SDS100/SDS200: SDS-100 Li-ion battery question

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RMason

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No apology necessary, unless you are referring to your failure to try it out first before posting! Ha!

The replay and recording functions are indeed disabled when the battery is removed. They do not function when the USB cable is used to power the unit without the battery installed.

(I just tried it out first before posting.)

IMG_80561.jpg
 

morrisr3nd

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The replay and recording functions are indeed disabled when the battery is removed. They do not function when the USB cable is used to power the unit without the battery installed.

(I just tried it out first before posting.)

View attachment 135182
Well now. Isn't that just an interesting situation. That's exactly what I read but I'm always willing to stand corrected.
 

jaspence

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Li-ion batteries do not like to be run all the way down and charged to 100%. My IC-R30 has been very good, and from the comments on the R30 post cause few problems, especially the swelling issue. The Icom IC-V86 transceiver came with a charger that can be set to avoid 100% charging with longer total battery the result.
 

n1chu

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Yep. That's me. Just got mine a week or so ago. Still learning it.
You will find there is no end to questions regarding the SDS series radios. Someone even asked if a special antenna was needed on the UHF band for DMR (digital mobile radio). Nope… RF is RF regardless of what mode is used. It’s a silly question but most here understand that ignorance is simply a lack of knowledge regarding a particular subject, it’s not stupidity. Which is a good thing because you can’t fix stupid! A lot of questions relate to “Can my scanner” do this or that? Well, did you try it? So your question usually would get a reply asking you to try it and report back with what you learned. One last thing… if you aren't getting an answer or would really like to be able to spend some time in person who knows the scanner you could try posting to the regional group for your state. Scroll down in the RR Forums topics to where you see the regional listings listed by state and ask your question there. You might even luck out and learn there is someone close by that would be willing to meet!
 

KB3BRI

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I’m going to attempt to contact uniden customer support and see what they say. It would be nice if there was some kind of aftermarket battery tag that you could stick a few aa batteries in it to power the device….idk how many it would take to supply it with appropriate power…. Either that or maybe just a standard li-ion cell…. Looking at the unication pagers, they have both li-ion and lipo.
 

KB3BRI

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For anyone interested, I did email uniden… here is what I sent them. If/when I hear back from them I will advise here.






Hello,

My name is Brian xxxxx, and I am a proud new owner of what is widely referred to as the BEST, NICEST, TOP OF THE LINE scanner on the market today, the Uniden SDS100. I have an older radio shack scanner that while it can receive Apco P25 systems it only decodes phase 1, so is pretty soon to be obsolete, and what it does decode and receive it’s pretty out of its league with simulcast systems (which is nearly EVERY radio system in my area). So, discovering i was in need of an upgrade after asking the folks at radioreference forums why I couldn’t receive a particular county, multiple people pointed me your way…. To the SDS100. Wow, what an amazing device. Unparalleled in its abilities to receive digital simulcast systems…. Naturally, as good as this scanner is, it costs A LOT. I’m not complaining…. I wanted the best, and I got the best. But, it seems nothing is perfect, and so is the case here…. While the SDS100 seems to be THE ultimate scanner, it currently has one MAJOR Achilles heel-the battery. Imagine my surprise when I’ve learned that SEVERAL people on the radio reference forums report problems with the lithium ion polymer (LIPO) batteries you supply with the scanner….You see, these batteries have the tendency to swell, and can potentially explode and cause fire if not charged or stored correctly, and while I’ve seen no reports of explosion or fire in this case, I’ve seen photographic evidence of these cells swelling and expanding to the point they are unusable…. Not only that, but they are expanding and in some cases, breaking the battery retaining clip. I personally haven’t experienced this, but it concerns me as a customer. Others have said this has been brought to uniden’s attention, but I want to bring it forward also… I have screenshots of these batteries swelling from the forum if you’d like to see them.

First, is there any official investigation/review in place of why these batteries are failing like this? Second, is there any plans to rectify this issue? Third, is there a possibility of instead using either a true lithium ion cell, or some sort of battery tray to use rechargeable AA batteries or something like that ? (I’m unsure of the power requirements of this device and am unsure if 4 aa batteries will sufficiently power this device)

Any information you’re able to provide me would be greatly appreciated….

Sincerely,
A concerned SDS100 Customer
 

David628

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The replay and recording functions are indeed disabled when the battery is removed. They do not function when the USB cable is used to power the unit without the battery installed.

(I just tried it out first before posting.)

View attachment 135182

I removed my sds100 battery and just tried the micro USB port above the standard charge port and the same message appeared. Interesting.
 

KB3BRI

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I removed my sds100 battery and just tried the micro USB port above the standard charge port and the same message appeared. Interesting.
Wonder why that is…. What’s so special about that battery? Long as it’s getting the power it needs I don’t see the issue… is it maybe a setting someplace buried in the menu?
 

David628

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Wonder why that is…. What’s so special about that battery? Long as it’s getting the power it needs I don’t see the issue… is it maybe a setting someplace buried in the menu?

Im not sure. But all other functions work normal plugged in without the battery.
 

fxdscon

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Wonder why that is…. What’s so special about that battery? Long as it’s getting the power it needs I don’t see the issue… is it maybe a setting someplace buried in the menu?
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The reasoning behind Uniden’s decision to disable certain functions when there is no battery present (or a very low battery charge) in all of their SD card based scanners has been posted quite a few times since the first Home Patrol One was released over 10 years ago. Here is a link to one of the posts from UPMan explaining the reason that applies to all SD card models.

 
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Ubbe

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It's a flaw in the design of the software. If the battery voltage are too low you cannot update the firmware or write to the SD card as it could be a too weak voltage and that could switch off the scanner during that procedure. The firmware detects the voltage and disable those writing actions when the value are too low and when battery are removed there's no voltage to read. If the firmware where modified to detect if there are external 5V present, it already knows the exact voltage from the inputs of USB1 and USB2, then it could safely continue to do write operations.

The mobile models doesn't even have a battery and you could just as easily pull out the their power plug or wall wart by mistake, so it's not a logical function to disable recording without a battery in place. Unidens firmware upgrades can always be restarted if they are interrupted and SD cards can always be formatted and used again.

/Ubbe
 

fxdscon

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It would be nice if there was some kind of aftermarket battery tag that you could stick a few aa batteries in it to power the device….idk how many it would take to supply it with appropriate power
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The amount of AA batteries required to power the SDS100 scanner would make it quite impractical to use them as a primary power source. In previous postings on the topic, it has been estimated that it would take as many as 6-8 AA cells to equal the power and performance of the Uniden battery. The SDS type scanners have much higher power requirements than similar, conventional receivers of the same size. Many folks here (including me) use rechargeable portable power/charging banks with 5V USB outputs as backup power for their SDS100 scanners.
 

David628

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The reasoning behind Uniden’s decision to disable certain functions when there is no battery present (or a very low battery charge) in all of their SD card based scanners has been posted quite a few times since the first Home Patrol One was released over 10 years ago. Here is a link to one of the posts from UPMan explaining the reason that applies to all SD card models.


But if its plugged into a 2.4 amp charger without the battery, shouldn’t that constant 2.4 Amps indicated indicate to the software that it’s getting ample charge to operate the scanner normal?
 

donc13

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Maybe a stupid question, but if the Uniden sds100 batteries are so "dangerous"... has any one of you reported this to cpsc.gov (Consumer Product Safety Commission)? They have the power to investigate and force recalls/changes.
 

Ubbe

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Maybe a stupid question, but if the Uniden sds100 batteries are so "dangerous"... has any one of you reported this to cpsc.gov (Consumer Product Safety Commission)? They have the power to investigate and force recalls/changes.
They are safe enough. No rupture have been reported and no accidents like there have been from mobile phones and hoover boards. It's just an unconventional way of building the battery that makes it more prone to failure and a short battery life, but the way of using a sealed plastic bag that can expand will handle the expansion issue in a safe way.

/Ubbe
 

Ubbe

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The amount of AA batteries required to power the SDS100 scanner would make it quite impractical to use them as a primary power source.
The small battery equals the size of three AAA batteries and rechargeable ones are 1100mAH at most. That's 1,5 hours of use. The big battery size can hold six AAA batteries, so 3 hours of use. I would prefer an angled USB connector where the cable goes alongside the scanner and use a small powerbank.

/Ubbe
 

palmerjrusa

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They are safe enough. No rupture have been reported and no accidents like there have been from mobile phones and hoover boards. It's just an unconventional way of building the battery that makes it more prone to failure and a short battery life, but the way of using a sealed plastic bag that can expand will handle the expansion issue in a safe way.

/Ubbe

Three SDS100 batteries (one small, two large) from just after the SDS100 was introduced that have been used constantly ever since and have experienced no swelling issues to date.

I set the minimum voltage to 3.6V for the low battery alert to avoid discharging to the default minimum and stressing the battery.
 

donc13

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They are safe enough. No rupture have been reported and no accidents like there have been from mobile phones and hoover boards. It's just an unconventional way of building the battery that makes it more prone to failure and a short battery life, but the way of using a sealed plastic bag that can expand will handle the expansion issue in a safe way.

/Ubbe
That would be my opinion also... They are safe, but from some of the posts here, the posters think they are in great danger.

Thus my question.... Has anyone reported this. I am guessing the answer is no.
 

KB3BRI

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Three SDS100 batteries (one small, two large) from just after the SDS100 was introduced that have been used constantly ever since and have experienced no swelling issues to date.

I set the minimum voltage to 3.6V for the low battery alert to avoid discharging to the default minimum and stressing the battery.
Just out of curiosity what is the minimum? When I went In to change this it was set to 3500mv, or 3.5
 

palmerjrusa

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Just out of curiosity what is the minimum? When I went In to change this it was set to 3500mv, or 3.5

My SDS100 is back at Uniden for repair but I think the voltage minimum alert is 3.3V.
Letting the Li-ion cell's voltage fall lower will actually damage the cell.

I did a test run early on with my SDS100 and its battery.
You don't lose much operational time if you set the minimum at 3.6V since the voltage is dropping fast at that point and going lower does stress a Li-ion cell so doing this will extend the battery's useful life.

Plenty of information on Li-ion cells and other cell chemistries here:

 
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