If you’ll recall from a few posts back, I added powerpole connectors to back of my FT-817nd and to a 12V wall-wart type DC converter. I noticed that when I plugged the charger into the radio, it wouldn’t charge! I undid the little 3d-printed part on the back of the radio to expose the plain old DC power jack and then tried charging with a different supply. That worked just fine.

I was glad that the radio itself wasn’t the problem, since it is rather new. But that left me suspecting the powerpole connector. I tested continuity for both the positive and negative and that was okay. Next I connected two of the connectors together (in the normal way that you would do when making a connection). I pushed them together as far as they would go and then testing for continuity again. Bingo! That was it. It seems that (at least with the connectors that I have) it’s possible to go “too far” and have the conductors no longer touching…

I’m posting this just to remind myself and because when I searched for something along the lines of “powerpole too far connection” I didn’t get any hits. Hopefully I can send the message that if you’re having this problem, nothing’s busted, you’ll just need to adjust the connector.

Update 2019-03-11: I found out that the crimped metal connector wasn’t seated quite right in the plastic housing. make sure it gets pushed in until you hear the “click”