I made an investment in my future...a brand new SDS200!

[Joe_Blough]

And did they tell anyone about the design change? I bet not. And if or when Uniden ever changed the design would they ever tell anyone about it? Not likely.

If there were complaints in an internet forum and one of their reps participated in that forum, yes they would have. I have been in electronics service my entire adult life, most of it working for the manufacturer. Some had forums on their website where customers posted about problems and if a design change was a fix to their problem yes they would be told. Look at at the constant software and app updates with the list of what the update fixes.

 

[eaf1956]

Well, as I said before if you want to wait for all issues with the SDS 200 be be fully resolved then just don't buy it. I believe if there is to be a solution it will be a new scanner release. Just my opinion take it or leave it.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[trentbob]

Interesting discussion and civil enough.

There certainly has been enough discussion for those regular members who follow it all and have a very good idea of exactly what the situation is and where it stands.

Very hard to say what the actual percentage of affected units is but it's true that if it has the issue you will hear about it on RR.

Not only do I not like the idea of rolling dice with such a large purchase but between my MOT and my 100 I'm pretty well covered for LSM capability.

That doesn't mean I don't want a 200 LOL. I'm still on the fence but if I was to purchase one I don't think one dealer over the other is going to guarantee that you don't have the hum issue. Scanner Master and the ham station have both sold units with the issue. They would be my 2 goto vendors and of course there are others.

So the answer is not that Uniden is going to fully rectify the problem and let everybody know. That would not be a good business decision but the answer is to buy from a dealer that has a 30-day refund so that if you get an affected unit you exchange it and do so until you get one without the problem and then hope if the problem occurs it does so within the 30-day return window.

As has been said, unfortunately, it is what it is.

 

[eaf1956]

Ham Station is no longer shipping scanners. Jeff advised me of that the last time I recommended Ham Station.

K9EDF

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[RF23]

Unfortunately the backlight leaves a lot to be desired. Overall it's very dim regardless of settings. It appears the same that many others have shown where the first vertical column, numbers 1, 4, 7 and . are dimmer than the rest, as though the left side backlight is out completely.

I also have a SDS200 on order and should arrive in a couple of days.

There appears to be two ways from the front of the SDS200 to change the display brightness.

1. The volume/On-Off/Dimmer knob. In the demo I saw you hit “Function” then you repeatedly push on the “volume” knob and it will give you 3 levels of dimming plus Off for the display ONLY. It has no effect on the keypad brightness.
2. On the keypad the number 5 also has the word “Dim” on it. If you use it does it also only affect the display or does it affect the Keypad?

 

[doctordialtone]

...

Due to the new Forum software, your response is buried.

You need to type BELOW what you're responding to.

 

[eaf1956]

The keypad backlight is either On or Off. Some would say binary.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[SteveSimpkin]

I also have a SDS200 on order and should arrive in a couple of days.

There appears to be two ways from the front of the SDS200 to change the display brightness.
1. The volume/On-Off/Dimmer knob. In the demo I saw you hit “Function” then you repeatedly push on the “volume” knob and it will give you 3 levels of dimming plus Off for the display ONLY. It has no effect on the keypad brightness.
2. On the keypad the number 5 also has the word “Dim” on it. If you use it does it also only affect the display or does it affect the Keypad?

AFAIK there is no way to change the brightness level of the keypad backlight via software.

 

[stantorres]

Riddle: Why do so many posters mention that they have 2 or more SDS scanners?

Answer: You have to have two, because one of them is always out for repair.

 

[RF23]

Thank you for the quick replies Guys!

I wonder why Uniden would have two ways via the front panel to do the same thing?

Perhaps, the 5 / Dim key had been planned to effect the keypad brightness but never was implemented? Sort of like the "Keypad Lock" which appears to have not made it past being put into the display screen possibilities?

 

[maus92]

What about the dim backlight on the keypad of the SDS200? Is it a design flaw or technical issue? Some people have it and some don't.

Probably a combination of design philosophy, production variability and eyesight. Mine works fine.

 

[trentbob]

Riddle: Why do so many posters mention that they have 2 or more SDS scanners?

Answer: You have to have two, because one of them is always out for repair.

Uh oh here we go. Just kidding Stan, I got it. Read post 43. It is what it is so... You work around it the best you can to get the best results possible. We would like for every one of us who orders the radio to receive it without the hum but that's not the case whether it's new or whatever vendor sells it to you. Order from from somebody who takes returns within 30 days and make sure you end up with the radio you are satisfied with.

 

[Joe_Blough]

Assuming the backlight is ok, it will be interesting to see if the noise mitigation part is already installed. Some have found that moving it slightly or putting more pressure on it from the top cover can make a big difference in how well it works.

I read the entire thread on the hum issue. What I took away from it was that a great possibility for the reason some units have the hum and others don't is in how the top cover was screwed down. If multiple people are installing the top cover at the factory and some people are using more pressure than others, their units may not hum or it could be very faint.

Since the electronic components and design are the same between units, the one variable could be the mechanical fitting of the top cover. This could also explain why some units develop the hum after a couple weeks. Maybe the top cover was put on a little better than some but not as good as others so it didn't hum at first but after the radio heated up it expanded the top cover enough to cause the hum.

 

[maus92]

I still have a very slight "hum" after applying the Uniden part, and the software mitigation that mutes the speaker after 500ms. TBH, the hum is not an issue for me because road noise in the mobile environment is far louder than the "hum" would ever be. And in the house, the refrigerator droning is far louder than the SDS hum. Very minor issue.

 

[stantorres]

Uh oh here we go. Just kidding Stan, I got it. Read post 43. It is what it is so... You work around it the best you can to get the best results possible. We would like for every one of us who orders the radio to receive it without the hum but that's not the case whether it's new or whatever vendor sells it to you. Order from from somebody who takes returns within 30 days and make sure you end up with the radio you are satisfied with.

Just kidding of course, I'm mainly just jealous that there's people out there who can afford 3 of them! I've had Uniden scanners for 30 years and never had to return one until the SDS, so that's a pretty good track record overall.

 

[Joe_Blough]

Probably a combination of design philosophy, production variability and eyesight. Mine works fine.

Manufacturers I worked for usually had a minimum of two sources for components. That way they don't have all their eggs in one basket should something happen with one of the suppliers. They could be getting LEDs from one supplier that are slightly dimmer or brighter than from the other supplier even though the specs for voltage, current, physical size, etc meet the specs Uniden mandates.

I remember one incident where a company I worked for was getting a sub assembly (a circuit board put in with others to make up the final product) from two different suppliers. There ended up being a problem with the product. I don't recall what the issue was but what it turned out to be was that the sub assembly from one of these suppliers had the wrong resistor values in one of the circuits. They were supposed to be 1K or 10K ohms but were 100 ohms or vice versa.

So the product only had the problem when it had the sub assembly circuit board from the supplier with the wrong resistor values.

 

[eaf1956]

Riddle: Why do so many posters mention that they have 2 or more SDS scanners?

Answer: You have to have two, because one of them is always out for repair.

Well, I have 1 SDS 200 for Broadcastify 1 SDS 200 for personal use and a SDS 100 for take it and run. And none are out for repair.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[Joe_Blough]

Well, as I said before if you want to wait for all issues with the SDS 200 be be fully resolved then just don't buy it. I believe if there is to be a solution it will be a new scanner release. Just my opinion take it or leave it.

I don't believe the issues are so big as to require a newly designed scanner. The bottom line is whether or not the cost to fix them will be greater than the cost of loss sales if they don't.

The really sad thing about this is that the cause for the hum and the fix weren't discovered by Uniden but instead by an end user here in the forum who isn't even paid to do so.

 

[iMONITOR]

Thank you for the quick replies Guys!

I wonder why Uniden would have two ways via the front panel to do the same thing?

Perhaps, the 5 / Dim key had been planned to effect the keypad brightness but never was implemented? Sort of like the "Keypad Lock" which appears to have not made it past being put into the display screen possibilities?

None of those affect the keypad brightness.

 

[iMONITOR]

And in the house, the refrigerator droning is far louder than the SDS hum. Very minor issue.

Funny you mention "refrigerator droning", that's a pretty good description of how mine sounds. It's not really a hum, more like a small fan motor. Our kids are grown up and moved out and the wife and I are usually very quiet and my home office/monitoring room is dead quiet. The constant drone is really beginning to get to me.