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Yamaha DTXpress Drum Pad Fix - PCY60 - Yamaha DTX fix

Yamaha DTXpress Drum Pad Fix

Recently, one of my Yamaha drum triggers / pads got screwed up and it took me a little while to figure it out.  Apparently, just plugging and unplugging these or having a snag in one of the mono cables will cause this problem with the mono jack solder joints and cause all kinds of weird problems.  In my case, the pad would (barely) be triggered with a soft drum stick hit.  

When I touched the little mono cable box underneath it, it just went nuts like it was being triggered repeatedly without any input and in a very fast sequence.  I checked the other pads and none of them exhibited the same problem.  

 

The jack itself is inside of this rubber "housing" which has two phillips screws, and a place to inserta small phillips screwdriver for sensitivity adjustment. 

 This is what the PCB looks like with the housing off. Below the PCB is a very simple (and cheap) Piezo electric pickup.  What we are focused on here is the jack itself...

Observe the underside of the PCB, and make sure the jack has not worked its way loose

from the PCB, paying attention to the four large solder joins.  On mine, the first two

solder joints closest to the jack tip were totally loose and needed to be re-soldered

A close up of the two connections that needed attention on my unit:

I believe this problem is attributed to the design of the box, and the amount of pressure that is put on the jack itself with the right angle mono jacks.  The outside housing should have been designed not to be rubber / or flexible around the jack tip area, which allows the jack to move inside of the housing in a downward direction over time, causing it to break loose from it's PCB solder joints. 

Fix Jaguar XJ8 / x350 Air suspension " pressure relief valve " o-rings oring o-ring

These O-Rings on the brass pressure relief valve can, and will fail over time. My leak was not very obvious, but it was leaking from below the valve, very slowly causing the car to throw the amber "air suspension" warning light and the car would slowly sink down over the course of several days.

It took me QUITE some time to figure this out, as I kept ordering new air shocks, and using the same pressure relief valve when installing the new shock on the drivers' side.

 Eventually, I figured it out and traced the problem to the O-Ring on the valve with soapy dish fluid water in a sprayer. But it was not immediately evident, and the leak must have been very slow.   Only a visual inspection confirmed the o-ring had failed. 

To test your air connections for leaks, just spray all of your connections, and the valve block in the trunk and tank connections and look for bubbles from the soap solution on the connections.   Also remember to spray the shock rubber air bags themselves, from inside the wheel well if you think a specific shock itself is leaking , or you hear air escaping from that side of the car.  If air is leaking from a fitting, you'll see it generate bubbles fairly quickly -- or not, like in my aforementioned case.

The valve block, and air tank under the spare tire in the trunk / boot

The valve block is mounted in the trunk beneath the spare wheel and a sound-deadening foam cover. It shares the same mounting bracket as the air reservoir. The valve block contains five individual solenoid valves, one for each of the four air springs and one for the reservoir. A pressure sensor (made by Denso) is mounted to the valve block manifold. The sensor monitors system pressure and communicates this information to the ASM. Six air hoses or pipes are mounted to the valve block manifold, one for each of the four air springs, one for the reservoir, and one for the air compressor. The air hoses for the front air springs are 6mm and the hoses for the rear air springs are 4mm.

The air hoses are color-coded as follows:

Left Rear air spring: Blue
Left Front air spring: Brown
Right Rear air spring: Red
Right Front air spring: Yellow


Under the control of the ASM, the solenoid valves in the valve block perform the following operations:

• Increase or decrease the pressure in the front air springs as a pair (or individually on early cars with 4 height sensors)

• Increase or decrease the pressure in each individual rear air spring

• Direct air from the compressor to repressurize the reservoir

• Allow air from one or more air spring(s) to be released through the compressor exhaust vent solenoid valve

Jaguar XJ8 / x350 - Replacement O-Ring Information 

Here are the proper sizes for the air shock connection o-ring sizes with photos.

UPDATE 1.22.20 :  The O-Ring size : 6mm ID x 8mm OD x 1.5 mm W .    I ordered 1mm width and it's just not wide enough.  You'll need 1.5 to probably 2mm in width so that the o-ring comes up to the last thread.   The 1mm width o-rings are not correct and in the Jaguar forums someone mentioned  #6 O-Rings (7/16" O.D x 5/16" I.D X 1/16") but those are not right either for the air valve o-rings.  You (may) be able to make Danco #47 o-rings work for you ; those are 11/32" OD x 7/32 I.D. x 1/16".

I found that the 6mm ID 9mm OD x 1.5 mm / 2.0mm o-rings from Ace Hardware worked for me.  So it's 1mm larger than the 8mm OD, but it still worked fine. 

Fixing a Jaguar XJ8 - 2004 2005 2006 - x350 - LOW COOLANT LIGHT

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The best Jag I've ever owned, hands down.  No I don't miss British Racing Green

Every once in a while, I would get a "low coolant" warning light on my X350 jag, and inspected everything but could not find a leak, nor did it seem like I was loosing any -- but the faint sweet smell of coolant was present.  What the heck!

I drove the car for another 1,000 miles without thinking much about it as the light was intermittent, but then it became more frequent.

After a pressure test, I discovered my coolant reservoir was the problem ; a clear plastic tank that sits right up top on the radiator support .

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Jaguar XJ8 Coolant Reservoir / Overflow Tank / Expansion Tank

** ALWAYS LET THE ENGINE COOL BEFORE DOING ANYTHING ; BE SAFE AND CLEAN UP EXCESS RADIATOR FLUID, IT IS POISONOUS **

 The first thing you want to do, is make sure you have not been using water to re-fill this tank, or anything other than the recommended Dexcool coolant.  The sensor is very sensitive to other coolant types ; so make sure you are using the proper coolant ; and not water .  The sensor hates the stuff. 

Ok, so the problem with this coolant expansion tank ; is that it loves to develop small cracks in the plastic upper hose connection ; thus dropping pressure in the tank and throwing the low coolant light.  It's really a poorly engineered design, because the hose isn't supported by anything and is constantly putting pressure on that fitting.    

Sometimes you cannot see anything wrong / I could not see any residual fluid, or signs of a leak.  But I could faintly smell coolant when the car had been running for a while. 

Order a replacement tank, and make sure it comes with the "bleed screw" as mine did not and I had to request one.  You can find an aftermarket tank on ebay for about $30-40, not $200 from a parts supply store such as Autozone.    Your new tank should also come with a new cap. I saved my old cap as a spare ; but honestly hope it's a part I'll never need in the future :) 

Tank removal is pretty straight forward, I used a lighted mechanics mirror to disconnect the lower sensor connector on the left underside of the tank. You'll have the top hose, and an electrical connector at the bottom of the tank, then you have a clip to pull for the hose connection which easily comes off once you pull that clip out.  

All and all, a pretty easy job for most non-mechanically inclined.   I did not re-order a new sensor, I used my old one which is released from the bottom of the old unit.   Remember to make sure your bleed screw is tight, and has it's rubber "o" ring attached. 

After the job is wrapped up ; fill the tank with fluid and run the car up to operating temp ; then let it cool off and top off the tank again to replace any fluid that may have been lost during the process. 

My annoying coolant level low light has stayed off now for months, and I can now recommend this as your best bet for a fix.   Remember to use Jaguar approved radiator fluid , and double check all of your connections to assure they will not come off under pressure. 



Also remember to inspect for leaks behind the block, and under the intake manifold (there is hose under the intake manifold that loves to leak in the valley of the engine) if this does not immediately fix your problem, and of course if you can still smell coolant. 

However, this problem seems much rarer than the aforementioned fix for "ghost leaks" on the XJ8.   

 

Fixing Vtech MA3222 / MA3222-17 Bluetooth Speaker Battery Problems

 FIXING  Vtech MA3222 -  Bluetooth Speaker


I bought a couple of these speakers as travel companions some years ago.  But both developed the same problem -- they would not hold a sufficient charge ; and would not play for more than 30-40 mins without completely powering down.   That wasn't going to work for me, and I knew something had to be wrong with the (thankfully) removable battery pack.

However, a replacement was far too pricey ; and did not make sense -- you might as well buy the same entire device again!

Prices for these $$$ stupid

The batteries are basically 3x AAA flat top batteries connected in series .  Using my battery rule of thumb, (first positive cell or cells are usually faulty in a a series array) I tested them individually.  They all checked out at first, so I hooked up a load (LED lights) to see which cells were failing or discharging first.

Right off the bat, I saw a total discharge from the first AAA cell in the positive series.  So I pulled the
tab off of that cell, replaced with another aftermarket cell and the Vtech has worked perfectly ever since. 

 I will probably just build a new AAA battery pack from better quality flat tops when I get the time to do so, since obviously they used some pretty cheap cells for these units to begin with, or so it seems.  

Fixing a Hoover Quest ( 700  / 800 ) That will not charge 

Did your Hoover Quest just stop taking a charge altogether, or won't charge it's batteries ? 


I have two robot vacuums.  Both that I fixed, and bought inexpensively because they were 'problem' machines -- that common problem they both shared was power related.

I think this is probably due to the cheap chinese cells that manufactures are fitting their devices with.  Could be wrong, but probably not.  I fixed a Roomba about a year ago with a battery rebuild (usually the first two cells or the last two cells will be bad in the battery) so you can just replace those and the unit will usually function again as new.  I opted finally after testing extensively to just replace the entire battery with a new unit.

Next I purchased the HOOVER QUEST 700 on ebay for a mere $50 ; and it was like new in the package with all of its accessories.  When I got the unit, I quickly discovered that this thing simply refused to take a charge.  I tested the docking / charging dock with my meter.  It was fine.

So  next I opened the unit ** BE CAREFUL when you open the unit, as there are two wire connectors you have to remove before taking the top off the bottom part completely. 

Then I put the battery on my meter.  It was under 1v ; so I quickly figured the unit must not "see" the battery because of the low voltage .  If the charging circuitry cannot see the battery, it won't charge it.

 I took out the battery and hooked it up to a simple 5v 500ma charger for a couple of hours ; then reconnected it to the Quest.  Your average cell phone charger puts out about that same voltage, so just sacrifice one of those adapters to charge the battery up.  When you strip the charger wires, the wire with the white line will be positive, and the solid black wire is negative.    

When putting the unit back together, place the battery in first and then jiggle the top plastic frame onto the bottom.  If it doesn't want to work the first time, don't worry -- just check wires from the battery and make sure nothing is obstructing reassembly.  A couple screws in the unit will work for testing / final charging, if you don't want to completely reassemble the unit.

After unit is assembled, place it back onto it's original base station / charger as the battery should only have a 5V charge now, but enough for the base station to "see" the unit, and charge it fully.

Unit immediately began to charge and still works fine today.  If those batteries get too low, the unit will not charge them.  Its a really bad design flaw, but other than that these are pretty good units and work alright for what they are.  Eventually I will rebuild both battery packs with higher quality cells ; which is the way to go. I do not see anyone selling an aftermarket battery for the quest / or even a replacement battery yet on ebay.   Of course, you could test and or replace cells in these packs individually.  Usually when rebuilding a battery pack -- the first and second cells in from the positive wire will be the bad apples.

Hope this helps others to fix non charging Hoover Quest 700 and 800 models!


UPDATE:  The device goes into this mode (will not charge) frequently, and as I result I cannot recommend the purchase of this model or make. Hoover has also made NO attempt to rectify the situation and I will  no longer recommend the Hoover brand to anyone. 

Kyle