Failing Rikaline 6010's - Solution

f948lan · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 11, 2005 Posts: 6

I have recently suffered the problem reported by other users on this forum with the Rikaline 6010 suddenly failing after several months in good service.

Others suggestions of the internal battery made me curious so I opened it up (bought on Ebay so no warranty to invalidate) and sure enough the battery was flat.

The next bit suprised me a little though - removing the battery and then trying the unit has revived it! It takes a little longer to get a lock as it no longer has a memory - no problem to me, just keep it permanently powered in the car - but it does work! I'm sure it would be cheap enough to source a replacement battery if needed.

For those in the same boat who feel like having a go at this (I accept no liability for damage cause din this operation!!) here are some breif instructions:

- The unit is sealed shut with a relatively weak adheasive - it can be leavered open with the careful use of a screwdriver or blunt side of a knife - work all the way round as the top likes to come off squarely.

- Prize the GPS unit out of the casing (careful not to loose the magnets in the bottom of the case) and then remove the lower sheilding (again by leavering with a screwdriver or knife). The can be seen to one corner of the board and can either be desolder with care (surface mounted so no need to access reverse of board) or levered off with a little wiggling if you are impatient! I recomend using a plastic or wooden 'persuader' at this point so as not to short any remaining charge into another component and potentially causing permanent damge to the unit.

Good luck.

PS. If there is anyone who has a suspect unit they were going to throw out and does not want to attempt the above, I would be happy to take it off their hands as it never hurts to collect spares!

Graham

g33za · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 02, 2005 Posts: 3

hi thanks for this, please give some more details about the problems you were getting with your 6010 and also what kind of battery it was?

f948lan · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 11, 2005 Posts: 6

The Symtoms are:

- Unit stops working.
- No data received by GPS apps.
- Green light flashes faster than normal, and is not static at first power on as normal.

The number of the battery is obscured by the attached tags to solder to the board, but basically just a 3 volt button cell. See:
[url]http://loft.interdog.co.uk/IMG_2489.jpg"[/url] and
[url]http://loft.interdog.co.uk/IMG_2491.jpg">[/url]

I have not tried obtaining a replacement, as it works great without as long as it is permenantly powered in the car (or you give it a minute or two to get a cold fix after power on).

f948lan · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 11, 2005 Posts: 6

Slight mistake with the format of those links!

Second try maybe lucky...
Image 1 and Image 2

gazzab · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 21, 2005 Posts: 1

Thanks, this is good advice!
My 6010 was gradually losing its ability to synchronise so I followed F948Ian's advice, removed the battery, and now it works as before except that it always has to cold start (i.e. 1-2 min delay).

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