SDS100/SDS200: 2nd swollen SDS100 battery in 1 year

[GadgetGeek]

This is why I love my 436. Own two of them.

 

[iowabassplayer]

Was considering upgrading to a SDS100 but after reading this thread, I now have second thoughts.

just cancelled my order for one as well after reading through this...

 

[BigC801]

One thread that seems pretty common is that it happens to batteries that are not used for a long period of time - perhaps batteries that are allowed to discharge nearly completely. Would that correctly describe the case here?

Mine was charged and then did it after sitting for a few weeks....

 

[GadgetGeek]

Pics?

 

[W5ATX]

3 week update - the 2nd swollen battery (date code 2021?) lives in the bbq pit, it may have swelled a tiny bit more but hard to say, i dont trust it in my scanner or my house.

the "new" to me battery from uniden sent to replace the 1st swollen battery from last year (date code 2018?) it sitting on the desk fully charged for 3 weeks now and i see no change. this is by no means indicating the older 2018 batteries are better because the 1st swollen battery had a 2018 code on it and swelled after about 6 months of non-use if i recall correctly. I am going to leave this battery sitting for perhaps 3 months - if i can stand the sds100 without a battery that long. sucks because with no battery as many have mentioned, you cannot record or even hit the playback to repeat what was just said without a battery pack in the unit. silly if you ask me. I have no intentions of asking uniden for another battery, honestly as stated previously it was too much hassle last time to get the first one. If they want to reach out to me and ask fine but i don't expect that to happen any time.

 

[GadgetGeek]

Not good.

 

[bearcatrp]

With an external battery you can not record or playback? If that’s the case, that’s the 4th reason why I won’t be upgrading.

 

[W5ATX]

With an external battery you can not record or playback? If that’s the case, that’s the 4th reason why I won’t be upgrading.

if you remove the battery from the sds100 and run it on external power, you cannot record audio to the sd card. and even when you're not recording, you can't hit the replay button either. also notice the side bleed on the display from the backlight? my other 2 sds100's not only had this display issue, but also had the other display issue where the top of the screen was dim and the bottom was bright.

 

[kruser]

With an external battery you can not record or playback? If that’s the case, that’s the 4th reason why I won’t be upgrading.

The reason for locking out recording when no battery is installed is there to protect the SD card from corruption so your radio will boot back up when you turn it back on.
The SDS100, 436HP and HP1 & 2 models are all basically computers that need power to shutdown. Ever try yanking the power cord from a booted up desktop computer (not a laptop with a battery)? You stand a very good chance your computer may no longer boot if the disk (SD Card in the scanner) is being written too when a sudden power loss occurs.
On the scanners, you can still corrupt the card if you open the battery compartment when the scanner is running on battery power alone and it also happens to be writing to the SD card at that same instant. Regular batteries or the proprietary lithium battery would not save you from such a mistake. Only luck would save you.
Any settings changes you make while the scanner is operating are written to the SD card during an orderly shutdown also. If you just kill the power without using the power button or knob, you will find your changes were not saved if the scanner does boot back up.

With no internal battery in the radio, there is nothing preventing the accidental unplugging of the USB plug that may be providing external power from a battery pack or AC adapter. Knock the USB plug out and poof, a good chance of card corruption occurs again.
This is not a negative thing but rather a feature to try and keep your computer based scanner running error free for the end user.

I'm surprised Uniden did not incorporate some type of internal super capacitor in the 536HP and SDS200 models to allow them to gracefully shutdown and write to the SD card in the event external power is lost but I guess that was not an option when you look at how well the original RTC battery lasted in keeping the clock set in the early models.

 

[W5ATX]

I agree, there are $60 dashcams out there that have a built in capacitor large enough to save the file properly upon shutdown.

 

[kruser]

I agree, there are $60 dashcams out there that have a built in capacitor large enough to save the file properly upon shutdown.

Yes there are.

The Uniden SD card based models appear to write an awful lot of data to the card upon a normal power down.
If they just quickly wrote and closed the open file (s) would likely be enough to prevent corruption. Settings changes could have also been made to write as they are changed instead of waiting to write them all at the time of a normal power down. They can write temporary audio files while the radio is running so why not also write settings changes as they are made? Maybe writing those would interrupt the scanning function which most users would not like I imagine. Or perhaps writing settings changes on the fly would reduce battery life. I don't know that answer.

Or just ignore the settings changes all together if a sudden power loss is detected and just close anything open so it's done in the blink of an eye. At least you wouldn't have a scanner that won't boot up.

As it is now, it would probably take a pretty beefy super cap to carry the load of everything needed to complete the card write at power loss if it takes as long as a normal graceful shutdown takes.

My big desktop computer with SSD drives almost shuts down faster than my 536HP! That's exaggerated sarcasm but my desktop still shuts down pretty darn fast for what it is.

 

[Ubbe]

It checks what changes that have been made to scan lists and settings and writes the favorite list back to the SD card. It also has a status file with the current setting, where in the scan cycle the scan are and if you are currently monitoring a system and what you have the volume set to and all that. It takes time to gather all that data and then write it.

I agree that if a power failure are sensed it could skip all that and just close the recording file, if that are open and in use, and if having a big enough capacitor in the power supply for the 3.3v for the CPU it could do that in an instant. Or have the file open only in RAM memory and then save to SD card first when it is closed. There are many things in Unidens scanners that can be fine tuned but it will cost developer time and money and management would probably decide that it will not increase scanner sales. UPMan did most of the basic work on his own and then presented the solutions flow chart to a firmware coder that added it in 10 minutes. Then it was easy and at a very small cost to do Friday firmware updates.

/Ubbe

 

[W5ATX]

Last update on the swollen battery, it opened up so much that I can confirm now that this is a 3S lipo, these are actually pretty dangerous more dangerous than I thought . I checked the voltage on all 3 terminals and it's reading 0, but that doesn't mean there's not a broken connection inside and there's still some juice in these packs. It will remain in the fire pit and if it wants to explode it'll do so outside.

As for the new battery , it sat in the garage for one month with no signs of swelling at a full charge, I am now discharging it down to nominal voltage i.e. storage voltage and will let sit for another month to see if it begins to swell. These lipos are something else, if you're not familiar with the hazards of these batteries Just type in lipo fire on YouTube, it'll make you want to sell your sds100.

 

[dave3825]

the same LI-ion battery technology is used in the medical field with items like implanted defib/pace makers that last for many years! You don’t see these failing like the Uniden batteries, of course not, it’s unacceptable!

At least Uniden is using batteries that don't start fires... Guess there's some real trash in these e bikes..

E-bike batteries have caused 200 fires in New York: ‘Everyone’s scared’

Delivery workers grapple with danger after dozens injured in blazes that can spread quickly and suddenly

www.theguardian.com

 

[W5ATX]

Li-ion and LiPo are two different animals.

 

[W5ATX]

I tried to edit my post above but the screen is jumping around on my phone for some reason, lipos can start fires if overcharged even slightly, lithium ion's also require a constant current constant voltage balanced charging circuit.

 

[W5ATX]

search youtube for lipo fires, here's a nice video to get you started. guess which battery the sds100 has? (hint: the one on the left that caught fire from over-charging)

 

[JethrowJohnson]

Why hasn't Uniden been sued or anything about this?

 

[KevinC]

Why hasn't Uniden been sued or anything about this?

Sue for what?

 

[pro106import]

With an external battery you can not record or playback? If that’s the case, that’s the 4th reason why I won’t be upgrading.

Don't fret. I hear this will be corrected with the next up and coming update. Stay tuned...