BC780XLT: BC780XLT issues after home lightning strike

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kruser

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Looking at the reg philips screw front..left leg 5.47 ctr 5.9 right leg 4.75 vdc
Regulator numbers are
D1667
R 0J5...i think really hard to see.
also not finding "SWB"..there is an 8 pin con at the on/off sw.

Your voltages are low.
This device is not a conventional regulator and is a transistor. It's still acting as a regulator however.

I measured mine and the center pin appears to be the supply voltage supplied to the radio from the power jack.
Mine reads 8.42 on the left leg.
11.91 on the center leg and 7.79 on the right leg.
11.91 would be correct for my power supply as it comes from a supply set right on 12.0 VDC.

Something is drawing your power supply down before it gets to the regulator being as your device is not even warm to touch.

Look at the large capacitor near the rear of the radio close to the power jack, does it look normal with no signs of bulging. You may also feel heat from this cap if it is partially shorted.
Somewhere near that cap is probably a reverse polarity protection diode that could have failed. I'd think it would be obvious though and they usually fail completely instead of partially. If the diode is shorted, it should be producing heat as well.

Try and feel components around the large filter capacitor and also around the area below the three legged device you measured.
There is another three legged device mounted on the board almost directly below the device you tested. It is also a regulator. The right leg should be near 9 VDC and the left leg should be B+ in. The ground is on the center tab and is soldered to the board for a heat sink. It's the same as the unused middle leg when looking down at it. Chances are you will also find the voltage on its left leg reads very low. It should be close to 12 VDC just like the center pin of the device you tested.

With the voltage so low, I'd think you should be able to detect heat somewhere on a component between the power jack and the device you tested or the one below that is soldered directly to the board. The device soldered to the board is marked Q2. As UBBE said, be very careful if you try and measure this device!

The large filter cap near the rear is just to the right of a small transformer. My transformer is wrapped in a red color and yours is likely the same.
I'd suspect that cap may be the problem. There is also a fairly smaller electrolytic cap mounted near the large one. Pay attention to it for heat or signs of bulging out the top as well.
I forgot to write down the number for the large filter cap but it was something like C168 maybe.
I can open mine back up easily if I can help take some readings for you. It's my only radio that I can easily access!

edit: I could not determine which wires are going to the power switch for what UBBE calls the SWB. Without that, it's just a guess if the switch is passing full power. If you can measure the voltage at your power connector with the radio on, that should tell you if the supply voltage is being drawn down before it even hits the radio or not.
The power wires to the on/off switch are in that 8 pin connector you mentioned. One in and one back out. The voltage difference between them should be minimal with the radio on if the switch is passing current correctly. That would be a point to check if you can figure out which pins the power in and out are on.
 
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bongo1

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all caps look excellent. Ran a thermal laser gun over what components visible as well epoxy and shielded areas..nothing higher than 78.7 degrees. Laser ck other side of pcb..same. Checked the bigger solder points near the power jack..nothing higher than 5.86vdc..do i dare try the original uniden cube that reads 19 vdc unloaded?
 

kruser

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Looking at the reg philips screw front..left leg 5.47 ctr 5.9 right leg 4.75 vdc
Regulator numbers are
D1667
R 0J5...i think really hard to see.
also not finding "SWB"..there is an 8 pin con at the on/off sw.

Another thing you can try if not already done is remove power from the radio and re-jack the 3 pin connector at the main board that feeds to the regulator you measured earlier.
I'd also re-jack the 8 pin connector at the main board that feeds power and control signals to the on/off switch and volume/squelch controls.
This should rule out a poor connection in one of those connectors.
 

kruser

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all caps look excellent. Ran a thermal laser gun over what components visible as well epoxy and shielded areas..nothing higher than 78.7 degrees. Laser ck other side of pcb..same. Checked the bigger solder points near the power jack..nothing higher than 5.86vdc..do i dare try the original uniden cube that reads 19 vdc unloaded?

Yes, go ahead and try the original Uniden power cube. The 780's are fairly robust so if the 19 volts you measured is high, it should not harm anything for a quick test.

If you have the solder side opened up, see if you can get a voltage reading where the power jack is. It should read at least 12 volts with the radio on.
 

kruser

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Edit..the other 3 legged..nothing higher than 5.86vdc

I'm curious if that changes when you try the Uniden power brick.

Edit: sorry, I missed where you apparently measured the incoming voltage at the PCB solder joints. So it is already low at that point which indicates something in the radio is drawing a lot of current and dragging the voltage down.

If the voltage does not return to normal with the Uniden power brick, searching for something getting warm may be your best bet.
The higher voltage of the Uniden supply may reveal the part that is the culprit by allowing it to heat hotter than it may do with the supply you are using now.

I wish there were full schematics for these radios! That would sure help with this one.
 
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kruser

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More testing..there is a solder point that is on the backside of the pcb near the power jackthat reads 12.71vdc radio off..5.86 radio on.

That test confirms something after the power switch is drawing excessive current and lowering your supply voltage.
Is this voltage reading with the Uniden power block?
 

bongo1

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Ok..original power cube has restored everything to normal..middle pin big reg 15vdc..monitoring temp reads ..so far reg warm but not hot....how the heck could this thing heal itself?
 

kruser

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Ok..original power cube has restored everything to normal..middle pin big reg 15vdc..monitoring temp reads ..so far reg warm but not hot....how the heck could this thing heal itself?

Great!!

Hard to say what originally failed and caused the odor you smelled.
It could have been a passive component like a filter cap or the reverse polarity protection diode if it exists.
The diode simply shorts when polarity is reversed and should cause a fuse to blow. If the diode burns open, you would no longer have reversed polarity protection but the radio would operate normally.

A bad filter cap could also go open and not cause a noticeable issue with the radio. Without removing and testing components, finding the original source of the odor could be next to impossible. Something tells me you probably don't want to start unsoldering components from a working radio!

Keep an eye on things after using the Uniden supply for a while. If there is a compromised component, it may show up as an odor again with the higher voltage the Uniden supply can supply to the radio.
My large regulator also runs just warm to the touch but not really what I'd call hot.
I'd think if you have a serious problem that you will smell it getting hot. I'd leave the covers open for an hour or so and if you don't notice any odd odors, write it off as fixed!
One thing you may want to do is get a new wall wart that can supply say 13.8 VDC at 750 mA or greater. Probably a supply rated at 1 amp would be fine. A regulated supply would even be better as it will always keep the supply voltage near 12 volts instead of the 19 volts you measured from the original supply.

If you are into HF radio though, most wall warts today are of the switching type and can and do emit a lot of noise across the HF spectrum. Some can even be noticed in the typical scanner bands but its usually contained within the HF bands. The original Uniden supply is a linear device and virtually noise free but I still don't like the 19 volts it puts out. At least it is dropping to 15 volts when the radio is on though. 15 volts is not bad at all.

Just keep an eye (or nose) on it for a while before you close it up. If something is failing, it should show up in an hour or less.

Glad it's back to normal!!

edit: spelling
I also forgot to mention that the power supply you have been testing with is most likely a low current device intended to slowly charge the battery pack I think you said it was part of.
If you read its ratings, you will probably find it can't put out even 500 mA which is less than the 780 needs to operate. That's why your supply voltage was so low. There is also a possibility some component was partially shorted and it finally burned open while you were doing this testing but I'd consider that a low possibility.
 
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bongo1

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Thank you forum members for your assistance...13.8 750ma in my future.
I am half tempted to run the lower voltage and run a mini usb powered speaker >speaker extension..just to run cooler..real happy up and running again.

Kruser..i have several noisy power supplies i disable before i fire up my Yaesu 1200 and then i recheck the noise floor via bandscope for other culprits...glad there are no plasma tv's around.
 

kruser

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Ok..original power cube has restored everything to normal..middle pin big reg 15vdc..monitoring temp reads ..so far reg warm but not hot....how the heck could this thing heal itself?

After looking at your replies again, there is actually a good possibility that you burned a failed component open. If I read things correctly, it looks like the power source you have been using is a high current device. I think you said it can do 17 amps which can certainly burn a semi-shorted component open!
If this did happen, I'd still guess a polarity protection diode or a filter cap in the power supply section of the 780 as the cause. Either device could be failed but the radio would still work as normal after they burned open.
If a filter cap failed, you may hear a hum from the speaker when running from the Uniden supply.
A failed protection diode would do nothing but it would no longer protect the radio from reverse polarity if you accidently hook it up reversed.
 

kruser

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Thank you forum members for your assistance...13.8 750ma in my future.
I am half tempted to run the lower voltage and run a mini usb powered speaker >speaker extension..just to run cooler..real happy up and running again.

Kruser..i have several noisy power supplies i disable before i fire up my Yaesu 1200 and then i recheck the noise floor via bandscope for other culprits...glad there are no plasma tv's around.

Glad to hear you are "in the know" about these things bongo!

If you go back to the other supply and the voltage remains normal now, a component did indeed burn open during your testing.
I'd think you would have caught a whiff of something giving up its magic smoke though.
 

UnidenSupport

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We do still repair the BC780XLT for a price of $69.95 (return shipping included) if you're interested.
 

bongo1

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Some follow up: Connected a 1200ma regulated power supply with adjustable voltage settings. 12vdc all is well..9vdc..all is still well and at the regulator is cooler than the 12v setting. Any harm leaving it at 9vdc?
 

Ubbe

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The 9 volt regulator needs at least 10 volt to operate with a stabilized voltage to the scanners voltage sensitive electronics and the backlight will not be as bright in its high setting with a lower voltage.

Leave it at 12v and all is well. I have somethinmg like 16-17 volt from my power cube during scanner use.

/Ubbe
 

bongo1

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The 9 volt regulator needs at least 10 volt to operate with a stabilized voltage to the scanners voltage sensitive electronics and the backlight will not be as bright in its high setting with a lower voltage.

Leave it at 12v and all is well. I have somethinmg like 16-17 volt from my power cube during scanner use.

/Ubbe
My neophyte thinking was lower voltage ..runs cooler...on a radio where i'm lucky it still works.
 

Ubbe

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The BC780 are one of the coolest running scanners and receivers I have. Probably because of the big box with lots of air in it and the CPU doesn't dissipate much heat compared to newer scanners. As I understand you can almost fry an egg on a SDS100 so it's lifespan will probably be much less than a BC780 that soon will be celebrating its 20th anniversary.

/Ubbe
 
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