SDS100/SDS200: Battery issue?

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JDJHNTR

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Today while unplugged it started beeping and the screen said low battery, plug into power. I checked and the battery was reading 3.5v on the display. Is that considered low battery for these things? Again, this is a new SDS100. I also have the screen timer set for 120 seconds so it’s not on all the time.
 

KK4JUG

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Yes 3.5 volts is LOW.
Is it set to charge while on?
When plugged up is the right hand light RED?
When fully charged My SDS100 reads 4.24
The fully-charged voltage varies between radios. Some will also show less, as low as 4.15, and still be normal.
 

JDJHNTR

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Yes 3.5 volts is LOW.
Is it set to charge while on?
When plugged up is the right hand light RED?
When fully charged My SDS100 reads 4.24

-it is set to charge while on
-red light is on while charging ( it’s on now, plugged up and scanning, now showing 3.84v) so I know it’s charging the battery while scanning.
As a side note.....I charged it last night with it turned off and the light was green when I turned it on today.

Also, is there a way to make the battery volts show all the time and not flash on/off from screen to screen?
 

Ubbe

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Go into the scanners menu to the Settings. There you have battery options. Select Set battery Low and Set Voltage. Set that to the lowest value.

Now run the scanner and when it stops working, it will probably say something about not possible to record if you have recording enabled, or it starts to act up, then note what the display say about the battery voltage. Add 0,1 volt to that value and enter that as the Battery Low value in the menu.

Batteries can have different operating voltages and one guys scanner might work down to 3.2v and another guys scanner migh starting to fail at 3,7v

So proper test of you own battery can be a good thing to do. Especially if you want to set an early warning to have time to stop a car at a convenient place and connect the charger cable without the scanner dying and all temporary avoids are restored and possible all other settings if there's no time for the scanner to save the current setup to the SD card.

/Ubbe
 

nessnet

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-it is set to charge while on
-red light is on while charging ( it’s on now, plugged up and scanning, now showing 3.84v) so I know it’s charging the battery while scanning.
As a side note.....I charged it last night with it turned off and the light was green when I turned it on today.

Also, is there a way to make the battery volts show all the time and not flash on/off from screen to screen?

You can show battery level on custom screens....
 

letarotor

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If all you want to do is see what your battery level is, you can press down on the knob on the top of the radio and it should show your battery voltage for about 5 or 10 seconds in the bottom right corner of the screen. I haven't done this in a long time but I know it shows your battery power.

You can set your screen up to display things that are not even on it right now as well as different colors and different other settings. Look at Custom Display Settings in the manual (or fool around with the settings in the radio's menu and you will find these settings and you can play with them) and it might give you some terms to search for on RadioReference that might be of help.I just customized mine by doing it on the radio and without looking at the manual so I can't tell you what it says. I know the manual is not always helpful on everything but it does usually cover things like customizing the display. Once you get into that part in the scanners settings and you play with a little bit it will soon become real easy. I actually thought that the battery voltage was on the bottom part of the screen all of the time anyhow? I know I replaced my battery voltage area with "D Error" to help me with figuring out some issues I was having with my radio about a year and a half ago. But every time I press down on the knob on top it still shows me my battery voltage down at the bottom right of the screen and I'm pretty sure all radios of the SDS100 model will do this. I just double checked mine and it does it scanning with no problem so you might give that a try first and see if it shows you your voltage?

KI5FLE
 

JDJHNTR

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If all you want to do is see what your battery level is, you can press down on the knob on the top of the radio and it should show your battery voltage for about 5 or 10 seconds in the bottom right corner of the screen. I haven't done this in a long time but I know it shows your battery power.
KI5FLE

Awesome tip! Just tried it and there it is. Thank you buddy!
 

JDJHNTR

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Go into the scanners menu to the Settings. There you have battery options. Select Set battery Low and Set Voltage. Set that to the lowest value.

Now run the scanner and when it stops working, it will probably say something about not possible to record if you have recording enabled, or it starts to act up, then note what the display say about the battery voltage. Add 0,1 volt to that value and enter that as the Battery Low value in the menu.

/Ubbe

So if I’m understanding you correctly? The reason for adding 0 or 1 to the value is just to set yourself an early warning?
 

Ubbe

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So if I’m understanding you correctly? The reason for adding 0 or 1 to the value is just to set yourself an early warning?
All batteries are not having the exact some voltage. That's why there's a setting to calibrate you own battery voltage warning. If set to high it will warn of low battery when you in fact have many hours of use left in the battery and will fool you thinking that the battery are bad.

Setting the warning too low and it might just turn off the scanner without you having a chance to react. So programming a free display field to always show battery voltage are probably something you would want to have and initially checking when the scanner actually shuts off and setting the warning to a level you would prefere, late or early warning, are probably something worth doing.

/Ubbe
 

n1chu

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Go into the scanners menu to the Settings. There you have battery options. Select Set battery Low and Set Voltage. Set that to the lowest value.

Now run the scanner and when it stops working, it will probably say something about not possible to record if you have recording enabled, or it starts to act up, then note what the display say about the battery voltage. Add 0,1 volt to that value and enter that as the Battery Low value in the menu.

Batteries can have different operating voltages and one guys scanner might work down to 3.2v and another guys scanner migh starting to fail at 3,7v

So proper test of you own battery can be a good thing to do. Especially if you want to set an early warning to have time to stop a car at a convenient place and connect the charger cable without the scanner dying and all temporary avoids are restored and possible all other settings if there's no time for the scanner to save the current setup to the SD card.

/Ubbe
The radio is designed to warn against total discharge of the LI battery. I believe it’s default value is 3500 mv. But you can set it lower and gain more operating time. There was a post some time back that advised against setting this value below something like 3200 mv, not sure of the exact value that was given. I assumed it was to prevent allowing a total discharge of the battery to zero volts. So I set mine to 3200 mv and left it there. I never explored if I could have reduced it further so I don’t know if the radio would allow it... figured I shouldn’t tempt fate and end up killing my battery. (LI batteries are not recoverable once totally discharged. They are junk and need replacing.) my question is this; Does the radio allow for manually reducing the value below a certain point, say as low as zero? Or did they set it up to protect the battery by giving the low battery warning notice at some point before the battery is fully discharged? Does the radio simply shut down as a precaution to avoid trashing the battery? Or, do we need to manually turn it off when the warning notice comes on?
 

werinshades

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I've owned the SDS100 since June 2018 with the smaller battery and later received a larger battery. I've never touched Low Battery Warning settings and have let the battery run down and shut off a few times. I recharged it, and it's still doing well.
 

JDJHNTR

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On the same note........how long should it take to recharge after be plugged up using the factory provided charger and the battery is plugged up at the preset warning of 3500mv? I just tested mine last night exactly 8 hours! That’s ridiculous!
I have every rechargeable power tool and gadget known to man and none of them take even half that long to charge.
Is there a possibility that using a larger charger would speed this up without damaging the battery?
 
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KK4JUG

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On the same note........how long should it take recharge after be plugged up using the factory provided charger and the battery is plugged up at the preset warning of 3500mv? I just tested mine last night exactly 8 hours! That’s ridiculous!
I have every rechargeable power tool and gadget known to man and none of them take even half that long to charge.
Is there a possibility that using a larger charger would speed this up without damaging the battery?
Both the battery and the charger are proprietary so probably not unless you build your own charger.
 

Ubbe

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The battery have an internal circuit board to protect if from discharging too much, which would destroy it, and has current limit protection if someone shortcircuit it. All lithium based batteries that I've seen has that deep discharge protection.

The scanner only charge the battery with a constant 500mA charge. If the battery is 3500mAH then it will take at least 7 hours to charge an empty battery. It will get hot if charged quicker with a higher current. Remember that heat will reduce life of electronic components and also batteries.

The lowest battery warning setting are 3,2V and that value are normally at the range where the voltage drops rapidly, only some 5 minutes until the scanner will shut off, and the exact shut off voltage could be a little bit different with different scanners.

/Ubbe
 
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