Has anyone fixed a blackbox? I have done all ignition checks in my manual for my other MC and the box is the last thing, all else checks out OK. No spark is the problem. V4 Honda, 1995 Magna. I have the circuit board exposed, removed from the box. I see no obvious burns, bulged caps, etc. Being a mechanical engineer electronics is not my cup of tea but I want to learn. A new box costs $400.00, which I am willing to buy if I must, but WTF, I might as well see what I can mess up. If any electronics repair dudes or dudettes want to help a bro out I am all ears. Asking here cause the V4 forum guys seem to not be interested in helping. Maybe after I get all the potting goo off I can take it to a TV repair shop and see what they say. Perhaps votech or ECPI class would take a stab at it for nothing.

 

That would be a 'mission impossible'. Or you could just replace all the components on the board, but the board may be bad...... How much is your time worth?

 

Not sure this will help in your situation, but I used to have an old Ninja 600 that had intermittent spark issues. I narrowed the cause down to the black box, but the board inside was epoxy coated, so there really wasn't much I could do. However I did figure out that I could put the box in the freezer for a while, then quickly install it on the bike, and the issues would temporarily be resolved. I guess there was a bad solder joint or the circuit board was cracked, and the shrinking action in the freezer temporarily mended the issue. My only recourse was to find a good used box on ebay and hope it didn't have the same problem.

 

This is what you're probably up against. I wouldn't be surprised if the board was encapsulated in epoxy so removing components isn't happening. If your testing indicates the module as the source of the failure, then sourcing a functional replacement is your only option. Good Luck

 

Well, I have 99% of the encapsulating material removed. I used a 40W soldering iron to melt and gouge most of it out and now acetone is working to lift the final thin layer, and most of that is gone now. I guess I will get a book or two on learning electronics repair from the library and see how far I can get. Might part out the bike if it still won't run with a new black box. It used to be a nice bike to ride, will miss it.

 

From what I've read, the capacitors are the most likely to fail, and they usually leak fluid so you can tell just by looking at them. There are a few companies that fix CDIs, one I talked to charged $100.

 

Last weekend I had an electronics repair guy look it over. He tested all the capacitors and resistors and pronounced that the most likely problem was the big chip in the center. And even if I could get one, and get it soldered in, I'd have a hard time coming up with the firmware he claims I would need to make it work. Anyhowz, I just bought one off of flea-bay for only $25. Hope it works. Hope I correctly determined that it is bad. Hope I actually get the "new" one here in my house. I really want a better bike than my 250SF for interstate flights/commute. The magna is pretty good in that mission. If I can get Maggie back I will slow down on looking at shiny new bike. There are so many I want to buy.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/142330259289

 

Don't know if anyone is interested in my old bike woes, but Maggie is back. I found a $25 black box on Ebay and the bike still would not run. So I went back to the start, and did a spark check on one cylinder but payed close attention to the spark and the damn thing sparked to the side, not across the gap proper. I noticed that way back but payed it no mind. I was a big dum dum. I got a new set or normal heat range plugs(hotter) and that was all she needed. So my 500 mile cold range plugs were f'ed up quickly. Let my stupidity be a lesson. Having a 12 second 130mph bike is really nice for my HOV lane I-64 commute.