I Repaired my Alpha Yoke's RJ-45 Port

[remilton 66]

I had been suffering for quite a while as many others have with a faulty RJ-45 port on my Honeycomb Alpha Yoke. Being that my yoke is out of warranty, and I did not want to wait weeks for Honeycomb repair service, I decided to tackle it myself.

I’ll attempt to provide steps for those who my wish to perform this fix on their yoke. PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMP THIS REPAIR UNLESS YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE WORKING ON SUCH THINGS. I ASSUME NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR DAMAGE TO YOUR YOKE.

I apologize for there not being more photos, but I did not have my phone With me in the shop.

First things first. Unplug your yoke’s USB cable.

Next, remove the rj-45 cable from the base unit.

Turn yoke base over on its top and remove the 9 Philips head screws (4 on each edge).

Turn yoke back over and remove the top of case

The front 2 screws may not have fallen out so if needed poke them out or they may interfere when removing the front switch plate.

Remove the four screws holding the LED panel and then move the LED panel out of the way.

Being careful not to damage the wires or connectors, disconnect the connector going to the switch array on one side and the ignition switch on the other side.

Now we get to the scary part. The switch panel can be moved away from the yoke body and slid up the yoke shaft without further disassembly. If you are uncomfortable with this step stop now.

The bottom of the front panel has a groove that fits onto the bottom plate of the case. I was able to tip the top of the front panel away from the case. It is a bit of a tight fit but going slow and being careful, I was able to pull the panel up the yoke shaft and away from the case.

This first photo shows the location of the female rj-45 connector circuit board. Remove the 2 screws holding the board.  Then trace back the cable from the board to the main board and carefully unplug the cable connector from the main board. Now you can slide the cable toward the front of the case to provide slack for the next step.

Board

 

After slackening the cable, you can wiggle the connector and board out of the case being careful not to damage the cable and now turn the board over.

The next photo shows the bottom of the ethernet board after the repair. Before the repair most of the solder joints were shallow and cracked all the way around.  After I wetted the joints with lead solder, I sucked them clean the applied a heavier than normal amount of lead solder to strengthen the connections. Only the 8 pins of the rj-45 plug should need servicing.

Now, just reverse the steps and reassemble your repaired yoke

 

 

Here is a photo of the tip I used in my Hakko soldering iron. The solder connections were very small.

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by remilton
typo

[Shannyla 1]

I've got the same issue currently. Didn't realise that it was cracked solder joints that were the issue.

Will have a look at this if I get no joy with the supplier, as I'm still in the two year guarantee period we get.

Edited May 10, 2022 by Shannyla
Reading comprehension...

[Shannyla 1]

I did this last night, Alpha now repaired without dealing with Honeycomb or Aerosoft.

A truly terrible design choice. Combined with the stiffness of the supplied cord, how long did they expect this to last?

I also added hefty lumps of solder to the pins, but now I'm also considering some way of reinforcing the RJ45 socket. I may use heatshrink to hold it to the small pcb, or go full bodge and put a zip tie around them, just to stop the movement between the two that cracks the solder.

[SergeyPe 92]

4 hours ago, Shannyla said:

A truly terrible design choice. Combined with the stiffness of the supplied cord, how long did they expect this to last?

The problem here is the particular part (connector) choice. There are RJ-45 connectors that have a metal screening bracket/ cover around the plastic body which should be soldered to the oversized "ground" pads on the PCB. These connectors are virtually indestructible, while a tad more expensive...

[Shannyla 1]

That would have been a far better choice. I was surprised at how cheap and plastic-y the RJ45 in the Alpha was. And tiny, tiny solder joints that looked very neat but could not resist the twisting and pulling forces that the stiff little connector inflicted.

There is also torsional flex caused by only having two screws at the back mounting the RJ45 PCB to the yoke, which would help to crack those solder joints.

[charliearon 3,023]

Sorry for the moves, but finally got this topic into the right spot!

[remilton 66]

Thanks for the help Charlie!

[remilton 66]

On 5/11/2022 at 4:10 AM, Shannyla said:

I may use heatshrink to hold it to the small pcb, or go full bodge and put a zip tie around them, just to stop the movement between the two that cracks the solder.

Here is what I did.  No need for any more reinforcement as there is no more pressure on the sockets.

[nakedcellist 0]

Thank you so much! I had the same problem and was getting frustrated  and this fixed it! It was not that hard. Thank you very much!

[Jetster27 0]

Thanks so much for posting, I’ve been trying to figure out how to get that connector out of there for so long, took me a few mins to re solder but works as new, you’d think for a almost $400 cnd yoke they’d at least have some fidgety to the external connections, time to upgrade.

[dfaulkner 0]

I just wanted to jump in here to confirm that this fix does work as described! Just follow the instructions step by step.
 

You’ll quickly see everything that is mentioned on the disassembly instructions and then you’ll start to understand it better as you look at the components that are to be removed.

Nothing is very difficult if you take your time and follow the directions. The only real basic skill that is required is the knowledge on how to re-solder joints.

A small soldered iron with a small tip is needed. The use of flux and some small lead solder. Additional useful items may be a magnifying glass or glasses and a well light working area.

Make sure you flux of each solder joints, then reheat one connector at a time being careful not to feed too much solder so you don’t end up soldering the leads together. Only feed a small amount of solder on the joint then repeat for all the other connections as shown. I alternated soldering from one end to the other remembering each pin that I re-soldered to prevent any overheating of the circuitboard in one area.

Finally, verify the continuity of each pin with a multimeter with the soldered visible connectors that are located at the top of the circuit board before reassembling. Just keep testing the each connectors until you find the corresponding soldered pins and confirm the continuity.

(Note) I only saw eight screws on the bottom the joystick instead of the (9) that were mentioned in the original post and they were pretty tight.

Also make sure to take pictures of all of the connections ribbons wires before removing them so you can see how they go back on. Difficulty Scale is a 3.5 out of 10 for an average handy person.

 

Good luck!