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[Jive3D]

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[Nitrosport]

There is a fix where you put the led display in an oven for a little while. It's suppost to help melt and reflow the solder points. I can't remember how long and on what temperature though. You should be able to find the info on google.

Ray

[Jive3D]

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[Nitrosport]

You could try contacting longhorn engineer: http://www.longhornengineer.com/Main/HomePage and see if he would be willing to attempt the fix for you. He does really good work.


If you decide to try the oven trick, you can purchase the security bit on e-bay for a couple bucks.

[Tupin]

I tried the oven trick. It works, but it's only temporary.

If you don't mind doing the oven trick whenever the screens get messed up, it's a good solution.

[Jive3D]

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[DogP]

Yeah, sorry... I really don't have a lot of spare time to fix these (what time I do have is quickly consumed by many other uncompleted projects I'd like to finish this lifetime). Please let us know if anyone is willing to take on repairing these though... I get emails all the time asking if I'll repair them, and I'd really like to be able to send them somewhere, rather than just "sorry, no ". And if anyone's willing to take on being the repairman... I'd be glad to answer any questions I possibly can.

DogP

[Jive3D]

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[iloveguns]

what is the oven trick?

[Jive3D]

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[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Thanks for the positive reinforcement DogP .

OSG said that they would look at the unit if I send it to them, but that I am looking at at least $150 (not including shipping) for them to perform the soldering method. This seems like a last resort, but there must be a cheaper way. I'm surprised that I've been unable to locate any local resources here in NYC.

With the release of the Flashboy, now I want to repair my VB more than ever...

You could probably pick up another used VB with fully working LEDs for half of that (or less!).

[2Dskillz]

What is the flashboy?

[Gameguy]

What is the flashboy?

http://www.vr32.de/modules/hardware/...v=fb&sec=order

[Jive3D]

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[DogP]

Thanks for the positive reinforcement DogP .

OSG said that they would look at the unit if I send it to them, but that I am looking at at least $150 (not including shipping) for them to perform the soldering method. This seems like a last resort, but there must be a cheaper way. I'm surprised that I've been unable to locate any local resources here in NYC.

With the release of the Flashboy, now I want to repair my VB more than ever...

$150+shipping? Ouch... I guess if I got a custom request to do some weird looking repair like that, I'd probably want at least that much if doing repairs was my business. I think the best chance would probably be someone willing to take this on as an addition to their services, since once you get set up for it, it's not too difficult, expensive, or time consuming.

I've probably done 8 or so VBs (~16 displays), and when I got in the groove, I was able to dissolve 6 cables at once (put them in the oven w/ the NaOH), and after that, the prep and soldering took about 15 mins per display. Then testing and reworking the repair if it needed it took a little bit more time, then putting on the tape strips to stabilize the cable, and of course disassembly and reassembly of the VB. So yeah... it's definitely got a little bit of a learning curve, and isn't a 5 minute fix, but there's gotta be more difficult repairs out there.

Just as a sidenote... the biggest ways to screw this up is to use too much heat in the oven, getting NaOH on/into the plastic lens, and using too hot of a soldering iron. The radiant heat from my toaster oven will curl the cable quickly, so preheat and leave the oven off while heating the displays... while they're in the oven, make sure the NaOH solution doesn't drip through the holes and on/into the clear plastic display cover since it'll cloud it... and if you use too hot of an iron (~500F seems good), it'll sometimes break the wires at the bend and pull them out of the cable.

DogP

[2Dskillz]

Read over the method. I have never done anything like it, but it seems interesting and doable. At least the piece being sodered is out in the open during soldering. What is the cost of the NaOH (where do you get it)?

[DogP]

It's ~$8 for basically a lifetime supply (it's a big container, and you use only a tiny amount). You can get it at Lowes, or pretty much any hardware store (it's just drain cleaner). You gotta make sure you get the pure NaOH stuff (Lye), and not some of the other solutions out there.

DogP