Expert: Cleggsan - 8/28/2008

Question
QUESTION: I have a Pioneer DEH-515 that I bought new and after 6 months put in a box 10 years ago.  I installed it in a car the other day and one of the power wires got pinched.  3 solder joints have been repaired internally and it will not power the removeable face.  Is there a reset or additional place to look.  The inside of the removeable face looks and tests fine.  What about the ribbon, can it be damaged without looking damaged?  It seems a shame to throw this out, it was 500 back then.  Thanks, Mike

ANSWER: Yes, after such a long time it could not only be the ribbon cable but the connectors on either end.  Corrosion of the contacts is what I would suspect. If you are handy with an ohmmeter you can check it out easily by finding the connection that powers the panel and trace it through. You can purchase a good, low cost VOM for this kind of work for under $10 at Home Depot or Walmart - and other places.

Hope this helps,
C



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: ribbon cables are all good, here is some background as to the damage and repairs. The case of the deck pinched against the unfused 12v supply during install, this dammaged 3 different ground traces on the main pcb, these were repaired and all traces checked with magnifing glass, there are no shorts in the deck (diode check across 12v in reads 1.9 forward), normaly with this type of short that is all that is needed to repair the deck.  After powering this deck back up the face plate does not respond, I tested the pins going to the face plate 5v is present and no other apperant problems.  It acts as if the face plate might need to be reset, however I don't know how to do this.  If you have any more ideas it would be great.thanks

Answer
Don't know of any reset procedures for the face plate.  The only way to check it out is with a voltmeter.  It must have voltage to feed the illuminating elements.  If no voltage, or voltage is too low, you must trace it down and find out where the voltage is getting lost.  I think it is a straightforward matter of finding where the loss of voltage is ocurring.  If you know the voltage for the faceplate (probably 12 or 5 volts) you could clip lead through a protecting resistor a work around voltage to see if you can get it too light up. For example, use a 1k resistor and take a known 5v point and touch it to the voltage feed point on the connector or somewhere that feeds power to the panel.

Maybe that will help you find the problem.

C