repairing md-r8

[costakarl]

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I picked up a unit about 6 months ago but only caught up with it very recently due to a lot of travel. Condition was almost new except it was completely dead. I had anticipated battery failure and was ready to rebuild the 'akku-pack' as described earlier in this forum, but now faced a problem in the charger.

 

I am no electronics technician but I am not afraid of opening things up-which I did. First discovery: a voltage regulator had sheared from its soldering and fallen out completely. With this part back in place a normal discharge/recharge was possible. unfortunately I could only get 1 red led to light. Forgetting that the thing was still plugged in an exploration with a voltage meter resulted in a plume of bright blue smoke. Curses I've cooked something. So I decided to change the capacitors in the vicinity of the smoke and lo-and-behold everything works by the book an I even have 3 red leds. Cost--about $2.

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[dkCambridgeshire]

I recall that when I bought my new R8 motordrive I sent back two chargers and batteries to Leica UK via my dealer before finally receiving a third set which charged correctly. And six years on it is still working fine.

 

Best wishes

 

dunk