UPDATE/LOCK stairway to do-it-yourself electronics repair

ascannerlightly

IANAE (i am not an engineer)

a while back i bought the ghwt bundle of the game, 1 gh3 les paul & 1 ghwt guitar (the fenderish/kramer/whatever) guitar & the game. i have recently had failures in both guitars of different parts. the les paul star power activator (i'm assuming inside the body) has developed a hair trigger and the guitar must be kept absolutely motionless at a 90 degree angle to the floor (this one has actually been present a while, but i rarely use it so it wasn't nearly as pressing). on the ghwt guitar, the orange button finally departed this mortal coil after it started registering intermittently about two weeks ago. i tried just swapping necks but the ends are of different sizes. what i'm trying to figure out as doable (and if so, the difficulty of it) in swapping out the board w/ the fret buttons from 1 guitar to the other (or conversely swapping the star power thing from 1 guitar to another). i prefer the ghwt guitar so i'm trying to make the first scenario happen. i took the neck apart and it looks like a regular ide-type cable soldered on another board. both running off 2 aa's, the guts would be essentially the same voltage wise and all, right?

TL;DR can i go dr. moreau and combine parts on my 2 guitar controllers without having to worry about voltage/amerpage/anythingelseage electrically speaking?

ascannerlightly

0 replies 68 views

Killgrimage

it would probably be cheaper to just take em back and replace with a new guitar. However, if you really want to try, give it a shot. I can't imagine why they would make the guitars such different amp/voltage if they are for the same game (and are basically the same guitar). Make sure the power's off and you should be okay.

Pheezer

The internals should be identical to save on costs of manufacture but it's hard to say. They could be slightly different if the micro-controller that provides output to the system changed between revisions.

I don't know what kind of device those use for the star power thing. Probably not an accelerometer, probably something simpler, but man. This is really hard to give advice on without being able to even look at the internals.

Checking google. Nothing. Okay.

The easiest way to get 1 guitar working out of this is probably to open the neck with the busted orange button. Those buttons should be very simple, both mechanically and electrically.

Assuming it works the same as every other video game controller I've ever opened up:
You should see 2 solder points on the part connected to the neck, and the orange button should be spring loaded, with a blackish or metallic disk in the middle of it. When you push it down, it's supposed to complete a circuit by contacting two shiny pieces of metal on the bottom half that face it.

One of two things are likely happening:
a) It is dirty and the contact is not complete. Clean out any crud and take better care of your shit.
b) One of the leads is broken. The solder points connecting to the half of the button assembly that's part of the neck that you mash the top half into could have a broken solder point. Assuming it's even soldered, which it might not be, but probably is.

Repairing a busted solder point is dead simple, but if you suck at soldering or have a shitty iron or worse yet a gun, you'll fuck up the plastic in the area. Get someone who doesn't suck to re-work the solder point if that's the issue. Also, make SURE that you do NOT use acid cored solder on a PCB EVER. Printed Circuit Board = non-acid cored solder.

Pheezer

Also, it would likely even in the case of the star power broken guitar be cheaper to have a repair done than a replacement. It's probably just a fancy switch that costs $5-10 (which admittedly is a good chunk to spend on a switch) and takes 15 minutes (like $10 of bench time) to fix. Most repair places have minimum repair costs, so inquire about that before bringing it somewhere, but if it's $30 to get the part ordered and installed and have it good as new, why not?

DeathPrawn

Pheezer wrote: »

I don't know what kind of device those use for the star power thing. Probably not an accelerometer, probably something simpler, but man. This is really hard to give advice on without being able to even look at the internals.

It depends on the guitar. I don't know about the GH3 or GHWT guitars, but I know the old GH2 Xplorers had a proper accelerometer-type sensor along one axis - if you hooked it up to your computer, it would give you a pretty detailed reading as to exactly how tilted it was. The RB1 Stratocaster, on the other hand, had a much simpler mechanism.

Pheezer

I guess my real concern would be to find the micro-controller that the cable that runs to the console connects to. Check both thoroughly for who made it, and see if there's a model number on it. Usually there's something of that nature listed.

If it's the same micro-controller, you can rest easy knowing that yes, the parts should very, very, very likely be direct swappable. Even if they use different star power mechanisms, so long as you replace all of the components between the star power thing and the micro-controller, and connect them to the right pins, you should be fine. Again though, this is some pretty fine point soldering you'll be doing. No offense thread creator guy, but you don't sound like the sort of person I'd ask to do that sort of task on my behalf.

ascannerlightly

no offense taken, i don't even own a gun or iron nor am i sure as to the difference. this project would have involved buying one. *edit* my old man used to buy up old computers (i'm talking vic64 old) at garage sales and fix them up as a hobby. i'm familiar with soldering/wiring process and technique but i have almost no experience doing it myself.

i'm still going to the electronics/parts store tommorow to price guns/irons, if nothing else. after reading the responses here i'm not as confident in my ability to pull it off, but i'm still going to try. i miss playing rb2. and if i somehow manage to horribly mangle both guitars and render them both unsuable, they're half/mostly there so no biggie. add to that the fact that in a few weeks i won't be thinking about anything except modern warfare 2 anyway.

Pheezer

Buy an iron, and not a gun. Guns tend to run way too hot and tend to have poor heat control and tend to have very blunt points. Irons have much finer points and tend to be way better at controlling heat and are better for this type of work. Guns have uses, but not really for fine electronics work.

Also, before you do that, open up the neck of the one with the fucked button. It really probably is just dirty in there. Failing that, if it is a broken lead, make sure you get the thinnest, finest solder you can find to use in repairing it.

ascannerlightly

turns out it was a lot simpler than i thought. i put it back together because i was afraid to lose the tiny screws and decided on a whim to test it. i guess the orange button plastic face was just loose/jammed.