Low current available from PS?

[N9JIG]

I had a caller today advise that he sent his SDS200 to Uniden for a warranty repair. He found that when he set up WX Alert and an alert was heard the radio powered down and reset, presumably due to low current available from the wall-wart. When an alert is received the alert signal is very loud and draws more current.

I can certainly understand why this could happen but it is the first time I have heard of it. I use a third party power supply on my SDS200 as it is shared among several radios so have not had this happen to me.

Has anyone else had this happen?

 

[kruser]

I've never had it happen but I could see it if someone has maybe abused their USB cable by yanking it out with the cord instead of grasping the plug body for example.
Or just simple heavy use with a lot of normal disconnects probably breaks a strand or two of copper every so often which would reduce the current carrying ability of the cable.
Just a guess but seems possible.

I've also seen USB jacks wear out fairly fast. I've always felt they are a poor choice for a power jack myself. They seem too fragile!

 

[N9JIG]

This is for the SDS200, it uses a standard wall-wart, not USB for power.

 

[N4DJC]

@N9JIG

Rich, current draw theory sounds reasonable, but I’ve never had it happen either...we have a lot of WX alerts in this area. Dozens in the last week or so.

 

[buddrousa]

My scanner is used for police
My weather radio is used for weather alerts

 

[N9JIG]

@N9JIG

Rich, current draw theory sounds reasonable, but I’ve never had it happen either...we have a lot of WX alerts in this area. Dozens in the last week or so.

It could be more a defective wall-wart than an issue with the radio.

 

[kruser]

This is for the SDS200, it uses a standard wall-wart, not USB for power.

Wow! I totally missed the SDS200 part.
I guess I was looking at a 100 when replying.

With that out of the way, I'd agree with your last post about a possible defective wall wart. With the SMPS containing devices all coming from China with a cost of pennies on the dollar, it's a wonder that as many of them actually do work. I'd bet a good majority of them would never survive a max rated current torture test though. Then again, that spec in Chinese is probably not the same as continuous and is instead some super short intermittent unpublished length time.

 

[N9JIG]

I do that all the time, and I suspect you are right on the wall-wart. I miss the days of real transformers in them!