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Electronics just karking it


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Big AL
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Joined: 16 Oct 2004
Posts: 436
Location: roleystone perth. WA


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Electronics just karking it

i went looking on google and i could find anything to support electronics just dieing so i was wondering if it is possable.
i have a little rc car that has just stopped working. nothing on the boards in either car or controller looks burn't,buggered,wrecked or broken cept for one capaciter that looks scratched.
The thing had stopped going forward and eventually died all together.
any ideas on how to fix it or is it a bin job?
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Post Sat Dec 17, 2005 12:42 pm 
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Glen
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Joined: 16 Jun 2004
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could be many things, static for one

with something as cheap and ghetto as that you might as well get a better one for like $20 at tandy, but if its a resistor or something then 20c should have it running.

probably killed the transistor or whatever they use to control the motors power. they cant last forever i guess.
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Post Sat Dec 17, 2005 3:09 pm 
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kkeerroo
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Joined: 17 Jun 2004
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Location: Brisbane


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An electronic componant can be thought of as a very small scale mechanical device, and just like all mechanical devices they have a limited life span. Depending on the grade of of componants used (eg general purpose or industrial/military grade) they can have a life span measured in millions of hours or if the componant is being abused, such as have too much current drawn through it, they may have a life span measured in micro seconds.
If you do not have an understanding of how a circuit works and/or access to the appropiate schematics and PCB layouts then you will be very hard pressed to repair the device at a componant level. If it's not the batteries, motor or wiring and has a "made in China" sticker on it then odds are that it is "dead". I would still suggest that you have poke around inside. You never know, you might learn something.
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Post Sat Dec 17, 2005 5:24 pm 
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Spockie-Tech
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Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia


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Integrated circuits (IC's) make the intricate insides of a swiss-watch look like something made from lego.

The size of the tracks, and silicon junctions inside are finer than a hair, and are subject to the same quality control issues that larger scale engineering is.

A poor photo-etch job, bad QC on the silicon and doping process chemical purity, too much or too little temperature on the laser-soldering that joins the silicon wafer to the pins or any one of a thousand items can go wrong and leave the circuitry visually perfect outside, but just a single bad joint inside will stop it working.

If you slightly bend just one cog in your mechanical watch mechanism, it will still look like a perfect Rolex outside, but wont tell time at all.. Wink

Power electronics that deal with many amps of current going through them will usually smoke or burn when something goes wrong, like a high pressure hose bursting, but low-power electronics like microprocessors, memory and other micro-amp control circuits will often die but look fine from the outside of the black box.

Nothing much you can do about it except locate and change the faulty part.
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Post Sat Dec 17, 2005 6:10 pm 
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