Supported SD cards for Whistler Scanners

[budevans]

SD Cards

AggieCon,

Here's is some information regarding SD cards. The following is a link to the Wikipedia SD card info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital

There are a lot of Fake SD cards on the market. Buy from a reputable store.

Class 2 to Class 10 will work for audio and video. Class 2 is 2 MB/sec, Class 10 is 10 MB/sec. Class 2 is more that sufficient to record audio.

SDHC:
The Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) format, announced in January 2006 and defined in version 2.0 of the SD specification, supports cards with capacities up to 32GB. The SDHC trademark is licensed to ensure compatibility.

SDHC cards are physically and electrically identical to standard-capacity SD cards (SDSC). The major compatibility issues between SDHC and SDSC cards are the redefinition of the Card-Specific Data (CSD) register in version 2.0 (see below), and the fact that SDHC cards are shipped preformatted with the FAT32 file system.

Older Windows operating systems released before Windows 7 require patches or service packs to support access to SDHC cards

MBR and FAT:
Most SD cards ship preformatted with one or more MBR partitions, where the first or only partition contains a file system. This lets them operate like the hard disk of a personal computer. Per the SD card specification, an SD card is formatted with MBR and the following file system:

Risks of reformatting:
Reformatting an SD card with a different file system, or even with the same one, may make the card slower, or shorten its lifespan. Some cards use wear leveling, in which frequently modified blocks are mapped to different portions of memory at different times, and some wear-leveling algorithms are designed for the access patterns typical of FAT12, FAT16 or FAT32. In addition, the preformatted file system may use a cluster size that matches the erase region of the physical memory on the card; reformatting may change the cluster size and make writes less efficient.

Just as an FYI: when Uniden introduced the BCDx36HP line of scanners there was a large uproar over SD card issues. Uniden eventually provided a firmware update that allowed folks to turn off the recording feature because of the complaints.

 

[AggieCon]

Uniden eventually provided a firmware update that allowed folks to turn off the recording feature because of the complaints.

What a great solution... Perfect for my discussion of the economics of scanners: http://forums.radioreference.com/ge...properly-my-scanner-thread-5.html#post2584582

I ordered this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00565TKSM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Hopefully it will work.

 

[Ed6698]

I have also had no issues using this card.

 

[budevans]

What a great solution... Perfect for my discussion of the economics of scanners: http://forums.radioreference.com/ge...properly-my-scanner-thread-5.html#post2584582 .

Yeah, fix the problem by turning off the feature.:lol:

I ordered this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00565TKSM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Hopefully it will work.

Hopefully they're not counterfeit. I picked up several 8 GB from a local store, MicroCenter over a year ago. I keep them updated as backups, just in case. So far, so good. But then again, I turned off recording.

 

[AggieCon]

I have also had no issues using this card.

Man. I don't get it. The one that won't work for me is almost identical.

​

NOTE: THE CARD IN THE PICTURE ABOVE DID NOT WORK FOR ME.

 

[Ed6698]

One thing with SD cards, with all the counterfeit stuff like this being sold online, this is one item I buy from a brick and mortar store.

 

[AggieCon]

Success! The card I ordered (http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-MicroSDHC-Transflash-Adapter-Packaging/dp/B00565TKSM) arrived today. And it works! At least it boots, boots up pretty fast, and hasn't caused any problems. I haven't done enough recording yet to comment on recording performance. The card is a "8"GB (really 7.2GB) class 4 SanDisk microSDHC card. Note that the card I received is visually different than the picture on Amazon. At any rate, I'm glad to have found a backup.

By the way, I emailed Whistler on Tuesday and never received a response.

 

[AC9BX]

I tried a several different ones. I didn't find any that didn't work with the scanner, per se. It didn't matter what size they were. They were formatted as suggested in the instructions because I used EZ Scan which handles the FAT vs. FAT32 issue on it's own. I did however find 2 SD cards that were bad, one of which is the one that shipped with the radio. They work but not reliably, errors while reading or writing, even Windows thinking the card is no longer there in my USB slot even though it was just working a moment ago. With the larger ones the radio took notably more time to start up.

 

[SCPD]

With the larger ones the radio took notably more time to start up.

Boot up .. 1 second per GB.

 

[wb0wao]

I went Friday and picked up a couple of Class 4 PNY 4 GB SD cards at Wal-Mart. Did a full format in EZ Scan - didn't work. Wiped 'em clean, used a SD card formatting program (FAT 32, 32k) - still didn't work. These were sold in a 2-pack and they are the "full size" SD cards, not the microSD cards with an adaptor. Don't buy these as they won't work!

 

[gwbaker]

Boot up .. 1 second per GB.

Is this set in stone??? I just picked up a 32 GB class 4 micro sd card and have it installed in my TRX-1. I am in the camp of, why not go big if you can, so I did. But, the 31.9 second boot time is irksome. Is there no way to speed this up? I have read all the posts here and understand that a class 10 card is not necessary, but would it not help the boot time if the read speeds are faster?

 

[AggieCon]

Tell me about it... Especially when the sirens are heading to you and you are waiting on your scanner to boot...

No joke, I actually discovered there was a fire down the hall in my apartment building from my scanner two days ago. Fortunately I had it on at the time (I normally leave it on with it recording and the volume down -- unless a power glitch turns it off). The fire alarm didn't trigger, but the scanner did the trick If I would have had to wait for it to boot, load the scanlists, etc., it would have been a substantial delay in receiving critical information.

By the way, what brand/model is the card you found that works? Post a picture if you want.

 

[gwbaker]

Tell me about it... Especially when the sirens are heading to you and you are waiting on your scanner to boot...

No joke, I actually discovered there was a fire down the hall in my apartment building from my scanner two days ago. Fortunately I had it on at the time (I normally leave it on with it recording and the volume down -- unless a power glitch turns it off). The fire alarm didn't trigger, but the scanner did the trick If I would have had to wait for it to boot, load the scanlists, etc., it would have been a substantial delay in receiving critical information.

By the way, what brand/model is the card you found that works? Post a picture if you want.

It is a San Disk that I bought at Wal-Mart. You hit the nail on the head. Last week with the 4GB card installed I was passed by 6 different deputies near my home while I went to work. I did not have the scanner on, but it was in the front seat. The boot time with the 4GB card was even long enough for me to think hurry up! I tuned in just in time to hear that a deputy was taking fire (fortunately from adequate cover) from a whacko shooting up his neighborhood with an AK. Dude killed 2 and wounded 1, and later himself.

I would have missed traffic about taking fire with the 32GB card.

 

[SCPD]

Is this set in stone??? I just picked up a 32 GB class 4 micro sd card and have it installed in my TRX-1. I am in the camp of, why not go big if you can, so I did. But, the 31.9 second boot time is irksome. Is there no way to speed this up? I have read all the posts here and understand that a class 10 card is not necessary, but would it not help the boot time if the read speeds are faster?

Yes and card speed is not a thing in these scanners .. in fact you are best to go with an old *** card rather than some hot fast one.

However .. as some have found, not all cards will work in these scanners. I have a few Sony ones that are like that .. just use them elsewhere.

 

[kikito]

I've been using this one since I got the TRX-1:

SanDisk Mobile Ultra 32GB microSDHC UHS-1 Card with Adapter, 2-Pack - Sam's Club

No problems so far.

 

[Ed6698]

I have a couple 2gb SD cards I use occasionally, scanner boots up real quick with a 2gb card.

 

[Ubbe]

My TRX-2 didn't work properly until I reformatted the SD card using SD Formatter in a seperate SD reader.

The included 4GB card works ok but the audio recordings skips a syllable once each second.
A $20 32GB SD card Lexar premium series (platinium II) HC 300x 45MB/s will not work whatever I do.
A $3 Sandisk 8GB class4 works perfect and records audio without any hickups. I can also successfully partition the card to 500MB to speed up the filesystem initilize.

/Ubbe

 

[anelson5004]

I have ordered 2 16GB Centon Class 4 SD cards. Just wanted to check and see if these will work in my TRX 1 and TRX 2 scanners?

 

[Ronaldski]

I helped someone recently that had a bad sd card in a pro 668(ws 1080) person had bought to replace a PNY 16gb long story was it didn't work as mentioned by another above. Got a sandisk same class 4 and size 16GB worked perfect.
Unless you record and listen to recorded audio get the lowest storage size. The 16GB did add several more seconds of boot up time vs. The 4GB which is also in the TRX models
.
After I thought ya gotta wonder why same size and class, one manufacturer works and the other doesn't....

 

[BrianG61UK]

Is this set in stone??? I just picked up a 32 GB class 4 micro sd card and have it installed in my TRX-1. I am in the camp of, why not go big if you can, so I did. But, the 31.9 second boot time is irksome. Is there no way to speed this up? I have read all the posts here and understand that a class 10 card is not necessary, but would it not help the boot time if the read speeds are faster?

The scanner doesn't seem capable of reading or writing any card faster than about 0.15MB/s so the class of the card makes no difference at all.