Stupid systemdesign by Razer - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: rhdf
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2015, 01:02:55 am
content: HiI had a set of Razer Mako PC speakers (since long out of production.. I have some clues why) standing in a corner for some years nowNice design, a cute control pod with headphone out + line in etc., Decent sound quality ("THX certified") etc.The only problem with them is that they where plagued with the "pop of death". Simply the would sooner or later start making a popping sound instead of turn on.A quick googlesearch lead me to a forum-thread where some people claimed it was a faulty cap. Oh well I thought, I put it on a shelf and take care of it later... Now, a couple of years later I finally decided to have a go at them. Revisiting the forum (yes it was still there) the tread had got some more detailed tips.Since I've watched a couple of EEVblog videos where he repairs stuff with faulty caps i now know what I should look for. The thing is that the cap in question doesnt look blown or bulky, its just.. "dead". I don't know how anybody managed to pinpoint the error to that cap, but everybody seemed to agree it was C125..So i Ordered a couple of new, good brand, caps.Here is the first interesting thing. the value seems to differ. Some claims its a 4,7u, others says its 47u. Someone managed to mount the new cap backwards, and blew it. but the speakers worked with a totally blown cap in place. (one theory is that it works without this cap and the faulty ones causes a short)Well, the stupid systemdesign....Everything is mounted on the large PCB in the sub-speaker. Everything except the power switch. The powerjack (220V) is pcb-mounted And a couple of (short) leads goes through a ferrite ring (mounted to the PCB with a cable-tie) , down to the switch and back to the pcb.So what's the problem you might ask.. Well the switch is GLUED in a slot in the speakerbody.So to be able to flip the PCB over to get to the cap you have to cut the cable-tie to get some slack and careful untangle the, still, short leads.Just for fun the holes are pretty small so desoldering was .. interesting, lead-free solder+ groundplane = lot of heat and timeWith the old cap out, solder the new one took about 20 sek. Then You have to fiddle all the power-leads back in the exact right position to get the ting back together.Total Time 2 hours, mostly struggle with those damn leads.So Why oh Why not just put that stupid switch in the "normal way", its a standard panel-mounted, which you normally see just pressed through a right sized hole.Its not that it would fall out if you not glue it in place...Probably this is one of the reasons they stopped produce them. They die of crappy caps and nobody wants to repair them anymore since it takes too much time

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 30, 2015, 01:23:59 am
content: Well, the 64,000 $USD question is, did you fix it? Was the end result worth the painful process. They probably had a number of gnomes to crawl into the holes and solder/assemble

author: KJDS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2015, 12:06:57 pm
content: Just be glad that you never have to fix a fault on an old Gould oscilloscope. You need to drill out rivets to get the board out, as well as desoldering the screening that has been made from various bits of sheet metal that are soldered together round the board and to the front panel. Hateful thing, and after getting it all working and all soldered and riveted back together I discovered that I'd moved the two gain range knobs when the shaft wasn't through both pairs of switches, so it all needs to come apart again.

author: Yago
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2015, 12:34:37 pm
content: Quote from: GreyWoolfe on January 30, 2015, 01:23:59 amFound a dead gnome once, must have been trapped when case was fully closed.He left a message in the heatsink paste, scarred me for life!

author: rhdf
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2015, 02:46:38 pm
content: Quote from: GreyWoolfe on January 30, 2015, 01:23:59 amYepp, Fixed. until the next cap dies ( not seen any reports of that). Strange that it's always this one and not any of the other 5 47u nearby. I assume it is placed a bit to near a heatsink.I agree with the gnome-theory. If The switch was PCB-mounted the whole thing could have been a really quick repair (and probably assembly too)

author: iampoor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2015, 09:47:56 am
content: Cheap consumer electronics are not designed with friendly repairs in mind sadly.

author: rhdf
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2015, 04:30:24 pm
content: Correct, but often made to be as easy/cheap to manufacture as possible. A production-step where you need a human (or gnome) is a extra cost.