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Where to buy electric components to fix M998/HMMWV PCB boxes?

TOBASH

Father, Surgeon, Cantankerous Grouch
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Supporting Vendor
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I need resistors and capacitors and 100amp relays and mosfets and such.

Who are the players who sell these, and are there any site sponsors who sell this stuff?

Where is Radio Shack now that I finally grew up and need them?
 

papakb

Well-known member
2,285
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Location
San Jose, Ca
Even at it's peak Radio Shack would have let you down. A guy like you would have hit up Canal St 20 years ago but that's long gone. I've always had good luck with DigiKey and Mouser as my parts suppliers if I couldn't get them locally but Silicon Valley used to be a hot spot, now it's on the back burner with Canal St! Sad. It seems like everything comes from China even if it was originally made here in the States.

You might want to check with Naomi Wu.
 

TOBASH

Father, Surgeon, Cantankerous Grouch
Steel Soldiers Supporter
Supporting Vendor
3,583
3,491
113
Location
Brooklyn, NY
Even at it's peak Radio Shack would have let you down. A guy like you would have hit up Canal St 20 years ago but that's long gone. I've always had good luck with DigiKey and Mouser as my parts suppliers if I couldn't get them locally but Silicon Valley used to be a hot spot, now it's on the back burner with Canal St! Sad. It seems like everything comes from China even if it was originally made here in the States.

You might want to check with Naomi Wu.
Who are all these people and how do I get in touch?

Mouser? Newark? Naomi Wu? DigiKey?

What are the full names?

And I don't mean to sound unthankfull... I thank you one and all.
 

TOBASH

Father, Surgeon, Cantankerous Grouch
Steel Soldiers Supporter
Supporting Vendor
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113
Location
Brooklyn, NY
Holy Cow. I dated her. She never mentioned.

Guess when you got me you don’t need to think about electric.
 

NormB

Well-known member
1,220
72
48
Location
Cloverly,MD
I tinkered around with electronics in HS. I was a roadie for a music store, we provided sound equipment for small clubs and larger venues for bands like Spooky Tooth, Humble Pie, Genesis, King Crimson, ELP, more. Fun times.

I built several digital electronic gadgets, radios, Heathkit and Radio Shack things, am fairly competent with a soldering iron and circuit tracing.

Fast forward about 40 years and I got interested in bass guitar playing and came across a smoking deal on a broken Acoustic Control Corp 18” reflex bass amp (370 watt). Found schematics, spent a month of evenings in my office replacing components, then reconed the speaker, recovered the amp, eventually lost interest in guitar (no real talent for it), sold amp at a good profit. There’s a whole collector’s crowd for antique ACC amps and sound gear. Thing was almost 40 yrs old when I sold it.

This taught me a LOT about electronics I thought I knew decades earlier. Humbling. I basically knew nothing. But I did manage to get the thing working, even shipped it off to MadScienceWorks for calibration - I was off about ten ohms on one trim pot - which made me feel good. Buyer was happy.

What I did basically was replace every electrolytic capacitor, put a set of YUGE electrolytic caps in there (about 2 farad, like you’d use in a car boombox), all the little ones on the boards, replaced power transistors and used silver heat conducting paste, replaced most of the preamp components, tightening up the resistor tolerances to 1% instead of the traditional 5, and so on. Figured a lot of those components wouldn’t have aged well, electrolytic caps are notorious for breaking down if they’re not used often, random static charges can fry FETs and I probably spent $100 on components through mouser.com and digikey. The famous, traditional, amplifier buzz even went away.

If you know electronics, how to read resistors, have a schematic, VOM, oscilloscope, have at it. I’ve seen these boards, the schematics, and the only way I think I’d be comfortable reworking one is the same way I did the ACC 370 head. Change out anything that could be burned out, all the mosfets, SCRs, diodes (with higher reverse/peak voltages for a little extra insurance), and keep my fingers crossed I didn’t miss anything.

But time, said Herr Doktor Einstein, is money.

These days, I have other interests, hobbies, and I’m not half as hypomanic as I once was.

I still have my original (with loud relays), replaced the box with the newer ESS/S4 (?) box3 years ago and bought a spare on sale ($400) about 18 mos ago, just to have it. Just in case.
 

donkren

Member
45
4
8
Location
Springfield, IL
I got Mosfets for a KDS EESS Box from DigiKey. I haven't found time to solder them in yet, but from my 'detective work' I believe they are p/n HUF75344G3-ND. The pair with shipping was around twelve bucks. Good luck with your repairs and let us know how it turns out.
 

osteo16

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
585
585
93
Location
Evansville, IN
Tobash, love Mouser.. They have sourced absolutely everything I can possibly need electronic wise. If your interested I could send you an extra catalog I might have laying around.. Seems once you order from them they keep sending out there 1000 page parts bible.. Heck, they might send you one free if you inquire to them.. PM me if you need one, I can look around.. Good luck and I’d be interested if you find any schematics for the boxes..
 

cwc

Active member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
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Location
Sweeden, KY
There is some information on functionality in patent applications. See thread titled "PCB circuit diagram of KDS controller"

Sent from my E6910 using Tapatalk
 

chrisjackson

New member
DigiKey has about every component that exists in the universe. That's great, but a bit overwhelming. Start your search by using a more hobby-oriented shop like Sparkfun or Bitsbox. There you'll find the most standard transistors, resistors, and capacitors that usually work for most beginner projects.
 

dhaumann69166

Active member
234
78
28
Location
Hyannis, Nebraska
Just thought I would give an update on my progress. Ordered new MOSFETS from Mouser for $3 each and had them at my door two days later. Half hour with a soldering iron and the olds ones are out and new ones in. Put the box back in my Humvee, turned the key and “Wait to Start” light came right on. Before it would flash quick and that was all. Definitely happy that $6 in parts saved me buying a new $1,000 S3 box.
Also found out while doing this that all the boxes use the same mosfets part #75344G
 

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