Serial Number in Sentinel

[KD0OIU]

I've looked around in the forums and could not find the answer specifically, but...

my truck was stolen last night out of my driveway. With it was my BCD436hp and icom id-5100a. I don't have the serial number for the BCD436HP in my records, but I have more than a few saved profiles in Sentinel. Is there a way to pull the serial number without having the scanner attached? like...from the profiles in my computer? I can see the display call-up that I've programmed into the startup sequence, so it only seems reasonable that the hardware characteristics are also recorded somewhere in sentinel... am I wrong?

thanks for the help,
-Scott
KD0OIU

 

[DudleyG]

If you still have the box the 436 came in, the serial number is on the outside label on the box. Also, if you added NXDN or DMR to the radio, your Uniden account has the serial number of the unit in clear text when you login and look at your scanners.

 

[fxdscon]

If you have any other SD cards that were last used in that scanner, of if you backed up the files from an SD card to your computer, look in the top level folder for the "scanner.inf" file.... the serial number is stored there.

 

[Ubbe]

so it only seems reasonable that the hardware characteristics are also recorded somewhere in sentinel... am I wrong?

You are correct. Go to Your Documents and the Uniden folder and then the BCDx36HP and profile folders. Chose the folder that has the name of the profile you used with your 436. Use Notepad or any textfile reader to look in the scanner.inf file.

Check that it says 436 at the line or use other profiles and look in the scanner.inf until you find one that contains BCD436HP and you'll find the serial number that ends with the electronic checksum.

/Ubbe

 

[KD0OIU]

Guys, thank you for the replies.

I think I've made an unfortunate mistake.

I was able to find the folder you suggest, but the scanner.ini for each profile I've saved all lists my BCD536HP and then a serial number which is probably for that scanner. I do use the same profile on both scanners, but I don't necessarily update my 536 after my 436 every time (or at least, it's not planned like that).

Am I going about this in a wrong manner?

 

[KD0OIU]

Booted up my 536 and confirmed the serial number in my profile folder matched to the 536.

 

[Ubbe]

You might have a backup somewhere. Start a dos command window by typing CMD in the search box in the windows menu. Start the cmd.exe program and type:

dir c:\scanner.inf /s

It will show where you have any scanner.inf files on your C: drive that you might not be aware of. If you have several drives, perhaps a D: drive then just replace the c: with a d: by pushing the up arrow on the keyboard and edit the command.

/Ubbe

 

[teknishun]

I've looked around in the forums and could not find the answer specifically, but...

....... I don't have the serial number for the BCD436HP in my records, but I have more than a few saved profiles in Sentinel. Is there a way to pull the serial number without having the scanner attached?.....
-Scott
KD0OIU

Did you register your scanner with Uniden after you bought it? Have you upgraded your 436HP with any of the optional
DMR, NXDN or ProVoice software upgrades? If so, you can go to my.uniden.com and login with your ID that you used
to setup the account. Once in select "All My Scanners" under My Products. The scanners you registered and their serial
numbers will be listed there. It should show you both the 536HP and the 436HP if you registered them.

 

[kruser]

Did you register your scanner with Uniden after you bought it?

Asked in post # 2

 

[KD0OIU]

You might have a backup somewhere. Start a dos command window by typing CMD in the search box in the windows menu. Start the cmd.exe program and type:

dir c:\scanner.inf /s

It will show where you have any scanner.inf files on your C: drive that you might not be aware of. If you have several drives, perhaps a D: drive then just replace the c: with a d: by pushing the up arrow on the keyboard and edit the command.

/Ubbe

Thanks Ubbe, I dug around my C:\ drive using the commands you suggested and did not come up with anything beyond the serial number for my 536. Oddly, the scanner.ini file found in 4 different folders all come up with the exact same date even thought the folder dates are anywhere from 2018 to 2020.

I did create a profile with Uniden, but appears I did not register my scanner with them. I just tried registering my 536 and the serial number doesn't fit in the box Uniden provides. too many characters.

thanks all for trying to give me some guidance here.
-Scott

 

[fxdscon]

I just tried registering my 536 and the serial number doesn't fit in the box Uniden provides. too many characters.

Take note if you are being asked for the ESN, or the SN.... they may have a different number of characters:

 

[KD0OIU]

Replace the "260" in your ESN in the scanner's info screen with the letter Z to get the serial number on the back if you can't access the rear of your scanner.

This worked perfectly, Thank you.

 

[Ubbe]

Oddly, the scanner.ini file found in 4 different folders all come up with the exact same date even thought the folder dates are anywhere from 2018 to 2020.

It's a login thing. As default your login in to your Windows are probably set to Admin, and if you set up a seperate login with a name like Scott then both logins will have their own My Documents folder. They are exact mirrors from another folder that sits under Users/Admin/Documents and Users/Scott/Documents respectivly and if you make alterations in one place it will also be altered in the other place, as it is the same physical files. The same principal with mirroring files among different folders are used in other OS's like Linux, if they have different settings depending of a user login.

/Ubbe