you know it's not your scanner that's the problem.

 

[buddrousa]

As Jon said you might try a Noise Filter made for power lines my local 2way has them for the old dreaded alternator wine.

 

[jonwienke]

But first check to make sure the voltage stays between 12 and 14VDC. A filter won't help if the voltage occasionally drops below 9VDC or something like that.

 

[pro106import]

I thought I read somewhere about problems with the volume control being intermittent or a bad solder joint to the volume control on the board? You might want to check those possibilities.
Bob

 

[jonwienke]

That's not the issue here. A bad solder joint would cause problems regardless of the power supply, and would not be resolved by a reboot.

 

[pro106import]

That's not the issue here. A bad solder joint would cause problems regardless of the power supply, and would not be resolved by a reboot.

But using it outside where it is cold this time of the year ( I assume it is at his QTH) could cause strange things with a cold or intermittent solder joint.

 

[jonwienke]

But using it outside where it is cold this time of the year ( I assume it is at his QTH) could cause strange things with a cold or intermittent solder joint.

That is definitely not the problem. In addition to what I already said, the volume control is a rotary encoder, not a potentiometer. If it had a bad connection, the on-screen volume level indicator would jump to zero when the audio muted. And the volume level would jump around randomly as the knob was turned.