SDS100/SDS200: Why is this happening

[hunterca]

Deleted sorry repetitious

 

[hunterca]

Look at this video this is what Paul (Upman) described back then.
(51) Uniden BCD436HP Keeps asking you to set the date and time FIX - YouTube

 

[hunterca]

I believe Upman said the radio must be plugged into external power and powered on to charge the cap. A couple of days if I recall correctly.

(51) Uniden BCD436HP Keeps asking you to set the date and time FIX - YouTube

 

[freqseeker]

This was for the BCD436HP. My 436 had this issue but it is only temporary. Couldn't afford repair and shipping charges. This scanner had an internal CMOS battery.

I should have stated that it was for the BCD436HP. I was thinking the same may apply for the SDS100.

 

[hunterca]

I should have stated that it was for the BCD436HP. I was thinking the same may apply for the SDS100.

SDS has a capacitor backup. Not battery I replaced the mini usb port. Did not a battery what so ever.

 

[tvengr]

The clock is an internal setting not on the sd card

The profile has settings for Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time which I assume are written to the SD card when you write to the scanner. If that is the case, a corrupted SD card could also cause time problems. Any changes made in the scanner menu are written to the SD card when it is turned off. A friend had no display on his BCD536HP which was caused by a bad SD card. The SD card contains all of the information for controlling the scanner.

 

[Ubbe]

When you turn off a x36/SDS scanner it writes a file to the SD card that holds the current state of the scanner. It includes where in the scan cycle it was, what scanlists where active and whatever other settings there are. It tries to read that info very early in the power on phase and if something goes wrong it doesn't even come to the place in the firmware during the startup where it initialize the display and can actually display a SD card error. Uniden haven't made enough error traps in the firmware to be able to catch and ignore all types of errors and produce an understandable error message using a default display mode.

It could have been made deliberately in this way to allow a special universal service mode SD card to be used for alignment and load firmware that then needs to bypass the normal startup process.

/Ubbe

 

[rrobinso84]

Yep, that "write memory after power is removed" is a dangerous activity and relies on some residual power being available for the complete write cycle. It is clearly a design decision that could cause many a SD card corruption. I'll bet there's a capacitor responsible for holding up the power and those can go bad, especially in older radios.

 

[dave3825]

I just spoke to Uniden and they confirmed that it does have a capacitor for the clock voltage. Since it is still under warranty I am going to send it to Uniden for repair and have them address the scanning issue also.

I cannot see how failure of the clock could cause your scanning problems.

I agree they appear to be separate problems, but they both did appear at the same time.

Still worth a shot to format the card and clear user data before sending to Uniden. I would suck to be without the scanner to only get it back with a note saying sd card was corrupt..

 

[enosjones]

I would hesitate sending uniden your SD card in unless u have some kind of backup, or backup your scanner before sending it in. I'd hate for it to come back erased... I don't usually send my SD Card in with my scanners when I send them in for repair....

 

[tvengr]

I would hesitate sending uniden your SD card in unless u have some kind of backup, or backup your scanner before sending it in. I'd hate for it to come back erased... I don't usually send my SD Card in with my scanners when I send them in for repair....

Uniden would need to check the scanner with one of their own cards and there is a good chance that they would not find anything wrong with the scanner if the card is not included. The majority of problems are caused by corrupted or bad SD cards. If you have the favorites lists in Sentinel for reprogramming the scanner, I wouldn't hesitate sending the card with it since the scanner is still under warranty. It doesn't hurt to have a second card already programmed in case there is a card failure. That is an easy way to verify that there is a card problem by swapping cards. If you have the time before the warranty expires, I would try a new SD card first before shipping the scanner off for repair.

 

[dp9821]

Update to my original post: I sent the scanner to Uniden for repair. They sent it back to me 3 weeks later with a note saying they had "repaired solder joints". It worked OK for almost 2 hours then reverted back to the original problem. I called them again and after much back and forth, they sent me a prepaid FedEx return label. Two weeks later I received a replacement scanner from Uniden, which so far is working fine. I did have to reprogram my favorites lists from Sentinel but that was no big deal. It pays to be persistent!