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View Full Version : Dropped my ESB Darth Vader and ROTS Anakin!


orgymeyer
10-22-2006, 08:00 PM
Yep, the first day I got both my conversions working together, I go and drop them on a grassy field, and they both died on me!

What terrible luck! :oops:


But after taking them home and field stripping Vader (ESB) it's not the switch loose like I thought. It's actually two things... both are kinda tricky to fix.

The first, is the battery pack/speaker unit. Of the three metal holes on the top of the unit, two are pushed in slightly, one further than the other.

I think when the saber fell, it pushed the speaker into the unit and thus these were pushed inside and no longer make contact.

I unscrewed the three screws, and one of the pieces is no longer connected to the top part. Tested it out by manually touching them all together and it works, so no wire issues, just can't get them to stay in place now, they kinda bent and don't stay in the holes anymore :(


The other thing was that the purple wire on this connector

http://thecustomsa.web133.discountasp.net/forum/05vader/18.jpg
Bottom right side, the white connector, the purple wire came out. When I push the copper wires into the open slot, it works, but I don't know how to reattach it.

Should I just solder that back in there, or stick the wires in and heat shrink tube the wire into place?

I'm a bit of a n00b with electrical things, although FX sabers have inspired me to increase my skill. Any help you guys can provide is most appreciated! :)


PS: haven't taken apart the Anakin yet, but I'm almost certain that a wire just stripped, I used black electrical tape around my soldering jobs last time, this time, I'll use heat shrink tubing.
james3
10-22-2006, 09:17 PM
Wire in the harness deal may be a pain but what ya want to do is try to make the wire larger with solder or such and heat it all up and set it in there either that or get a pretty expensive tool used to make pin connections for those things.

The first method aint pretty but it will work for you.

Battery pack? I would say use pliers to bend the tabs back up? I am not sure since I havent had that problem yet.
orgymeyer
10-22-2006, 10:52 PM
Wire in the harness deal may be a pain but what ya want to do is try to make the wire larger with solder or such and heat it all up and set it in there either that or get a pretty expensive tool used to make pin connections for those things.

The first method aint pretty but it will work for you.

Battery pack? I would say use pliers to bend the tabs back up? I am not sure since I havent had that problem yet.

Awesome suggestions, I think I'll try the first (non pretty) approach, see how it goes.

Yeah I was thinking pliers, gotta bend it into shape or something... thanks for the ideas, I'll post again later when I've made some progress! :)
Lord Maul
10-23-2006, 06:21 AM
for the purple wire, if you turn the fixture thing so it looks like the other wires and push it in it stays in place. just make sure you have it turned the right way and not crooked cause then it won't go in far enough
xwingband
10-23-2006, 07:20 AM
I haven't had to do it on one of those molex connectors... but when I fudged up a quick disconnect by pulling out the wire I did this:

Got a good amount of solder on the wire. In those few seconds before it solidified I shoved it back into the connector. It solidified with the internal pin and now it's probably more solid than it was before... it worked. :lol:
james3
10-23-2006, 08:11 AM
xwing likes method #1 too I see. :D
orgymeyer
10-25-2006, 04:18 PM
Method one seems to have done the trick! Thanks guys.... I just melted some solder on the bare wires and stuck it in there, and then stuck the soldering iron close to melt it a bit inside.

Sticks in there better than new! :)