BCD536HP Keeps prompting for date & time

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durangoGreg

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My BCD536HP has started to constantly prompt for the date and time when I power it on.

I always leave it plugged in to the wall and I turn it on daily.

However, over the past 2 weeks it keeps prompting for me to set the time when it never used to. Any ideas as to what might have changed? What do I need to do to get it to stop?
 

fxdscon

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My BCD536HP has started to constantly prompt for the date and time when I power it on.

I always leave it plugged in to the wall and I turn it on daily.

However, over the past 2 weeks it keeps prompting for me to set the time when it never used to. Any ideas as to what might have changed? What do I need to do to get it to stop?

As has been mentioned many times, leave it plugged in and turned on for 50 hours continuously to fully charge the clock battery.
 

columbus1845

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I understood from the intial msg that his scanner was on 24 hrs a day (always on)...
Answer was not relative..??

I've had the same thing happen to me but suddenly it goes away but does come back now and then..??
 

fxdscon

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I understood from the intial msg that his scanner was on 24 hrs a day (always on)...
Answer was not relative..??

That's not what the OP said, read it again. He said he always left it plugged in and that he turned it on daily... that implies that he also turned it off daily. It needs to be left on and running constantly for 2+ days.

The answer was indeed relative.

.
 

Boatanchor

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Its kind of funny in a tragic way, that a mobile scanner has to be tuned on for 50 hours every so often to recharge the internal RTC battery. It's not too difficult to do this procedure when the radio is sitting on a bench in your home, but needing to do this in your vehicle??

All those people that hooked the radio up to the accessory line in their car/truck, would need to leave the vehicle's ignition on and the radio running for 50 hours! Seriously!!?

WTH were they thinking?
 

JamesO

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If Uniden would have written a decent Quick Start guide and thought through how people would use the products they would have CLEARLY stated what was required to charge the RTC battery.

So they should have stated that before installing the 536HP in a vehicle, the scanner should be connected to a power source and left turned on for at least 48 hours.

This would have helped EVERYONE avoid all the questions and headaches associated with clock problem on these radios.

A little pre-planning would have gone a long way.
 

Boatanchor

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Very true.

However, it is obvious that the RTC battery requires a certain minimum 'on time' for the scanner to simply maintain the charge level in the RTC battery, let-alone charge it.

If any users, but particularly those with BCD536HP's installed into vehicles, are not leaving their scanners on for that minimum on time (likely at least 2 hours a day), then the RTC battery will inevitably discharge and fail again, which will then require further 50hr charge cycles. For anyone other than professional users, who monitor their scanner for >2 hours a day, the RTC issue could be an ongoing problem.

The fact that it takes 50 hours to fully charge a 5-10mAh SMD button cell, shows just how low the charge rate must be in these devices.
 
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Its kind of funny in a tragic way, that a mobile scanner has to be tuned on for 50 hours every so often to recharge the internal RTC battery. It's not too difficult to do this procedure when the radio is sitting on a bench in your home, but needing to do this in your vehicle??

All those people that hooked the radio up to the accessory line in their car/truck, would need to leave the vehicle's ignition on and the radio running for 50 hours! Seriously!!?

WTH were they thinking?

This here is my problem. I may drive the truck once every 3 weeks
 

JamesO

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This here is my problem. I may drive the truck once every 3 weeks

I left my 436HP off for a little over 3 weeks and it prompted me for the first time to set the clock.

Not sure I have used the radio on anything other than batteries for 6+ weeks? I have been charging the batteries externally and generally have only run the 436HP on internal batteries.

Cannot recall if the 436HP will charge the RTC when running on batteries or only when plugged in and operating on external power.
 
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I left my 436HP off for a little over 3 weeks and it prompted me for the first time to set the clock.

Not sure I have used the radio on anything other than batteries for 6+ weeks? I have been charging the batteries externally and generally have only run the 436HP on internal batteries.

Cannot recall if the 436HP will charge the RTC when running on batteries or only when plugged in and operating on external power.
I have my 536HP wired with a relay to turn on with vehicle accessory. So it see no power
 

jonwienke

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I have my 536HP wired with a relay to turn on with vehicle accessory.

That's a bad idea. If you kill power without letting it shut down, that's a good way to corrupt the SD card. It's not a matter of if, but when.
 
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That's a bad idea. If you kill power without letting it shut down, that's a good way to corrupt the SD card. It's not a matter of if, but when.
We will see when. Because I never shut it down when it's writing. Been installed this way since last year when they came out.
 

jonwienke

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Every normal shutdown involves writing to the SD card. That doesn't complete properly when you kill power instead of using the power button.
 
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Every normal shutdown involves writing to the SD card. That doesn't complete properly when you kill power instead of using the power button.
The proper shut down write is saving the recent things you did. Ex open a favorites list, close favorite list or system or group. If this right does not happen next time on power up. It will convert back to however you had it before the changes.
 

Boatanchor

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Now what they should have done was made it like a radio and had a consistent and an accessory wire

That would make sense.

But also, the DC feed for the RTC battery charge circuit should have been taken from the input (non switched) side of the on/off switch, instead of taking it from the switched side. That way at least the RTC battery would maintain charge as long as there was power connected to the radio, regardless of the state of the on/off switch. As a home base radio, providing the AC Adapter was plugged in, the RTC battery would constantly be charged/maintained, irrespective of whether the scanner was switched on.
 

nr2d

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Since I received my 2 536HPs, I let the battery charge the first time. I turn them off when I go to bed. They don't get turned on until about 18 hours later. They are plugged in till the next time I turn them back on when I get home from work.

During thunder storms the scanners are unplugged from the AC power as well as the antennas are also disconnected. The time between turning the scanners off to when they are plugged back in and turned on can be up to 24 to 48 hours.

I have never had to reprogram the date/time since the first time.
 

JoeyC

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When I first received mine in January, per the recommendation, I turned the unit ON and left it ON for 50+ hours nonstop, without interruption. I have never had an issue with the unit asking for date/time to be reset. The unit gets light use now and it has been turned off a couple of time for 14-16 days straight without any problem.
 
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