So unfortunately the battery on my SDS 100 swelled up and blew battery cover off. Now I'm a little leery of getting a new battery for it and was wondering if there's any way to use the replay feature without the battery. I use athe scanner mainly as a desktop scanner so I can't really justify the risk of a new battery. If I want to go mobile with it I have an external battery pack I can plug the scanner into. Thankfully I was home when it happened and there was no fire no damage to the scanner other than the broken battery clip. Thanks
SDS100/SDS200: Is there any way to use the replay feature on the SDS 100 without the battery?
- Thread starter sunnydog1
- Start date
jtwalker
Member
No. Replay & record require a battery, with sufficient charge level. You could connect the scanner to a Win pc running ProScan and record on the pc, without needing a battery in scanner.
Ubbe
Member
Yes.
SDS100/SDS200: - SDS100 Battery Hack for Record/Play
i do agree PGH, but when it comes to fire i like to re-think things. and a very expensive scanner could be added to the cost. years ago i did use some 9 volt batteries so i could grab a crystal scanner and still hear stuff for a few minutes as i got into my car. they would got quite hot, but...
/Ubbe
AvidHiker
Member
I'm fairly confident that folks who are having these battery problems have the scanner set to charge while on (maintaining a constant SoC of 100%). This can not only cause swelling problems, it's also really bad for battery longevity. I've never had a battery swelling issue and run my scanner off USB power 90% of the time. What I do differently is I charge the battery to around 4V (around 75% SoC) and then change the "charge while on" setting to off.
Ubbe
Member
No, people have had the battery stored externally without any charge and it still expanded. With these kind of battery types it is important to balance the cells, so that they have the same charge, but Uniden have its three cells connected in parallel, making it impossible to balance them. One cell can be constantly over charged and another under charged.
/Ubbe
Thank you! Glad I’m not the only one to realize this. All of my handheld scanners, and HT’s when plugged in/power on are never charging for this exact reason. The only time I charge is when I let ‘em get low.
AvidHiker
Member
Interesting, well, I continue to believe what I'm doing is better for the battery regardless. From what I've read, the guys on various RC hobby forums have also found their LiPOs have a tendency to swell when stored above 4V or so (some even have a built-in BMS that will automatically discharge the cells after a period of time).
Ubbe
Member
It is. But for scanner batteries you'll need them to be fully charged so you can take the scanner with you at any time and expect the battery to keep the scanner running for more than a couple of hours. As it only charges with 1/10 of it's capacity it takes a long time to charge compared to R/C models where you can charge at 1/1 or even 2/1 and then charge time doesn't matter much and you can keep the cells at 30% when not in use.
LiPO batteries for R/C models require more care, not storing them fully charged and so on while the Li-Ion battery in SDS100 are more forgiving and not needing that kind of care, if its quality are good.
/Ubbe
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2010
- Messages
- 45
My SDS100, which I have had for nearly two years, is always plugged in, is set to charge while on, and the battery is fine... no swelling, no decrease in operating time... works just like it did when it was brand new.
If you use it mainly as a desktop scanner, consider using the other jack to power it and not the charge jack when not recording.
I will use that other power jack when I'm at home doing long term listening.
Use the charge jack to program the scanner and to charge before using in the field.. But not both at once.
You would need to charge the battery once in a while to use the record feature, this would not need to be a continuous charge.
Set up a display option to keep track of the battery level so you don't let it die and corrupt the SD card.
I will use that other power jack when I'm at home doing long term listening.
Use the charge jack to program the scanner and to charge before using in the field.. But not both at once.
You would need to charge the battery once in a while to use the record feature, this would not need to be a continuous charge.
Set up a display option to keep track of the battery level so you don't let it die and corrupt the SD card.
Ubbe
Member
It automatically disables the recording feature when the battery goes dangerously low in level, so shouldn't corrupt any files due to the battery dying.
/Ubbe
/Ubbe
