SDS100 heating - Red Hot at Red Flag!!

[hardware1197]

Hi all,

Purchased the SDS100 a couple weeks ago. Have not been reading the Forum as much as I should I see. I see some threads meantioning the heating issues but:

Today I was at Nellis for Red Flag and the SDS100 unit was in indirect sunlight through dark tint inside my air conditioned car. Yes it’s 110° today in Vegas. The unit was on external power via the USB cable. I monitor with my BC536HP primarily and the SDS100 I have tuned to the tower full time. After about 20 minutes I went to move the unit and I’ll be dad gummed if that BNC connector didn’t come real close to burning me! Technically is was “super hot” resulting in a decent series of expletives. Again I was in indirect sun in the front seat with AC on. This is my normal mode and with with my 436HP this was perfectly fine for many trips.

I shut it down and pulled the battery and waited till later to re-read the forum where I recalled mentions of the heating which I noticed was always unusually warm before but not like this! Is there a difinitive thread on this yet and what are considered best practices at this point? It seems to me to be a potentially major issue.

Thanks,
-Dave

 

[KR7CQ]

I also found the level of heat that the SDS100 puts off to be pretty high. I mean, this is not some super amazing cutting-edge mobile processor, it's not an iphone x chip. The screen isn't a high-density IPS AMOLED display. Yet even as thick as the SDS100 is, ten or twenty times as thick as that iphone, it can't properly dissipate the heat from a slower processor. Combined with the fast battery drain and slow charging times, I found the whole energy profile of this device to be a bit odd to say the least. Sadly, that was among the lesser concerns that I had.

 

[slicerwizard]

Why would you think that a thicker device would dissipate heat better?

 

[KE6HHM]

SDS100 heating up too

I too have same problem with the SDS100 heating up l just bought mine at San Diego HRO
And l upgrade to DMR cost $ 60.00 The radio does perform good otherwise bought the SDS100
On this last Friday.

I programmed it thu sentinel software fine l think l just might. Package it back in box and wait until
Uniden corrects the the problem l do have the uniden 436hp.

 

[hardware1197]

Red Hot SDS

Why would you think that a thicker device would dissipate heat better?

I concur with KR7CQ’s general assessment - and your question answered itself.

-Dave

 

[WX4JCW]

SDR’s as a rule get hot, what was the ambient temperature outside


Sent from my iPhone 8 using Tapatalk Pro
Jason WX4JCW
XPR7550 - SDS100

 

[hardware1197]

SDR’s?

 

[KB7MIB]

Software Defined Radios.

SDS stands for Software Defined Scanner.

John
Peoria, AZ

 

[KB7MIB]

SDR’s as a rule get hot, what was the ambient temperature outside

Sent from my iPhone 8 using Tapatalk Pro
Jason WX4JCW
XPR7550 - SDS100

The outside temperature was 110°, but that should not have been a factor given that he was in a car, with the AC on, and the scanner was not in direct sunlight. All of which he clearly stated.

John
Peoria, AZ

 

[iMONITOR]

This had to show up during initial development and testing. It seems the product was released prematurely. Considering the pressure Uniden was under to do so I guess it's understandable as to why.

 

[buddrousa]

As stated in several post my cellphone gets hotter after 10 minutes of use than my SDS100.
My SDS100 draws 750ma not charging and 1290ma charging compaired to the 200ma drawn by a 436.

 

[fxdscon]

This had to show up during initial development and testing. It seems the product was released prematurely. Considering the pressure Uniden was under to do so I guess it's understandable as to why.

Check here:

https://forums.radioreference.com/u...ds100-your-likes-dislikes-11.html#post2963683

.

 

[jonwienke]

The SDS100 has a tuner chip which draws by itself as much power as an entire 436. It also has a high-speed ADC and multiple CPUs. All of that consumes a lot of power, which generates heat.

Just getting warmer than other scanners isn't a design flaw, it's the direct result of a different receiver design that uses a lot of components that draw far more power than traditional receivers. It's not like the SDS100 is burning people, or there is a pattern of unit failures due to overheating.

 

[hardware1197]

That thread is the one I’ve been looking for. Thanks and great reading. I should note that no performance issues were noted at anytime and the clarity was outstanding compared the the 536HP listening to UHF AM.

-Dave

 

[mancow]

There's nothing wrong with the SDS's design. It's perfectly normal. You nearly need oven mitts to handle an Airspy Mini that's been on a while.

 

[IAmSixNine]

Im just glad the heat is dissipating away from the battery. Even though its getting hot i feel its much safer that way.
Its already been mentioned but anybody who has used a SDR knows those little suckers get hot.

 

[del1964]

I've got a FLIR one thermal imaging android device but forgot to charge it and bring my adapter for it to work today. I'll charge it and get the adapter and take some pics and see what the temperatures are around the scanner after it's been on a while while plugged into my USB port on my laptop and set to charge while scanning. Should be "neat" to see.

 

[WX4JCW]

It is not a design flaw


Sent from my iPhone 8 using Tapatalk Pro
Jason WX4JCW
XPR7550 - SDS100

 

[WX4JCW]

The outside temperature was 110°, but that should not have been a factor given that he was in a car, with the AC on, and the scanner was not in direct sunlight. All of which he clearly stated.



John

Peoria, AZ

Take a RTL-SDR in the same environment and run it for a while, this is not a design flaw, especially since you guys live in an oven


Sent from my iPhone 8 using Tapatalk Pro
Jason WX4JCW
XPR7550 - SDS100

 

[AC0RV]

Maybe having a small fan in there would help ?????