BCD436HP Post Release

[NHdave]

A little brutal don't you think?...I believe he has a point...if your going to pay $600 for a scanner than give me $600 dollars worth of scanner...don't charge me for extras!! ...

The 436 is $500 worth of scanner, if a charger and addition circuitry and metal were included it would likely actually be a $600 scanner.

 

[UPMan]

The lack of an AC adapter is due to a California regulatory issue.

 

[Jay911]

1. Wheres the USB power plug?
I do not understand why uniden didn't provide a USB power plug with the unit. After all its a $500 scanner and the last thing i want to have to do is go out and buy a power plug to connect the scanner to.

Uniden no doubt suspects that you have dozens of USB power adapters from various toys and tools, like everyone else does.

EDIT: Or it could be as Paul states above....

2. The batteries do not charge while the unit is plugged in and in use?
Whats the point of this? Every single USB driven device i have eve used has charged while the unit was plugged in and in use. I do not want to have to sit there with dead batteries and watch it charge and not be able to use it.

Simple physics. Most USB chargers can't send the current required to power the radio and charge the batteries at the same time. Pretty much everything I own that charges via USB charges much slower when being used. When I play music on my phone while plugged into my vehicle, it charges very slowly, if at all.

 

[wise871]

Looks good, is the mount something you made or did you buy it?

ME

It's a pro clip mount. I just added soft velcro so the scanner doesn't get scuffed and it holds it snug.

 

[Coolant113]

Uniden no doubt suspects that you have dozens of USB power adapters from various toys and tools, like everyone else does.

EDIT: Or it could be as Paul states above....



Simple physics. Most USB chargers can't send the current required to power the radio and charge the batteries at the same time. Pretty much everything I own that charges via USB charges much slower when being used. When I play music on my phone while plugged into my vehicle, it charges very slowly, if at all.

Yes it does charge slower, but at least its still charging right?

In regards to the USB charging block not being included-

Yes i have alot of different charging blocks laying around that havent saw use in a long time. However from past experiences with using these chargers there not all built equally. Most of them vary in the amount of power they give out which results in charging certain devices at a different pace. I expect from the manufacturer to include the most appropriate USB solution thats built for the product. When i buy something i have a certain customer expectation that should be fulfilled off the bat. With my purchase of this scanner, Uniden has not fulfilled my full customer expectation. Everybody says its a $500 scanner and thats what you get for it being so cheap. So brings me to my next point, are you friggin kidding me? Although $500 might be a drop in the bucket for some, its not for me. $500 is alot of money, I saved up money for this unit and sold my 396 to defray some of the cost of this new unit, and now im wishing i never sold it. This is coming from a die hard Uniden fan, i would never recommend another scanner to somebody besides a Uniden made one. This may now change based off additional competition i see coming in the near future.

 

[NHdave]

With my purchase of this scanner, Uniden has not fulfilled my full customer expectation.

Did you not read the description of what was included with the scanner? If you did you would have known there was no charger included, no one to blame there but yourself.

 

[tylerwatt12]

I got the radio yesterday, it's good. But there are some features that make me feel like it's stuck in the past, compared to other devices (Like ham HTs and cell phones)

-Lithium Ion batteries(preferably replaceable) instead of Ni-MH

It would be really nice if we could use Li-Ion or Li-Polymer batteries instead of the old fashioned NIMH ones. Uniden could sell multiple rechargeable battery packs, they could also sell battery packs that hold AA or AAA batteries if the user wanted to use non rechargeables. This would eliminate the issue with batteries potentially overheating/melting. But uniden will need to include a charge controller in the base charger. To compare the $50 Baofeng 2M/70cm radios have been using Li-Ion batteries, and a charger, I have had no issues so far with them. I would love to see an implementation like this on a future handheld scanner.

-eMMC instead of sdcards

This is something that's common found in modern phones. Possible file corruption is the reason why many phone makers have stopped putting removable sdcards in their phones. I understand, a user may still want to expand storage, it could be on top of a 2GB internal memory, and used for recording storage only?
Using MTP with an internal eMMC (instead of USB Mass storage) would eliminate a lot of issues (but introduce a few compatibility issues)
There are also many issues with using a FAT32 filesystem, ext3+eMMC/SDcard+MTP is the way I would like to see

-MicroUSB instead of MiniUSB

MicroUSB is really the best when it comes to reliability. I'm not a super clumsy person, but I've dropped my phone a few times, the MicroUSB connection is so solid, that the charging cable bends instead of the charging port breaking. I can not say this with any MiniUSB device I've owned. They tend to fall out easily, if they drop the connector has a much higher chance of breaking the unit.
https://electronics.stackexchange.c...was-mini-usb-deprecated-in-favor-of-micro-usb

Now don't get my wrong, I love the 436. This is just something I would like to see in future versions really.

 

[freqhopping]

What's up with this "Favorites List file is over 1MB. Too Big." warning I get now when saving? Really?

 

[EarlSuitor]

Universal Radio in Ohio is shipping them out 1-31-14 and 2-3-14. I'm thinking you will have them by the 1st week in Feb.

 

[RF23]

I got the radio yesterday, it's good. But there are some features that make me feel like it's stuck in the past, compared to other devices (Like ham HTs and cell phones)

-Lithium Ion batteries(preferably replaceable) instead of Ni-MH

It would be really nice if we could use Li-Ion or Li-Polymer batteries instead of the old fashioned NIMH ones. Uniden could sell multiple rechargeable battery packs, they could also sell battery packs that hold AA or AAA batteries if the user wanted to use non rechargeables. This would eliminate the issue with batteries potentially overheating/melting. But uniden will need to include a charge controller in the base charger. To compare the $50 Baofeng 2M/70cm radios have been using Li-Ion batteries, and a charger, I have had no issues so far with them. I would love to see an implementation like this on a future handheld scanner.

-eMMC instead of sdcards

This is something that's common found in modern phones. Possible file corruption is the reason why many phone makers have stopped putting removable sdcards in their phones. I understand, a user may still want to expand storage, it could be on top of a 2GB internal memory, and used for recording storage only?
Using MTP with an internal eMMC (instead of USB Mass storage) would eliminate a lot of issues (but introduce a few compatibility issues)
There are also many issues with using a FAT32 filesystem, ext3+eMMC/SDcard+MTP is the way I would like to see

-MicroUSB instead of MiniUSB

MicroUSB is really the best when it comes to reliability. I'm not a super clumsy person, but I've dropped my phone a few times, the MicroUSB connection is so solid, that the charging cable bends instead of the charging port breaking. I can not say this with any MiniUSB device I've owned. They tend to fall out easily, if they drop the connector has a much higher chance of breaking the unit.
https://electronics.stackexchange.c...was-mini-usb-deprecated-in-favor-of-micro-usb

Now don't get my wrong, I love the 436. This is just something I would like to see in future versions really.

Those are all good points and I hope Uniden considered all of them. However, some possibilities why they may have not changed in a few cases may be: (these are guesses by the way)

Lithium Batteries
1. If cars continue to use them the cost of Lithium will skyrocket since it is claimed the earth does not have enough lithium for that level of use.

2. The charging circuit of the radio would have to be redesigned and that will add to the cost of the radio. (Remember Uniden actually managed to give us new technology without a price increase)

3. The voltage of lithium batteries would probably require proprietary battery packs (and we all know how much we love them) or the power supply of the radio would have to be redesigned.

4. This would rule out using AA batteries as they would add up to the wrong voltage.

5. The discharge characteristics of lithium is different from NiMH so you would have to keep track of which scanner you are using.

The SD cards and Mini USB adapter I think was maintained both for cost and backward compatibility with cables and radios already out and they do seem to the work satisfactorily.

Remember folks I am just guessing here!

 

[OFDM]

What's up with this "Favorites List file is over 1MB. Too Big." warning I get now when saving? Really?

Oh damn, you exceeded the 1MB limit for a FL!

Guess you are going to have to break the FL up into 2. BTW, this will slow scanning down if the 2 FL's share the same CC / system.

 

[lawman210]

So with the speaker jack being such low voltage does this mean a clip on "lapel"type speaker won't work because it won't have enough power? If so does anyone make a lapel type speaker that is amplified so you can carry your radio and have a speaker close to your ear?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[dtscho]

Thank you for this. I have been waiting for someone in the area to tell me how Stafford is. Is there a way for you to make a video post giving us a taste of how it is? Now I wonder how it does in Loudoun!

How does it do for STARS?

I probably won't get up to Loudoun anytime soon, but there are other 436/536 users up there who I'm sure will report on it.

STARS is excellent, but that's to be expected, since it's not a simulcast system.

Dave

 

[freqhopping]

Oh damn, you exceeded the 1MB limit for a FL!

Guess you are going to have to break the FL up into 2. BTW, this will slow scanning down if the 2 FL's share the same CC / system.

More than two. To start, it looks like my county, the neighboring one and STARS will all get their own FLs. Thousands of RIDs will do that I guess.

Easy to do though just by cut and pasting between the actual .hpd files.

 

[03msc]

So im 10 mins into using my 436hp and have a few complaints as outlined below..

1. Wheres the USB power plug?
I do not understand why uniden didn't provide a USB power plug with the unit. After all its a $500 scanner and the last thing i want to have to do is go out and buy a power plug to connect the scanner to.

2. The batteries do not charge while the unit is plugged in and in use?
Whats the point of this? Every single USB driven device i have eve used has charged while the unit was plugged in and in use. I do not want to have to sit there with dead batteries and watch it charge and not be able to use it. Very weird

3. Wheres the metal backing for the belt clip?
The use of a plastic backing for the belt clip has boggled my mind. $500 Unit being secured by a plastic backing instead of the past used metal backing doesn't make any sense. Now i worry about it potentially cracking and the scanner falling to the ground off the belt clip.

Although these are some drawbacks, the scanner is a beast and thats my opinion only after 10 mins of use. Maybe Upman can chime in on these concerns.

1.) Discussed extensively pre-release so this should not have been a shock (this includes comments from UPMan). The USB power plug is on your computer (or you can purchase one for home or car, third party/aftermarket...leaving the choice to the consumer).

2.) Like the first question, this was also discussed quite a bit over the last several weeks (maybe months). No, the batteries do not charge while it is on. Getting an extra set of batteries or two and using an external charger will solve the problem of not being able to use it when charging. I do understand why you wouldn't like the way it works but they have their reasons (and there are also reasons many are adamant about never charging the batteries in the scanner, regardless of brand/model and capabilities).

3.) This I assume is just a cost-saving thing. I admit that metal might be stronger but it is what it is...

Enjoy the 436. Hopefully the capabilities will far outweigh these caveats for you.

 

[tsalmrsystemtech]

Well look at the older GRE PSR 800 that radio was way more than 499.00 and it did not even come with a power cord nor re-chargeable batteries. You even had to spend big bucks on very expensive batteries and a commerical grade charger for that radio to even last more than 4 hours on a charge at most. It seems like companies are just leaving out very important pieces to the puzzle.

 

[03msc]

Yes it does charge slower, but at least its still charging right?

In regards to the USB charging block not being included-

Yes i have alot of different charging blocks laying around that havent saw use in a long time. However from past experiences with using these chargers there not all built equally. Most of them vary in the amount of power they give out which results in charging certain devices at a different pace. I expect from the manufacturer to include the most appropriate USB solution thats built for the product. When i buy something i have a certain customer expectation that should be fulfilled off the bat. With my purchase of this scanner, Uniden has not fulfilled my full customer expectation. Everybody says its a $500 scanner and thats what you get for it being so cheap. So brings me to my next point, are you friggin kidding me? Although $500 might be a drop in the bucket for some, its not for me. $500 is alot of money, I saved up money for this unit and sold my 396 to defray some of the cost of this new unit, and now im wishing i never sold it. This is coming from a die hard Uniden fan, i would never recommend another scanner to somebody besides a Uniden made one. This may now change based off additional competition i see coming in the near future.

Buy an external battery charger. It will charge each battery individually, as they should be, instead of in series and you'll get more life out of them. You can also have multiple sets and be ready in the event the power goes out, etc., for an extended period of time.

 

[03msc]

Well look at the older GRE PSR 800 that radio was way more than 499.00 and it did not even come with a power cord nor re-chargeable batteries. You even had to spend big bucks on very expensive batteries and a commerical grade charger for that radio to even last more than 4 hours on a charge at most. It seems like companies are just leaving out very important pieces to the puzzle.

As UPMan stated above, they had to. California regulations prevent it from being included.

 

[OFDM]

As UPMan stated above, they had to. California regulations prevent it from being included.

California law doesn't prevent them from shipping a USB charger, it does prevent them from shipping one which doesn't meet updated energy rules.

 

[tsalmrsystemtech]

Honestly that really sounds odd to me. I have bought a lot of electronics in the past which cost less than scanner radios and have also spent more and I have always had either a power cord/USB charger and batteries included.

So the math just isn't adding up right to me. Help me to understand your point