Power turn off causing issues?

[w8prr]

I just rigged up all my scanners to ruin off a 35 amp supply.
By chance I caught a youtube video saying that if one cuts the power off of a 36 or SDS radio it can damage the sd card. Video came direct from Uniden.
Does anyone know if it would damage anything in the 996 or BCT15 radios? I had one in my truck for years with no issues, but now a little scared.
Will certainly turn off my 2 SDS200's and BCD 536 but also have 8 of the others running and is much easier to shut off power supply than each radio

Thanks for any help
Rick W8PRR

 

[hiegtx]

I just rigged up all my scanners to ruin off a 35 amp supply.
By chance I caught a youtube video saying that if one cuts the power off of a 36 or SDS radio it can damage the sd card. Video came direct from Uniden.
Does anyone know if it would damage anything in the 996 or BCT15 radios? I had one in my truck for years with no issues, but now a little scared.
Will certainly turn off my 2 SDS200's and BCD 536 but also have 8 of the others running and is much easier to shut off power supply than each radio

Thanks for any help
Rick W8PRR

It would not effect any of the non-database scanners, since that memory is not coming from the database card, but instead stored in non volatile memory, not subject to power status.

 

[buddrousa]

I have not had a problem with the SDS200 or the BCD536's as I have record turned off replay turned off and the only time the scanner is writing to the SD CARD is when I am saving programming.

 

[VK3RX]

I have a similar setup, 5 scanners powered by the one supply.

For the reason given by hiegtx the SDS200 I turn on and off manually, the others are switched by the supply.

 

[w8prr]

Thanks to all, very helpful. The video I saw said that it might not get you now, but certainly would at some time. Just turned the 536 and 3 SDS's off, will now get the rest with power supply.

Thanks again

 

[ofd8001]

I have had my 536 and now SDS 200 in my vehicle powered by an ignition switched circuit. Knocking on all wood around, I have never had a corrupt card issue. Replay/Record are set to Off (usually), I use the best cards I can find and most importantly have several spares in my glove box. No failures in 6 years. Bear in mind that SD cards are like car tires, they will wear out eventually.

 

[N9JIG]

Turning off Replay will greatly reduce the possibility of card corruption. I have had a 536 in the car for 6 years now and have never had a card corruption since.

For non-SD Card scanners like the 996 or BCT15 you can safely turn them on or off with the ignition with no problems. They may however forget lockouts and other parameters that may have changed during that power cycle, some of these items get saved when you power down the radio with the volume knob. When I have done a lot of lockouts I usually try to remember to power the radio down politely before turning off the car to save these.

 

[VK3RX]

I have replay turned off, I don't use the record function, and don't make any changes when powered up.

So I have always wondered why when powering off my SDS200 always the message "Writing to SD card" appears.

The fact that I get that message has made me wary of just cutting off the power via the DC cable rather than the on/off volume control.

 

[SteveSimpkin]

I have replay turned off, I don't use the record function, and don't make any changes when powered up.

So I have always wondered why when powering off my SDS200 always the message "Writing to SD card" appears.

The fact that I get that message has made me wary of just cutting off the power via the DC cable rather than the on/off volume control.

I *believe* that what you are seeing is the scanner writing the current lock out list and any settings that are saved between turning it off and on to the SD card. If you remove power, this write does not occur so any new changes are not saved. No harm should come to the SD card since, wilth the Replay and recording functions turned off, the SD card did not have a chance of being written to when the power was removed.

 

[buddrousa]

It is saving any changes you may have made by hand as listed above.

 

[Ubbe]

So I have always wondered why when powering off my SDS200 always the message "Writing to SD card" appears.

It's saving the current status of the scanner, even where it was in the scan cycle or search, so it would start with the exact status it had when you powered down.

If you cut the power without the scanner having time to save files to the SD card it would only loose that status information but also any changes you have done since last power off from the scanners on/off function, like which favorite lists and search ranges that have enabled and prio and CC changes and volume and squelch levels if it is a portable scanner and probably also current GPS position.

/Ubbe

 

[ofd8001]

Kind of like this: When the scanner powers up, it reads the SD card and loads the appropriate "stuff" into the scanner memory. The scanner uses that stuff during the scanning session. You may make some changes along the way, such as locking out channels, change Quick Keys from Off to On, etc.

We you do the "Polite" power down, the scanner writes the memory back to the SD card. If you simply cut the power off, the scanner is denied that opportunity to do that writing to the SD card, because it is without power to do so.

N9JIG's advice is spot on - if you want changes you make during a scanning session to be "remembered" for future sessions, do the normal power down via turn off. If you don't care, then the "plug can be pulled".

It isn't much different than working on a word document on your computer. If you type a long letter and unplug your computer, your typing may be lost. If you go through the normal shutdown process (Save, close and power down) then your work is there for the next time.