

| Subject: | Oops. |
| From: | Sean Bartnik |
| Date: | Fri, 1 Nov 96 23:53:51 EST |
Well, Just when I get my sink working well, I go and break the LED panel. Shoot. How, you may wonder, did I accomplish this amazing feat? Simple, I say. The switch for the panel was very loose, so I removed the coverplate to investigate. When you do that, you're faced with a printed circuit board with LEDs and ICs on it, among other things. Well, the switch was still loose and the cause was not readily apparent from there, so I pulled the assembly out a little farther, noticing that the circuit board is encased in a cheap plastic bin. Behind this bin all the wires come out, so you remove the little wire collar there and you can pull the circuit board out of the plastic bin to see what's going on behind the board. While there, i found a cold solder on the switch, which is the cause of its wiggling. Well, not having a soldering iron, I put it back together but now when I flip the switch, no LEDs. Hmmmm. Used to be that you would flip the switch and the LEDs would come on but as soon as you let go of the switch, they'd go off. You know, typical cold solder behavior. The jiggle factor. Well, it was shot before and it's really shot now, tho I don't know if my poking and prying had anything to do with its other than speeding the disconnection of the switch from the board (well, it's still in there and still loose, but I figure I "helped" it some). Anyway, seeing as how my sink pump is controlled by the LED panel (yes it is too -- Haynes even backs me up on this), and now my LED panel doesn't turn on, neither does my sink. So, what I want to ask is if it's worth getting another one of these panels or trying to have it repaired (it's simple, but it looks like one of those things VW would charge $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ for) or if I should just wire the pump up to the hot wire directly so the pump is always available. I think solution B is better (or at least cheaper) and will eliminate a lot of goofiness as well. If this could be repaired, where would I take it? Who does soldering nowadays? The only useful purpose this panel seems to serve (other than controlling the water pump) is to indicate battery condition and water level. I guess neither of those functions is of dire importance but it would be nice to have them. So what do you listies think about the possibility of repair? I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who has had problems with this panel. Despite my propensity for breaking things, I'm still really enjoying this camper :) Thanks in advance, Sean
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