Please bookmark this thread. I should have an update on this this week (weather in Texas permitting). Short form: You are not doing anything wrong.
BCD436HP/BCD536HP Clock Reset Issue
- Thread starter UPMan
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Shortly after we started shipping the BCD436HP and BCD536HP, we began to receive complaints regarding the clock needing to be reset after every power cycle. Some of these reports were related to needing to charge the internal real-time clock (RTC) battery for a while in order for time to be maintained. However, I also noticed some people reporting the RTC battery not keeping the time even after following the recommended procedure.
After investigating internally, we were at first unable to explain why this was happening. All units we checked worked as designed (and this is a common design as the HomePatrol-1 and HomePatrol-2, for which we've received virtually no complaints). I was able to exchange known good units with some customers who had known bad units and we confirmed that these bad units really were bad. However, the cause was elusive.
Recently, however, Engineering has been able to determine that the failure is caused by an intermittent production issue, and we are preparing a service campaign for affected units. We believe fewer than 5% of total units are experiencing this issue.
To test if your scanner is subject to this repair campaign, follow these steps:
1) Operate the scanner continuously for 2 days (turn it down at night, if need be). For the BCD436HP, you can operate continuously by connecting a USB Power Source to the scanner and selecting "Serial Mode" at the prompt.
2) Turn off the scanner overnight.
3) Turn on the scanner.
If you were prompted to enter the time in Step 3, then your scanner is affected.
Our general procedure will be to send you a shipping label, expedite repair on your scanner when it is received, then ship your scanner back to you. Based on similar campaigns, we do not expect your scanner to be out of your hands for more than about 2 weeks during normal repair facility operation.
We are building a site for you to enter your personal and scanner information, and also waiting to receive a stock of repair parts, which should arrive in about 2 weeks.
Once the web site is operational, I will post the link to this thread. We might start processing repairs sooner than 2 weeks (we have some parts on hand), but our target to be fully ready is about March 11.
After investigating internally, we were at first unable to explain why this was happening. All units we checked worked as designed (and this is a common design as the HomePatrol-1 and HomePatrol-2, for which we've received virtually no complaints). I was able to exchange known good units with some customers who had known bad units and we confirmed that these bad units really were bad. However, the cause was elusive.
Recently, however, Engineering has been able to determine that the failure is caused by an intermittent production issue, and we are preparing a service campaign for affected units. We believe fewer than 5% of total units are experiencing this issue.
To test if your scanner is subject to this repair campaign, follow these steps:
1) Operate the scanner continuously for 2 days (turn it down at night, if need be). For the BCD436HP, you can operate continuously by connecting a USB Power Source to the scanner and selecting "Serial Mode" at the prompt.
2) Turn off the scanner overnight.
3) Turn on the scanner.
If you were prompted to enter the time in Step 3, then your scanner is affected.
Our general procedure will be to send you a shipping label, expedite repair on your scanner when it is received, then ship your scanner back to you. Based on similar campaigns, we do not expect your scanner to be out of your hands for more than about 2 weeks during normal repair facility operation.
We are building a site for you to enter your personal and scanner information, and also waiting to receive a stock of repair parts, which should arrive in about 2 weeks.
Once the web site is operational, I will post the link to this thread. We might start processing repairs sooner than 2 weeks (we have some parts on hand), but our target to be fully ready is about March 11.
First, I want to apologize for the delay in starting this program. We’ve been studying the long-term results from the initially proposed fix, and found them lacking. We will continue to study for a hardware solution, but in the mean time we will make some software changes to remove a lot of the annoyance loss of an accurate real-time clock has been causing.
We will issue an update for the BCD536HP, BCD436HP, and HomePatrol-2 (which, while not currently exhibiting the problem shares enough of the design features that we suspect they might start to arise on some units) that will do the following:
· Upon startup, if the clock setting has been lost, you’ll simply be asked if you want to set the clock. If you answer “Yes”, then you will go through the existing dialog. However, if you answer “No” the scanner will set a default (incorrect to real-time) time and otherwise start normally. The default clock setting will allow the scanner to operate normally for events that happen on a timed basis, but otherwise don’t rely on having the actual real time known.
· Many files that are currently named based on the time setting will change to be named based on a simple sequential numbering basis (i.e. file0001, file0002, file0003).
· If you request a function where knowing the current time is helpful, and you booted using a default time rather than the actual time, then you will again be prompted, asking if you want to enter the correct time. If you answer “No” then the default time will continue to be used. Knowing the correct time is helpful for Record (so that when you play back, you can see the actual time stamp of each recording) and for Weather Alert (which has events that expire at specific times), but the functions will continue to operate, albeit not ideally, using any random time.
There might be some other minor changes relating to the above adjustments, but the above hits the high points.
We are still working with engineering to determine a timeline for this update. Note that we are prioritizing this work ahead of other firmware tasks, so developing this fix will delay slightly the release of the Analyze functions for the BCD436HP and BCD536HP beyond what I had previously estimated.
Again, Uniden cannot even begin to apologize enough for this issue. We do thank you for your patience and understanding.
We will issue an update for the BCD536HP, BCD436HP, and HomePatrol-2 (which, while not currently exhibiting the problem shares enough of the design features that we suspect they might start to arise on some units) that will do the following:
· Upon startup, if the clock setting has been lost, you’ll simply be asked if you want to set the clock. If you answer “Yes”, then you will go through the existing dialog. However, if you answer “No” the scanner will set a default (incorrect to real-time) time and otherwise start normally. The default clock setting will allow the scanner to operate normally for events that happen on a timed basis, but otherwise don’t rely on having the actual real time known.
· Many files that are currently named based on the time setting will change to be named based on a simple sequential numbering basis (i.e. file0001, file0002, file0003).
· If you request a function where knowing the current time is helpful, and you booted using a default time rather than the actual time, then you will again be prompted, asking if you want to enter the correct time. If you answer “No” then the default time will continue to be used. Knowing the correct time is helpful for Record (so that when you play back, you can see the actual time stamp of each recording) and for Weather Alert (which has events that expire at specific times), but the functions will continue to operate, albeit not ideally, using any random time.
There might be some other minor changes relating to the above adjustments, but the above hits the high points.
We are still working with engineering to determine a timeline for this update. Note that we are prioritizing this work ahead of other firmware tasks, so developing this fix will delay slightly the release of the Analyze functions for the BCD436HP and BCD536HP beyond what I had previously estimated.
Again, Uniden cannot even begin to apologize enough for this issue. We do thank you for your patience and understanding.
Thread stuck for the time being for maximum visibility.
Marshall KE4ZNR
Marshall KE4ZNR
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