Service & Parts For V3i?

[johnibob]

John in Florida here. My Whites DFX Spectra V3 won't turn on. I need to see if I can get a new circuit board. Any ideas?

[phrunt]

6 minutes ago, johnibob said:

John in Florida here. My Whites DFX Spectra V3 won't turn on. I need to see if I can get a new circuit board. Any ideas?

Contact these people.

https://www.centrevilleelectronics.net/

[Gold Seeker]

2 hours ago, johnibob said:

John in Florida here. My Whites DFX Spectra V3 won't turn on. I need to see if I can get a new circuit board. Any ideas?

Here's another site you can call and see if they can help you.

https://www.brokendetector.com/

[Digger1950]

My V3i is 13 years old. It has given me no problems until yesterday. When turning on, screen would flicker once then go dark, or show weak backlight but blank screen. After aligning battery contact points, checking battery voltage and attempting to reset (reset couldn’t happen because the unit would not come on) I finally opened the case and removed the circuit board. I wiggled wires, flexed the PCB and reseated all plugs—no change. I was resigning myself to sending it in for repair. But before I reassembled it I inspected the positive and negative lugs where the battery contacts send DC power to the circuit board. Theses lugs are on the opposite side of he board from the contacts that make connection with the battery pack. They are tiny. As I took a close look, I discovered that the negative lug was soldered to the PCB but the positive lug was not soldered! I could barely see this with the naked eye-it is so tiny. Apparently during the manufacturing process, this circuit board (which was produced by robotic means and not hand soldered) omitted the solder process for the positive lug. This could have been a software omission or malfunction that might have affected hundreds of units as they were being manufactured. I assume the connection on my functioning board had been making a simple friction contact only for these 13 years and had finally broken contact. I used a 25-Watt pencil soldering iron to solder the positive lug to the PCB and my V3i initiated and booted up as it always has! Hope this will help some sad V3i owners whose machine may have a similar problem. Good hunting, Everyone! (I will try to post a pic of the PCB)

[Geotech]

Good catch. While most parts on the board are machine-soldered, the battery terminals are hand-soldered. Someone just missed it.

[Tony]

13 hours ago, Digger1950 said:

My V3i is 13 years old. It has given me no problems until yesterday. When turning on, screen would flicker once then go dark, or show weak backlight but blank screen. After aligning battery contact points, checking battery voltage and attempting to reset (reset couldn’t happen because the unit would not come on) I finally opened the case and removed the circuit board. I wiggled wires, flexed the PCB and reseated all plugs—no change. I was resigning myself to sending it in for repair. But before I reassembled it I inspected the positive and negative lugs where the battery contacts send DC power to the circuit board. Theses lugs are on the opposite side of he board from the contacts that make connection with the battery pack. They are tiny. As I took a close look, I discovered that the negative lug was soldered to the PCB but the positive lug was not soldered! I could barely see this with the naked eye-it is so tiny. Apparently during the manufacturing process, this circuit board (which was produced by robotic means and not hand soldered) omitted the solder process for the positive lug. This could have been a software omission or malfunction that might have affected hundreds of units as they were being manufactured. I assume the connection on my functioning board had been making a simple friction contact only for these 13 years and had finally broken contact. I used a 25-Watt pencil soldering iron to solder the positive lug to the PCB and my V3i initiated and booted up as it always has! Hope this will help some sad V3i owners whose machine may have a similar problem. Good hunting, Everyone! (I will try to post a pic of the PCB)

Epic first post.....thanks for the info. I have a friend who has intermittent power cycling problems with his V3i so this just might be the fix.

[PI-Man]

Sometimes on those type of boxes on the White’s machines you may need to give the metal battery terminals/points on PCB a lil bend towards the direction of where the battery makes contact.  Over the years they can get pushed back by dropping batteries in and out.  One of mine was a hair off and the naked eye could not pick it up.  I use RNB batteries so they slide in and out pretty easy.   Basically my machine was having same issues with the screen.  JoeD sent me your post and light bulb went off when I took out the PCB.  Now my V3i is working again.  Rejoice!  Dang thing is heavy compared to D2 but till this day you can adjust settings till your blue in the face with the V3i.  Still a fabulous machine and color screen is great.  Put the 4x6 shooter coil on it and it becomes a surgical tool.