• Crack It Open (1 / n)

    n8dgr8 • 05/15/2020 at 02:15 • 0 comments

    So I got these buggers in today.  They are pretty beautiful!  The buttons are _very_ clicky.

    There are 22 small screws in the back plate.  Each are mercifully the same size.

    Here is a picture of the back of the back plate.  It's REPAIRABLE!  Yay!  Now where did I leave my Vendor Service Manual?  :-/ 

    Some neat things on this back panel include

    • J1 / J2 connectors
    • J1 PIN 1 - 2 wants 5V for the AREA LIGHT
    • J1 PIN 5-6-10-11-12-13 wants 28V for the ANN LIGHT

    ...  and the front of the back plate

    Material seems to be fiberglass?  Crazy that there are recesses drilled out of it where there are some pin junctions on the PCB.

    Yeah, the PCB!  Here is the back of it

    About 30' of thick, shiny traces on a hefty PCB.  Nothing about this thing feels cheap.

    The connectors J1 and J2 are of extreme interest, this is how I hope to interface with this gem of cutting edge avionics past.

    Crazy connectors there.  Smaller pins with a big one in the middle.

    Connectors look to be made by ITT, with model numbers MJSV-16PL1 and MJSV-28PT.  A quick giggle search shows them to be available (no pics, dang) on Digi-Key for roughly $TEXAS, so I may need to get shifty there to see whats can be done.

    On the front side, there is a BRT knob (it either controls brightness or a 30mm A-10 gun BRRRT) which I am assuming is held against a potentiometer wiper shaft with two hex screws.

    Unfortunately, I do not have a hex driver smaller than 1/16" which is juuuust a bit too big for this thing, so I'll need to source more tools before I dig deeper.

    More to come as I crack this thing open and enjoy the classy bits therein!