Does anyone have info on how to restore power to a Becker 4201 that has been connected with reverse polarity?.
Presumably it has protection and some component needs to be replaced. Fuse , diode, or capacitor.
Any help appreciated.
Thx
UH

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On Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at 10:39:58 AM UTC-5, Hank Nixon wrote:

Does anyone have info on how to restore power to a Becker 4201 that has been connected with reverse polarity?.
Presumably it has protection and some component needs to be replaced. Fuse , diode, or capacitor.
Any help appreciated.
Thx
UH

On my AR4201, which was on my workbench, looking at the left side of the radio (looking from the front), about 1" from the back and 1/2" up is a hole. On the side, there is an written arrow pointing to it and a piece of tape which says "fuse". My AR4201
manual says there is an internal 5A fuse but it doesn't say what type. It looks to me that the fuse might be removable with tweezers. Mine is a greyish white colour (the fuse, not the tweezers). It doesn't look like any fuse I've seen so you may have to
talk to a Becker repair facility. If you do find a part number, please let us know. There's a list of Becker repair facilities on John deRosa's excellent webpage, http://www.derosaweb.net/aviation/presentations/#wiring , under "Transceiver
Troubleshooting & Information".
Hope this helps.

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On Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at 11:29:26 AM UTC-5, Dan Daly wrote:

On Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at 10:39:58 AM UTC-5, Hank Nixon wrote:

Does anyone have info on how to restore power to a Becker 4201 that has been connected with reverse polarity?.
Presumably it has protection and some component needs to be replaced. Fuse , diode, or capacitor.
Any help appreciated.
Thx
UH

On my AR4201, which was on my workbench, looking at the left side of the radio (looking from the front), about 1" from the back and 1/2" up is a hole. On the side, there is an written arrow pointing to it and a piece of tape which says "fuse". My

AR4201 manual says there is an internal 5A fuse but it doesn't say what type. It looks to me that the fuse might be removable with tweezers. Mine is a greyish white colour (the fuse, not the tweezers). It doesn't look like any fuse I've seen so you may
have to talk to a Becker repair facility. If you do find a part number, please let us know. There's a list of Becker repair facilities on John deRosa's excellent webpage, http://www.derosaweb.net/aviation/presentations/#wiring , under "Transceiver
Troubleshooting & Information".

Hope this helps.

Apologies - DeRosa not deRosa typo.

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On Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at 10:39:58 AM UTC-5, Hank Nixon wrote:

Does anyone have info on how to restore power to a Becker 4201 that has been connected with reverse polarity?.
Presumably it has protection and some component needs to be replaced. Fuse , diode, or capacitor.
Any help appreciated.
Thx
UH

I don't have a 4201 in front of me to confirm but from my recollection, there is a resettable breaker on the PCB under the opening near/under the aforementioned "FUSE" label. I believe you just need to use a thin tool to "push" the button top of the
breaker back into to reset it. I recovered a friend's radio this way and I "believe" it was a 4201... just something to try.

Danny Brotto

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 9:30:25 AM UTC-5, Danny Brotto wrote:

On Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at 10:39:58 AM UTC-5, Hank Nixon wrote:

Does anyone have info on how to restore power to a Becker 4201 that has been connected with reverse polarity?.
Presumably it has protection and some component needs to be replaced. Fuse , diode, or capacitor.
Any help appreciated.
Thx
UH

I don't have a 4201 in front of me to confirm but from my recollection, there is a resettable breaker on the PCB under the opening near/under the aforementioned "FUSE" label. I believe you just need to use a thin tool to "push" the button top of the

breaker back into to reset it. I recovered a friend's radio this way and I "believe" it was a 4201... just something to try.

Danny Brotto

Suggested fix worked.
This is why we have RAS and endure the other stuff.
Thanks
UH

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Just guessing here, but for the future...

Black = Ground (Earth or you Brits)
Red = Power

With an ohm meter, the ground wire should always register a short to the
case while the power wire should be switched and will register an open
circuit. You should also have a manual before wiring a radio.

Dan
5J

On 1/25/23 08:53, Hank Nixon wrote:

On Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 9:30:25 AM UTC-5, Danny Brotto wrote:

On Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at 10:39:58 AM UTC-5, Hank Nixon wrote:

Does anyone have info on how to restore power to a Becker 4201 that has been connected with reverse polarity?.
Presumably it has protection and some component needs to be replaced. Fuse , diode, or capacitor.
Any help appreciated.
Thx
UH

I don't have a 4201 in front of me to confirm but from my recollection, there is a resettable breaker on the PCB under the opening near/under the aforementioned "FUSE" label. I believe you just need to use a thin tool to "push" the button top of the

breaker back into to reset it. I recovered a friend's radio this way and I "believe" it was a 4201... just something to try.

Danny Brotto

Suggested fix worked.
This is why we have RAS and endure the other stuff.
Thanks
UH

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 2:11:53 PM UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:

Just guessing here, but for the future...

Black = Ground (Earth or you Brits)
Red = Power

With an ohm meter, the ground wire should always register a short to the case while the power wire should be switched and will register an open circuit. You should also have a manual before wiring a radio.

Dan
5J
On 1/25/23 08:53, Hank Nixon wrote:

On Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 9:30:25 AM UTC-5, Danny Brotto wrote:

On Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at 10:39:58 AM UTC-5, Hank Nixon wrote:

Does anyone have info on how to restore power to a Becker 4201 that has been connected with reverse polarity?.
Presumably it has protection and some component needs to be replaced. Fuse , diode, or capacitor.
Any help appreciated.
Thx
UH

I don't have a 4201 in front of me to confirm but from my recollection, there is a resettable breaker on the PCB under the opening near/under the aforementioned "FUSE" label. I believe you just need to use a thin tool to "push" the button top of the

breaker back into to reset it. I recovered a friend's radio this way and I "believe" it was a 4201... just something to try.

Danny Brotto

Suggested fix worked.
This is why we have RAS and endure the other stuff.
Thanks
UH

It was not a matter of not knowing how to hook it up. I was doing a temporary connection to test the radio in the ship before new power wiring goes in and got interrupted by a phone call. Came back on autopilot and connected the temp cord backwards. Duh.
I told the story to the nice tech at Becker in Fla this AM. He laughed and said "we've all done it". Now I have.
Luckily the reset worked.
UH

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Oh... I've NEVER let the smoke out of anything...

Glad you got it fixed!

Dan
5J

On 1/25/23 13:33, Hank Nixon wrote:

On Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 2:11:53 PM UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:

Just guessing here, but for the future...

Black = Ground (Earth or you Brits)
Red = Power

With an ohm meter, the ground wire should always register a short to the
case while the power wire should be switched and will register an open
circuit. You should also have a manual before wiring a radio.

Dan
5J
On 1/25/23 08:53, Hank Nixon wrote:

On Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 9:30:25 AM UTC-5, Danny Brotto wrote: >>>> On Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at 10:39:58 AM UTC-5, Hank Nixon wrote:

Does anyone have info on how to restore power to a Becker 4201 that has been connected with reverse polarity?.
Presumably it has protection and some component needs to be replaced. Fuse , diode, or capacitor.
Any help appreciated.
Thx
UH

I don't have a 4201 in front of me to confirm but from my recollection, there is a resettable breaker on the PCB under the opening near/under the aforementioned "FUSE" label. I believe you just need to use a thin tool to "push" the button top of the

breaker back into to reset it. I recovered a friend's radio this way and I "believe" it was a 4201... just something to try.

Danny Brotto

Suggested fix worked.
This is why we have RAS and endure the other stuff.
Thanks
UH

It was not a matter of not knowing how to hook it up. I was doing a temporary connection to test the radio in the ship before new power wiring goes in and got interrupted by a phone call. Came back on autopilot and connected the temp cord backwards.

Duh. I told the story to the nice tech at Becker in Fla this AM. He laughed and said "we've all done it". Now I have.

Luckily the reset worked.
UH

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 1/25/2023 3:33 PM, Hank Nixon wrote:

I don't have a 4201 in front of me to confirm but from my recollection, there is a resettable breaker on the PCB under the opening near/under the aforementioned "FUSE" label. I believe you just need to use a thin tool to "push" the button top of the

breaker back into to reset it. I recovered a friend's radio this way and I "believe" it was a 4201... just something to try.

Danny Brotto

Suggested fix worked.
This is why we have RAS and endure the other stuff.
Thanks
UH

It was not a matter of not knowing how to hook it up. I was doing a temporary connection to test the radio in the ship before new power wiring goes in and got interrupted by a phone call. Came back on autopilot and connected the temp cord backwards.

Duh. I told the story to the nice tech at Becker in Fla this AM. He laughed and said "we've all done it". Now I have.

Luckily the reset worked.
UH

I've seen radios destroyed by inattention to the power polarity. For
example, in a glider with good wiring that's worked for years, somebody
forgets the battery or finds it dead, improvises by moving the wiring
pigtail to another battery, sliding the connectors onto the battery
tabs, backwards... I try to quadruple-check when I do such things. And
even then I first turn everything off, connect the battery, then turn on
the device least likely to be damaged (or least expensive). E.g., does
the glider have a voltmeter in the panel? A gear warning buzzer that
runs on the 12V system? A 12V to 5V converter? Use them as the
sacrificial testers.

And yeah that's the good thing about RAS. Thank you UH for helping me
with advice on how to fix a mechanical vario some months ago...

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Wednesday, January 25, 2023 at 5:02:57 PM UTC-5, Moshe Braner wrote:

On 1/25/2023 3:33 PM, Hank Nixon wrote:

I don't have a 4201 in front of me to confirm but from my recollection, there is a resettable breaker on the PCB under the opening near/under the aforementioned "FUSE" label. I believe you just need to use a thin tool to "push" the button top of

the breaker back into to reset it. I recovered a friend's radio this way and I "believe" it was a 4201... just something to try.

Danny Brotto

Suggested fix worked.
This is why we have RAS and endure the other stuff.
Thanks
UH

It was not a matter of not knowing how to hook it up. I was doing a temporary connection to test the radio in the ship before new power wiring goes in and got interrupted by a phone call. Came back on autopilot and connected the temp cord backwards.

Duh. I told the story to the nice tech at Becker in Fla this AM. He laughed and said "we've all done it". Now I have.

Luckily the reset worked.
UH

I've seen radios destroyed by inattention to the power polarity. For example, in a glider with good wiring that's worked for years, somebody forgets the battery or finds it dead, improvises by moving the wiring pigtail to another battery, sliding the connectors onto the battery
tabs, backwards... I try to quadruple-check when I do such things. And
even then I first turn everything off, connect the battery, then turn on
the device least likely to be damaged (or least expensive). E.g., does
the glider have a voltmeter in the panel? A gear warning buzzer that
runs on the 12V system? A 12V to 5V converter? Use them as the
sacrificial testers.

And yeah that's the good thing about RAS. Thank you UH for helping me
with advice on how to fix a mechanical vario some months ago...

Moshe, its always good to have inline fuses on both sides of the battery connection. One on the battery pigtail, and one of the glider side. I've seen a few blown fuses and then people complain the battery is dead. No, you blew the fuse.

Bill

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