[TenTec] Orion 565 doesn't work anymore.

[Gary Follett]

The recommendation to recap the A9 board is still a good one.

I have personally witnessed and Orion operating correctly sometimes and not other times and completely repaired the radio by replacing those capacitors.

The reason this is so important in this model is that the 5 volt logic power supply on the A9 board is a switching supply. If a capacitor in that supply is defective (either low in value or showing leakage) the switching supply carries  lot of noise, and can actually be quite low in voltage  which really confuses the CPU during boot cycle and unpredictable things happen.

Gary

W0DVN

> On Dec 16, 2019, at 1:05 PM, Enzo via TenTec <tentec at contesting.com> wrote:
> 
> Thank you all for the quick answers!
> 
> This evening when back home, I was ready to open covers and take a look inside the Orion, but before doing that, I switched it on and, with my surprise, the noise heard from the speaker was different. So, after having set the correct display contrast, I tried to listen to the 20m band it was busy! Then, I tried change the band, mode, transmission... the Orion seems fully alive again! Nothing has been changed from yesterday, but today it works. Since I don't believe in miracles, I wonder what went on? I'll check it in every function, but it seems fine.
> 
> 73 de Enzo, IK3SWB
> 
> Il 15/12/2019 21:27, Bill Cotter ha scritto:
>> Enzo,
>> 
>> My Orion-II had exactly the same symptoms, on a couple of occasions. The master resets helped for a while, then the same problem came back. Looking at the DC power cable connector, it was fine. So, I opened it up.
>> 
>> The first thing I did was to replace ALL the electrolytic capacitors on the A9 power supply board with high-quality 105C capacitors. I then checked both batteries (CPU & AT), and replaced them. The last thing I did was to DeOxit ALL connectors in the radio (quite a job). It has never had a problem since.
>> 
>> 73 Bill N4LG
>> 
>> 
>> At 12:10 PM 12/15/2019, you wrote:
>>> Hallo everyone,
>>> 
>>> I'm a happy owner of a Orion since 2005. Today, while it was transmitting my home energy was suddenly interrupted. After switching the RTX  on, it started behaving in a strange way: both VFO seems ok but no band reception; only the buttons around the display are active, the others don't  work; no transmission. I performed a Master Reset and then a Ram Clear (followed by a master reset). Now it switch on, the volume goes up an down, some noise comes out from the speaker, but the 20m are silent, only electronic noise.
>>> 
>>> Is there any clue to bring it alive again?
>>> 
>>> Thanks and 73 de IK3SWB, Enzo.
>>> 
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