346XT front case cracks

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nautlynch

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I just got my parts today. It seems like the screws are a little too large or the holes are too small. *edit - hehe, or both!
 
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gewecke

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I don't own a 396xt, but in past years I worked in the plastic injection molding industry for several years and this case appears to be cast from a mold. If these are mishandled while still being hot,then this puts undo stress on the points that are on the outside edges of the mold. If these cases are deflashed while still hot,that will also cause stresses in the screw wells. Have other owners of the previous 396T had problems like these?
This definitely appears to be poor handling after being removed from the molds.

73,
n9zas
 

nautlynch

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For some reason the speaker no longer works. There is no physical damage that I see. When I use an old scanner speaker, it workss so it's not the wires.

I was wondering if I could use the old scanner speaker. It's a little larger but I can make it fit using a dremel. The 346xt speaker is 24Ω 0.5W and the old Pro64 speaker is 8Ω 0.3W
 

gewecke

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If it's out of warranty, then you can try.


73,
n9zas
 

kruser

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For some reason the speaker no longer works. There is no physical damage that I see. When I use an old scanner speaker, it workss so it's not the wires.

I was wondering if I could use the old scanner speaker. It's a little larger but I can make it fit using a dremel. The 346xt speaker is 24Ω 0.5W and the old Pro64 speaker is 8Ω 0.3W

An 8 ohm speaker will present more load to the audio amp.
I'm not sure if it will hurt it but it sure could. The overall volume level will also be lower which could be a bad thing considering these radios are not that loud to begin with. Also, you will shorten the battery life as you will crank the volume level higher to to reach your normal listening level in order to overcome the lower speaker impedance.

I think I'd order the correct speaker if it were my radio.
If you don't carry it around much, you could always use a set of amplified computer speakers plugged into the headphone jack while you wait for the correct part.
 

kruser

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For some reason the speaker no longer works. There is no physical damage that I see. When I use an old scanner speaker, it workss so it's not the wires.

Are you attaching the 8 ohm speaker to the wires that were soldered to the orignal speakers solder points for your test?
I think these little thin speakers are pretty fragile and I'd guess one of the tiny wires that runs from the backside of the solder terminal board on the speaker to the voice coil has pulled apart.

You may be able to repair it if you have a fine tip solder iron.
Look with a magnifier and you should see the super tiny wire that runs from the solder pads towards the black epoxy looking blob on the center of that little board. On mine there is a small area of exposed solder on each side of the epoxy. That is where the voice coil wires are attached. It appears the speaker has two solder points for each side. One that the white wires went too and the other is part under the epoxy with a tiny jumper connecting the two.
Try touching those two areas with the white speaker wires from the board and see if you get audio.
If so, carefully solder the white wires to the solder points partially under the epoxy glob. If you are lucky, you may only need to move one wire to that point. You should be able to see if one of the wires is missing from either of the main solder points. It may have just pushed off to the side when you removed the speaker for the case swap. These wires I'm talking about are super fine and smaller diameter than a strand of hair so they are very fragile. Easily seen with a magnifier though.

Do you have a voltmeter? Check for resistance between the two solder pads that are partially under the epoxy. That will tell you if you can repair it or not if you see resistance across those two points.

edit: after looking at this again, it appears the outer and inner solder points are actually tied together already by copper plating as part of the small board. So a repair may not be possible if the fine wires pulled away from the backside of this little speaker mounted board. Still worth looking at though.
Did that little board lift away from the speakers metal cage when you removed it from the old case? If so, the fine wires certainly pulled away from the back of the board or from the voice coil.
 
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nautlynch

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Wow, it's almost 1am. I need to go to bed...but first I must ask (probably won't hear back tonight though):
- between the terminals and the black blob there is supposed to be thin wires? So from this picture I need to solder the speaker wires onto the left and right side of the blob because the thin wires are no longer there?

edit - looking at it with a magnifying glass, I can see that there is a fine wire on the left side and on the right it is cut - the board is scratched as well.
 

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kruser

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Wow, it's almost 1am. I need to go to bed...but first I must ask (probably won't hear back tonight though):
- between the terminals and the black blob there is supposed to be thin wires? So from this picture I need to solder the speaker wires onto the left and right side of the blob because the thin wires are no longer there?

edit - looking at it with a magnifying glass, I can see that there is a fine wire on the left side and on the right it is cut - the board is scratched as well.

Yep, mine has the fine wire on both sides.
i'm not so sure it is needed though as I'd mentioned in my edit.
If your right side wire is missing, try and solder in a new one from the original solder point to the solder area that you can barely see by the right side of the black blob of epoxy. Or solder the speaker wire directly to the solder spot at the black blob on the right.
I guess you do not have much too lose so it's worth a try!

I can't even see the fine wires in your picture but the right side of the board does look scratched or cracked or something like you said so that may be the problem.
I was going to take a pic of mine for you earlier but I'd left my camera at work. Mine looks just like your picture but mine is all hooked up still.

It's almost 4 AM here! good thing I have no work tomorrow (this morning)!
 

nautlynch

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Yeah that's why I edited my post. I found the wire after I posted. I'm going to attempt to fix this when the sun rises.

I have a hard time getting off the addictive internet and it's now almost 2am. must go to sleep go to sleep (telling myself) :)
 

kruser

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I'm now thinking I recall a thread about speaker failure in the XT series portables maybe a year or less back. I don't recall the details though.
 

Aaron_199

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I have the same problem. I am only 14 though, and have no experience with radio repairs/etc. Is it diificult to replace the front case?
 

Aaron_199

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I have the same problem. I am only 14 though, and I have no experience with radio repairs/etc. Is it diificult to replace the front case?
 

nautlynch

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The hardest part is removing the glued on speaker.without damaging it

Using an X-ACTO knife would have made it easier.
 
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Aaron_199

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Not trying to be annoying or anything, but do you think it would be a good idea to try to fix it myself?. I sure as hell don't want to send it to Uniden, and wait 3 months to get it back, but I also don't want to screw it up by trying to fix it myself. Also, another question. Are there any wires that I would need to solder, etc. Is it very complicated?
 

nautlynch

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If you can remove screws and put them back, you can probably fix it yourself. If you are somewhat like my sister, who has no knowledge (more like common sense to me) on how to change to a spare tire on her car, then I don't recommend it.

Don't just tear into it, study how it's put together for each step. Just look at it for a while. I find if I look at something long enough and become familiar with it, I can usually figure out how to fix it..This isn't an electronic or mechanical repair, it's just cosmetic.
 
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GTR8000

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Removing the speaker from the old front piece is the trickiest part. It will take a good deal of patience and careful cutting with an X-Acto knife. I took my time and slowly cut away at the glue a little bit at a time until it was finally free. Then, of course, you need to hot glue it back into the new front piece.

If I had it to do over again, I would've spent a few extra bucks and ordered a new speaker. It would've been much easier and faster to just slap the new speaker in the case and solder the two leads to the circuit board.

Anyway, it's not terribly difficult, as long as you take your time.
 

awattam

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I know this thread is old...

I had my BCD396X less than 2 months and noticed the top corner was cracked and like the OP's part of the case had fallen off. I also noticed that the screw at the damaged part is missing. I found the missing plastic part and glued it back on and haven't seen a problem since. I thought I had maybe dropped it but really don't remember that.
 
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