Repair Transponder

[Mike Devins]

I have a AMB TranX 260 that will not hold a charge. Any one know of someone who can repair these or is it time for a new one.

[Mike Devins]

Or can it be hardwired instead?

[SteveG]

A linky to AMB's tech support...

http://www.mylaps.com/index.php/us_e...porate/contact

Call them up. Last time I did it, it was $100 for the battery replacement.

Steve

[Rick Kirchner]

A friend of mine took his apart and replaced it himself. IIRC, it's a potted assembly and takes some digging.

[Mike Devins]

Thanks,

[RussMcB]

If you decide you need a new one, ask about a discount for trading in your old one. They did that not long ago. It was only 10-20% off, but better than nothing.

[racinray]

Send it to Jeff Chandler at Transponder Services in Australia. www.transponderservices.com. It cost me 90 AUD (currently about $95 US) plus shipping. I think shipping was only about $20. I had it back in a few weeks and it is back to flashing 6 times.

Ray

[Tom Sprecher]

Measure or find out the battery voltage, get a Dc-Dc converter with that output, hard wire and forget about it.

Never understood the attaction to battery powered transponders. It's just one more thing you have to dick with.

[racinray]

Measure or find out the battery voltage, get a Dc-Dc converter with that output, hard wire and forget about it.

Good luck getting through all the epoxy if you try that. I opened mine up, took one look at it, and closed it back up again!

Ray

[Mike Devins]

I was wondering if I can just supply voltage to the charging points and hard wire it there, I will just have to test if it will work in charging mode.

[Tom Sprecher]

^^^^ this

[JimR]

RacinRay has the right solution. I too used Jeff Chandlers services after getting no where with AMB. Was VERY satisfied!!! The unit came back good as new with proper instructions for it future care and what the blinking lights really mean.

[Rick Kirchner]

You can try baking the device at no more than 125 deg C for a couple of hours and the potting should soften. wear some gloves and dig it out.

125 is the temp used to bake humidity out of devices before wave solder, so that should be safe.

[Mike Devins]

Well got a response back from AMB and it said:

"We do not replace batteries or repair them. The replacement depends solely on the age of it. As far as turnaround goes, I would get it in ASAP, if you want it for next weekend."


So I asked how much and there has been no response.

[Mike Devins]

From AMB:

"The transponder below is over 10 years old so it is long out of warranty. However if you send in the unit (attn: Paul), I’m sure we can give you a 15% discount. The cost would be $380.80 (retail $448)."

I guess it is time for a new one based on the age but it would sure be nice to just replace the battery.

I will limp thru the next race weekend and then send it off to the land down under.

Thanks to everyone for the info.

[dereklola]

Yikes - I thought the price of electronics was supposed to come down as time went on.

[cgscgs]

I assume this is ancient history but I'm kinda new at this. Did SCCA contract with AMB to mandate only their transponders be used? Not knowing the history, I have been surprised that it seems like every Sup I have actually read specifies an AMB transponder. Doesn't that guarantee no downward pressure on price. Would someone educate me on how that transpired? Did we (the racers) benefit in any way from that deal? Am I missing the silver lining?
Thanks

[dereklola]

They've dominated the world not just SCCA.
Probably ready to corner the Iraqi and Afghanistani markets too.

[Brian]

Monopoly means high price?
Am I missing the silver lining?

The silver lining is that your proprietary protocol transponder that you paid such a high price for (margin has to be sky-high on those things, they can't cost much to make) is capable of being used anywhere. You don't have to buy a different transponder for each track.

But yeah - a monopoly kind of kills the whole cost benefit of competition thing, doesn't it?

Brian

[ASRF1000]

Hence, why "spec" classes being cheaper is a myth.

[RussMcB]

Maybe we can get the guys who were making HANS anchor knockoffs to change to cheap transponder counterfeits. I think in this case you wouldn't get too many complaints.

$450. Hard to understand that price.

[Dave Welsh]

Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems that AMB/MyLaps is a Netherlands company.

What has the value of the dollar done against the Euro the past couple of years?

Take a look at the income and business taxes on Netherlands workers and businesses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_...he_Netherlands

Wow, 42% on income over 31,589 Euro, and 52% over 53,000 Euro.

Nice of us to help pay for their social programs.

[Rick Kirchner]

probably simple to reverse engineer - but the trick is making sure you don't duplicate other's numbers!

[Mike Devins]

I know that this seems strange but here you go.

My transponder had sat idle for about 2-3 years and when I charged it as noted in the beginning of this thread the LED would only stay green for about 2 hours.

I needed to use it and did not have time to send it to AUS so I figured charge it again and see what happened.

I have now charged it and let it go dead about 10 times and it is now holding a charge for over two days!

[Rick Kirchner]

Sometimes little "dendrites" of tin grow inside capacitors and certain types of batteries when not used for a long time. heavy use, or a high current/short duration pulse in the reverse direction will burn them out and the system will recover capacity.

I believe that works for the basic chemistry of certain components as well.