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OE1RFC | Clemens

Some time ago this Yaesu VX8 of a friend of mine died while transmitting, no display, no LEDs, no charging light.

Last week I took it apart to see if it could be fixed.
I traced the voltage rails in the service manual, the micro controller voltage was completely dead. I suspected the LDO regulator, but it turned out to be a reverse protection diode. I don't have SMD diodes, but there was enough space to fit a similar DO diode 🎉
The VX8 is still a great radio, I also have one

The opened Yaesu VX handheld radio, just the PCB boards and power connected to it. The radio is on and in scanning mode, with a few fingers carefully holding SMD pliers to short two vias connected to the broken diode at the bottom left of the PCB .
The two radio and control PCB boards of the VX8 taken apart.
The VX8 PCB stack visible from the side. At the bottom, between the two PCBs below a black diode, a red/transparent diode in DO formfactor can be seen, which replaces the original reverse-protection diode
A picture of the again closed VX8 handheld radio with power attached, the radio is on and displays some old APRS stations in it's station list.
Gary @N8DMT

@OE1RFC Thanks for sharing pictures and your experience with this successful repair. Have 2 -DR and 1 -G amongst the family radios, and hope all keep working for many years to come. Your bravery inspires me to “just open it up and dig in” should one fail here as well. Thanks & 73.

OE1RFC | Clemens

@n8dmt I haven't heard of any other dead VX8, they seem to quite robust. But yeah, with the service manual it is not that bad, even though the PCBs definitely could need more probe points. I expected that I would need more time to find the issue, but marking possible issues in the schematic beforehand definitely payed off ;)

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