Comfort zone exceeded, satisfaction ensues...

[Rosco151]

So, got all happy and excited when I got my hands on my new G&P M14 DMR. The final piece of the puzzle was a mini-tamiya to deans adapter (my battery was mini tamiya, gun comes with deans, haven't got a soldering iron so figured the adapter would do until I could get that sorted).

 

The adapter finally arrives. There I am like a kid at christmas (seasonally appropriate), ripping it out of the envelope and fixing everything in place. Fit the Cyma hi-cap to the gun, bring to the aim and squeeze the trigger...

 

Nothing.

 

Huh.

 

Squeeze the trigger again. Listen carefully. I can hear the motor trying to work, but nothing actually happening. Try full-automatic, see if the gearbox is a little stiff or something. Same thing. A few more tries on semi, then no noise whatsoever, everything's just completely inert.

 

Bugger.

 

Open the stock and check the battery. It's a little warm, maybe a problem there? Connect the battery to another gun, works fine.

 

Hmm.

 

Check the connections. At this point, I realise that the adapter is the problem. The mini-tamiya end is wired so that the positive wire on the battery is feeding to the negative wire on the rifles deans connector.

 

Again, bugger. I've been trying to run the battery in reverse. So why did it stop even trying to work?

 

Some disassembly and investigation reveals that G&P don't put fuses on their guns, so can't be a blown fuse (logic, see?). Did I burn out the motor? Bugger, but unlikely.

 

Gave Fire Support a quick call, talked things over with one of their guys (massive thanks to those guys, very helpful and perfectly happy to discuss things with me). Cut the tamiya connector off of my battery, held the positive wire to the positive motor terminal, and the negative to the switch output negative. Motor runs like a dream. Negative wire held to the switch input, trigger operated - nothing.

 

So the switch is the problem! Could be worse, cheap part, not a big deal in labour, all good.

 

Except I got curious. Took apart the metal covering the switch, had a nose around. Found a load of black gunk all over one of the switch terminals. Scraped that off, got a second battery and shaved the corners off of the square end of the deans-tamiya adapter that caused all this trouble, so that it'll fit into the round hole.

 

Test. Works! Cue feelings of omnipotence and genius. Big deal for me, never taken a gun apart to fix something in any way whatsoever before.

 

Share any similar stories where you've amazed yourself and come back from the precipice of screwing it all up?

[Wingmann]

Congratulations on this first step on the road to discovery! It's a satisfaction to fix something, isn't it?

[Rosco151]

Massively so, especially when I thought I'd broken my new toy at first!