I’m off out on a walk today and was hoping to take my Youkits HB1B CW transceiver with me. However, this will not be the case as it won’t power up! Well, it will power up - but only from an external supply.
The normal charging method doesn’t appear to work either - the light on the charging unit would normally change colour once complete, but it never changes colour now.
I can only assume there is a problem with the internal R9411 lithium battery pack, or the connection to it.
If the charging unit goes through the rig to the battery (i.e. you don’t unplug the battery to charge it), check for a dry solder joint under the board where the battery plugs into. This looks like a 3-Cell LIPO - is the charging done through the same lead as connects to the rig - normally there would be a separate lead, I would have thought, but your picture doesn’t show one.
If you can take the battery out of the rig and charge it on its own, this would point to dry solder joint in the rig. If it doesnt charge outside of the rig either, then it sounds like a dead cell unfortunately.
Put the battery pack on a fixed external load (resistor or another radio) and monitor the voltage for a few minutes, that will tell you if the battery is any good.
Doubt its a “dry joint” modern reflow techniques are very good. More likely something may have failed in the charging circuit.
Chinese lithium batteries don’t last for ever - it’s probably that. I had to replace the one in my Sark 100 antenna analyser at the weekend as it was no longer holding a charge.
Sorry to read of your problem Tom I have 2 sets of the batteries for my HB1B rig and they both are fine at this stage. I took them out from inside the rig I did not like them being that close to the circuit board.
I made up a lead to charge then externally from the radio still using the charger that came with the rig.
Thanks Richard. I didn’t want to ask you to look at it as you are working all hours trying to run a business connected to portable radio. It doesn’t seem right to ask for favours for mates…
However, when you offered, that was an offer I couldn’t refuse. Watching you diagnose the problem in seconds and fix it in minutes was like watching an obscure movie that I didn’t understand. In a foreign language without subtitles.
Thank you for accepting your recompense in Wetherspoons rather than a “higher class” establishment.
I experienced the same failure symptom. It took me a while to determine failed component. It is external power connector J1. Failure description - flexible contact does not make a connection to the fixed contact. There is a gap between two contacts. You will find picture below. Connector replacement fixed the problem.
