Dynamic Memory vs Old Style Memory/Banks and BCDx36hp and SDSxxx

[dfw1193]

So pondering, since the newer memory scanners have room for 99 systems, 99 departments and 999 channel tags, my question is this: How much room is there really in the newer memory based models if I wanted to say do 99 Conventional systems with 999 channels each? In other words would I be able to get 10 Systems with 999 channels in each system emulating Banks and Channels that would be 10,000 channels?

Just wondering how much room there actually is in the newer scanners and what is the most systems, departments and channels that someone has sucessfully put into the newer model scanners, and is there a difference in memory capacity between the portable handhelds (436hp, sds100) and mobiles(536hp, sds200)?

 

[letarotor]

I don't know but I do know one thing. A programming file can only be 1 MB. If it's any larger than that you have to break it up into 2 programming files. You can still load both of those on your radio. So there is a limit to how big you can make a file before you have to create a new one even though they both can be added to the radio and assigned their own favorites list keys.

Brian (COMMSCAN)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

 

[nessnet]

Isn't this determined nowadays in these modern scanners by the size of the SD card, since this is where the .hpe files reside?

 

[dfw1193]

I believe the sd card is only used as storage just as a hard drive is for a computer. When you actually turn the scanner on it loads the info from the sd card into the scanner memory. If the scanner only relied on the sd card for the info to scan it would be extremely slow to scan and operate. So my understanding is just like your computer has xx amount of internal memory where your programs are loaded from the hard drive, so does the scanner have a limited amount of internal memory in order to load the info you desire to scan.

If you watch your scanner when you turn it on after it has verified the clock it then reads the favorite lists/data etc. that was selected off the sd card into the scanner internal memory, then it begins the scanning process. When you turn your scanner off, the sd card is written to again saving any changes you may have made to the data in the scanner internal memory during its operation so that the next time you turn on the scanner it will reflect those latest changes you made. Just as if you plug the scanner into sentinel after you made changes to the sd card the program asks if you want to overwrite the settings when it detects the latest info it has does not match the info on your scanner since changes were made.

 

[nessnet]

I believe the sd card is only used as storage just as a hard drive is for a computer. When you actually turn the scanner on it loads the info from the sd card into the scanner memory. If the scanner only relied on the sd card for the info to scan it would be extremely slow to scan and operate. So my understanding is just like your computer has xx amount of internal memory where your programs are loaded from the hard drive, so does the scanner have a limited amount of internal memory in order to load the info you desire to scan.

If you watch your scanner when you turn it on after it has verified the clock it then reads the favorite lists/data etc. that was selected off the sd card into the scanner internal memory, then it begins the scanning process. When you turn your scanner off, the sd card is written to again saving any changes you may have made to the data in the scanner internal memory during its operation so that the next time you turn on the scanner it will reflect those latest changes you made. Just as if you plug the scanner into sentinel after you made changes to the sd card the program asks if you want to overwrite the settings when it detects the latest info it has does not match the info on your scanner since changes were made.

Yea - makes sense.....

 

[ofd8001]

The "99 Systems, 99 Departments and 999 Channels" are not limits. Rather they are the quantity of Number Tags you can assign in a Favorites List. You can have lots more systems, but they won't/can't be, number tagged. I only number tag the "important stuff" - things I want to rapidly access. That may be less than 1% of the "stuff" I have.

As noted above, a Favorites List cannot exceed 1 MB in size. It's sort of like a 1 pound bag - you can put lead in it or feathers in it. So depending on which you have, leads to how many "things" go in the bag. I have a large statewide system with a couple hundred sites and thousands of talkgroups. On top of that I have a large number of Radio ID Numbers which also count toward the file size. It is .7 MB in size.

So it would be a struggle for most users just to fill up a single Favorites List. Then your memory card, the SD card could be as large as 32 GB or 32 of those 1 MB Favorites Lists, though you have to allow space for the full database. In other words there is probably more space for memory, thus number of channels, than most users would ever need. Kinda like driving a semi truck to the grocery to get a week's worth of food.

 

[dfw1193]

This all pertains to the software and the SD card, not to the actual unit memory. You can store just like a computer tons of stuff on a hard drive, but when your running the software the physical unit memory determines how much multitasking or programs you can run at a time. Just like the actual scanner unit internal memory will determine how many systems etc. can be loaded from the SD Card to be scanned at the same time.

This may be a question that only UPMAN can respond to, since he is familiar with, and has access to the schematic diagrams for the units. I am sure it is going to be a much smaller number than gigabytes.

There must be some heavy users out there that run large numbers of systems and I am also wondering what error the scanner unit would give when its reaches capacity and the internal memory is full and its unable to load any more systems in it.

 

[ofd8001]

I can't see any way a user could "force" more stuff to the scanner, than it is ready to accept. So the error message of "too much stuff" is unlikely to be seen.

I doubt Upman is gonna tell any trade secrets on the total memory size.

 

[hiegtx]

This all pertains to the software and the SD card, not to the actual unit memory. You can store just like a computer tons of stuff on a hard drive, but when your running the software the physical unit memory determines how much multitasking or programs you can run at a time. Just like the actual scanner unit internal memory will determine how many systems etc. can be loaded from the SD Card to be scanned at the same time.

This may be a question that only UPMAN can respond to, since he is familiar with, and has access to the schematic diagrams for the units. I am sure it is going to be a much smaller number than gigabytes.

There must be some heavy users out there that run large numbers of systems and I am also wondering what error the scanner unit would give when its reaches capacity and the internal memory is full and its unable to load any more systems in it.

As you noted, only UPMan could say for sure, as to whether there is a limit to the amount of programming that can actually be loaded into the scanner at one time. However, as a practical matter, if you were really trying to force feed the scanner that many favorites lists, systems, channels, etc, the scanner would take so long to traverse between all those that you'd miss so much traffic as to be useless.

However, in years since the first 'database scanners', such as the HP-1, and later the x36HP series, among others, were released, I've never seen a valid comment of any error as to 'too much programming' be noted in the forums. Oversize on individual favorites lists (greater than 1mb), sure, but not anything approaching a 'memory capacity overload' on the scanners themselves.

 

[dfw1193]

Maybe I just will have to fill it up and see how much it will hold before I get an error. Should be fairly easy to do by using a FILLUP Favorite list I create for the whole state of Texas, certainly I would not expect it to be able to do them all. Might be an interesting experiment.

 

[UPMan]

The limit is 1MB.

 

[dfw1193]

Thanks

 

[ve3cgr]

The limit is 1MB.

Hi Paul,
Has there been any thought of increasing this limit? I ask because I tried making a FL with all the amateur radio DMR UID's and it exceeds 1 MB.
Ron

 

[UPMan]

It is a hardware limitation of the CPU RAM.