SDS100/SDS200: SDS100 Scans but no reception

[rgchristy]

I did a search here and just wanted to make sure that I didn't miss anything before I ship it back to Uniden.

SN383Z0800XXXX

Was listening earlier today and was working fine. After a while, I wasn't hearing anything, but it was still scanning. No RSSI on any trunked systems. Tried WX scan - nothing. It was unplugged and on battery power when this occurred.

It already had the cold solder joint fix by Uniden in 12/2022. When the cold solder joint problem happened, I could press on either side of the antenna or antenna adapter and it would receive. This time, nothing allows it to receive. The adapter and connector are tight. I use the factory SMA to BNC adapter and never remove it.

Here's what I did:
Tried a few different antennas, including external and handheld
Removed & replaced the adapter with two others
Looked to make sure that none of the adapter and/or antenna pins were broken/missing
Opened the case and didn't see anything loose or broken
Pulled the battery, let it sit for an hour and put the battery back in.
Removed the SD card and did the same
Reformatted the SD card, did a Erase User Data and wrote known good programming to the SD card
Made sure that the battery was fully charged
Tried with the unit both unplugged and plugged in
Turned Global Attenuation off and on
Opened the squelch all the way, received noise and it stopped scanning weather channels but no reception

It appears to be working perfectly according to the display, except for the fact that it doesn't receive any signals. It's just not acting like it did when I had the cold solder joint problem.

I just wanted to make sure that I'm not missing any troubleshooting steps before sending it back to Uniden.

I've recorded my DMR & NXDN keys and have receipts for both.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[trentbob]

I did a search here and just wanted to make sure that I didn't miss anything before I ship it back to Uniden.

SN383Z0800XXXX

Was listening earlier today and was working fine. After a while, I wasn't hearing anything, but it was still scanning. No RSSI on any trunked systems. Tried WX scan - nothing. It was unplugged and on battery power when this occurred.

It already had the cold solder joint fix by Uniden in 12/2022. When the cold solder joint problem happened, I could press on either side of the antenna or antenna adapter and it would receive. This time, nothing allows it to receive. The adapter and connector are tight. I use the factory SMA to BNC adapter and never remove it.

Here's what I did:
Tried a few different antennas, including external and handheld
Removed & replaced the adapter with two others
Looked to make sure that none of the adapter and/or antenna pins were broken/missing
Opened the case and didn't see anything loose or broken
Pulled the battery, let it sit for an hour and put the battery back in.
Removed the SD card and did the same
Reformatted the SD card, did a Erase User Data and wrote known good programming to the SD card
Made sure that the battery was fully charged
Tried with the unit both unplugged and plugged in
Turned Global Attenuation off and on
Opened the squelch all the way, received noise and it stopped scanning weather channels but no reception

It appears to be working perfectly according to the display, except for the fact that it doesn't receive any signals. It's just not acting like it did when I had the cold solder joint problem.

I just wanted to make sure that I'm not missing any troubleshooting steps before sending it back to Uniden.

I've recorded my DMR & NXDN keys and have receipts for both.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Rich

Sorry to hear this Rich, when something like this happens the usual suspects are bad card or csj. Did you put an entirely new card in the radio?

If it is csj it wouldn't be the first Uniden repair that failed. According to your serial number it was manufactured in 2020, it looks like you have at least four numbers at the end so it wasn't one of the first off the line of 2020.

Good to save keys, in case they replace the board.

I never had the csj issue and I have one of the first few hundred off the line in 2018. I know there are those out there who have had to repair more than once.

I always felt there should be a repair campaign where Uniden fixes it for free, along with rotary knob issues, no matter how old your radio is and how many times it has to be done but.. hope you get some answers from others here that help and get you up and running.

 

[rgchristy]

Sorry to hear this Rich, when something like this happens the usual suspects are bad card or csj. Did you put an entirely new card in the radio?

If it is csj it wouldn't be the first Uniden repair that failed. According to your serial number it was manufactured in 2020, it looks like you have at least four numbers at the end so it wasn't one of the first off the line of 2020.

Good to save keys, in case they replace the board.

I never had the csj issue and I have one of the first few hundred off the line in 2018. I know there are those out there who have had to repair more than once.

I always felt there should be a repair campaign where Uniden fixes it for free, along with rotary knob issues, no matter how old your radio is and how many times it has to be done but.. hope you get some answers from others here that help and get you up and running.

Thanks Bob. That's why I posted here, just to make sure that I cover all of the bases.

I didn't think of replacing the SD card with another one, so I will give that a shot.

I didn't think that it was csj again, because it didn't act like the first time. But hey, you never know. I was wondering if there is an internal board that could go bad that would cause the same issue.

 

[n1chu]

I always check to see if it hears the weather channels when the radio has been quiet for a while. But that’s on both of my SDS200’s. It’s never happened with my SDS100. I’ve got one of the first production run SDS100’s, never experienced the csj.

The SDS200’s both loose audio for some unknown reason… not all that often but on occasion. I run one in my vehicle and one at home. When this first started I noticed it with the vehicle radio. Thinking it had to do with cold weather I swapped it out with the house radio. But that one also started to act up. A simple rebooting of the radio brought it back on line. So, before I turn it off and back on, I check to see if I can hear the weather channels. If I have audio I just resume scanning. If not, I reboot. I’ve posted this before and have been advised to replace the SD cards, which I did but it still happens. Uniden doesn’t have any history (that I am aware of) concerning the issue so I decided not to send the radios in for a fix. There is one thing I haven’t tried as yet because I’ve grown to accept this and go through the quick audio check described above and power down and then back up… that is a complete reprogramming of my “code plug”. When I tried new SD cards if loaded them up with the same programming I had saved from the old SD cards… so, it could be a quirk in how the old programming was compiled? So far, just too lazy to give that a try.

But it brings up the question… when you have the problem, is it intermittent? Did you check the weather channels to see if it could hear anything? And does rebooting the SDS100 fix it? (I never thought to swap out the SD card from the SDS100 to the SDS200’s, but while writing this, I think I will try it. It would determine if my problem is with my program and not the suggested replacing the old SD card with a new one, as many have suggested.)

 

[rgchristy]

I always check to see if it hears the weather channels when the radio has been quiet for a while. But that’s on both of my SDS200’s. It’s never happened with my SDS100. I’ve got one of the first production run SDS100’s, never experienced the csj.

The SDS200’s both loose audio for some unknown reason… not all that often but on occasion. I run one in my vehicle and one at home. When this first started I noticed it with the vehicle radio. Thinking it had to do with cold weather I swapped it out with the house radio. But that one also started to act up. A simple rebooting of the radio brought it back on line. So, before I turn it off and back on, I check to see if I can hear the weather channels. If I have audio I just resume scanning. If not, I reboot. I’ve posted this before and have been advised to replace the SD cards, which I did but it still happens. Uniden doesn’t have any history (that I am aware of) concerning the issue so I decided not to send the radios in for a fix. There is one thing I haven’t tried as yet because I’ve grown to accept this and go through the quick audio check described above and power down and then back up… that is a complete reprogramming of my “code plug”. When I tried new SD cards if loaded them up with the same programming I had saved from the old SD cards… so, it could be a quirk in how the old programming was compiled? So far, just too lazy to give that a try.

But it brings up the question… when you have the problem, is it intermittent? Did you check the weather channels to see if it could hear anything? And does rebooting the SDS100 fix it? (I never thought to swap out the SD card from the SDS100 to the SDS200’s, but while writing this, I think I will try it. It would determine if my problem is with my program and not the suggested replacing the old SD card with a new one, as many have suggested.)

I just replaced the SD card, no change. I'm pretty sure that the previous programming stored on my pc is good. I didn't read from the scanner and then write to it. I used the most recent prior known-good programming. That programming worked until the reception stopped. I guess I could start with a blank code plug, but I don't think that would affect weather reception. I could be wrong.

Not intermittent. Since the problem started there has been no change. I have audio, but no reception. If I zero out the squelch while scanning or in WX operation scan, I have sound, but no reception. Even when it stops on our local weather station due to zero squelch, there is no reception, just noise.

I've rebooted numerous times with no change.

I didn't want to try out swapping SD cards between SDS100 & SDS200 until I know if is ok to do that or not. I'm trying not to have two dead scanners.

 

[n1chu]

Swapping out the SD cards between a SDS100 and SDS200 will have no adverse affects.

 

[rgchristy]

Swapping out the SD cards between a SDS100 and SDS200 will have no adverse affects.

I swapped out both cards. Both cards work fine in the 200 and nothing in the 100.

The other thing that I thought of was trying a SMA antenna without the adapter, but no luck.

I didn't drop it either. It was just sitting in the stand minding it's own business....

Since I need to use it on Friday, there must be some part of Murphy's Law that applies to this scenario...

 

[RandyKuff]

Do you have any headphones you can plug in to it to work the contacts...
Maybe an oxidized connection on the headphone jack not letting the speaker connect corectly ...

 

[rgchristy]

Do you have any headphones you can plug in to it to work the contacts...
Maybe an oxidized connection on the headphone jack not letting the speaker connect corectly ...

Just tried that. I have audio through the headphones when plugged in and the speaker when not. Audio noise comes through on squelch set to 0 or 1. Still no reception.

 

[nessnet]

rgchristy:
"When the cold solder joint problem happened, I could press on either side of the antenna or antenna adapter and it would receive. "
This sounds like it was a bad antenna cold solder joint.

The "CSJ" that has plagued some Unidens - wasn't it an internal PCB issue?
Completely different issue than a bad antenna solder joint?

Another trip to Uniden.

 

[RandyKuff]

Send it back....
The bummer is you have to pay shipping again to send it back again...
That suck's...

 

[tvengr]

What is your RSSI value showing? It usually stays at -40dbm with the CSJ problem.

 

[rgchristy]

rgchristy:
"When the cold solder joint problem happened, I could press on either side of the antenna or antenna adapter and it would receive. "
This sounds like it was a bad antenna cold solder joint.

The "CSJ" that has plagued some Unidens - wasn't it an internal PCB issue?
Completely different issue than a bad antenna solder joint?

Another trip to Uniden.

That's what the repair slip showed. To what you were saying, it could be possible that they categorize both issues as a "cold solder joint" repair. Not sure.

 

[rgchristy]

Send it back....
The bummer is you have to pay shipping again to send it back again...
That suck's...

Agreed. The worst part is that I really needed it for this Friday going up to JFK again. It's our go everywhere scanner in the car. I'll be taking my TRX-1 and WS1080 as a backup.

Last trip a few weeks ago to JFK, we heard the police shut down the Belt Parkway due to an accident well before it made a traffic report and were able to detour accordingly.

 

[rgchristy]

What is your RSSI value showing? It usually stays at -40dbm with the CSJ problem.

Nothing at all. With the CSJ problem, I could press against the antenna connector and/or antenna and the RSSI would go up and down.

The other thing that worries me, is if I send it up there and it starts working again for them... At least with the CSJ problem, I could replicate the problem and knew with some certainty what it was. We'll see.

 

[rgchristy]

The other thing that I forgot to mention is that I haven't installed the "Waterfall" firmware or upgrade.

Here's mine currently:
Main: Version 1.21.00
Sub: Version 1.02.01

Can or should I reflash the firmware?

 

[rgchristy]

Ok, here's the latest:

I checked the firmware version, went back into WX Operation scan and now the scanner is working again!

I'm thrilled, but...very puzzled...

 

[rgchristy]

And....it's dead again.

I had it running since it started working. Went in to turn off a few favorites quick keys, backed out, let it scan...and dead again.

Reflash the firmware? Can I do that? Can I reflash it back to my current version (see above)?

 

[nessnet]

And....it's dead again.

I had it running since it started working. Went in to turn off a few favorites quick keys, backed out, let it scan...and dead again.

Reflash the firmware? Can I do that? Can I reflash it back to my current version (see above)?

I'd be very surprised if it was firmware related.
My bet is on a CSJ/thermal issue - heat (expansion/contraction) certainly will cause an 'iffy' solder joint to be intermittent.
Or - a inter board ribbon cable not connecting properly.

 

[JoeBearcat]

I agree with the thermal issue, but I bet it is on the antenna connection.