XTS2500 PARTS / REPAIR NEEDED

[havmedic26]

I have an XTS2500 with 2 broken flex connectors. The flex cables may or may not be damaged also. Does anyone have access to those parts to sell or can anyone repair the radio?

Thanks,
JT

[d119]

Whew... That's ugly!

I'd suggest a trip to the depot to get this thing straightened out... Replacing those connectors is next to impossible due to the tolerances involved.

I don't even want to know how that got that way... Someone who did something they shouldn't have, clearly...

[mancow]

Is it intermittent enough to atleast read it or does it not communicate at all? I assume the latter.

[abbylind]

It appears that someone used gorilla glue or super glue on that flex to hold it down..ugh!

Fowler

[kotaguchi]

Even if you can get the ZIFF connectors for the board,it will take a very good hand solder experienced person to use a heat gun or Pace Heat wand,plenty of flux and good pair of tweezers to heat the part and remove the older connector and then while the pad is warm,to drop the new connector on the spot and hand solder the pins on the lands pads.

Those small pads are very delicate and any heat can lift the pads of the pcb assembly.Once a pad is fully lifted,the board is scrap.pad repair is not cost effective on that board.

I have done it in the past in my past job but its a pain in the ass.

The introduction of"GLUE"does not make it easy either.

[tvsjr]

Depot it or replace the board. Not worth the time required to fix.

[MTS2000des]

depot may not flat rate it with that redneck repair! I've seen them revert to t & m on radios with this kind of improper repair, citing physical damage.

[K8TEK]

Acetone should dissolve that glue no problem. As far as tolerances, apparently some have never attempted to work on a 48 pin TSOP chip. Those have about the same pitch. Those connectors are cheap and very resilient to heat.

Whoever did that needs beaten.

[gopher]

thats is absolutely horrible, whoever did that should be fired. Its not epoxy is it?
if you decide a DIY repair, soldering those is not as hard as it looks. a small tip and a steady hand will work fine.
if the acetone dissolves the glue, use hot air or low temp solder to blob off the connector. a fiberglass brush to clean up the contacts nice hopefully no lifted pads.

http://www.molex.com/molex/products/gro ... l=PRODUCTS

I have a cable you can have for free

[havmedic26]

The radio communicates perfectly with everything except the display and the keyboard as I recall. It takes a flash, cps programming, tx, rx, etc. The "repair" was done by a co-worker who said he had fixed them before. That is what I got back. I do believe it is Gorrilla glue or some reasonable facsimile. epoxy would be a darker color. He indicated that he was trying to glue the arm of the connector back in place. I could easily replace the connectors if I could find the parts. The cable would be very helpful though. I am in the lookup - K9WFD

JT

[cbus]

WOW, what a terrible repair!.

[W6WAW]

At times, panter or panter88888 (the same person) on ebay has had these connectors available. He doesn't list them, but you could try contacting him directly.

His price was quite reasonable. As I recall, it was something like $5 or $7 for a set of both of the connectors. I would suggest buying more than one set. You can pass the spares on to others if they aren't used as the shipping cost will be more than the cost of the parts.

The connector may well be available directly from MOL, if you can get the correct part number.

The radio can be fixed by someone with a hot air rework station -- or someone skilled in working with a small iron. Just be careful that you know your tech and his/her level of skill.

You may need to replace the flex, given the picture but you should be able to restore the radio to working condition.

[tvsjr]

I can think of other non-radio uses for the soldering iron and hot-air reflow station on this project... like convincing a "cow-orker" that he is NOT a radio tech and should NEVER disassemble one in the future...