So here's a gadget we never tried to market, but I ran myself out of them anyway. Turns out that changing the 6-pin socket on your RCI-type base radio has a steady popularity. The metal adapters that screw into the radio's mike socket put an unexpected leverage against the socket and cause it to work loose before long. Just changing the socket to a 4-pin wired for Cobra/Galaxy now allows you to use all those other mikes with that plug and still have the radio's mike socket stay put.
There's more to it than just putting a 4-pin socket in the hole. Got tired of soldering three chokes and three capacitors onto the rear of a 4-pin socket and decided to put it all on a small pc board. Just one problem. It has to fit. The factory pcb on the 6-pin socket is just narrower than the diameter of the socket. Won't fit at all in some radios if it's any bigger.
We won't need the 3-pin socket that plugged into the factory board. No up/down on the mike any more. The audio and ground are on a 2-pin socket, and the transmit wire is in one side of a 2-pin. Makes removing the factory socket fast. Only made sense to put the same socket pins on our swapperoo.
At least this way no soldering iron is required. Just a mechanic who can get the faceplate off, and the transmit LED lined back up when the face is reattached.
But I got stupid and didn't arrange to get more of these. Sold what I thought was the last one in a weak moment. Went to find the CAD artwork to make up an order for more, but no dice. The occasional hard-drive failure is just a fact of life from time to time. But apparently there was no backup for that file. And then EUREKA! Found one last straggler that had not been sold and went about drawing the next version.
Wanted to make it a bit narrower. First version was still a tight fit along one edge. And the transmit-socket pin was too close to the edge for my tastes.
Mission accomplished there, but the sharp-eyed reader will wonder about the awkward long lead wire on the right-hand RF choke, draped across the adjacent disc cap.
And this is why.
Moved the hole for the transmit pin around the corner, but specified a hole that's TOO SMALL for the .025-in pin. DOH!
But the fix was simpler than forcing the pin where it won't fit properly. Turns out the two holes for the choke were the exact, right size for a snug fit on that pin. The trace unerneath runs from the pin to one side of that choke, so swapping them this way saves the day, in a somewhat-sideways manner.
At least this way I'm no longer out of stock. Won't have to tell the next base-station owner "too bad". But it's not a retail or mail-order product.
Even if I make a batch of 50, the labor cost of selling just one at a time is roughly as much as it sells for on a repair bill. Don't fancy being a parts retailer. The small stuff we sell on fleabay is vastly overpriced, just to cover the overhead. Might consider selling them five or ten at a time. Not gonna count those chickens until I get the error on this board fixed and build the next batch.
But the old advice of "measure once, cut twice" seems to apply this time.
73
There's more to it than just putting a 4-pin socket in the hole. Got tired of soldering three chokes and three capacitors onto the rear of a 4-pin socket and decided to put it all on a small pc board. Just one problem. It has to fit. The factory pcb on the 6-pin socket is just narrower than the diameter of the socket. Won't fit at all in some radios if it's any bigger.
We won't need the 3-pin socket that plugged into the factory board. No up/down on the mike any more. The audio and ground are on a 2-pin socket, and the transmit wire is in one side of a 2-pin. Makes removing the factory socket fast. Only made sense to put the same socket pins on our swapperoo.
At least this way no soldering iron is required. Just a mechanic who can get the faceplate off, and the transmit LED lined back up when the face is reattached.
But I got stupid and didn't arrange to get more of these. Sold what I thought was the last one in a weak moment. Went to find the CAD artwork to make up an order for more, but no dice. The occasional hard-drive failure is just a fact of life from time to time. But apparently there was no backup for that file. And then EUREKA! Found one last straggler that had not been sold and went about drawing the next version.
Wanted to make it a bit narrower. First version was still a tight fit along one edge. And the transmit-socket pin was too close to the edge for my tastes.
Mission accomplished there, but the sharp-eyed reader will wonder about the awkward long lead wire on the right-hand RF choke, draped across the adjacent disc cap.
And this is why.
Moved the hole for the transmit pin around the corner, but specified a hole that's TOO SMALL for the .025-in pin. DOH!
But the fix was simpler than forcing the pin where it won't fit properly. Turns out the two holes for the choke were the exact, right size for a snug fit on that pin. The trace unerneath runs from the pin to one side of that choke, so swapping them this way saves the day, in a somewhat-sideways manner.
At least this way I'm no longer out of stock. Won't have to tell the next base-station owner "too bad". But it's not a retail or mail-order product.
Even if I make a batch of 50, the labor cost of selling just one at a time is roughly as much as it sells for on a repair bill. Don't fancy being a parts retailer. The small stuff we sell on fleabay is vastly overpriced, just to cover the overhead. Might consider selling them five or ten at a time. Not gonna count those chickens until I get the error on this board fixed and build the next batch.
But the old advice of "measure once, cut twice" seems to apply this time.
73
