[Yaesu] FT301D display failure - heat problem

[WD8ARZ]

Bought one of these FT-301D rigs new not long after they came out, including 
the external VFO and even some crystals for transmit. Loved it and kept it 
for about ten years. Even bought a couple spare display chips back in those 
days, but they are not available anymore. Mine went with the rig when I sold 
it to a friend of mine. Those display chips also contained the frequency 
counter circuitry, and they ran hot as a result. That's why they failed, due 
to the heat.

What I did to get mine to last longer, was to wash up a good empty smooth 
surface food tin can. I then flattened that out and cut it to L shaped heat 
sink strips that were about the width of the led chips and ran across the 
length of them behind the display. Then I put heat transfer grease between 
the chips and new heat sinks, and secured them in place over each display 
chip. I don't recall how I secured them, but I seem to recall there was a 
screw near by that worked out .... been way to long since I did that. 
However I didn't have any more failures, and the friend who got it from me 
didn't either. He no longer has the rig or the spare display chips .... some 
flea market I think.

Two reasons I got rid of the rig. One was the red dot matrix display 
readouts at night were irritating to my eyes when I was tired. The other was 
if the alignment for the transmitter got off, the transmitter could do 
spurious full power transmit unexpectedly, and I mean more than the adjusted 
/ rated output. Its a wonder I didn't blow the finals the couple of times 
that happened to me. The tuning of the transmitter uses mechanical 
arrangements of moving slugs through coils .... and if those slipped .... 
power output could red line in an instant!

Replaced it with an ICOM 720 ... but that is another story .... hi hi

73 from Bill - WD8ARZ
http://hflink.net/qso/

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave Edwards" <kd2e at comcast.net>
To: <yaesu at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, August 09, 2010 9:48 PM
Subject: [Yaesu] FT301D display failure


>I think it is common knowledge that the old FT301D has issues with the 
>display. Many segments are <usually> out.
> Mine held out for a long time, but I finally got one segment in the 100 
> cycle digit out.
>
> My question is this.....Does anyone know if this is typically caused by 
> the display, the driver chip, or a bad solder joint.
> Since they fail often, I am sure there is a known cause.
>
> Thanks for any discussion on the subject!
>
> .....Dave