Cursitor Doom wrote:

Hi guys,

I have an EMU from a Land Rover which just suddenly failed one day
without warning as I was driving down the road. I was wondering if
there's any possibility of fixing it, given that schematics are AFAIK
unavailable due to commercial confidentiality. Of course there are some
basic checks that can be done without a diagram, but take a look at this
thing and tell me what I could try doing with it. I've carefully
inspected it close up but can find *nothing* at all visibly wrong with it:

http://tinyurl.com/hvk5eac

BTW, the whole board has been thickly sprayed with clear varnish which
accounts for all the bright dots which appear on some of the parts -
they're not indicative of any failure.

Any suggestions?
Well, are there any symptoms that can be figured out? Do dash indicators do
something like what they used to do? If it appeas totally dead, there's a
possibility that a voltage regulator or other power switching circuit has
failed. Looks like it has a switching power supply, that will make things a
little harder. Yeah, the conformal coating is really necessary in
automotive gear, but makes rework tough.

Also, check all connectors and other large parts soldered to the board,
breaks in the solder joints are supposed to be a very common cause of
failure.

Jon