Yaesu Yaesu VR500 won’t power on

[aprilexe]

The VR500 isn’t powering on with batteries or the power adapter. With batteries or the power adapter I can see the faint squares of the lcd appear and disappear when batteries or adapter are pulled so it’s getting some amount of voltage.

Resets with batteries or adapter have no effect.
Almost like the keypad isn’t working at first guess.

 

[aprilexe]

Fixed ! Pulled the back and removed the two small screws at the bottom of the front board to give it a little lift and take pressure off the keypad. Still nothing. Held onto the top and bottom and gave it all a good twist and put pressure forward and back and it magically lit up. (Power adapter was connected)

 

[pb_lonny]

I think this is a common fault with them. I sold mine when it started doing weird things.

 

[vagrant]

Good that you got it going. It is a fun little receiver, but it needs broadcast filters inline unless one is monitoring a strong transmitter.

 

[aprilexe]

I have a second VR-500 in the cupboard with the dead pixel issue that I picked up solely for the Maldol AL-500 antenna the seller was including. I’ve looked at the fix instructions to reheat and press on the screen ribbon cable but haven’t quite been able to get the bnc retaining nut free. What would cause the ribbon cable section to delaminate from itself like that over time ? Heat ?
Thinking of preventing this from happening to the new one, somehow. A little heat sink or ventilation.

One possibility as to why the newer one wouldn’t start could be the known low battery issue where the radio powers down and writes its current state to eprom and gets stuck.