Sunday, 18 September 2016

Repairing the ALFANO

I am just starting to do little bits and pieces of the RG. This weekend I was trying to repair the lap time/logging device (ALFANO). This device has a magnetic sensor which recognises magnetic strips at various places on various circuits, so you can do lap times and segment times and see how you are doing. It also measures coolant temperature and RPM.

The magnetic sensor was ripped off in the accident. Basically the wire connecting the sensor to the display unit is a small size coax cable. Looking on the web to replace it I was shocked at the price they were asking for a new one, so I was looking at ways to fix it. I thought I would be able to just join the ends together, and solder, but this was difficult as the earth (shield) connection had been ripped off within the rubber connector.

Instead of giving up, I got the dremel to work and cut back the rubber and got down to the simple 2 pins that were the connector. I cleaned up the tips of the 2 pins and soldered on the remaining wire, and bingo it worked - saved myself over 100 Euros!
The bit at the top is what was left of the connector plug, the bit at the bottom is the 2 pin connector
Sorry about the focus, but a bit of  shrink wrap after having soldered the wires on and good to go
Waving a magnet next to the sensor proved that the repair was working!

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