BCD436HP Led Alert

Status
Not open for further replies.

bushpusher

Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2020
Messages
17
Location
Rochester NH
Is it possible to set a led alert to a particular frequency to the preloaded data base the radio came with and program that alert with the radio?
i would appreciate and information on this.
And another question this is about battery charging and power requirements, If the scanner comes with a USB cord so charging and most computer
USB outputs are 5 volts at 0.5 amp does the scanner have a regulator for charging if you hook the USB cord to something with a higher amp output
so you don't over power the batteries while charging sense most AA rechargeable batteries recommend a 250ma charge rate .
Thank You Roger
 

bushpusher

Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2020
Messages
17
Location
Rochester NH
Is there no way enter the full date base channel from the scanner to make changes .
Thank you jtwalker i have read about doing alerts with favorites but thought it would be easier sense i only want to do 3 different
frequencies for my locals and i could tell without my classes on
 

hiegtx

Mentor
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 8, 2004
Messages
11,172
Location
Dallas, TX
Is there no way enter the full date base channel from the scanner to make changes .
Thank you jtwalker i have read about doing alerts with favorites but thought it would be easier sense i only want to do 3 different
frequencies for my locals and i could tell without my classes on
There's no way within Sentinel to do what you are asking. Sometime back, another member posted a way to possibly edit the main database (I don't recall the thread or link, too far back), but if you could do that, it would only last until the next time the database was updated, which is once a week.

You're better off to do it in a Favorites list. That way, even it the main database was updated, it would not affect your list. Just append the 3 different frequencies to a Favorites list, and then add the alert LED, tone, or whatever you want.
 

Ubbe

Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2006
Messages
8,949
Location
Stockholm, Sweden
The charging are regulated to max 500mA.

You can manually make the same edit in the database as you do to a favorite list.

You do the edit directly to the files on the SD card when you connect the USB cable and select mass storage mode.
First you look in the HPDB folder and take a look in the hpdb.cfg file using a text editor like Notepad.
There you will see that the state of NH have StateId=33. Exit that cfg file and open up the file s_000033.hpd

Do a search for your frequency without any dot or comma sign. The frequency could be used at several location so be sure to find the correct one.
It will look something like this: (if RR doesn't manhandle it)
C-Freq CFreqId=48670 CGroupId=12944 Rochester Fire Dispatch Off 154980000 NFM TONE=C103.5 3
C-Freq CFreqId=48673 CGroupId=12944 Rochester Police Back Up Off 154890000 NFM TONE=C136.5 23

The last number will be the service type and after that comes empty data seperated by invisable tabulator characters.
If you look in one of your favorite lists.hpd in the SD card you'll see that there a lot of extra data after that service type number.
You have to manually add the extra data as the RR database that Uniden uses can't handle that.

When setting the cursor at the service type number, do arrow right on the PC keyboard and you will see that the cursor jumps 5-6 spaces and will continue to jump 5-6 speces with each arrow right key press. Jump 4 times from the service type and you are at the Alert sound type. Jump 6 times and you are at the Alert light color. They should be written as Blue Red Yellow Green and so on. Jump 7 times, two jumps after color, are the blink type. Write Slow Blink or Fast Blink. It is the exact same spelling as in Sentinels editing.

Save the file and you are done.

You do it much easier if you first use Sentinel and copy those frequencies or systems to a new favorite list and edit with the lights and alerts you want, you perhaps also would like to change the delay setting or service types or whatever you choose to do. Save that and program that new favorite list to the scanner and then edit the new favorite file f_0000xx.hpd on the SD card with Notepad. Search for the new C-Freq text line and copy the whole line from the frequency, it will now have all the changes you want, and open up a new Notepad window and edit the s_000033.hpd file and just replace the old C-Freq line from the place of the frequency (so that the reference numbers are intact) that have no data after that service type number, and paste the line from the favorite file. The scanner will acknowledge all changes you made in s_000033.hpd file and use the light and alerts and everything else you have set in Sentinel to it.

The only time that your changes will be overwritten are if your frequency or system have new data updated in RR and Uniden will then overwrite your settings the next week. If your systems are more or less static, no changes in the systems are updated in RR, then your edit will stay there a long time.

If you would like to have it perment, and in that case you will receive no updates either for that particular frequency or system, you just simple change that CFreqId and CGroupId to something else and updates will never be done. You have to choose unused numbers like 99999 so it doesn't get updates with some other systems info.

/Ubbe
 
Last edited:

bushpusher

Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2020
Messages
17
Location
Rochester NH
Thank You Ubbe
So The charging is regulated to max 500mA which is twice the charge rating on most AA batteries at lest the recommended charge rate i have seen on the AA batteries i use, which in turn will shorten the over all battery life..
The information on the alert light is helpful passed my ability's but never the less very helpful.
If i do create a favorites list can i scan both the full data base and the favorites list or do i have to pick one over the other?
I had no idea that i would have to update the scanners data base weekly is there a way to tell if there were any changes to any
frequency that would effect my area..
again Ubbe thank you for that very in depth explanation to my question about the Led Alert i will save that information
just in case i make a copy of the full date base and feel i might like to experiment a little
Roger
 

Ubbe

Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2006
Messages
8,949
Location
Stockholm, Sweden
I'm used to working with Notepad, it doesn't unintentionally mess up files but it might be easier to rename the extension of a file from hpd to xls and then read it with Excel, or OpenOffice, and set to use Tabulator as the delimiter. Then all the tabs will be intact when saving the file after edit and renaming back to hpd.

It looks and sounds much more complicated than it really is to actually do the changes to the files.

Lithium based batteries are manufactured with different charge rates. Some of them, like the ones for radio controlled models, can be charged with 2 or 3 times the ampere hour rate. So a 3500mAH batteri can be charged with 7A for 30 minutes or 10A for 20 minutes. The SDS battery are not of that type but the normal 1/10 charge current for NiCd and NiMH can be increased much more for the SDS battery. But heat and the electronics and cost of high current charger and compatibility with computer USB ports have reduced the charge current to 500mA.

You can scan both database and all favorite lists, if you have done any, at the same time.

If you go to RR database and look at the geographical map it will have a different color when there have been updates to that state.
It depends of active users reporting new talk groups and frequencies to be able to update the database but you should check with Sentinel now and then and do the updates of the database.

An excellent feature would be if there where a mailing list you could be part of where you set which states and counties you would like to be informed of when they have any updates. When you do updates now with Sentinel you have no clue of if it where any changes done to your state that would require you to edit any favorite lists you have created.

/Ubbe
 

hiegtx

Mentor
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 8, 2004
Messages
11,172
Location
Dallas, TX
Thank You Ubbe
So The charging is regulated to max 500mA which is twice the charge rating on most AA batteries at lest the recommended charge rate i have seen on the AA batteries i use, which in turn will shorten the over all battery life..
The information on the alert light is helpful passed my ability's but never the less very helpful.
If i do create a favorites list can i scan both the full data base and the favorites list or do i have to pick one over the other?
I had no idea that i would have to update the scanners data base weekly is there a way to tell if there were any changes to any
frequency that would effect my area..
again Ubbe thank you for that very in depth explanation to my question about the Led Alert i will save that information
just in case i make a copy of the full date base and feel i might like to experiment a little
Roger
You do not have to update the database is Sentinel & in the scanner weekly. But if you are using the main database, whether only it, or the database as well as a Favorites list, then you should update the database occasionally. Whether every few weeks, or once a month or so, that's the only way to make sure you are not missing new additions or changes.
An excellent feature would be if there where a mailing list you could be part of where you set which states and counties you would like to be informed of when they have any updates. When you do updates now with Sentinel you have no clue of if it where any changes done to your state that would require you to edit any favorite lists you have created.

/Ubbe
While it's not a specific email, if you are a Premium Subscriber, you can create a person Home Page, with the counties and trunked systems you are interested in. Then, if one or more are updated, that item will turn green for the first 24 hours after the change, then shift to a yellowish tint for 6 more days. That gives you a week of heads up warning that there has been a change.

If you are not a Premium Subscriber, then simply open RadioReference at least once a week, and see if any of the counties in your selected state show to have been changes. If so, then you can access the database page for that county & see if the change affected anything you want to monitor. Quite often, there are minor updates to the internal data in the database, that does not affect how it should be programmed.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top