I had heard there was a new version of the M8900 with a lot of the software bugs fixed and there was even a photo of a stack of new units ready to ship from China, but then I heard Maxlog went under. now Mike tells me they are still in business so who knows. I don't use software with mine and other than the issues in the video, its a great radio, especially the receive. Hopefully it will hold up this time!That is the problem with lead free solder! But thankfully it is and easy fix.... Now for the heat problem, a fan is best but some have relocated the power transistor to the heat sink area with the use of longer leads. Seems to work!
Mine is working fine and I wonder what happened to these neat rigs? I know the 8800 V7 is about the same but I like the small form of the M-8900.
73 mechanic
LC the local tech was working right at that coil where the main problem was and gave up. Mike took it out as you saw and cleaned it all up. This is the best tech around but he did not have a schematic as Mike did. Check out the Alinco repairs he posted, thats another one of my broke radios he fixed, really impressive repair. Again thanks for the hook up on this one. I will be sending other broke radios to Mike in the future, Timthanks for posting that video 392.
I can tell you for sure after seeing the repair, that we would most likely NOT EVER have found this by going back and forth in the forum.
Without the radio in front of me, and being the one holding the meter probes, i don't think i would have been able to key in on the bad solder joint.
We would have started the troubleshooting just like he did, looking for that TX 8 volts to the drains of the mosfets, and i probably would have suggested that you re-flow the solder connections in that area, but i just don't think we would have pin pointed it over the internet.
Mike is definitely the real deal.
LC