Yaesu VR5000…

G7RUX

Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2021
Messages
362
So, at a rally at the weekend I picked up a Yaesu VR5000 in very good condition for very little money which I intend to use as a monitor receiver at home, probably mainly for VHF and UHF stuff like amateur and airband radio. I’m well aware of the issues with these units regarding their HF performance and I’m not intending using it for that, on the most part. At the price I paid I’m quite happy with the deal!

Since the predominant problem with this receiver is around intermodulation I am hoping that band-specific filters will help, at least in part, as will notch filters for the local problematic VHF pager transmitters.

Has anyone put together such filters at reasonable cost, perhaps as a set of switchable filters or tunable filters for use with specific frequencies?
 

majoco

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Dec 25, 2008
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New Zealand
Hope yours hasn't got - or getting - the display "missing lines" problem - mine just sits in the bottom draw, a useless brick. "Use a computer remote" everyone says - but you need to see something on the display to make selections from the computer - impossible! If I knew anything about Arduino it may be possible to emulate the screen - but I'm having fun with an ATS25 Max at the moment.....
 

palmerjrusa

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Joined
Oct 22, 2005
Messages
1,172
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Frederick
Hope yours hasn't got - or getting - the display "missing lines" problem - mine just sits in the bottom draw, a useless brick. "Use a computer remote" everyone says - but you need to see something on the display to make selections from the computer - impossible! If I knew anything about Arduino it may be possible to emulate the screen - but I'm having fun with an ATS25 Max at the moment.....

It's probably a connection issue with the ribbon cable that's connected to the display.

If so, it should be fixable relatively easily.

Same issue appeared with my VR500.

There's a "how to fix" procedure I found for the above.
 

majoco

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Dec 25, 2008
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4,278
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Yes, I think I've probably read and seen all of those 'fixes' but IMHO the 5000 is different to the 500. I've tried running a hot soldering iron along the ribbon cable to the PC board joint at both ends and although the solder flowed a wee bit it didn't solve the problem. Every so often I dig it out and have another go but never very successful. It would be easier if you could have the screen going while prodding and poking but the ribbons aren't long enough. Pity really, as it was a very nice receiver that covered all frequencies - although the control/memory programmes that I downloaded were quite clunky.
 

palmerjrusa

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Joined
Oct 22, 2005
Messages
1,172
Location
Frederick
Yes, I think I've probably read and seen all of those 'fixes' but IMHO the 5000 is different to the 500. I've tried running a hot soldering iron along the ribbon cable to the PC board joint at both ends and although the solder flowed a wee bit it didn't solve the problem. Every so often I dig it out and have another go but never very successful. It would be easier if you could have the screen going while prodding and poking but the ribbons aren't long enough. Pity really, as it was a very nice receiver that covered all frequencies - although the control/memory programmes that I downloaded were quite clunky.

You asked Yaesu if they still repair the the VR5000?

I asked Yaesu re my VR500 and, alas, they no longer did.
 

G7RUX

Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2021
Messages
362
Hope yours hasn't got - or getting - the display "missing lines" problem - mine just sits in the bottom draw, a useless brick. "Use a computer remote" everyone says - but you need to see something on the display to make selections from the computer - impossible! If I knew anything about Arduino it may be possible to emulate the screen - but I'm having fun with an ATS25 Max at the moment.....
It doesn’t, no, and I know how to repair it if it does develop it since I have repaired a few of these in the past…it’s a pretty simple job really but required a SMT hot air station and a bit of feel.
 

palmerjrusa

Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2005
Messages
1,172
Location
Frederick
Yes, I think I've probably read and seen all of those 'fixes' but IMHO the 5000 is different to the 500. I've tried running a hot soldering iron along the ribbon cable to the PC board joint at both ends and although the solder flowed a wee bit it didn't solve the problem. Every so often I dig it out and have another go but never very successful. It would be easier if you could have the screen going while prodding and poking but the ribbons aren't long enough. Pity really, as it was a very nice receiver that covered all frequencies - although the control/memory programmes that I downloaded were quite clunky.
You asked Yaesu if they still repair the the VR5000?

I asked Yaesu re my VR500 but, alas, they no longer did.
 

d123j

Newbie
Joined
Feb 25, 2024
Messages
1
I bough one of those vr5k units circa new year hoping to get the LCD fixed but the original LCD turned out to be unfixable. I quickly look at the e-bay option of the aftermarket screen but the fact that it is freezes sometimes held me off. Then I found the link on youtube for someone who actually was able to substitute the original LCD (mentioned above). I was able to reuse that work and fix my LCD in Yeasu VR5000. In doing so I created a github project for the firmware and PCB. Here is the link to the project for those who might want to try GitHub - d123ij/vr5000_display Pictures of unit with original and fixed LCDs are below. IMGP0163 [].JPG
 

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