Refurbatron

Old old orders. Some of you are still waiting on your order when I was shipping the Mark II batteries. I'm afraid this took me a lot longer to iron out the problem but the Mark III is looking very solid. I honesty thought the Mark II was a good design and had sold 30 some and got good reports back but the main customer wasn't seeing this one battery out of sync issue because if the radio wasn't being used it was left on charge (Which btw is ideal for this batteries chemistry. Very low current is drawn to keep the battery topped off thus its good to go) Some batteries like NiMH tend to cook if left on charge (Depending on the charger) they also discharge fairly quick (As batteries go) if left in a drawer for long periods of time. Ok, am typing this stuff when I should be putting together new battery packs. One last note. One of the design goals was to have a battery mostly on squelch with infrequent recv / xmit times (Someone had some numbers on Military versus public service that I'm trying to find) anyway on the first two batteries I tuned into an active 24/7 Weather broadcast with the volume low but understandable and got to day 3 before the BMS in the pack saw one of the cells get to the safe bottom end voltage and shut down. That is (I think) better then expected. In any event for my concern about sending these into the field to do SAR / DR missions this is really really good stuff. None of the NiMH packs I used lasted a full day on a SAR which was very frustrating. Worse because on one mission I was on a huge line search with two others with radios all on full time at the (sigh) same time so within minutes all of our radios went dead. Rule #4384 One radio on at a time until dead. This at least gives you 3 times longer op.

The Mark III battery is still new and not been out there long but once I'm certain the latest changes are good I'll gladly update any Mark II batteries at no cost. This is part of my non anxiety warranty which is simply this If your not happy you can get your money back or whatever your unhappy with fixed or (assuming I have one or something acceptable) replace whatever your unhappy with. This lasts as long as you think its reasonable. I make exceptions for equipment operated underwater or dropped off buildings (driven over sort of thing)

After way to long a delay I've ironed out the problem with the Mark II battery. The BMS I used had no way to balance charge and if you left the battery attached there was a very small current draw on one of the 3 batteries from my circuit that allows the radio to operate at full output (5 watts) . This put that one battery at a lower (and lower) voltage then the strongest of the other two. The old BMS charges until any cell reached 4.2 Volts. Thus you might end up with the three being 3.6, 4.19 and 4.2 Have just started using a balanced BMS instead and its topping off all three cells. Not sure how my little circuit was drawing much current I had employed a lot of tricks like slow clock, sleep mode and wake on interrupt (Data from the radio) but.... I guess it added up. New case btw which is made to look much less like a box and tapers off to fit the radio. Have heard from a couple people that want a smaller pack like the MarkI which used the smaller 18650 cells. After I get enough of these Mark IIIs built and sent to people waiting I'll talk to Sarah about reviving the original design with what we did to make it look a bit more professional. *NOTE the DC charge plug and the battery "gas left display" are on the other side. You can of course have that side be the front or the refurbatron side. Only just getting them running but have had two running on a VHF WX station with the Volume low for 2 or 3 days straight which was one of the design goals.

Update on Racal/Thales 25 / PRC6894 Litium Ion Battery product. There are a few early adopters waiting for the first run of our 5000MAh Battery Pack and I wanted to give an update on them. The pre released version that was sent to some friends and a Military group that was willing to give them a real world test went ok with one exception. The issue is simply this. If the 3 batteries are closely matched in capacity and are charged to the same level before the pack is assembled the somewhat simple BMS we use works fine. What is wrong with this is that if one of the batteries is significantly different the pack as a whole is only as good as it weakest link. So the old BMS has been scrapped and a new one with Balanced charging has been sent out for and arrived to be tested. The new BMS (Battery Management System) is in charge of safetly charging the pack and has protection from short circuit of the output (Soft shut down which resets when the short is removed and the battery momentarily hooked to 12.7+ volts. Internally the BMS can't do anything if someone shorts out one cell of the three with say a screwdriver (Which is why we urge people to not take these apart for any reason) The Nickle strip which is spot welded is selected so that in case of a single cell short the Nickle strip acts as a fuse and opens. Lithium Ion batteries have an astonishing amount of energery when fully charged and can literally start on fire if say you were to jam a nail into a battery and the fire is not easy to put out. *Check some YouTube Videos this is nothing to play around with. Sarah has made changes to the case so that these are easier (faster) to assemble so assuming there are no further problems I expect to be making deliveries by Monday next week. We are stil refining the case a bit. The newest version is streamlined so it fits onto the radio with smooth lines and has a better feel when holding the radio. *Which mean nothing if your radio is in its Mil Case. In other news the Blade (Longer Military Flex antenna) has been given some more hands on testing versus the Thales rubber duck and I deem it far better. Unfortunately there is some dremil work that is required to cut down the SMA which is technically correct but needs to be a "motorola" style (Flat - no extra threads orhter wise the pin doesn't mate to the female end properly) Thanks for your amazing patience as we muddle through making this as perfect as possible. p.s. 3 days operation in the field with the 5,000MAh pack! Or course this is lots of listenig and not a lot of talking.

Oops forgot I'm still looking for a copy of the tune/test software for the Racal/Thales 25 (PRC6894) or a list of the commands and I'll write the program. If anyone can help me out this would be greatly appreciated! I wrote my own program to adjust in/output freq and enable features but would like to be able to tune the recv circuit and adjust deviation etc.

I keep getting input that people are finding the page and giving it a thumbs up but as I say (Probably too much) I kind of find the social networking jazz a heatsink of time. That said have finished with all the medical stuff. Sure was one thing then another for a while but this is the fun of being your urologists favorite patient because you have "everything" screwed up. SIGH. Some folks have talked me into going back to Battery Version 1 (Updated) which used the smaller 18650 cells to better match the height of the radio like it was with the Racal/Thales battery. Personally if I'm on a SAR or worse DR mission I just want a big ass battery that will last for 3 days 24:7 I think the one which Sarah designed is that battery. Plus since you don't need an AC charger (Just a source of 13.5Volts DC) to charge it there is a way to get batteries charged out in the sticks or on a DR mission with all the power out. Van or Car cig lighter plug, or a solar panel even. Now that we've ironed out the bugs and have parts on hand the price will go down *Not sure how much we kinda scraped the barrel while I was having all this surgical vacation time. OH! More EFJ 5100s. Have version 4.15 which look unused. Am resoldering that dammed flex PCB that seems to end up being the cause of so many radio failures and if the goop is petrified on the RF Final replace that when I do the tune up. So if you want one https://refurbatron.bigcartel.com/products I took down the slide show in the background a friend commented it made the site too busy looking and since the focus is on the refurbished equipment? Seemed good. Still have to put up the site stuff on refurbatron.com its NOT my greatest skill so sorry this is bare. Am thinking maybe the Thales/Racal PRC6894 with the battery, antenna(s)?, speaker mic, military case for the same price as the EFJ 5100 kit with charger, antenna, battery and case? Any feedback on if $195 is to close to the Divorce price? And btw PLEASE I do list a few on EBAY but they take a huge amount and I'm barely breaking even so Big Cartel site or call me and we can do a Paypal or something is MUCH better. I'll pick up the postage for direct sales. Anyway kudos to my CAP customers the Save count keeps going up on the USAF RCC site (Yet we get so little mention) I sure liked it better the old way showing saves by Coast Guard, Navy, Guard (And everyone else) versus CAP which with only a couple exceptions won every year. This is YOU guys kicking ass and saving lives. Ok, off to box up some more stuff and service some more radios.

Products Browse all products from REFURBATRON.

Yikes... I mentioned that the batteries for the Thales/Racal25 aka PRC6894 were done and listed them for same and got totally smashed with orders! Thank you to everyone. From reports they are lasted 2 days (on 24/7) at least. I've managed to get sanity checks done on a large number of radios so if anyone needs a radio and battery? And have contrived a get a second for less if you take them to a CAP meeting! Sell the second and save yourself some coin. p.s. Am looking for any of the software used to tune and adjust these radios. I wrote my own program to net the radio so its exactly on freq (As close as I can get it) I know there are commands to adjust many other thing but so for they are not as easily findable. Got the instruction on alignment from the FCC page. And a always sorry I'm not that into the Facebook.

Just a quick note. I had some surgery done on Friday and I'm a bit washed up and worn out. *Sleeping a lot and have the phone off a lot. And I'm doing post op doc stuff so I'm for sure not answering while driving. I'm getting just a little bit done more each day should be back to 100% fairly soon. At least I'm not zonked out on anymore pain pills. Anyway please be patient with the uhh patient everything went well and I just need to take a bit of down time to recharge.

Sarah has completed the work on a version of the Thales/Racal25 PRC6894 battery pack that uses the 18650 cells.

Sorry for disapearing for a while. I had some medical jazz to take care of and Sarah had to fix a problem with the nickle strip not welding properly. Anyway. Battery is now working just as we want and snaps on solid. I worked out a new code plug for CAP so you can switch the radio from the normal 16 Zone/ 16 Channel mode we are used to with the EF Johnson to being able to put it into ABC mode (A 3 position Toggle Switch) Where it would have all the zone 1 stuff and then the local repeaters spelled out by location. Kind of a mode to set the radio is your handing it over to someone who is not using radios a lot. The AES encryption on CAP channels works perfectly (On any P25 channel) and you don't need a special "Keyloader" box or extra cables. I feel a bit out of my element reading manuals on crypto radio security as so much of it is new to me. Anyway I still have a few doctor things to do but I do have batteries and radios. Testing them I've got a system but need to build a proper test jig and have some software to allow me to do more then set them onto the correct frequency. which of course is important. Cleaning up old radios is good therapy! ha.. touchup painting tiny dings in radios is calming and relaxing.

Data Pins problem is resolved! I know the way I was talking people were probably already standing by the mailbox waiting for the first batteries to show up but I discovered one of the two pins that are used to communicate with the radio were sometimes being grounded to the radios frame (NOT good) or were not connecting to the Radios data pin. After some amount of adjusting the power pin pad and putting the data pins down so the surface is flush it looks like the last major issue is solved. *Oh the issue of loose connection of the battery where it snaps onto the radio... For anyone that wants one way NOT to make a battery not fit "sloppy" Use that Tape they have advertised that tapes underwater fixes anything and is sticky on one side and rubber on the other. Ugh! What a mess. Adjusting the hold downs by cinching them down a bit is all that was really needed (Duh) Have made a one of a kind 6 cell battery. If these were the best (Most expensive) 21700s that are 5,000 mAh it would be a 10 AMP battery in the size of a soup can. Why such a battery? So the radio and battery fit in the Cup Holder. And last a week (Not quite) Remote Mission Base in a can!

Have done some more work on the CAP code plug for the Thales/Racal25 aka PRC6894 and made it so you can switch from the usual 16 zone mode to A B C zones (A three position switch on top) that gives you Zone 1 and the Local repeaters spelled out by name rather then R Number. I'm thinking for operators handing them a radio set up that way makes it super simple to operate. Am really liking the built in Crypto Key Loading feature using the normal program cable and normal program software. Have had to test this with a radio attached to a parrot repeater which records transmissions then replays them. Which btw at BlackCap Emergency Services Collage I did with an ISR radio so we could cover all of the airport grounds. The surprising thing is how well it trained operators to speak more clearly. *A lot of people mumble on the radio. Pilots in particular! ha. ha. Ok will stop picking on those poor guys who have to drive around in the sky where there is all this great dirt on the ground to pound. Anyway this makes me think maybe its worth building a programmer cable? I do think have the ability to switch keys without hauling around a KVL keyloader is a big plus.

I really suck at social networking and Facebook is like a huge heatsink of my time but am going to TRY to be on here more then 3 times a year. I've been working on (And now success) having another radio for CAP (And other first responder types) The Thales/Racal 25 better known as the PRC6894. National has oked it as NTIA acceptable and we have just made the first production monster battery packs. Three of the new 21700 Cells that Tesla has started using. 5,000 mAh a cell! Have had the test battery running a radio playing the local VHF Weather channel for more then two days straight! If you want to see how tough these things are check out the first minute of this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuXwq7lWdiU As much as I love EF Johnson this is some kind of amazing. P25, NBFM, WBFM, 136-174Mhz 0.1 to 5 Watts front panel programming, AES crypto (No KVL Keyloader needed - normal software does it) Was up until 4:30 AM working on the last bit of the comm chip for the smart battery. *Needs no special charger - 12V at max 2 amps. Short Circuit protection, won't overcharge (switches to trickle charge when full)

Greetings. I’m sorry this site got so unused. I went through a bunch of major medical issues and just wasn’t active in CAP or really anything but focused on trying to get better. Which I’m happy to report I am. As in feeling better then I can ever remember and don’t have a weekly schedule of doctors visits. Also I sold my old home have a new (130 year old house – perfect since I’m in the 130th Composite Squadron) and met the love of my life so... CAP and in particular Refurbishing Radios for CAP members went on the far back burner. Like packed in boxes and not unpacked until a short month ago.

I apologize for disappearing but I truly was unable to do much of anything without fear of stroking out. I wasn’t thinking I would even be alive what with the medical issues. However with the help of three great ladies (my doctors) they managed to resolve something that has not been “fixed” before. In fact I would add not much is even known about what I was dealing with because all the patients were dead by the time they wrote papers on it. *And it killed my Dad before he was 50. I’m told this will be something Doctors will be reading about assuming they publish which is pretty cool.

Sorry to those that somehow found the big Cartel site which I set up didn’t get any results and promptly forgot. I understand that when I was hospital worthy a couple orders came in that were refunded. And that brings me to the most important point. I have a couple radios that were sent long ago that were ones bought from elsewhere but didn’t work etc. I want to restate that I have not changed my non anxiety system which is that I will refund, replace or repair anything you get from me for as long as you think its reasonable. Its reasonable to expect me to take care of all old business so if there is something left to do please remind me. I’m still unpacking boxes. I’m going to go with a new policy of only taking money on the day the box is ready to post.

And… I have to put this out there and I know this is going to sound weird because I know how popular things like Facebook are but… I’ve never been good with social media. Its a bit like addictive drugs or video games (to me) It seems to take up all my time (social media / games NOT DRUGS) and I don’t get things done so before I go any further let me just say that I am not going to be very active on Facebook. And I threw away SIM CITY which was taking up way way way too much time. So - If you need to reach me I set up a new email that is just for refurbatron its that (refurbatron) at the gmx dot com. Or you can try my phone its still the five “oh” five three three three niner three “oh” uno. If I don’t pick up please just call back I get spammed voice messages by the boat load. *BTW I’m spelling this all out so my info doesn’t get harvested for more spam. *I’m so sick of spam.

I’m focused on getting old unfinished work done, getting new equipment refurbished and adding some products that go along the line of gear for Civil Air Patrol members. I’ve investigated the approved equipment list and petitioned national to make a couple changes and will soon have some amazing new gear to add to the EF Johnson 5100 Handheld Radios and 5300 Mobile / Base Radios. I started selling the 5300 programming system again on EBAY but will also try dealing more direct with a web page coming soon at www.refurbatron.com I’ve designing program “cables”for all the radios I’m refurbishing. I’ve put together some radio how to materials as well as a CAP members only repeater directory so if your asked to work outside your wing and have a radio with my universal code (channel) plug you won’t have any problems coming up on the local repeater. As this is equipment owned by you the universal plug has channels for talking to the International Space Station and other 2 Meter Ham Radio band channels. *Please don’t load this plug in corporate owned radios its not allowed. In addition the number of zone/channels on most of my equipment are doubled and front panel programming and AES crypto are enabled. I will be trying to do something about the AES Keyloader problem (Too expensive) there is supposed to be an open source one. More later.

*And this zero anxiety / and reasonable time thing is because CAP members are in general so reasonable that the few to none that aren’t are just part of doing business.

I’ll be posting some pix here of the new radios that I’m just starting to ship to some brave members willing to be my beta testers.

Thanks and looking forward to hearing some good CAP war stories which hopefully include some of my refurbatron radios being put to work. Here is to your next mission resulting in a save.

Jay Craswell 15 June 2022

When I was still wearing Jammies with feet in them Grandpa Craswell told me “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” That stuck with me. But I don’t just sell junk I take it apart, clean, regoop (heat sink), solder weak spots and tuned up everything I sell. If its OCD? Then OCD is a good thing.

I am not representing CAP this is just a one man business. I don’t pretend to be doing this for free but I don’t do this to make big bucks. I’m interested in supporting the CAP’s ES program which has been my focus since I joined shortly after Desert Storm concluded. Having good working radio equipment is (I think) essential. And member owned radios = members who know how to operate them and won’t easily be caught with dead batteries or non functional gear.

Maintenance