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Yaesu FRG-7 fixes and mods

This page was last updated : 14-Aug-22 15:01:17

This page contains a few sections.

• Stiff tune dial on the end of the band. (FIX)
• Lock led stays on (FIX)
• BI-Color Lock LED
• Restoring a Frog : LED upgrade 
• The knob is gone, long life the knob (for when you lost your main dial knob).
• The switch knob is gone, long life the switch knob (for when you lost your power or light switch knob).

 

Stiff tune dial on the end of the band (FIX).

My FRG-7 the dial was quite stiff and resisting when you where turning from one end to the other end of the band. At first I thought it was because of some mechanical defect, but it turned out that it was much simpler. 

I found that the mechanical band limits (a set of special shaped washers to prevent over turning the dial) where suffering from aging grease and dust. This mechanical limiter can be accessed from the bottom side. 

A few strokes with a brush to remove the dust, a few drops of special railroader oil, a few full turns over the band and the problem was gone. 

 

It now runs without any resistance.

 

Lock led stays on (FIX)

If the lock LED remains lit regardless of tuning, VR102 may have to be turned briefly and then turned back (to the same position), test it on all MHz positions (some are more critical then others.

I have seen this with a few of my frogs and also heart other owners that had the same experience.

 

 

 

 

BI-Color Lock LED

One thing I found a bit strange about FRG-7 is that the LOCK led is ON when there is no lock in the Wadley loop system. Maybe the have design it so with a lower power consumption in mind (the FRG-7 can run on internal batteries), but to me it feels strange. So I had intentions to reverse the function of the led, ON when locked, OFF when not locked. But when I was looking for information and a copy of the Leaflet of the FRG-7 I came across the website monitor.co.uk. They have a page about the FRG-7, with copies of the manual, the circuit diagram and the Leaflet. But above all a cleaver and simple mod using a few transistors and a red/green bi-color led as a lock indicator.

I made the mod using the Manhattan style .

Note : For those who are have a hard time building, I designed a "build and tested" version of if and put it on sale. Check out this page about it.  

 

I removed the original led and installed the bi-color led in it's place.

Ready for testing.

Some close-up of the points where picked up the lock signal, the +10.5V and GND.  

The final installation of the mod. 

 

 

Restoring a Frog : LED upgrade

I got my hands on a donor Frog which was sold for parts. With those part i could restore one of my Frogs back to it's original state (previous owner added a digital readout and trashed the front to fit it in and saw an piece of the vfo to replace the main dial with a reduction drive one, and did a lot more horrible things to the poor frog). Removed the after sale digital readout and replaced it with a original frequency drum and screen. Swapped parts like the cover, dial knob, added mains cord holder, and lots more. Very happy with the result, so know I have a original frog back I'm the shack. My other frog is situated in my living room for evening radio listening.

The left overs from my donor frog will be put to side for potential future restoration and for sale (some parts are already been sold to OM's all over the world). 

Overall very happy with the result. Only to bad that several light bulbs are burned up, so the next step will be replacing these with Warm White LED's. And not only the tune dail light bulbs, but all the light bulbs in this Frog.  Check out this page about how I'm going to do that.    

 

The knob is gone, long life the knob.

For those who are in need of a FRG-7 main dial knob and have a 3D printer, today I took the knob of my Frog and started drawing.

The STL files can be download from Tinkercad or on https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4809282.

Enjoy and hope it helps giving your frog a little more authenticated look until you find a real one.  

I got my self a rol of red PLA (it's a little bit lighter then the red color of the original knob, but it will do) and printed me a few power switch knobs. 

The light switch knob is also a little lighter because the darker grey I have is almost the same color as the front panel.

The final result and I'm quite happy with it. 

 

So when you get your hands on a FRG-7 without a light or power switch knob, you know can print your own. Just download the STL file from my TinkerCad project.  

 

The knob is gone, long life the knob.

Recently I got a question from a fellow ham if I have a replacement knob for the Fine-Tune. Unfortunatly I didn't but told them that I wanted to 3D design all the knobs of the FRG-7.

So during my holiday I started to work on the 3 knob of the FRG-7. The one which can be used for the Preselect, Mhz and the Volume.

My first prototype print (0.12mm / 100% infill) next to a original knob of my FRG-7.

I'm quite happy with the result and will continue working on the others. So when you need replacements knobs, stay tuned. Soon they will be ready and released on my website. 

 

 

Note : For those who don't have access to a 3D printer or need parts for restoring there FRG-7, check out this for-sale page. I offer 3D printed switch knobs and sell parts from a donor FRG-7.

 

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