Quote from Hangar45 Admin on December 7, 2017, 8:36 am

(Original thread started on 03-26-16 by Mark Speechley)

Well, it was time to catch up to everyone else and install the CDU.  Everything was working well pulling it apart until time to 'pull' the 24 pin from one of the circuit boards. This is the inside of the CDU with the keyboard removed.The last slide out board to the far right is the one with the 24 pin cable that was attached:

 

Well if anyone has tried that before, you know that it can be tricky trying to pull a plug up, evenly. Well knowing my luck it came up at an angle before finally letting go and releasing. As you can guess what was next, some of the pins near the end were bent. Well I tried to straighten the worst one and as you can imagine next, the pin sheared off!

 

Just imagine how hard it is to source the UNS and here you are, sheared off a pin and not knowing whether it's fixable or not, or whether the pin was important or not ! As it turned out, pin 24 was important, bummer.

 

This was not a good place to be in.  After sleeping on a solution there was no option other than a 'HELP' email to Ron.  Ron got back to me with a detailed response from Shane. I love these guys as they put my mind at ease and gave me a plan to either fix it or take to a local electronics shop.

 

So here we are as I am giving back to the Forum on how you fix this, if you are in this, or a similar situation. Some of you might find it 'ho-hum' electronics 101, however, for those who do not have experience with these repairs it can be helpful.

 

The fix:

As shown before pin 24 missing (foreground right):

 

As you'll notice pin 24 ( the last one) is sheared off. Looking at the plug I could not see how one would get it apart however, Shane showed me that you can get a flat screwdriver and gently lever each end up till the lid lifts off. The lid in this picture is the bottom.

 

I have milled out with a Dremel, any remaining pin up to the solder at the ribbon:

 

Here is the plug with the lid off where you can plainly see the ribbon where the pins are soldered:

 

Next you get an LED pin and use the leg as the replacement PCB pin. Leave the length long as you can. Solder leg onto the ribbon. You can cut off the excess PCB leg at both ends, once job completed:

 

Push the lid back on gently (without bending more pins) and job is done:

 

The finished product:

 

There were a few learning lessons here:

1. The fear of making more damage was worse than the actual fix itself.

2. In all aspects of dis-assembling and assembling "Take your time".

3. The forum has some wonderful help. We are so blessed with the knowledge base we already have. Just ask ! No matter how basic a question might be, members of this forum will help if they can (unlike many other forums).

 

Thank you to Ron and especially Shane for walking me through the procedure.

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 03-27-16)

Thank you for the kind words and especially for posting this fix/repair for everyone to learn from!

 

And your so right, if anyone (including myself) has a question or concern, just ask. Like in the case of this fix, I did not have the immediate answer but I knew who would have the answer. In this case it was Shane. I knew that Shane had a similar issue with a FMS pin and that he would be able to walk Mark through the fix. So again, just ask. If we don't know the answer we will find the guy that does!

 

And your right again Mark, when you are finally able to get your hands on a hard to find FMS, and you break it.........you break out into a sweat..........and possibly even a panic!  It's not funny but trust me, I have been there at least a few times so I know.

 

On a side note, Eric, any word from Jason on updated news on the FMS software?

 

Currently, we are testing the third BETA version of the FMS software. For those of you making the trip to Jax in a few weeks, you will be able to see first hand what the FMS software is capable of. You are gonna love it!

 

(Posted by Eric Tomlin on 03-27-16)

Mark, thanks for contributing your lessons-learned on this item. It is a big item and understandable that sometimes things go wrong, but that they're nearly always fixable.

 

As for software, I'm not sure where we are on FMS updates- I've been out of the loop for a few months now and just now getting a break. I'll check.

 

(Posted by Shane Barnes on 03-28-16)

Glad I could help.  Great job on the repair! Thanks for the tutorial on the repair, hopefully that will assist other members if they ever have the same problem. I know I had a panic attack the first time I broke one of the pins.  By the way I was doing the same thing you were doing! I've refurbished quite a few of the CDU's now and I have learned you have to be very careful and take your time . . as there are no replacement parts available that I am aware of.  Of course I had to learn this the hard way!