Reliability issues with memory cards?

Status
Not open for further replies.

iMONITOR

Silent Key
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Sep 20, 2006
Messages
11,156
Location
S.E. Michigan
I jumped on both the BCD436HP, and 536HP when they were first introduced. Myself and numerous others were experiencing a lot of reliability problems with both scanners and their Micro SD, and SD memory cards. Has that been resolved, and are they no longer a problem? Back then some were suggesting different brands, sizes, speeds, etc. None of that with the exception of the size should have made a difference, which leads me to believe the issue was the scanners, and not the memory cards. Those of you that own current generations of these scanners, can you give some feedback?
 

troymail

Silent Key
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
9,981
Location
Supply (Lockwood Inlet area), NC
We do know that Uniden changed the SD cards they use quite a while into production of these units... As far as I know, I'm currently using one of those recommended cards in my 536 but it didn't solve my biggest card issue which is the crash/reboot of the radio once it has roughly 35,000 recordings (+/-) on it. The radio still crashed/rebooted upon first use and reaching that amount of recordings. It's a total waste of your money to buy large cards (> 4-8 Gb) for these radios.

The other thing I think Uniden did sometime after the initial release was provide an option to totally disable recording. That probably helped.

Beyond that, even with careful use, these cards will fail over time - apparently even more so if you regularly remove the cards to copy recordings to the PC like I do.

Found the thread:
https://forums.radioreference.com/uniden-tech-support/340206-replacement-sd-cards.html

Uniden even went smaller on these replacement cards after an earlier "unadvertised change to 8GB"... they now ship (or did in 9/2016 per Paul) with 4Gb cards.
 
Last edited:

jonwienke

More Info Coming Soon!
Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Messages
13,416
Location
VA
It's a total waste of your money to buy large cards (> 4-8 Gb) for these radios.

Not true. The wear-leveling algorithms in flash controllers spread out writes roughly equally among free sectors, so if you double the card size, you're at least doubling free space, which at least doubles the total number of sector writes before the card fails. The only caveat is that the scanner will not support cards larger than 32GB. If you want the greatest possible card life, get a 32GB "high endurance" card (which allow a greater number of writes per sector before failure).
 

phask

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
3,670
Location
KZZV - SE Ohio
I have 2 HP1 - one was one of the first sold by a major vendor, one HP2 same, and a 536, luckily I've never had a card issue...yet.

I have had them spontaneously die in phones, had USB jumpdrives fail as well.

I have several in Pro cameras and never failed either.
 

troymail

Silent Key
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
9,981
Location
Supply (Lockwood Inlet area), NC
Not true. The wear-leveling algorithms in flash controllers spread out writes roughly equally among free sectors, so if you double the card size, you're at least doubling free space, which at least doubles the total number of sector writes before the card fails. The only caveat is that the scanner will not support cards larger than 32GB. If you want the greatest possible card life, get a 32GB "high endurance" card (which allow a greater number of writes per sector before failure).

Nothing ever seems to be true to you - whatever.

There is "theory" and then then is reality - which are almost never the same.
 

jonwienke

More Info Coming Soon!
Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Messages
13,416
Location
VA
Your snark doesn't change the fact that I'm right, which is something something you can verify with a bit of google searching.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_leveling

https://www.datalight.com/solutions/technologies/wear-leveling

What is wear leveling? - Definition from WhatIs.com

https://www.micron.com/~/media/docu...note/nand-flash/tn2942_nand_wear_leveling.pdf

How Controllers Maximize SSD Life – Better Wear Leveling | The SSD Guy

There is plenty of information on the subject if you bother to look. I recommend you do so; you might learn something.
 

troymail

Silent Key
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
9,981
Location
Supply (Lockwood Inlet area), NC
Your snark doesn't change the fact that I'm right, which is something something you can verify with a bit of google searching.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_leveling

https://www.datalight.com/solutions/technologies/wear-leveling

What is wear leveling? - Definition from WhatIs.com

https://www.micron.com/~/media/docu...note/nand-flash/tn2942_nand_wear_leveling.pdf

How Controllers Maximize SSD Life – Better Wear Leveling | The SSD Guy

There is plenty of information on the subject if you bother to look. I recommend you do so; you might learn something.

You just think you are right (all the time). You're not. You spend more time slamming people than you do helping. Give it a rest.

"It's on the Internet so it must be true."
 
Last edited:

jonwienke

More Info Coming Soon!
Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Messages
13,416
Location
VA
I never said I'm right all the time. But in this case, definitely. You can choose to believe what you want, but reality doesn't care.
 
D

DaveNF2G

Guest
Don't argue with trolls or professional hair-splitters.

It appears from my chair that a lot of the "reliability" problems for SD cards in portable scanners is a design issue in the scanner. It is easy to bump the card out of position when changing batteries. The card is still fine, but the scanner can't read it properly. Removing and reinserting the SD card usually clears up that particular problem.

There have, of course, been other SD card issues. I have not yet had one last past the first time it got filled up in any dash cam. However, since replacing the cards did not return the dash cams to usability, I have to think the problem is not the SD cards. Slightly OT, perhaps, but apparent SD card issues seem to have many sources.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top