Cracking Open the MR Falcon to fix front LED. SEE POST #16 AND #17... IT'S THE BASE.

jvasilatos · Apr 12, 2009

Okay, I just couldn't live with this stupid defective LED in the portside mandible, so I figured out a way to get at it. Using a flat edged X-Acto blade, line it up as the below pictures show. It's the seam line by which the front mandible plate separates from the front nose.

You'll get a nice, clean break, that will be easy to glue back on later without any indication it came off to begin with as shown on the side I popped off with the problem lamp:

The new hitch, is that the LED seems to be connected to some kind of metal frame plate, so I can't jiggle it loose or pull it forward. The only way to get at this will be to use a dremel to remove the polystone around the lamp, if there is to be any success getting at the LED and wires.

Getting this far, what will really push me over the edge is if it turns out I can get the lamp out, but discover a replacement won't power up, indicating it's a circuit board problem and completely unfixable.

Anyway, for those who shudder at ruining their MR Falcons attempting to get at the bad lamps, you can remove the front plate without destroying the finish as long as you line up your X-Acto blade edge where I show and gently tap it into the seam with a tack hammer, the front plate will pop right off.

JV

jvasilatos · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon

Pictures of the patient...

I used my dremel to get in. Turns out that plate around the LED wasn't a plate, it was the LED circuit board. Lots of hot glue in there that had to be cleaned out, I used my heat gun on low setting to get as much of the gunk out as I could. Still, the red and black wires have little slack... once I cut the bad LED and its board off, there's not a lot of wire to work with unless I solder some more on. Which isn't impossible.

So now that I've found the malignant organ, where do I find a compatible transplant? That is, how do i find an LED on the right kind of circuit board to swap this out? Does anyone that was involved with the development with MR or any other lighting wizards have any ideas or guidance?

The heat gun caused a little real life weathering that warped a little of the struts, but I think when the mandible plate is put back, no one's gonna be able to tell the difference.

jvasilatos · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon

Barry posted these in another thread... pics of brand new MR Falcon lighting rigs.

Is anyone with electronics experience able to identify how to match one of the headlights from these pics so we can fix our lamps?

Bug Stomper · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon

I'd say check the voltage that's supplied by the two wires. If you can't measure anything here you're out of luck as the problem is located elsewhere.
If you have the voltage reading you might be able to find an LED with a build in resistor for that voltage. Otherwise you can calculate the appropriate resistor value here:http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz

Cheers,
Stefan

exoray · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon

Replace the LED with one of the same color and you should be fine... The circuit board the LED is attached to looks to be passive, meaning it servers no purpose in the circuit except to give you a place to solder the wires to and also solder the LED to... You should be able to simply solder the wires to a new LED... Remember to get polarity right, the longer leg of the LED most likely goes to the red wire, but power up and check before reassembly...

Jedi Dade · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon

You need a multi-meter to check the voltage coming to the LED from the circuit board (with it powered on obviously). If you have voltage then its a defective LED, if not you're (we're) screwed...

Jedi Dade

jvasilatos · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon

Jedi Dade said:
You need a multi-meter to check the voltage coming to the LED from the circuit board (with it powered on obviously). If you have voltage then its a defective LED, if not you're (we're) screwed...

Jedi Dade

Looking at the power pack that goes into the mirror base... it says power to the Falcon is 9 volts. I tried to take apart the plug in the mount by unscrewing it to check the connections, and it cane apart without any resistance (the solder gave way immediately), and the cord inside has no slack to pull out either, so if I can't get the metal plug resoldered to the wires inside the frosted pole, I am going to experiment hooking up a 9 volt battery to the plug to hook up underneath the Falcon to give it power while I work on seeing if a replacement LED will light with 9 volts connected.

steveo · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon

OMG!!!!! They cut off Han and Chewie's legs!!!!!!

Robiwon · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon

Looks to me the board is just a mounting platform as well. I would desolder the the wires from the board. It will be hard to desolder the LED from the board. I would drill it out with a pin vise. Try and reuse the board or get a bare board from Radio Shack.

Jedi Dade · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon

jvasilatos said:
Looking at the power pack that goes into the mirror base... it says power to the Falcon is 9 volts. I tried to take apart the plug in the mount by unscrewing it to check the connections, and it cane apart without any resistance (the solder gave way immediately), and the cord inside has no slack to pull out either, so if I can't get the metal plug resoldered to the wires inside the frosted pole, I am going to experiment hooking up a 9 volt battery to the plug to hook up underneath the Falcon to give it power while I work on seeing if a replacement LED will light with 9 volts connected.

Put a multi-meter on it. You never know what kind of resistors etc. they ran the current through before sending it to the LED. A 9V LED is not all that Common...

Hooking up a 9V to the power might work, but you're probably better off redoing the entire mess from parts from radio shack and keeping the voltages and transforms the same... presumably they engineered it to run off a 9v transformer. And please do not go plugging a 9V battering into the LED. It is likely to make it go "pop", and send shards of plastic everywhere... Possibly into your eyes! be careful there! Touching the probes of a multi meter to the hot wires of the circuit is the way to go. Plus it will tell you if you're getting any juice out to the LED... Which is what you need to know anyway, in order to wire up a replacement.

Jedi Dade

moffeaton · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon

I need to replace mine as well. Been waiting until I have time to do the repaint (I got a crap-tastic paint job on mine)

Just dug these up - hope they help!

jvasilatos · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon

I went to a Radio Shack with the "dead" mandible LED to find a match.

Guess what? We tested the "dead" LED at the store with a 9 volt battery and a resistor to protect it, and it works fine.

That means the good news is, everyone's mandible LEDs are probably NOT burnt out.

The bad news is... I believe that the source of the problem is in the ****ty mirror base with the rocker switch that never stays in a position that keeps the Falcon lit.

I am going to connect a 9 volt battery to the male extension plug that came apart from the base and test it by plugging it into the lower gunport after resoldering the mandible LED and seeing if the 9 volt will light everything up fine.

If it turns out that all the lights shine fine, (as I'm hoping), MR's base manufacturer released a bunch of crappy bases, that in the scheme of things, wouldn't be that expensive to replace or repair as opposed to cracking open the Falcons now that it's been determined the LEDs are fine.

And consider this, if these mandible LEDs worked once, but don't now even though my test shows the LED is fine, what are the chances a wire came loose inside the Falcon as opposed to the loose metal plug that powers the bird from the base? I'm betting it's a problem in the base, stand by when I'm home and can wire up a 9 volt to the plug and see how things look.

Kuhn Global · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon UPDATED WITH POSSIBLE GOOD NEWS? SEE POST #12

That is great news indeed if it works Jerry. Looking forward to viewing the results!

GKvfx · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon UPDATED WITH POSSIBLE GOOD NEWS? SEE POST #12

If the other lights work fine, it can't be the power supply's (or the connector in the base's) fault. If it were at that end of the circuit, nothing would work. Note that the lights are all connected to a central board in Barry's photos. Chances are its a crappy solder or a bad connector there, or something else in the circuit for that particular light only. Which is even worse news, cuz you gotta open the whole thing up for that.......

Gene

darth_myeek · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon UPDATED WITH POSSIBLE GOOD NEWS? SEE POST #12

OR it just needs a resistor? You could probably wheel it on down to a vcr repair shop and have them take voltage measurments.

:love

-DM

jvasilatos · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon UPDATED WITH POSSIBLE GOOD NEWS? SEE POST #12

It's the base.

I reconnected the "bad" LED, connected a 9 volt battery with resistor to the metal phono jack, plugged it into the underside gunport and guess what? EVERYTHING lights up fine.

So your LEDs are not burnt out. The problem with everyone's MR Falcons is that the base is shoddily designed and that somewhere between that crappy on/off switch to the phono plug that goes into the underside of the Falcon, there is some kind of inconsistent connection.

So the question NOW is... how do we get into that base without having to figure out a way to power our Falcon's with a 9 volt battery?

It would have been so much easier if MR had simply had SOME kind of hidden panel on the Falcon so it could be powered by a 9 volt... that's how much voltage the AC adaptor is directing into the phono plug.

jvasilatos · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon UPDATED WITH POSSIBLE GOOD NEWS? SEE POST #12

GKvfx said:
If the other lights work fine, it can't be the power supply's (or the connector in the base's) fault. If it were at that end of the circuit, nothing would work. Note that the lights are all connected to a central board in Barry's photos. Chances are its a crappy solder or a bad connector there, or something else in the circuit for that particular light only. Which is even worse news, cuz you gotta open the whole thing up for that.......

Gene

Nope... the connections inside the Falcon are good. The problem is in the power supply feeding the phono jack in the base. I just tested mine with a 9 volt battery attached and everything lights up fine. The internal wiring is sound. It's the wiring in the damn base... and my suspicion is that it's at the switch that never sets right to keep the model lit without flickering out all the time.

jvasilatos · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon to fix front LED. SEE POST #16 AND #17... IT'S THE B

What's extra frustrating here, from what I can see... is that advice MR gave people to rotate the Falcon on the phono plug with the spring to get a better connection... guess what, depending on the direction you twist that plug, it can rotate the wires soldered inside and pull them away from the phono plug.

With a battery capable of powering all the lamps, and the switch on the mirror base all wonky... even with models "out of warranty", isn't there some way MR can help us by giving us an idea how to get inside the mirror base to fix these damn switches?

GKvfx · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon UPDATED WITH POSSIBLE GOOD NEWS? SEE POST #12

jvasilatos said:
Nope... the connections inside the Falcon are good. The problem is in the power supply feeding the phono jack in the base. ...........

Well, the problem that most of the people are reporting is that ONE mandible light goes out. Everything else stays lit. To me, that means that power has to be getting through the converter, up the base/post, and to the circuit board. Unless there are multiple boards that feed off of the same power supply and have separate connectors in the base.

Gene

jvasilatos · Apr 13, 2009

Re: Cracking Open the MR Falcon UPDATED WITH POSSIBLE GOOD NEWS? SEE POST #12

GKvfx said:
Well, the problem that most of the people are reporting is that ONE mandible light goes out. Everything else stays lit. To me, that means that power has to be getting through the converter, up the base/post, and to the circuit board. Unless there are multiple boards that feed off of the same power supply and have separate connectors in the base.

Gene

That's the problem I had. One mandible light was out. I thought the bulb was burnt out. Got in, pulled the "bad" LED out, tested it, and it worked. Now I reconnected it, and ran power from a 9 volt, not the stand for the past ten minutes, and every light works. The problem is between the switch and the base/post when it is running from the converter. And with that wonky switch, doesn't it make sense that there is some connection in the base that is not stable to cause that problem before the power goes up the post into the Falcon?

Before, when it was on the stand, none of the lights stayed on consistently. You had to wiggle the power switch to try and get three of the four lights on (engine, cockpit and starboard mandible). The portside was always out. Sometimes the cockpit and engine would flicker back and forth also. When I pulled out the portside and still had power from the stand, the starboard was out. Now everything is powered by a 9 volt and it works fine.

Something's fubar in the mirror base. Which is actually a relief, because it means you don't have to get inside the rest of the Falcon to the circuit boards... they're fine, and with a stable phono jack plug the power should distribute properly from an AC outlet.

JV

Cracking Open the MR Falcon to fix front LED. SEE POST #16 AND #17... IT'S THE BASE.

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