Umnitza angel eyes repair
 

2 years ago I bought a set of Umnitza Ice VXX angel eyes.
Almost a year later, one became defective. After contacting Umnitza, they replaced it minus the shipping charge.

All went well for another year, until the other angel eye stopped working.
Since they are out of warranty, I had to pay a reduced retail price plus shipping.
I decided not to go that route since I didn't want to have to do that on a yearly basis with the cost adding up.

So I decided to open them and see if I could fix it.

Inside, there is the electronic pcb section and the LED pcb section.
My first test was to switch pcbs to determine if the problem was coming from the LEDs or the electronic circuit.
I found that the electronic was fine and the problem came from the LED pcb.

I did some measurements on the LEDs, and they were measuring good compared to the working pcb. So, I started looking for cold solder joints, defective traces etc. I found that with the power applied, if I press on the LEDs they were working.
So, it seems that it is a cold solder joint or the solder melted with the heat of the LED.

I'm at that step now. After Xmas when I go back to work, I will try to solder them back to the PCB and they should work as before.
More to come.

In the meantime, here are pictures I took of the inside of the AE:



http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b5...Bimmer/ae1.jpg


http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b5...Bimmer/ae2.jpg


http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b5...Bimmer/ae3.jpg


http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b5...Bimmer/ae4.jpg


http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b5...Bimmer/ae5.jpg

Yep, this is fairly common with these style of LED bulbs. I know manufacturers think it looks pretty to have everything in one contained unit... but things work so much better when you separate the electronics from the heat. When I build LED housings I almost always try to move the PCB's to a separate box away from the LED and its heatsinks.

Good work on finding the poor solder joint for the LEDs. Those boards don't look that great so hopefully they will last you after getting the LED joints repaired.