NorthCoast3800, if you get no joy with the maker of your radio, please don't junk it. Instead, please me know what happens (PM me or send email to
[email protected]). I can't promise anything, but we may be able to consider some alternatives. Way too many capacitors and IC chips are coming from China during the global electronic component shortage. Some are not too bad and some are downright dangerous. And as you would expect, the least expensive ones are the worst by far. I've seen some that failed in less than 1 year and I just had to replace 2 capacitors in a computer power supply. One of them literally exploded. Not something you want happening in a metal box which converts 110 AC to 3.3v, 5 v and 12 v DC.
Thanks Jon G; if it's not an obvious fix then I'll be donating it to a fellow 'Bolter who reached out about doing the same thing. So it won't go to waste. I simply don't have time to spend on trying to work it out, I get the basics (and I've changed capacitors in the speedometer and such in my daily driver '94 F150 and some other electronics over the years) but the real troubleshooting of that sort of thing is a little over my head. Every year I seem to be able to fill the brain a little more beyond capacity
I'll be trying out another brand although they all look the same and I fully expect everything comes out of the same factory. Roll the dice one more time I guess, I do enjoy how they look. I do not enjoy spending the money, but... take the good with the bad right?
The other day I had it out for the last drive of the season (nice sunny day and before they started salting the roads) and it was around 30 degrees Fahrenheit, everything worked as normal for the first five minutes lol. But the control quit pretty fast after warming up. Ah well.
