G90

I love the G90, but the cheap power connector on the back of the unit will wear out with almost no use.  I really don't understand why they went with such a terrible connection here, but we can make it better.  Anderson powerpole connectors have become pretty much the standard in ham radio.  They have their problems like anything else, but they are still an upgrade and will allow you to connect to other people's hardware if needed.  This will void your warranty, but I believe it's worth it.

Step one is to open your radio.  You'll have to remove the face first by removing the four screws (two on each side) and pulling the face plate straight off.  This will allow you to remove four more screws on the front of the main unit.  We need this off so we can slide the top PCB out of the unit.

Now, remove the six screws on the top of the unit to remove the top cover.  Be careful not to pull the speaker wire off when removing the top cover.  The cable is short, but you can still get your fingers in there to unplug it properly.

Once the unit is open, remove the four screws that hold the top PCB.  Carefully remove the RX and TX cables by gently prying them directly up with a screwdriver.  Take your time here so you don't break these connections.  You'll also need to remove the ribbon cable by lifting up the brown clip and sliding the ribbon cable out.  At this point you should be able to slide the top board out the front of the radio.  Make sure you do not snag any of the cables when removing the top PCB.

Now that the radio is open you'll see the cheap power connector and the wires going to the bottom board.  Remove this connector from the rear plate and cut it the wires as close to the connector as possible.  We want to leave enough cable here so we don't have to solder on new wire.  You may want to remove the standoff by the power connector to make it easier to work here.

Now comes the hardest part.  You'll need to file down the existing connector hole in the rear panel to allow room for the anderson connector.  Take your time here. You want the hole to be big enough to allow the connector to push into the hole, but small enough to catch the lip on the connector so you can't pull it through by accident.  I didn't take the radio apart for this step.  I simply filed it upside down so that any filings wouldn't fall onto the PCB.

Once the connector is snugly fitting into the rear panel, crimp on the new connector to the wires and push the connector into the rear panel.  If you did it right, it will stop at the small lip on the cable.  In order to prevent the connector from pushing back into the radio, I took a small piece of 12awg copper wire I had laying around and put it through the hole in the connector.  I bent it in the shape of  a Z to prevent it from falling out.

All that is left is to reassemble the radio is reverse order and plug in to your new connector and test!

MARS modding the G90 is a pretty simple process.  It's not as simple as a software setting on some radios, but there is only one component to remove to enable this mod.  You'll need to remove the top cover of the radio to get to it.  First remove the face plate by removing the four screws and then remove the six screws on the top cover.  

On the top PCB you will see a large hole and the ARM processor.  In between these two is a diode with a triangle next to it.  This is the component you need to remove.  Do NOT just break this thing off.  I know some people will say you can do it and, yes, it might work, but you risk damaging your radio.  Break out your soldering iron and tweezers and remove this thing the right way.  If you aren't comfortable or don't have the right equipment, ask a friend to help.  While this is relatively easy, you probably don't want this to be your first soldering job.