Mikelug Posted May 30, 2022 Posted May 30, 2022 Hi all, My Hotas Warthog Stick stops working with the bad smell of burning plastic. I've disassembled the base and found the controller with burn damage (on photo). Maybe somebody knows specification of burned element if it can be repaired at all. I've wrote to the Thrustmaster support but didn't received response yet. Also I consider to install MMjoy controller to replace broken one, but it cannot use original Warthog 3D sensor and it will be very hard for me to search the new sensors now.
Mikelug Posted May 31, 2022 Author Posted May 31, 2022 13 hours ago, MAXsenna said: NorthridgeFix Check'em out on YT. Good advice to send stick controller from Ukraine to US for repair. There are a lot of people who can repair electromics, but they don't have experience with joystick controllers.
MAXsenna Posted May 31, 2022 Posted May 31, 2022 2 minutes ago, Mikelug said: Good advice to send stick controller from Ukraine to US for repair. There are a lot of people who can repair electromics, but they don't have experience with joystick controllers. Well, first of all I didn't realise where you were. Sorry! Really hope you're safe and sound! Nonetheless, it's a good channel with nice tips and advice for fixing electronics in general.
Drakoz Posted June 5, 2022 Posted June 5, 2022 The burned part appears to be a ferrite bead (labeled FB9 and FB usually indicates a ferrite bead). Ferrite beads should appear as a 0 ohm short as they are intended to pass DC voltage, but act as a resistor for high frequency noise. If you have a multi-meter, measure the resistance across the bead. It should show about 0.2 ohms (where the 0.2 ohms is actually the resistance of your multimeter). If it shows a much higher higher result (like 1-2 ohms to hundreds of ohms or an open circuit), the bead has been damaged. Problem is, the burned ferrite bead is the symptom, not the problem. It just passes current, but there is a short somewhere else, and the FB burned because of excessive current due to a short. Inspect all the wiring that goes to/from that board. Maybe a wire got pinched and frayed, and it is shorting on something, or maybe the component the wiring goes to have a short. Check the resistance of both sides of the FB vs. ground on the board (just the board alone, not powered up). You can use the two electrolytic caps to tell what is ground (the two large black cylindrical parts that say 16V and Samcon). The pin soldered to the large white area is ground. The pin soldered to the non-white area is power (+5V or +3.3V). Anyway, If either side of the ferrite shows 0 ohms to ground, that helps prove there is a short on the board. Then connect the board back to the Warthog and repeat the test. If you didn't get a short before, but now you do, it means the short if off the board. I am guessing, but I believe the blown ferrite is for the power supply ferrite (it passes 5V or 3.3V). I assume this because it looks like it connects to a red wire which is often the color used for power. If I am correct, then one or both sides of the ferrite bead should show a short to the non-white side of the cap on the upper side of the board (the one marked 16V in your picture). If so, that is probably normal. There is also a black wire near the red wire. That is probably ground. If my assumption is correct, the black wire should show a short to the white connection for the electrolytic caps. Anyway, there isn't much on this board that would likely fail in a short. It is much more likely something off the board has shorted (what ever is connected to the 2 white connetors on the right side of the board). But it could also be that one of the wires soldered to the left side of the board is shorted. One other thing to check is, do the electrolytic capacitors show any sign of leaking, or bulging. If they are bulging, you can tell because the top of the cap will look like it is pushing out or expanding. These caps are only about 10 years old, so should be fine, but crappy capacitors can start leaking in 10 years. If they are bulging, they may act as a short circuit for too long (as they charge up) and cause over current on the ferrite as well. Probably not, but it is an easy thing to inspect since bulging is a visual clue. Do some investigation like I suggest and let us know what you find. As for repairing it, it might be best to get a new board from Thrustmaster if you can. But be aware, if you put a new board in, and the short circuit is somewhere else in the Warthog, it will blow the FB on the new board as well. So you need to make sure there is no short elsewhere in the Warthog. If Thrustmaster declines to help with this, it is because a problem like this is not so simple as replacing a single board. So they will likely strongly suggest sending the Warthog back to them. If it is a short circuit on a wire off the board, then if you can find and fix the short, you may get lucky and can just replace the FB and the board may be fine again. If desparate, you can just replace the FB with a piece of wire. The FB is to prevent bad radio emissions. It looks like a 100ohm or 1000ohm resistor to 100MHz frequencies, but looks like a short circuit for low frequencies. So replacing it with a wire does not affect normal operation. But again, you need to find the cause of the short or you will just burn something else up. It is also possible that what ever provides power or a signal to this board (though the FB), was damaged. Again, the FB is just a symptom, but not the problem, and other parts may have been damaged on other boards. You can find those parts by tracing the wires that connect to the FB (like the red wire probably). I hope this helps. Comment back with what you discover and I'll try to help more. But again, I strongly suggest, if you can, to get it repaired by Thrustmaster. Or if there is someone you can send to that does circuit repair. They don't need to understand joysticks to know how to repair this. A Joystick like this is a pretty simple concept for someone that understands electronics. Finally, even for an experienced repair person, they may not be able to find, or repair it without getting a new circuit board from Thrustmaster. Hence why I suggest your best option is to get it repair buy Thrustmaster. 1
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