Anyone Repair Falcon Controllers

**ChiefWarrant** · 08-31-2022, 03:46 AM

Measured the voltage on the working F16v3 and I have proper reading on all 3 Voltage regulators.

**Utimgr** · 08-31-2022, 08:00 AM

There will also be 1.8V and the FPGA core voltage of around 1.0V. Since the ethernet lights aren't working, I might suspect 1.8V may be out. Just be careful measuring, go across the caps because its easy to slip using the meter probes and once the smoke is out of the magic chips, thats it.

**ChiefWarrant** · 11-24-2022, 05:17 AM

Bumping this, since I just had a second Falcon fail in the EXACT same way.

-Tony

**1pet2_9** · 11-24-2022, 12:53 PM

Since this is the second failure, is it possible you are power injecting into the first pixel using a different power supply, and not disconnecting the VDD lead from the controller? If I was in your shoes, the first thing I would be thinking is, what am I doing wrong? So that I don't get a third?

**ChiefWarrant** · 11-24-2022, 05:51 PM

Originally Posted by 1pet2_9

Since this is the second failure, is it possible you are power injecting into the first pixel using a different power supply, and not disconnecting the VDD lead from the controller? If I was in your shoes, the first thing I would be thinking is, what am I doing wrong? So that I don't get a third?

No is is not possible. I was not power injecting anything. The board was powered by a single MeanWell 5VDC 60A Power Supply.

**angus40** · 11-24-2022, 06:21 PM

Could you post photos of each side of this controller ?

**ChiefWarrant** · 11-25-2022, 03:51 AM

Originally Posted by angus40

Could you post photos of each side of this controller ?

Falcon-Front2.jpg Falcon-Back.jpg

**angus40** · 11-29-2022, 04:51 PM

Is there a sequence of button press to do a POST on these controllers ,or can you access factory reset at initial power up ?

Just a thought .

**ChiefWarrant** · 01-26-2023, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by angus40

Is there a sequence of button press to do a POST on these controllers ,or can you access factory reset at initial power up ?

Just a thought .

Time to tackle this again.

There is a factory reset function, but the reset results in no change to the status.

Digging through the FalconChristmas forums @SurfWaxAmerica posted:

"It's a bad VR1 voltage regulator. Neither VR1 or VR2 are hot. Confirmed faulty via multimeter reading on VR1 middle pin yielding about 48mv. Sending off to David for repair."

I should mention that I also reached out to David Pitts when the first F16v3 failed (Dec 2020), after a few email exchanges, the conversation stalled because Christmas was on top of us and I got the second controller in the mail.

It looks like the way forward is reaching out to David again to see if PixelController.com still does repairs.

-Tony

----EDIT---
Heard back from David Pitts. So I will be sending this off next week. if he can get it going, I should be good
Thank you everyone for your assistance.

-Tony

**ChiefWarrant** · 02-10-2023, 02:17 PM

Another mystery. As I was packing up the F16v3's to send off, I threw them both on the bench for one last check and magically, the v1.03 board booted with out mystery. I am still going to send the v1.01 off to David to see if he can breath life into the v1.01 board. I am a bit leery of nat having a backup on hand.

-Tony

EDIT - now it won't store IP information.