Overhead Compass/Temp Fix

Yep

 

I think I'll try and see if I find any of those 510 resistors loose this weekend. All indications are that might very well be exactly the prob with my display. I remember once before trying to find out what was wrong with it and tapping the display with some subdued anger and it lit up and actually worked again for about half a minute

 

Awesome, sending a message

 

That *might* indicate a cold solder joint (poor connection), and not necessarily bad resistors. If so, re-soldering could be the fix. Good luck.

 

I just had to resolder one of those 510’s. Pretty easy once you clean off the factory cheap solder

 

Thanks. Good info on what I might be up against which sounds like it might not be too bad of a job to deal with

 

This was how my compass was initially. The display would fade and tapping it would sometimes fix it for the remainder of my trip. I used a ceramic chip from an old dead RAM stick (those resistors get very hot!) to sandwich between the resistors and the compass housing. The chip kept pressure on the resistors to maintain connection. This actually worked for a while until the resistors fully detached themselves from the board.

 

There are sellers on ebay who offer a repair service for this compass for anywhere from $20-$40. Heads up for anyone not able to make the repair themselves.

 

Love this forum for threads like this. Ordered some resistors and soldered them. After a year with no compass, I'm back in business. Thanks!

 

I have to say thank you for this thread .The write-up was super clear and I was easily able to solder the 510 resistor back down.
Skyler

 

I have a 2005 TRD, the compass and temp stopped working about 15 years ago. I followed the steps above and now they work. I wish I joined way back then. The resistor fell off as soon as I touched it,and getting it soldered back was a bit tricky. Thanks helping with this. ,

 

Anyone know how to make the display brighter or how to restore it to factory brightness?
Mine seems dim

 

Are you running with your headlights on? That will cause the display to be dimmer than if the headlights are off.

 

Anyone know of a good write up for troubleshooting the wiring? My overhead only shows the

Did you ever get a fix for this? Mines just gives me an accurate compass reading, but the temps are all dashed lines. I tried replacing the ambient sensor, but no fix..

 

Did you ever get this fixed?

 

I did see it on eBay, but as a old time electronic tech they say send back your broken one and of course there fixing them and doing a swap out, just in winter time I Would be very careful working on them because static could easily kill the parts in them I did a few 51-ohm repairs, and was very scared of destroying the units with static if some one has a real circuit diagram I would love it have a copy so I can build a test jig, someone said after awhile the led lights got dim, put a volt meter across either of the 2 51 ohm resistors measure the voltage drop across them they can be replaced with a 27 ohm 1/2 watt resistor check if the voltage goes up they may be bad or the voltage regulator is going bad I assume its a 5 volt one, LOL most of my OEM parts I have are huge but I have a lot of old satellite receiver boards I use for parts If your In CT looking me up, will do it for FREE I owe this site some huge favors but don't remove it let me do it, its too easy to break the connector and very easy to kill the board with static never ship electronics with regular bubble pack plastic it must be the pink anti-static type Would do it while you wait also I'm looking to buy dead ones and buy the connector that plugs into it, to do it right so I can measure the current draw with some heat on it
Gary Diamond

 

The two 51 ohm SMDs are in parallel, meaning the in-circuit resistance is 25.5 ohms. Best to remove both 51 ohm resisters and replace with a 25 ohm 1 watt metal film axial lead resister. solder each lead across 2 adjacent SMD pads. Reflowing the solder on the original SMD resister works for a while but eventually the problem will return and you will have to do it all over again. A 24, 25 or 26 ohm resister will work fine if you can't locate a 25.5 ohm one.

 

You're correct, it beats me why they used chip resistors, There is no air to get under to cool them, two 1/2 watt 51-ohm resistors would have been a better design. If you live in CT. Just contact me when the weather warms up, I would not have to want to spray water vapor to remove static from the air I will use a 1/2 watt 51-ohm resistor, instead of the chip type. just throw me $20 bucks and hang around for 30 minutes my email is diamondsatellite@snet.net

 

Locate a ground pin on the circuit board, clip a wrist strap to it, put the wrist strap on, work all winter.
I'm in the Bay Area, CA. 72 degrees today, no static issues here, I'm just waiting on ebay to send me a 26 ohm 1 watt resister.