Sp50 charger / contacts issue

[mbnv992]

I know these are cheap throw away radios at this point, but I got in a UHF 10 channel ( tall ) Sp50 in mint shape, plus the charger, wall wart, antenna for $20 bucks shipped.

Got the radio in and it programmed up fine. However - on both my slow and rapid charger, the battery will not charge on it IN the radio. On the slow charger when you put the radio in it, the red light doesn’t come on at all. When you drop it in the rapid charger, the ( orange ? ) light just barley comes on but when you press the red “fast charge” button - the battery light shuts off.


I thought it was a charger issue but I put another Sp50 of mine in and the charger works fine with it.

So - I took out the battery of the new radio and tried charging the battery itself and it works great. Anyone ever had this issue on a specific sp50 radio ( basically - it will not charge with the battery IN the radio - only when the battery is out of the radio ).

Bad housing contacts with the charger ? The contacts on the side of the radio also look like new so I’m stumped. I suppose taking the battery out of the radio to charge it isn’t too big a deal but I’d much radio have it charge IN the radio so I could just dump it all on the charger without taking the battery out of the radio to charge it.

 

[petnrdx]

Most of those radios had a diode in series with the side charging contact.
Some had a fuse.
Probably blown fuse or fried diode.
Or just could be broken solder joint.
Pop the battery tray out and take a look.

 

[mbnv992]

Seems the moron ( me ) had the battery installed the wrong way. I bought a 2200MAH battery from an aftermarket supplier and they installed the sticker that says “this way up” backwards so it wasn’t charging in the radio.

Picture of the battery is below here ( except they put the sticker on the opposite side of the battery ).

So - now the radio has another issue - the volume pot is shot ( it gives a super high squeal at any volume setting then just goes completely quite almost to the point where you can’t hear any audio ). This does it with all of my fresh Sp50 batteries I have. So I can toss this one in the trash heap now.

 

[petnrdx]

If memory serves me, that full volume thing can happen when the volume pot solder pads get broken.
That also happens when the pot gets broken by hitting the top of the volume control and breaking the pot inside.
Dropping them and having them land on the volume knob will do it.

 

[mbnv992]

Yep it was the volume pot issue. Which is odd since this radio looks like it’s hardly been used. Not a mark on the case. Oh well. The seller said he’s just gonna send me another one free of charge.