using hotspot in charger base

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GI4FZD
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Nov 29, 2019 8:10 pm

using hotspot in charger base

Post by GI4FZD » Sun Feb 07, 2021 4:38 pm

I just saw this in another group regarding open GD-77 "Roger Clark who wrote the OpenGd77 CPS and firmware has left his inthe charger and so have others. In fact the software he wrote supports doing so with no issues."
Is this in fact correct?
Cheers

VK3KYY
Posts: 7484
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:25 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: using hotspot in charger base

Post by VK3KYY » Sun Feb 07, 2021 8:15 pm

Lots of people run their radios in the charger all the time.

However I know one person who claims his charger was damaged by doing this.

If you intend to run the hotspot at anything above a few hundred milliwatts however the charger will not be able to supply enough current to keep the battery charged.
The charger circuit in the base unit is junk. Most people take them apart and replace the PCB with a $2 lipo charger module, which works far better.

Also, you must use an external antenna.

Trying to use the antenna on top of the radio often injects RF into the USB cable and causes errors and disconnections

nh6bf
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2020 2:28 am

Re: using hotspot in charger base

Post by nh6bf » Thu Mar 04, 2021 2:09 pm

I had a GD-77 working just fine as a hotspot (couple of years ago) for about two weeks...then it went through a rash of disconnecting to BM. I thought it was due to pi-star updating and resetting at night... so took it down. Got a CDM/STM-32 up as a high power hotspot, but it really wasn't clear in its audio...besides, I corrupted a codeplug and it's down. Going to retry the GD-77S...keeping busy!!!

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