VP2 Capacitor installed

Later yesterday I managed to des-older/remove the old one and stick the new one on the board.
I kind of hoped it would start up when held near a light bulb but no joy.
I suspected it would need a good kick to get a completely discharged capacitor running though. Since I’m waiting for another couple of batteries – one is in the Vue and the VP2 ate the other one – I just left it in the window first thing.

It took until about 10:30 to start transmitting which was a surprise.
The test will be how long it runs after dark - I’ll leave it in sun all day.

Must say doing the soldering was not a whole lot of fun, the tricky part is getting enough of the old stuff removed to insert the pins of the new one.
I have a kit with a syringe thing to suck it out, first time I used it and I think it would have been all but impossible (for me) without it.
You seem to need three hands to do several things at once.
Actually inserting and soldering the new one was the easy bit - but I’m still concerned it might not have enough solder on.

Having another session at it while it is working could be like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory though!
At least it seem the part Maplins supplied is compatible.

More VP2 issues

It looks as though after all the sudden loss of power the other week was a sign of problems.

The replacement battery started it running again but after jus a couple of weeks it again stopped in the night without even showing the low battery warning until it restarted about 9am when the sun got to it.

This is a documented symptom of faulty capacitor – not only does it hold less charge but there is some kind of shorting in it which drains the connected battery in days.

Anyway I’ve set the spare Vantage Vue up again for now and after a bit of research found a suitable capacitor from maplins – under £5 delivered.
Although soldering this is in place is on the edge of my ability it will be interesting to do.
I am tempted to snip the old one off (it has quite long ‘legs’) and solder the new one onto the legs rather than risk overheating the board.

I do have a quite suitable iron and solder and flux - which I used last year to do a comparable job on a webcam connector. Still working!