Hello fellow EZ-roboteers!

So this is just an information post, to share my experience with one of my modified servos that packed up yesterday. I was just about to take the plunge and hack a standard one to replace it but then thought "what the hell, I can't break something that isn't working" and got the tools out.

After I removed the four screws from the bottom, I hooked it up to my EZB and fired up a control to trigger the modified servo on full speed. When I checked the voltage across the red and black wires, it appeared ok so no fault with the cable I thought. I then checked the contacts across the capacitor and got nothing! On closer inspection, the solder between the black cable and the negative capacitor contact was weak (sorry if the picture below isn't that clear) and there was also a lot of play in the hole that takes the capacitor leg. Giving the cable a little wiggle made the contact and the servo whizzed into life.

So I disconnected the servo from the EZB, de-soldered the contact (where the black cable meets the capacitor), cleaned up the contacts and re-soldered it. Once I had re-connected it to the EZB, the is now working a treat!

This saved me irreversibly hacking a standard servo, so hopefully it might inspire others to have a crack at fixing something before committing it to the recycling pile.