Baofeng UV-B5 / UV-B6 battery latch replacement

thingiverse

Has your Baofeng UV-B5 or UV-B6 taken a tumble and now the battery won't click into place? Are those tiny metal pins holding it in position snapped off? Don't worry, here's a drop-in replacement part that will do the job and keep your radio's battery locked in for some time. Caution: Print multiple of these parts and get familiar with taking the radio apart and swapping them, because this tiny part won't be very durable when printed in any common material. Ideally, you want a metal spare here, but they are pretty hard to find, so this will do instead. To replace the broken part, follow these steps: - Unscrew the antenna - Remove the battery - Pull off the channel and volume knobs (just pull up, they're not fixed in place with anything) - Use a flat-head screwdriver or another small tool to unscrew the securing nuts on both knobs - Remove the two screws below the battery - Lift and pull out the metal body inside the case. It remains connected to the second PCB and the speaker inside the case, leave those connections as they are and just rotate the lifted part out of the way to get to the broken latch. - Now use a flat-head screwdriver or a fingernail to pull on the middle part of the plastic wall separating the latch from the inside of the radio, towards the inside. This should allow you to lift the broken latch out, leaving both springs in place. Take the printed spare, thoroughly remove any support material and insert it in place of the broken latch. Make sure it moves freely up and down, file off some material thickness if necessary. Also ensure the latch ends can freely insert into the recesses in the bottom of the battery, again, file off some material if they have resistance - there needs to be complete freedom of movement there, otherwise the battery will be hard to install and remove, and the printed part will break quickly. After ensuring the replacement part fits and moves properly, re-assemble the radio in reverse order of disassembly. Install the battery as usual.