SDS100/SDS200: **SAFETY ALERT** SDS100 battery severely swelled

pb_lonny

Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2012
Messages
2,032
Location
Tasmania
Tell me again why these batteries are better than good old AA's, even if we need to charge / swap them more often...
 

mule1075

Member
Feed Provider
Joined
Jan 20, 2003
Messages
3,983
Location
Washington Pennsylvania
Tell me again why these batteries are better than good old AA's, even if we need to charge / swap them more often...
In all reality that is a question that cannot be answered. Go back to the 100-200 xlt models some people loved them and some hated them with the battery packs. The same with most uniden handheld scanners to be honest every higher end scanner had a battery pack of some sort until the 246t. Again it was Uniden's decision to make the sds100's battery this way do I agree with it not really but it is what it is. So again the question really cannot be answered.
 

wb4sqi

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Mar 7, 2003
Messages
464
Location
Cincinnati, OH
Tell me again why these batteries are better than good old AA's, even if we need to charge / swap them more often...

As mentioned above you would need 8 AA cells rated at 2500 mah each in a series parallel configuration to get 6v at 5000 mah, less than the new large battery rating.

Because of the electronics overhead I believe Uniden selected the largest battery that would give users somewhere between 6 and 8 hours of useful life. You can’t do this with a AA pack unless you want to double the size of the radio.

Turning off that beautiful color display when scanning is good battery management. Leave it on full time and see what your battery life is like.

If you could somehow fit 3 AA cells to this radio your useful scan time would likely be under 2 hours. I get somewhere between 3.5 and 4 hours with the small battery, I would hate to be limited to even less.

The hobby has reached a point where we need the computing horsepower to monitor all that we want so the trade off is more battery capacity. Lithium technology is currently the only means to get there.
 

sparklehorse

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 15, 2003
Messages
1,214
Location
Portland, Oregon
Virtually all Ham and commercial handhelds have employed rechargeable lithium packs for quite some time now. Ten years at least, probably longer. They hold a lot of energy for their size and weight, recharge fairly quickly, don’t suffer from memory effect, last for 300 charge cycles, and with proper circuitry are quite safe. Which actually begs the question of why Uniden didn’t adopt lithium technology much sooner.
.
 

mule1075

Member
Feed Provider
Joined
Jan 20, 2003
Messages
3,983
Location
Washington Pennsylvania
Which actually begs the question of why Uniden didn’t adopt lithium technology much sooner.
.

You answered that question with the start of the post. Amateur and Commercial handhelds are going to sell in far more numbers than a scanner. Bottom line i am guessing was cost now with the SDR technology standard AA batteries just won't cut it. So more than likely rolled the battery into the price. This is just my opinion though.
 

batdude

Florida Db Admin / Florida Forum Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Jul 29, 2002
Messages
1,574
Location
East Central, Florida
And since the potential problem with the battery is out side the unit everything you posted is completely incorrect. Do you have inside information that the battery they chose was by the lowest bidder? If you do please let all of us know.

you must have missed that two letter word at the beginning of my post.... read it again.
 

KK4JUG

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 13, 2014
Messages
4,377
Location
GA
So how do you know from your statement IF sounds like you made a GUESS unless you work for Uniden and know something we do not know.
Don't waste your time. No one took it serious.
 

seth21w

Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2010
Messages
1,017
Location
Somewhere monitoring the air.
Lipos are much better and safer than AA batteries and last 2 to 3 years of every day use if it is good quality cells, the question is where did uniden source there lipos from where they are swelling up after only 6 months? Also lipo is not expensive, just take baofeng for example radio uv5r is 30 bucks and the battery will last 3 years and never swell!
 

WeBeCinYa

Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2009
Messages
432
Location
NC
What’s more frustrating is the small battery (proprietary to Uniden) is not available to purchase from the manufacturer. This is nuts. I only use the smaller batteries and if I should need another because of swelling well, I’m forced to go to the larger one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

KR7CQ

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 20, 2013
Messages
984
Location
Phoenix
Lipos are much better and safer than AA batteries and last 2 to 3 years of every day use if it is good quality cells, the question is where did uniden source there lipos from where they are swelling up after only 6 months? Also lipo is not expensive, just take baofeng for example radio uv5r is 30 bucks and the battery will last 3 years and never swell!

Is there any history of the cheap Baofeng batteries swelling?
 

KR7CQ

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 20, 2013
Messages
984
Location
Phoenix
What’s more frustrating is the small battery (proprietary to Uniden) is not available to purchase from the manufacturer. This is nuts. I only use the smaller batteries and if I should need another because of swelling well, I’m forced to go to the larger one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Not continuing on with the smaller battery as an option baffles me. Some people like myself who use the extra battery / external charger strategy would prefer the smaller form factor...swapping out batteries takes what 30 seconds?

I really wish Uniden had at least asked the vendor to produce a batch of the smaller batteries while they were still jigged up for production on those batteries.
 

mule1075

Member
Feed Provider
Joined
Jan 20, 2003
Messages
3,983
Location
Washington Pennsylvania
Not continuing on with the smaller battery as an option baffles me. Some people like myself who use the extra battery / external charger strategy would prefer the smaller form factor...swapping out batteries takes what 30 seconds?
In all honesty I thought the same way about the small battery and door. After thinking about it and as they sent a new big battery and door out it would not be cost effective or beneficial for them in the long run to continue the marketing of the small battery. Just my take and YMMV.
 

KR7CQ

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 20, 2013
Messages
984
Location
Phoenix
In all honesty I thought the same way about the small battery and door. After thinking about it and as they sent a new big battery and door out it would not be cost effective or beneficial for them in the long run to continue the marketing of the small battery. Just my take and YMMV.
I can see that side of it. Ultimately it does save money to just have one battery, and they have to budget dollars like everyone else.
 

KevinC

The big K
Super Moderator
Joined
Jan 7, 2001
Messages
12,386
Location
Home
Top