Thursday, January 4, 2018

A quick fix for a Yaesu FT-757GXII blank display

A couple weeks ago I was contacted by an old friend of mine, having obtained his amateur license in mid-2017, who has a Yaesu FT-775GXII - a synthesized, all-mode HF transceiver from the the mid-late 1980s which had been working well until, one day, there was no display.  Clearly the main processor was fine as the front panel buttons would work, he could transmit and receive and he could even "see" and control the radio's frequency and mode on his computer via the serial CAT interface.
Figure 1:
The front panel of an FT-757GXII with a working display!


One clue was that when power cycled, the display would occasionally flash very briefly, a possible indication that something was almost doing what it was supposed to.  Via email (he lives across the country from me) I had him do some preliminary troubleshooting such as the checking of voltages - but based on the rather sparse information available in the service manual and the difficulty in accessing some of the test points:  Even a couple key capacitors in circuits that often cause problems with displays in some radios - namely the switching supplies that provide the odd voltages for the vacuum fluorescent display - were swapped out, but the display remained blank.

I offered to look at it, so he packaged it up and sent it to me.  When I put it on my workbench I started probing the various lines on the display processor with an oscilloscope:  I could see many of the signals that I was expecting - namely the 500 kHz signal from the display processor's clock, the data coming from the radio's main processor that changed as I pushed buttons and turned the main tuning knob and another signal that appeared to be an acknowledgment pulse from the display processor to the main processor.  What I seemed to be missing were half of the multiplexing signals that drove the display:  It appeared that I was seeing the "common" signal lines for the display, but the signals on the pins that appeared to carry information as to which display segment was to be illuminated were missing as if the display was supposed to be blank.  Without both sets of signals activated appropriately, a multiplexed display will remain forever dark.

I'd already consulted the internet and determined, based on postings in various forums, that at least for its predecessor, the 757GX, the failure of the display processor wasn't terribly uncommon - but not surprisingly this part was long gone from the spare parts inventories of Yaesu and other means of repair/replacement such as getting displays from scrapped radios or even the construction of an "alternate" display unit using a different processor and driver transistors was discussed.  What was interesting was that the "important" signals - namely those for data, acknowledgement, scanning and synchronization - seemed to be present, so the display processor clearly wasn't completely dead.
Figure 2:
Annotated picture showing the two buttons that, when both are set to their
"in" position will disconnect the radio's internal memory back-up battery.
If both buttons are in when the radio is turned off the processor will
be reset to its "factory" state.
Click on the image for a larger version.

At about that point the old adage drilled into me from the early days of computers and Windows came back to me - although it probably should have been one of the first steps to be taken when the display went blank:  "When in doubt, reboot!"  Perusing the user's manual I determined that a complete "memory reset" was done on the FT-757GXII by setting both the "Linear" and "Marker" switches on the back panel (see Figure 2) to the "in" position at the same time and turning off the radio for 30 seconds - and then turning it back on and restoring the two rear switches to their normal position:  It would appear that these two switches have a second, "non-intuitive" function that when used together, disconnects the internal battery.

The result?  The display came back to life!

What had apparently happened was that somehow, the data stream between the display and main processor wasn't what it should be and the main processor was apparently sending some sort of garbage that the display processor didn't understand - probably due to something in the main processor's static RAM.  It would appear that in the absence of sensible data, the display processor remains blank, relying on the main processor to send the various bits and bytes that display frequency, mode, etc. rather than reverting to some sort of static display.  Clearing the battery-backed RAM of the main processor and resetting it apparently cleared whatever junk had gotten into the memory that had caused it to work improperly.

I checked the back-up battery - an innocuous-looking 2-cell NiCd pack that was near the rear of the main synthesizer board - and it read 2.8 volts with the radio having been disconnected from power for over 24 hours indicating about 1.4 volts/cell, which was appropriate for a properly-charged NiCd.  Visually, this small battery pack looked OK in that there were no signs of corrosion, so it is probably OK, despite its age - longevity being one of the virtues of a properly cared-for, high-quality NiCd cell.

How did the main processor's memory get scrambled?  Who knows - it could have been an entirely random event, due to static from a finger touching the front panel, the back-up battery's voltage having sagged below the point of memory retention while the radio was turned off or the results of some sort of spike - perhaps lightning - intercepted by the antenna that found its way into other circuits.  This sort of "display failure" - apparently caused by the processor's memory being scrambled - doesn't seem to be too common, so my friend considers himself very lucky!

After restoring the radio's operation I did a few tests and found that everything seemed to be working as it should, so it will be packed up and returned to its (very fortunate!) owner very soon.

[End]

This page stolen from ka7oei.blogspot.com


10 comments:

  1. Thanks you for your invaluable help in fixing my old rig. The Master reset did the trick. The cause was the "sagging" of the PSU which was not up to the task of supplying the 20amp load. Symptoms were not just the display failure but a feedback problem within the receiver which was no doubt caused by the Microprocessor doing random incorrect outputs for frequency generation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another cause of this trouble is the PMS button, I don't know if this is a firmware bug or not, but if you hit the PMS button the display go nuts showing garbage or nothing at all.

    Always the reset trick do the job..

    I have worked with some of these radios and 99% the problem is that the user pressed the PMS button, I end bu cut a trace to disable it in every radio that pass by my hands...

    73, CO7WT

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Pavel,

      The '757GXii doesn't have a PMS button per se (that's on the older versions) but it does have a "scan mode" button that changes the function of some of the buttons. I've never had a problem with that on this radio, but perhaps I was lucky - and my friend wasn't!

      Perhaps this will be helpful info for others reading this!

      Thanks and 73!

      Delete
  3. Many thanks for your article.

    I have the same YAESU 757GXii

    What do you use as a computer program ?

    I could not make the connection...

    Thank you from now.

    TA2NSB 73!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Sercan,

      I didn't try to make a computer connection in this case, but the friend to whom the radio belonged, did and I *think* that he used the "free" version of Ham Radio Deluxe.

      I've never actually tried CAT control on my '757, so I can't speak from personal experience - sorry.

      73,
      Clint

      Delete
    2. Thank you so much. The program mentioned did not work unfortunately. I need to interface.

      TA2NSB 73!

      Delete
  4. Amazing. Thank you for this. My old beast is alive again!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi,

    Brought an old FT-757GX (not the II) to the shack and as soon I pressed the PMS button it got stuck. I was ready to do the long process of opening the radio , de-soldering the battery , etc.. when I found this blog. Did your instructions and it's working again. Excellent! Thanks for sharing. Now I can continue playing with the radio and I would never press that PMS button again!!

    73 de K4VOZ

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hallo!

    Vom mir ebenfalls vielen Dank für den Tipp mt dem Reset! Hat bei mir ebenfalls funktioniert! Wäre ich eher nicht drauf gekommen! Ausgezeichnet !

    Danke und 73 de DL3SET

    ReplyDelete





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