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Hello, TekScopes, I am new to the group! I have a R7903 (B192xxx) that has a broken Main Interface connector, left bay. It is difficult to see but it appears that the pins (gold plated contacts) themselves are OK but the nylon housing is broken including several of the fingers that hold the pins. The nylon contact cover is also damaged. Does anyone have experience repairing the interface connector on this scope or any other Tek that has a module interface board like the 7903? I have a dead scope that can be a parts donor.



The R7903 is a great scope, truly an electronic marvel; I would really like to fix the connector!



Thanks!
Paull

Hi Paull,

This is bad news. First you would need to get hold of those pins and another
plastic housing. I don't know of any source for the pins. The housings can
be found much easier.

Second, you would almost have to completely tear down the scope so you would
have unfettered access to the interface board, front and back. That is not
for the faint of heart.

Third, and even harder, would be replacing the bad or missing pins. The
alignment is critical. I can't even imagine a way to get those pins in their
proper alignment since you would almost certainly have to insert, align, and
solder each one individually.

IIRC, the 7903 has special "floating" pins for the vertical signals since
they are such high frequency. If those pins are damaged their alignment
would probably be even more critical.

I hope someone else can offer a more encouraging answer.

Dennis Tillman W7PF

Dennis,
Thanks! I don't think the pins are bad, my question is if the nylon housing/pin guide can be replaced WITHOUT removing all the pins? My worst case is only one of the pins is actually bad. It is pin A4, J-1


I have had the Interface Board from my parts donor 7903 out of the scope and in my hand. You are right, not a trivial problem! I didn't know I had my connector problem at the time, didn't study the connector and put the board back in the parts donor (didn't know it was a parts donor at the time)!


Paull

Hi Paull,

Yes the nylon housing can be replaced without removing all the pins, and it
is (compared to all the other ugly things I mentioned) not too hard to do.
Although, since you have a spare 7103 I would suggest you practice taking
one off the donor board and putting it back on the donor board since there
is a trick to getting it to snap into place.

As far as pin A4, look in the schematic to see what A4 does. Fortunately it
is not one of the vertical signals. I don't have a schematic handy to see
what signals are on that pin. You can probably remove a pin from the donor
board and use it to repair the good R7903. Here again I would practice
inserting and aligning a pin into the donor board until you are sure you
know how to align it properly.

If there is nothing wrong with the back plane of the donor board it would be
wiser and safer in the long run to exchange back plane boards.

Dennis Tillman W7PF.

Dennis,
That is the answer that I was hoping for!! The donor board also has a bad connector and I know that some of the pins are damaged on that board. The donor scope also has other problems as well; good advice to practice with the donor board. I will let you know how it goes!


It will take a bit before I try this because I need to work up the courage to remove/replace the Interface Board in the scope to be repaired. The scope works now (except tor the bad connector) and I don't want to "brick" the whole thing!


Thank you very much!


Paull NM5PH

Dennis,

Thank you so much! I have successfully replaced the nylon of the left bay Main Interface connector on my R7903! Because of the great help I replaced it without too much difficulty. As was suggested I practiced on an another interface board before I tried it on the real circuit board (great advice). I managed to find a "new, old stock", nylon and used it for the repair. I had one damaged pin that I repaired by moving an unused pin; moving the pin was actually easy because the nylon of the connector held the replacement pin, with the proper alignment, as I soldered it.


The scope is now working great, all three bays!


Again thanks to you and the Yahoo Group!


Paull Holmes