Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012 — Before I jump in the mobile and do some last-minute Christmas shopping for my wife, I thought I would leave a quick update regarding my Signalink USB escapades.
My Paypal refund arrived as promised, for which I am truly thankful! The seller was straight up, and I was as well. It’s good to know that not everyone on eBay treats buyers like potential criminals.
One of the parts of the refund I agreed with was the statement that if I got the Signalink USB working, I would advise the seller and pay him the value of a working interface (the seller said it was unnecessary to send it back to him).
With the refund complete, I was left wondering, “Can this thing be fixed?” While it isn’t likely that modern electronics can be analyzed and troubleshot visually, its that ingrained “old-schoolness” in me that requires disassembly of the broken/non-functional item for a visual inspection.
Not expecting to find anything out of the ordinary, I took the Signalink USB apart. The trouble was immediately apparent: two surface mount components were damaged, one was obliterated, leaving smoke and scorch marks on the relay next to it. The second surface mount component (next to the first) had its guts blown out of its package, leaving a crater in its top. I don’t know what the hell happened, but some very WRONG voltages got into this thing. I’m assuming the voltages came in via the PTT line, perhaps.
One of the chips was simply blown apart, leaving only its 3 solder tabs behind and a scorched section of PC board. What the hell did that? More importantly, if it blew both of those components, what other components were ruined?
The thought had crossed my mind to send the unit to Tigertronics for repair; of course, one can replace it for $85 via DX Engineering. How much bench time can you get for $85??
For now I’m left with a Signalink that’s little more than a parts unit. Other than knobs and case, there’s not much to use. I still want to buy another unit, but for now I’m using one of my other units. I had it paired with my Icom IC-706, but turns out it uses the same interface cable and jumper block as my FT-817 — how convenient!
Gotta run … 73.
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