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Fixing a Baofeng Charger

Dec 28 | 3 minutes read
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I’ve always joked that there’s a 50/50 chance if I try to fix something that I will fix it or break it. “Fix it or break it trying” is usually the mantra that goes along with this. I realized this year that this motto is holding me back. Why not try for a better percentage? So, I started keeping track of the things that are “Fixed” and the things that are “F*cked”. FUBAR if you will. I have to say that I’m actually rather pleased, I’m at about 80% now, but I need a larger sampling. I’ve urged my friends to give me their broken items that they would probably throw away and see what I can do with them.

More on this process later. I will be tracking my Fixed or F*cked success/failure.

In the process, my own stuff is breaking too. I have a Baofeng charger that decided to die on me. I traced it to the DC adapter, that was also not lighting up.

So I opened it up and to my surprise the fix was simple: one of the power lines had separated from the plug connector. This seems simple enough of a fix, but proved to be challenging as the solder did not want to stick to the ac plug connector, at least not in time enough for me to not melt the connector. My soldering skills are still pretty low. I did, however learn a neat trick where I can cut a piece of solder to have a clump drop on the solder point. I’ve probably seen this somewhere, and it never stuck. It will now.

The adapter is fixed and charging the radio now.

Alt text Well that was pretty obvious.

Alt text I like how the green tape makes it look like it’s in surgery. It was hard to see where the the solder point was.

Alt text Well that’s not going to fit into a wall socket! Once you start applying heat to the socket metal, you may melt it and easily push it out of place. Push it back.

Alt text So, I didn’t realize there was a screw holding this together, hidden under the label. I broke the original plastic when I opened it up. Luckily that is all that I broke. I was able to find another screw to do the job.

Alt text We have the right voltage! Make sure you have the right voltage before plugging it back into your device.

Alt text Happy radio.