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Subject: 
Re: refurbishing dead NXT's
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.nxt
Date: 
Sat, 25 Jul 2009 21:17:11 GMT
Viewed: 
24808 times
  
"gypsy_fly" <e_pilobello@yahoo.com> writes:

We have about 54 NXT sets.  Our oldest ones, purchased
just as soon as the sets were available, are now 3 years
old.  After about 100 running hours, they are finally
giving up the ghost. Some have bad ports, others have no
displays, and two are all dead.

We have brand new replacements for the troubled ones.

What can I do with the ones that might still be
refurbishable?  Could I swap displays?

Yes, that is easy, the display & keys unit can be unplugged.
You'd only have to resolder the two speaker wires.

Would that be easier than swapping motherboards
(I assume the ports are mounted directly on the boards).

Yes.  It doesn't make much sense to swap the motherboard,
because without the LCD/keyboard and the motherboard
the rest is basically a battery box.

Is there a website out there that might show how to take NXTs apart and
refurbishing them?

Not that I know, but here is a brief description:

Getting the top off is not difficult, you need to unscrew four screws
in the battery compartment.  Then the white part and the keys come off.
There are two more screws which hold the LCD inside.  You can unscrew
them and unplug the LCD assembly, which is now attached to the motherboard
only by the thin speaker wires.  You'll have to disconnect them and
connect the ones from the replacement LCD, then reassemble everything.

One of the speaker wires will probably not be attached directly to
the contact hole in the motherboard but to a small 10 Ohm SMD resistor
which was added as an afterthought, it is not in the prototype NXT
nor in the schematics (maybe without it the speaker was too loud
for some toy safety regulation?).  IMHO you can safely remove it
and solder the wire directly in the through hole.


Taking out the motherboard is much harder, you'll need to unsolder
the battery contacts, which are relatively big
(so you'll need a powerful soldering iron) and hard to reach.
On reassembling the motherboard don't forget the black button on the bottom,
the NXT needs it to detect the presence of the rechargable battery.


Jürgen

--
Jürgen Stuber <juergen@jstuber.net>
http://www.jstuber.net/



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: refurbishing dead NXT's
 
(...) I will try this! Thanks. (15 years ago, 26-Jul-09, to lugnet.robotics.nxt)

Message is in Reply To:
  refurbishing dead NXT's
 
We have about 54 NXT sets. Our oldest ones, purchased just as soon as the sets were available, are now 3 years old. After about 100 running hours, they are finally giving up the ghost. Some have bad ports, others have no displays, and two are all (...) (15 years ago, 22-Jul-09, to lugnet.robotics.nxt)

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