On the hunt for a cougar handle pcb

[trigen]

Like the title says if anyone got a spare PCB or the whole handle for the cougar i'd be interesting in grabbing it

[BravoYankee4]

Like the title says if anyone got a spare PCB or the whole handle for the cougar i'd be interesting in grabbing it

 

Anyone got any pics of it? Is it a complex design, or could it be reverse engineered?

[Sokol1_br]

Is just a "shift register" board with 3 CD 4021 mc - easy to make one. No "Alien science" inside. :)

 

Each CD 4021 handle 8 buttons.

 

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ShiftIn

 

Anyway a guy post in other forum that Tm sold one these card for then, last year.

[trigen]

Waiting for a reply on the board from Tm but I'm not that hopeful as they stated they had no parts for the cougar in the first mail. But as far as I know it's pretty much the same board in the warthog. If not making one would be the way to go. My micro soldering skills ain't the best though.

 

Perhaps this board can be fixed too as button five keeps pressed so it must be a fused con somewhere but I'm not entirely sure how to find it, have a multimeter and such. If it can be fabricated for a reasonable price it would be easier to just switch off.

 

IL sort å pic later

[Sokol1_br]

Perhaps the micro switch under button 5 are defective, test desolder one wire leg and see if still pressed. If are is something with the shift register board, if not is the switch.

[hegykc]

How about you first test the button five? Either connect a new tactile switch, or just short the button five positive wire to the ground to simulate a depress of the switch. Have you looked inside? If it's a normally closed button it would just be a loose wire. It's more likely a defective micro switch. A board will either work all together or not.

Edited January 26, 2016 by hegykc

[trigen]

Everything is tested and currently isolated to the pcb as button 5 gets pressed as soon as you connect the board without any buttons connected. Can't rule out the fault being on the main pcb but there is no indication of that. Tried to inspect the board as best I can visually with magnifying glass but can't see anything. I'm not much of a electronic wizard so I can't say for sure.

 

I've tried connecting the pcb solders to get the buttons to fire but no luck getting b5 to shut off. Not 100% sure on this though as it's connected trough these switches but can get most to fire.

 

Got some static from the stick before the fault so might be the switch itself that's fried? For just one button?

 

If I connect the handle before inserting to computer it will skip that button but it makes everything switch position so second trigger becomes b5 and so on

Edited January 26, 2016 by trigen

[FSFIan]

Got some static from the stick before the fault so might be the switch itself that's fried? For just one button?

 

I think the most likely culprit is a fried (part of a) shift register, especially if the board got an electric shock from static discharge. Maybe one of the ESD protection diodes on that specific input pin failed short.

 

My advice would be to replace the shift registers and see if the rest of the board is ok. Shouldn't be too hard if you can find someone who has a soldering iron and a little experience using it, although a hot air station might also be a big help with desoldering the old chip. Check if there is a "Repair Cafe" or a hacker/makerspace near you (or find another convenient source of electronics nerds, maybe you already know some).

 

Because it is easier to do, try replacing the switch first (or just desolder it and see if the button is no longer stuck -- I assume those are normally-open switches).

 

If one of the buttons has a problem but all of the other ones are OK, you have pretty much ruled out a failure in the main PCB, because the state of all the working buttons is sent over the exact same wires and processed by the same microprocessor.

Edited January 27, 2016 by [FSF]Ian

[trigen]

Thanks for the help!

 

Suppose that would be the most likely culprit yeah. Got an iron but it runs a bit hot so i guess this is a good a time as any to invest in a proper soldering station, been thinking about it for ages.

 

Any repair bills in this country would amount to half a cougar even for this small fix haha but as you say, its not that difficult and mostly just needs a steady hand. Might have a look on my dead Buttkicker Amp at the same time

[trigen]

Only found CD 4021 BC BA and such would that be fine or does it need to be the CD 4021 CM exactly?

[FSFIan]

I can't find a datasheet on the CD4021CM, but any CD4021 that has the same package and can handle the supply voltage used by the board should work.

 

Every CD4021 implements the same logic. Differences would be things like the supply voltage range it can handle (take a look at the datasheet, but both 3.3V and 5V are commonly supported), the maximum frequency it can handle (you don't know how fast your board is shifting the bits out, but maybe you can determine an upper bound e.g. based on the clock frequency that the microcontroller runs at -- or just don't think about it, any CD4021 you can find will probably be fast enough, and if it is not, it won't break anything else) and the temperature range it can operate under (not critical here, the standard consumer temperature range of 0 to 55°C is enough).

[Sokol1_br]

In Warthog grip is used the CD 4021 BCM, sub-variation of CD 4021 BC:

 

http://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/50845/FAIRCHILD/CD4021BCM.html