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Summer holiday 2007, main goal 'Bike and Music Weekend' at Geiselwind (D), was a very rain-intensive trip. Read my report here to refresh your memory. For the first time in five years there was a problem with the camera system: the image on the right camera 'looped'. Because of the monsoon-like conditions I concluded that moisture must be the cause. I was lucky the problem wasn't too annoying because most of the time I use the left camera which functioned perfectly. | ![]() |
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But hey, I didn't want to continue riding with this technical malfunction so I sent the camera to its makers Orlaco. After extended testing it turned out to be flawless. Positive fact: a new camera would have cost me 475 Euro (that would have hurt). Negative fact: the electronics must be faulty (that hurts also). So Jan van Atteveld and me opened Pandora's Box after five years. The camera electronics consists of four parts: |
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After all connections were loosened the print showed some blue corrosion: very suspect and pointing at a moisture problem. So the switchbox was dismanteld and sent to Orlaco. Their technicians couldn't find any malfunction but they soldered some connections again, just to be sure. | |||
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No good. Jan and I spent another afternoon measuring all electronics. We were quite certain the switchbox was the cause of the problem. Even more specific: the yellow inputsignal seemed to cause the trouble. I could have sent the box to Orlaco again but that seemed to be a bad idea: visiting Orlaco with the bike, with all the hardware at hand, would probably bring more effect. |
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The CBX looked like it was fit to ride to Orlaco. A pity its entrails, neatly hidden by the tank cover, were a mess. | |||
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So, on a sun-drenched day in May, I trailered the bike to a town called Barneveld, home of Orlaco. 69 kilometer ... more than two hours... traffic-jams ... that's why I take the bike and not the car to work every day. |
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On the right you see Arnold van Os, in the middle Gerrit Olthuis, on the left Bert Franken. | |||
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The four of us concluded this looping image wasn't what it should be. | |||
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Bert proved to be a mechanic (excuse me: 'Repair Service Engineer') with little words and big action. On the Orlaco site he confirms my opinion. | |||
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He wasn't very gentle with the delicate wiring but soon he took the bull by the horns. At some point, while wriggling, the image on the screen (which was 'out of sync') stabilized. This pointed at a fracture in a wire. | |||
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Again the switchbox got a close examination. At first with a big magnifying glass ...
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... followed by a macro camera. Well, you're a camera company or you're not. |
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The fracture was found (it turned out to be the yellow wire), it was restored, sealed, installed and tested: worked like a charm. I asked Bert to pose next to the bike. | |||
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During the repair almost all Orlaco's employees came by for a look at the bike. Some remarks were quite funny like "What color will the paintjob be?" and "Will you put a Harley engine in?". Here Marinus Floor took a last picture before departure. | |||
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A very nice gesture that Orlaco assisted me to tackle the problem, totally free of charge ... uptil now that is: still no bill in the mailbox :-) | |||
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So it seems moisture wasn't the cause of the malfunction. Just to make sure it won't be a problem in the (undoubtedly wet) future I sealed all potentially vulnerable openings. |