BCDx36HP Losing the Clock Setting

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UPMan

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Both of these scanners have a Real Time Clock (RTC) onboard powered by an internal battery (not the AA's in the case of the 436). When you first get your scanner, leave the 536 plugged in and on for a while and leave the USB connected to power on the 436. It actually takes about 50 hours to trickle the internal battery up to a full charge, which will last for over a week. If the back-up power source is depleted, you'll be prompted to enter the time upon power-up.
 

dispatcher812

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How will this work in a mobile setting? I plan on Din mounting my scanner in my truck. Will the small amount of time it will be powered on on a daily basis be enough to keep the internal battery charged?
 

dmaria

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How will this work in a mobile setting? I plan on Din mounting my scanner in my truck. Will the small amount of time it will be powered on on a daily basis be enough to keep the internal battery charged?

You will need to leave your truck running for about 50 hours the first time :)
 

pepsima1

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I guess if we use the base unit in our cars or trucks hopefully it won't be an issue. Since we all drive our cars or trucks on a daily basis our vehicles will always give the radio a little trickle charge where ever we drive. I think if it stored away in a closet for over 5 or 10 days then the little re-chargable battery that is probably mounted on the mother-board will go dead.

But we all use our radios pretty much on a daily basis so this probably will never be an issue.

Cheers
 

wise871

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I've had mine in my Tahoe now for over a week and have not had any issues with it loosing time. I even went two days without driving it and it was fine. When I do drive my truck I turn it on every time. My scanner is tapped into my fuse box with a share a fuse on a constant 12vdc source so I don't know if that means anything regarding the clock.
 

dispatcher812

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I've had mine in my Tahoe now for over a week and have not had any issues with it loosing time. I even went two days and it was fine. When I do drive my truck I turn it on every time. My scanner is tapped into my fuse box with a share a fuse on a constant 12vdc source so I don't know if that means anything regarding the clock.

Oh, read this wrong, I will be setting it up so that it comes on with my ignition. It will not have constant power all the time.
 
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Jay911

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I've had mine in my Tahoe now for over a week and have not had any issues with it loosing time. I even went two days without driving it and it was fine. When I do drive my truck I turn it on every time. My scanner is tapped into my fuse box with a share a fuse on a constant 12vdc source so I don't know if that means anything regarding the clock.

If you have an always-on source that means it doesn't matter if your ignition is on or not; the internal battery is theoretically "always" getting a charge.
 

AZScanner

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Both of these scanners have a Real Time Clock (RTC) onboard powered by an internal battery (not the AA's in the case of the 436). When you first get your scanner, leave the 536 plugged in and on for a while and leave the USB connected to power on the 436. It actually takes about 50 hours to trickle the internal battery up to a full charge, which will last for over a week. If the back-up power source is depleted, you'll be prompted to enter the time upon power-up.

Does it really need to know what time it is? If I may make a suggestion for a future firmware update, I suggest making the clock feature optional. I don't really need or want my scanner to tell me what time it is - I already have lots of other gadgets that tell time on top of all the other stuff they can do. My computers, my phone, my tablet, my microwave, my car etc all have clocks on them. I can't swing my arms in a 360 degree radius without touching or being close enough to touch a device that tells time. Hell, even my flat panel TV has a clock on it. I remember when TV's didn't even have remotes, now I have one that can connect to the internet and run apps. Crazy!

In short, the clock feature isn't needed IMHO. :)

-AZ
 

pepsima1

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I think the clock feature is a great feature. I know there has been several times where I can't seem to see the clock and always glance over at my radio looking for the time and its not there.

Love the clock feature.
 

AZScanner

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It is needed for recording (time stamps).
Bah. I was afraid of that. OK, let me amend my suggestion.

1. Add an option to prompt or not for the time upon startup
2. If you opt out of the prompt on startup, you must enter the correct time prior to recording anything.

The reason I suggest this is because many "power users" such as myself are probably not going to have the scanner connected to USB any longer than it might take to update the database or upload a new favorites file from Sentinel. We'll be using an external charger with multiple sets of batteries that we will "hot swap" into the radio as needed and put the old ones back in rotation to be charged. I was planning on having 3 sets myself. It's not a big deal to have to tell the scanner what time it is each time I use it, but since I don't plan on using the recording feature much, it'd be nice to simply opt out of having to put that in each time. Again, just a suggestion, and (hint hint) another reason why I'd be good to have on a beta team. :)

I think the clock feature is a great feature. I know there has been several times where I can't seem to see the clock and always glance over at my radio looking for the time and its not there.

Love the clock feature.

I'm not saying get rid of it altogether - simply allow me as the user to opt out of setting that if I don't want to (and don't plan on recording any audio beyond the rolling 30 second "what the heck did they just say?" feature). Let it work like any microwave or VCR (hey remember those - there's a good one for "throwback Thursday") that will just think it's midnight until you set the clock to tell it otherwise.

The beauty of these radios being firmware driven is that such enhancements and features can be added any time after the radio itself has been purchased. Such a change to how it works is just a download away. ;)

-AZ
 

wise871

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I'm thinking you should never be asked to set clock unless you have it stored for an extended period of time without batteries so it shouldn't be a factor. If it does pop up for some reason it only takes a second to set it.
 

AZScanner

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I'm thinking you should never be asked to set clock unless you have it stored for an extended period of time without batteries so it shouldn't be a factor. If it does pop up for some reason it only takes a second to set it.

Nope:

Both of these scanners have a Real Time Clock (RTC) onboard powered by an internal battery (not the AA's in the case of the 436).

So unless I use the USB for charging, it's going to ask me for it all the time. Not a big deal, but also I don't see it as a necessity if I'm not going to be recording audio. I guess I'll have to put in on the USB when not in use to keep it from bugging me about it. :roll:

-AZ
 

AZScanner

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I think in all the posts I've read, I haven't see someone asking for less features in the scanner.

Well there's a first for everything I guess. ;) In all seriousness, the way I will be using this scanner is not conducive to keeping that internal battery charged. I like that it's not draining power from the internal AA batteries, but there are small internal batteries available that can keep the clock set on a PC motherboard for YEARS - how come I need to keep my scanner connected to USB for 50 hours (look at that as two straight days) and it only lasts for a week? I really don't want to charge batteries inside the scanner via USB - too much of a risk of a problem with one of the rechargeables that could damage the scanner. I'd much rather replace a $30 charger than a $500 radio. It would be nice to just tell the scanner not to worry about what time it is and leave it at that.

Not if you want all your recordings to be from 01-01-1970 at 00:00:00.
That'd be fine with me. I won't be doing much recording, if any, outside of the initial comparison between this scanner and my current one that I intend to share with the community.

-AZ
 

wise871

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I use recording all the time when I'm looking for new talkgroups or CTCSS. Nice thing about the recording playback, it's not just audio but what displays on the screen during transmission.
 

AZScanner

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I am confident you are in the slimmest of minorities.

Right... but if I do decide to record something, I should at that time be able to set the date and time and then record stuff. If I'm not going to record something 90% of the time I use the scanner (and I don't keep it on USB so the little clock inside the scanner loses it's memory) why should I have to tell it what time it is 100% of the time I want to use it?

That's all I'm really asking for. The option to either run as normal or turn off the clock until I want to record. And it was just a suggestion at that - certainly not a show stopper for me. More like a minor (and I think easily avoidable) inconvenience.

-AZ
 
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