Went through my Lego electronics and noticed that my two oldest PF IR Receivers (about 10-11 years old) are turning yellow on the light bluish gray parts. It's like a single yellowish "stain" on the back surface.

Has anyone else experienced this with their PF components? It doesn't seem to affect their performance (the indicator LED does turn on when connected to power).

One of my PF XL motors and one of my PF remote control unit has turned yellow, but they work, or in case of XL I had to open it and shorten wires and then solder tnem back (but motor looks like it survived nuclear desaster.

Interesting is that they belong to 42030 set... On Large motor from that set, wire isolation has cracked, so yesterday I had to clean wires and use oldfashioned method with isolations tape to make it work; also had to find time to open and to shorten wires on medium motor and PF servo from same set doesn't give signs of life, so there is some work to do...

Edited August 7, 2024Aug 7 by 1gor

On 8/7/2024 at 6:40 AM, 1gor said:

I had to open it and shorten wires and then solder tnem back (but motor looks like it survived nuclear desaster.

I did the same with some of my older PF motors (which are now gone). For two L motors, I actually took a PF 50cm extension wire and cut the PF end to the same length as the motor wire to keep the same wire length.

What's weird is, nearly all my PF elements from 2013-2014 have had their wires fail (4x M motors, 2x L motors, an XL motor, a Servo motor and a V2 IR receiver), but everything I have after around 2016 is still good to this day. I wonder if LEGO changed the wires' materials around that time - I have noticed on the ones I have after 2016 that the wire material looks shinier and feels stiffer than my old ones from 2013-2014.

1 hour ago, JLiu15 said:

 

What's weird is, nearly all my PF elements from 2013-2014 have had their wires fail (4x M motors, 2x L motors, an XL motor, a Servo motor and a V2 IR receiver), but everything I have after around 2016 is still good to this day. I wonder if LEGO changed the wires' materials around that time - I have noticed on the ones I have after 2016 that the wire material looks shinier and feels stiffer than my old ones from 2013-2014.

I had similar experience...just interrsting is that Medium motors ftom 8297 set and from 8110 have no wire problems, but from 42030 set all motors have it. Also XL motors from 2017 have wire issue, that I hope to solve today (if nothing unplanned happens). It could be production year (bad matherial from some cooperant) or place where it was manufactured. Because wire failures, I had to damage my XL motors housings and now I can not integrate them in model that I work on for few years...

16 hours ago, JLiu15 said:

I wonder if LEGO changed the wires' materials around that time - I have noticed on the ones I have after 2016 that the wire material looks shinier and feels stiffer than my old ones from 2013-2014.

Well, the same disaster happened (and still happens) to 9V wires from whatever decade, time, manufacturer ... this is really a >total< and utter failure. There are 9V cables doing fine until today with no sign of decay - and - mostly - others just literally rot away (so much for quality control at TLC).

To be honest, in the electronics world, this process is never seen at all. I don't know any wires in any vintage piece of electronics dating back to the 1970s failing, because of rotting wire insulation. None. So what is going on here? 9V wires rot, PF wires rot ... man. I will have to replace so many wires in my LEGO world - as of now, there are shortcuts, failing sensors all over the place. On one hand, this is a nightmare. On the other - LEGO does not last forever, as nothing does . Plus: Replacing all these rotted wires keeps me busy. Old people need to be busy, should they want to live forever. Well, sort of 

5 years more to go - and then: Heating up the soldering iron! 

All the best,
Thorsten

 

Edited August 9, 2024Aug 9 by Toastie

23 hours ago, Toastie said:

Well, the same disaster happened (and still happens) to 9V wires from whatever decade, time, manufacturer ... this is really a >total< and utter failure. There are 9V cables doing fine until today with no sign of decay - and - mostly - others just literally rot away (so much for quality control at TLC).

To be honest, in the electronics world, this process is never seen at all. I don't know any wires in any vintage piece of electronics dating back to the 1970s failing, because of rotting wire insulation. None. So what is going on here? 9V wires rot, PF wires rot ... man. I will have to replace so many wires in my LEGO world - as of now, there are shortcuts, failing sensors all over the place. On one hand, this is a nightmare. On the other - LEGO does not last forever, as nothing does . Plus: Replacing all these rotted wires keeps me busy. Old people need to be busy, should they want to live forever. Well, sort of 

5 years more to go - and then: Heating up the soldering iron! 

All the best,
Thorsten

 

Honestly I prefer how the 9V motors had separate wires instead of integral wires. This way if the wire fails you don't have to replace the entire motor.

3 hours ago, JLiu15 said:

Honestly I prefer how the 9V motors had separate wires instead of integral wires. This way if the wire fails you don't have to replace the entire motor.

Or took it a part and damage plastic like I did... I have one buggy motor, but it refuses to work with PF Servo on same receiver...

 

LEGO may have different suppliers for their electronic components over the years. Some may used better wire insulation than others.  The PF ribbon cable can be desoldered from the PF motor and a new one put in. 

PF compatible connectors can be found on places like AliExpress to make your own custom PF cables.

4 hours ago, dr_spock said:

LEGO may have different suppliers for their electronic components over the years. Some may used better wire insulation than others.  The PF ribbon cable can be desoldered from the PF motor and a new one put in. 

 

PF compatible connectors can be found on places like AliExpress to make your own custom PF cables.

 

My dear Volcanic friend,that could be very usefull because I know only how to open medium motor not to damage plastic (I have fixed 4 XL motors, but plastic on them is thick, sturdy and soft, so my plastic clippers got broken and flat screwdriver bore holes...). Afterall I need to fix anoth

er couple of Servo motors and for next time (when they would need to be fixed) I had to  prepare 3rd party wires...uf now I'm starting to ruin my image as purist and @jorgeopesi would  stop liking ne. 

Who knows, nayve I stumble on right tires for my models and use another 3rd party product...

Actually I noticed thise suggestions in ine post ovev10vyears old, byt I did't want to bump old toois just fir questions and cause @Milanadditional headachses.

Thank you 

7 hours ago, 1gor said:

byt I did't want to bump old toois just fir questions

Thanks.
But as you know, we are free to bump any topic we want, as long we have something important to add.

13 minutes ago, Milan said:

Thanks.
But as you know, we are free to bump any topic we want, as long we have something important to add.

Actually it was more question for which I could not find answer and powerfunctions are out of date for respected number of forum members...

On 8/10/2024 at 10:34 PM, dr_spock said:

LEGO may have different suppliers for their electronic components over the years. Some may used better wire insulation than others.  The PF ribbon cable can be desoldered from the PF motor and a new one put in. 

PF compatible connectors can be found on places like AliExpress to make your own custom PF cables.

I've also noticed that on my older PF elements, when the wire loses connection a piece of the wire outer would break exposing some of the wire on the inside, almost always on the right side of the wire where it attaches to the motor. This was most noticeable on e.g. PF M motors where the connection is at the top, as opposed to L motors with the wire connected in the middle. The same would sometimes happen at the plug end as well.

Also, this was probably covered somewhere on the forum before, but I'm wondering if the code printed on electronics, linear actuators, pneumatics, etc. indicate the production year, specifically the last digit. The two PF IR Receivers I had the yellowing with have codes 31K3 and 15K4 (from lego.com in late 2013 and late 2014, respectively), so I believe they were made in 2013 and 2014. Here are some more codes I found on mine:

• PF M motors: 2x 29N6 (from lego.com in summer 2017), 1x 28N6 (from 42054 set), 1x 16N0 (from lego.com in fall 2020)
• PF L motors: 39N4 (from 42043 set), 11N9 (from lego.com in fall 2020), 2x 33N8 (from 42095 set)
• Control+ L motors: 233N9 (from 42099 set), 207N0 and 409N0 (one from a Bricklink seller in summer 2020 and another from 42114 set), 119N2 and 2x 213N2 (from 42160 set, these have the CE logo on the side)
• RC Buggy motors: both are 3333 (acquired used; made in 2003?)

For the most part, the last digit corresponds to when I purchased it or when the set it came in was released, so I'm pretty sure it's the production year. Thought maybe someone here with better knowledge could confirm.

Edited August 13, 2024Aug 13 by JLiu15

1 hour ago, JLiu15 said:

I've also noticed that on my older PF elements, when the wire loses connection a piece of the wire outer would break exposing some of the wire on the inside, almost always on the right side of the wire where it attaches to the motor. This was most noticeable on e.g. PF M motors where the connection is at the top, as opposed to L motors with the wire connected in the middle. The same would sometimes happen at the plug end as well.

That is probably why I had cable issue on all XL motors and some M motots, but all L motors ate fine...also some PF Servos are problematic as well...