Speaker switch repair

[mulletchuck]

Has anyone ever taken apart their monitors to repair/replace the power switch or receptacle?

I bought a pair of Focal Solo 6be's used and they're amazing.  absolutely ridiculous.  i've had them for 2 days, and on one unit the power switch is faulty, and doesn't always make a solid connection, or snap like a regular switch.    I am thinking that it should be as simple as opening them up and doing a simple power switch swap, as long as I can find the right size switch.  These guys are about a year old, and I bought them used, but they're still really nice, really expensive speakers, so I am hesitant to open up the back and look inside. 

Advice??

 

[CJ]

the switch is the most common electrical component to fail out of all of them.

knowing that, i would wire that switch shut, then wire the good switch shut, then run them both to a power strip and use that for the switch.

a really good switch is like 15 bucks, so that is a common place to skimp.

get ones like they have in the 747 c**kpit, those should be reliable, does anybody know who makes those?
oh wow, cockpit is a dirty word, i mean, if you think about it, i guess,  ;D

 

[mulletchuck]

So, Focal's tech service said it's easy to replace the switch and they'll send me the component for $10 + shipping.  -___-

When i asked them for the specs to order from mouser/digi they said "No!". 

 

[wtmnmf]

So, Focal's tech service said it's easy to replace the switch and they'll send me the component for $10 + shipping.  -___-

When i asked them for the specs to order from mouser/digi they said "No!".

Understandable if the goal is short term profit, and avoidance of bother, but - come on, don't they see that in the long view it's healthier to have an attitude like - 'we made this thing, we're proud of it, and we want it to survive and prosper in the world; we'll do what ever it takes to nurse it back to health' ?  Instead of viewing your request as big pain in the ass (which it is, if they don't have their **** together), they could have looked in the mirror and said 'what can we do as a company to make this reasonable request less painful for us?'

Cranesong is the only company that I know of that does business like that now.  If I'm not mistaken, Cranesong charge a flat $100 to repair, no matter what's wrong or whether you're the original owner.  That underlines their intention to build a product that survives. And that's good business.

BTW, the switch has probably just got some bit of crap stuck in it.  I'd take it out and see if it can be disassembled and repaired.  Unless it's riveted or something, it's usually worth the effort.

 

[mulletchuck]

MOTU also charges a flat fee to repair their gear, regardless of owner.  It used to be $75, and it's now $100. 

in Focal's defense, it's not Focal who is handling the repair.  they farm it out to some North American tech company who is associated with the North American distributor.

either way, it's just a DPST 250V 10A switch that fits in a 0.5in x 0.75in opening made by Rong Feng lol.  i'll see if Radio Shack carries something like that, otherwise I'm going to do CJ's solution.  might be tricky, cuz everything on the power side is hot-glued into oblivion!

 

[mulletchuck]

ok, finished the repair.  Now there is some curious behavior:

the old circuit went:

IEC+ into Fuse into Switch into PCB.
IEC- into Switch into PCB



now it goes:

IEC+ into Fuse into PCB
IEC- into PCB



the speaker pops when I flip the switch on the power strip now.  What could cause that?  the switch is a passive component.  It's not like the switch was filtered or anything fancy. 

 

[sahib]

The switch on the power strip has much higher and varying load due to the rest of the installation, hence developing sparks on its contacs.

Whereas the switch on the monitors controlled a very light load and did not develop sparks on its contacts. Or the sparks were minimal not to cause pop.

 

[mulletchuck]

is the pop gonna hurt my speakers? 

 

[sahib]

It may.

Turning it on/off from a switch that also controls other loads is not really a healthy application.

 

[mulletchuck]

I don't have anything else plugged into the strip except the one speaker.  I'm guessing the pop was because the strip hadn't had power put thru it yet, as it was new.  It didn't pop when I switched them on this morning. 

 

[wtmnmf]

Sound like the contact was oxidized and was cleaned by the spark. 

There's a lesson in that.

Bigger is better is something that does not work for switches and relays because they can rely on a minimum amount of current flowing to keep the contacts clean, so a small signal may become intermittent or noisy when going through an increasingly oxidized contact.