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baofeng bf888 stopped working after charge

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KK4ELO

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A friend of mine runs a haunted house. He bought 5 of these. 2 have went dead. I took a look into the radios, and i find that they were keft on while charging. I know you cant do that with some radios, is it that way with these? Coukd that be what killed them?
 

jonwienke

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I haven't had a problem doing that. It's possible that doing that long-term might shorten battery life, but it shouldn't break the radio itself.

Have you tried replacing the batteries?
 

KK4ELO

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Yeah, swapped them to known good radios, and several other batteries on bad radios. These have only been used 6 times. Both will barely blink the flashlight the second you turn them on, and you can hear a slight hiss from the speaker if you hold it up to your ear. But will do nothing else at all.
 

jonwienke

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If you've eliminated the batteries, I would contact the radio vendor to see if they will do any kind of repair or exchange.

I have 9 of the radios, and no failures so far.
 

KK4ELO

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Ok thanks. I think they got these from amazon so we will see.

Sent from my gizmobob using encription captured from my new top secret scanner.
 

Stealthguy05

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I had this happen to 2 of my radios. one of them happened when someone tried to transmit on a receive only channel using a speaker mic. It also has the slight hiss and light blip on power on. Is there a way to reset the radios or is the circuit board shot?
 

KK4ELO

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Now a third has done the exact same thing. We dont have speaker mics, or receive only channels, so that wouldnt be the issue here. Stealth have you tried to hit them with the software yet? Im also hoping there is a reset or something.
 

KK4ELO

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It says the charger output is 5 volts.. I really dont know myself. Im gonna try to hit it with the prrogramming again tonight and see if it just lost it somehow. I dont see how 3 different radios come up with the same exact problem a week apart from each other.
 

SCPD

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Is it a actual baofeng or knock off baofeng? Funny but yeah they exist. I noticed with the amazon baofengs some have bad batteries which can be from long shelf life. Noticed some have the bad chargers. Just a run of faulty batteries or chargers? I recall reading only a couple sources were verified sellers of the baofeng or now known as pofung.

As for it not holding the data you entered is is strange. I've left radios off batteries for months and theyd have the same data saved as before. Seems like a radio issue?
 

SCPD

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As for charging radios your not suppose to leave them on. I wpuld reccomend taking the battery off and only allowing the battery in the charger. This prevents that plus any surge that may occur from power outages and storms only a battery is fried not a whole unit.
 

KK4ELO

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The batteries were good to my testing. When the first radio went dead, i swapped batteries with a known working radio at the time. Now playing around with the one that died last night, i noticed that if i turn it on with it on certin channel numbers the green led will light. Turn it off and back on, no green light. Go to a different channel, green light. And so on it goes. Does have the hiss from the speaker still, but nothing works.
 

XTS3000

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While browsing through recommended tapatalk forums, it recommended a few "doomsday preppers" forums. Curious, I checked out a few. It's stunning these guys so concerned in what happens when the crap hits the fan are relying on these garbage radios for their ultimate survival communications.

Remember you get what you pay for. There is a reason a Yaesu radio costs $X and a boefang radio costs $X for almost the same features.

BTW, I use Tapatalk 99% on this forums and works great.
 

Stealthguy05

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Still no luck. The radio I have wont even be read by software. I think the board is shot.
 

preisedj

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Same Problem with Baofing 888s

I have about 36 of these radios in service for two years. I've only seen four failures over this time period, all happening to the same individual. I think he leaves the radio turned on in the charger most of the time, and does not remove it when the charge is completed. The symptoms are as described by others in this thread: Very low hissing sound only when the radio is turned on.
I've opened these radios and suspect it is due to a fried voltage regulator, but am not 100% sure. I just don't have the proper test equipment to troubleshoot this. It is definitely not the charger itself or battery.
 

khaytsus

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I have about 36 of these radios in service for two years. I've only seen four failures over this time period, all happening to the same individual. I think he leaves the radio turned on in the charger most of the time, and does not remove it when the charge is completed. The symptoms are as described by others in this thread: Very low hissing sound only when the radio is turned on.
I've opened these radios and suspect it is due to a fried voltage regulator, but am not 100% sure. I just don't have the proper test equipment to troubleshoot this. It is definitely not the charger itself or battery.

By the way, thank you for that confirmation... I'll make sure none of my 888's are left on in the charger when operating to avoid this.
 

K5MPH

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Brownsville Texas,On The Border By The Sea.
Is it a actual baofeng or knock off baofeng? Funny but yeah they exist. I noticed with the amazon baofengs some have bad batteries which can be from long shelf life. Noticed some have the bad chargers. Just a run of faulty batteries or chargers? I recall reading only a couple sources were verified sellers of the baofeng or now known as pofung.

As for it not holding the data you entered is is strange. I've left radios off batteries for months and theyd have the same data saved as before. Seems like a radio issue?
Thats funny a Knock off of a baofeng radio china coping their own stuff,i read some where that some of these radios have bad Eprom chips in them but not sure thats the problem.......
 

preisedj

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Apr 30, 2010
Messages
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I have about 36 of these radios in service for two years. I've only seen four failures over this time period, all happening to the same individual. I think he leaves the radio turned on in the charger most of the time, and does not remove it when the charge is completed. The symptoms are as described by others in this thread: Very low hissing sound only when the radio is turned on.
I've opened these radios and suspect it is due to a fried voltage regulator, but am not 100% sure. I just don't have the proper test equipment to troubleshoot this. It is definitely not the charger itself or battery.

So here is an update of my post dating back some time. After two more failures, we are pretty sure the problem is caused by a bad speaker microphone. That is the only common denominator in six identical failures out of 36 radios.
 
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