[ezatnova]

OK, this has me BEYOND baffled!

So, the other night, the Passport 8500 detector flashes SERVICE REQUIRED. Ok, it's done that once in the past and needed to be sent in for recalibration, a few years ago. Fine. So the next day, I turn on the car and the detector starts freaking out showing LOW VOLTAGE. Now, it's only supposed to do this if it is drawing less than 10.5 volts. Odd, I think to myself. To be clear, it's blaring LOW VOLTAGE both with the engine off and with the engine on. So, I think, "damn, I guess something has gone fubar with my hard wiring" (I have it wired directly to a fuse piggybacking thing behind the glovebox, and it's worked perfectly for over a year now). Then just to prove something to myself, I plug in the old coiled cig lighter cord that came with the detector...it's then FINE! No LOW VOLTAGE warning. Argh.

I then throught I'd use a multimeter to measure the output from the cigarette socket and also that coiled plug vs. the end of the hard wired clip, since one is giving the error and the other is not. This is with the ingition on but the engine off. I first measure inside the physical cigarette ligter socket...11.9 volts. Then I measure on the green and red wire ends of the phone clip plug from the coiled cord that plugs into that socket...of course it measures 11.9 volts (and let me tell you it's a real pain to fit those metal posts of the multimeter in the TINY slots of the phone-cord jack male end thing). So...on to next measureing the hardwired cored red and green wires on the male phone-cord jack end. Yep... 11.9 volts too!! What the hell!?

So, this is leaving me utterly baffled. I measure everything like five more times around, and get the same repeated results...everything reads 11.9 volts, but the detecor still works fine with the coiled cord plugged in it, and LOW VOLTAGE with the hard wire cord plugged in. In the process of measuring for the sixth or so time, I touched the damn red and black testor ends to each other inside of the cig lighter outlet..you know what comes next..SPARK, pop goes the fuse, lol. That was a fun 5 minute diverson. The next side-show is another baffler. On the seventh round of testing and confusing myself, the coiled cord is now NOT WORKING, and I mean completely dead, not just giving a low voltage reading to the detector. I test other plugs like for my GPS and phone, and they are fine, so the socket itself is working as it should. Somehow the damn coil cord is just shot now. To FURTHER confirm this, I hooked a continuity tester, one clip on the positive nipple, one clip on the negative side pressure connector of the coiled cord plug...no continuity. Go figure. I ripped it apart and by testing continuity on the circuitry by holding the two alligator clips on various solders, I isolated the break in continuity to one little hoogie (don't think it's a resistor...don't know what it is). So anyway, somehow that little bugger quit, rendering the whole thing useless. That is the side-baffler.

So, back to my MAIN baffler..what the heck makes sense that both cords (while the stupid coil cord was still functioning) measured 11.9 volts, yet that one worked and the hard wire one gave LOW VOLTAGE??

Any help or insight from you electronics gurus is appreciated. I'm hoping that it's just the detector on the fritz and it needs repairing. But still, this makes no sense to me.

Thanks!

PS - things were measuring 11.9 because I had the door open and was working on this for like an hour. measured at the battery now, a day later after driving the car, it measure 12.5 and 12.2 at the socket. Regardless, the 8500 isn't supposed to yell low voltage unless it gets less than 10.5. Ponder on.

[Dackz]

Not sure what the voltage for this car is since I dont have one yet, but my Maxima puts out 13.5 +/- a couple. This seems low. I get like 11.8 with the car off. This is with my 8500 as well.

[ezatnova]

Originally Posted by Dackz

Not sure what the voltage for this car is since I dont have one yet, but my Maxima puts out 13.5 +/- a couple. This seems low. I get like 11.8 with the car off. This is with my 8500 as well.

Sorry if it's not clear in my post above...that 11.9 WAS with the car off. The way I said it was "ignition on, engine off".

Make sense?

Original post edited because I just measured again and AT the battery it's measuring 12.5, and right now at the cig-port it's measuring 12.25, so I guess that's normal loss through the wiring. I am convinced my battery is fine. Continue pondering original problem!

[RiXst3r]

Sounds like the wiring in the hardwire cord was breaking, and even though you showed 11.9 volts, that was with no current going to a meter. Throw on the probably 300ma or more of load on the wire(from the passport), and if the wire has too much resistance, the voltage will drop under load(from the passport 8500).

My guess is that your hardwire cord is damaged, and is causing resistance under load which is not providing proper voltage to the detector.

[HighVoltage]

Have you tried measuring the voltage with the detector plugged in place? I know it may be difficult. The way you measured the voltage did not include the load of the detector itself. You may also want to try cleaning the contacts of the connectors. Here is something else to consider in the different voltage measurements you obtained between sessions: Did you by any chance have part of your finger or hands touching the probes?

PS: If you can get a good macro shot (i.e no blur) for the "hoogie" I might be able to identify it for you. You should be aware the apparant lack of continuity may be a simple resolution issue of the DVM you are using. Some components like capacitors will register infinite because the DVM cannot measure that low ESR.

Here is a real quick identification process for some of those "fly spit" rectangular SMTs. It is is black with 3 numbers on it, it is probably a resistor. If it is light brown or gray than its probably a capacitor (but gray can also be a ferrite bead). If its black or tan with a stripe on one end it is diode. If its green, its a fuse.

[ezatnova]

Rix and HighVoltage, thanks fo much for your great insight! FWIW, I called Escort/Passport and the tech dude said the same thing.."you were testing voltage from those cords without load...you need to test it with the detector's load active. So, the question for you guys now seems to be...how the hell am I supposed to do that!? Not to be a complete idiot, but, when I plug the clip in the detector, generating the load, then I can't get to the end of the clip to measure the voltage.

The service tech was basically confused and didn't understand why I would be having this problem. We both agreed that my best bet is to try re-doing the hardwire and see if that helps. Is there any other kind of easy test that I could do to the fuse-piggy-back and then the wire connected to that, to test that it's ok?

HV, on your PS about the coil-cord unit not working, the thing that I think I identified as the culprit is actually white, and not marked with an R, and I don't think fits any of your descriptions. It'll be easy enough for me to get a picture of it..BUT, that's the least of my worries I guess, because it's not like I think I can fix that little guy on there anyway, and that's not the root cause of all of this hassel.

Thanks again guys!

Originally Posted by HighVoltage

Have you tried measuring the voltage with the detector plugged in place? I know it may be difficult. The way you measured the voltage did not include the load of the detector itself. You may also want to try cleaning the contacts of the connectors. Here is something else to consider in the different voltage measurements you obtained between sessions: Did you by any chance have part of your finger or hands touching the probes?

PS: If you can get a good macro shot (i.e no blur) for the "hoogie" I might be able to identify it for you. You should be aware the apparant lack of continuity may be a simple resolution issue of the DVM you are using. Some components like capacitors will register infinite because the DVM cannot measure that low ESR.

Here is a real quick identification process for some of those "fly spit" rectangular SMTs. It is is black with 3 numbers on it, it is probably a resistor. If it is light brown or gray than its probably a capacitor (but gray can also be a ferrite bead). If its black or tan with a stripe on one end it is diode. If its green, its a fuse.

[HighVoltage]

Ya I said it wasnt going to be easy. lol. I would crack open the unit and meausure at the solder points but if you are worried about voiding warranties or the like, you can pickup on of those phone y-splitters and use that to get you close enough to the desired points. You know, the kind that has 2 female ends and 1 male. There are no components (passive or active) in those things, just copper conductors to split the connections. So you would simply plug everything together with this and then very carefully probe the same pin #s on the open female connection.

White? Were there 3 pins? Maybe an optocoupler.

[ezatnova]

Originally Posted by HighVoltage

Ya I said it wasnt going to be easy. lol. I would crack open the unit and meausure at the solder points but if you are worried about voiding warranties or the like, you can pickup on of those phone y-splitters and use that to get you close enough to the desired points. You know, the kind that has 2 female ends and 1 male. There are no components (passive or active) in those things, just copper conductors to split the connections. So you would simply plug everything together with this and then very carefully probe the same pin #s on the open female connection.

White? Were there 3 pins? Maybe an optocoupler.

I picked up a new Add-A-Fuse thing at lunch, in case the one in the car now is the culprit. I don't see how the hell something like that would go bad though, especially after only a year.

One of the FIRST readings I tried to do when diagnosing this on Saturday was to jam the multimeter pins into the add-a-fuse ports, to make sure the fusebox was putting out the correct voltage. I got a readinf of about 10.5-10.8 volts, which is scarily exactly what the detector is thinking...sometimes it flickers up to 11 V and then drops and screams LOW VOLTAGE (the below 10.5 mark). Of course, this makes less than zero sense to me, given that I then measured on the RJ11 and got 11.9 and 12.3.

The tech at Passport was concerned about the ground, but the ground piece is attached tight as hell. I guess I will rip the whole thing apart and try to jsut re-do it...which SUCKS because... you know how think phone cord wire is (ONE strand!), well, getting that crimped into joint fitting thing is SUCH a pain. I think I doubled it over itself a few times then soldered it to give it some "meat" then crimped the connection piece on to join the Add-a-Fuse to the telephone cord wire. Not fun.

On the white piece in the coiled cord...no, not three prongs, just two.

[HighVoltage]

Originally Posted by ezatnova

I picked up a new Add-A-Fuse thing at lunch, in case the one in the car now is the culprit. I don't see how the hell something like that would go bad though, especially after only a year.

One of the FIRST readings I tried to do when diagnosing this on Saturday was to jam the multimeter pins into the add-a-fuse ports, to make sure the fusebox was putting out the correct voltage. I got a readinf of about 10.5-10.8 volts, which is scarily exactly what the detector is thinking...sometimes it flickers up to 11 V and then drops and screams LOW VOLTAGE (the below 10.5 mark). Of course, this makes less than zero sense to me, given that I then measured on the RJ11 and got 11.9 and 12.3.

The tech at Passport was concerned about the ground, but the ground piece is attached tight as hell. I guess I will rip the whole thing apart and try to jsut re-do it...which SUCKS because... you know how think phone cord wire is (ONE strand!), well, getting that crimped into joint fitting thing is SUCH a pain. I think I doubled it over itself a few times then soldered it to give it some "meat" then crimped the connection piece on to join the Add-a-Fuse to the telephone cord wire. Not fun.

On the white piece in the coiled cord...no, not three prongs, just two.

You jammed it in there with the detector attached? If so, this may make sense afterall...

So you put together this hardwire from some generic off-the-shelf phone cable? That stuff sucks for this kind of hardwire. lol. I have tried working with it before..Its probably stranded and not much conductor. Total pain to tin too.

If you do rip it out get a true hardwire kit or use a wire with solid conductors. You can also consider using a generic cord but make your own RJ11 female connector with taps/wire for power. That way the phone cord stays fully intact and you just plug the one end into the detector and the other into your adapter. Similar solution to the V1 hardwire. Actually you could use one of those too. The X50 and V1 use the same pins for power..


White and 2 pins.

[tintivilus]

Originally Posted by HighVoltage

So you put together this hardwire from some generic off-the-shelf phone cable? That stuff sucks for this kind of hardwire. lol. I have tried working with it before..Its probably stranded and not much conductor. Total pain to tin too.

I can +1 that opinion. I've seen some crappy, crappy flat phone wire on the market -- I've seen some silver patch cords that I couldn't even *find* the conductors in with an x-acto knife. You probably need something that's at least 24AWG, preferably 22AWG -- those are the supported conductor sizes for most crimp-on RJ11 plugs. This should be no problem with decent name-brand cable, but can be hard to come by when you're scavenging cheapo cords.

[ezatnova]

Originally Posted by HighVoltage

You jammed it in there with the detector attached? If so, this may make sense afterall...

So you put together this hardwire from some generic off-the-shelf phone cable? That stuff sucks for this kind of hardwire. lol. I have tried working with it before..Its probably stranded and not much conductor. Total pain to tin too.

If you do rip it out get a true hardwire kit or use a wire with solid conductors. You can also consider using a generic cord but make your own RJ11 female connector with taps/wire for power. That way the phone cord stays fully intact and you just plug the one end into the detector and the other into your adapter. Similar solution to the V1 hardwire. Actually you could use one of those too. The X50 and V1 use the same pins for power..


White and 2 pins.

No, no, I didn't jam the tester pins of the multimeter in the add-a-fuse while the detector was powered. What I did was REMOVE the fuse (the "added" fuse of the add-a-fuse) and jam the pins in THERE, to effectively see "from the source" what power the detector would be getting. What I was trying to do was eliminate the phone cord fromthe equation. For example (this is NOT what happened) if it read 12 v when I stuck the pins in the add-a-fuse, then when I put the fuse back in, powering the phone cord, and I took a readind off of the RJ11 jack and it said 10 v, I would know the CORD was the problem. No such luck on a simple answer like that.

As far as piecing together a kit "off the shelf"...that isn't the case. The add-a-fuse is a nice piece...that isn't the issue (I doubt it at least...it has a thick wire and all) and the phone cord part of it (RJ11) was a kit I bought on ebay for hard wiring the 8500. It probably IS just a cheapy phone cord though.

I'm not quite 100% clear on what you guys are recommending I do as far as a phone cord ("building my own" rather than just buying a new one to try and cutting one of the jack ends off to attack to the ground and power?). I also read somewhere that the really beefy phone cord line is TOO thick and can put up too much resistance to function properly.

[ezatnova]

Originally Posted by tintivilus

I can +1 that opinion. I've seen some crappy, crappy flat phone wire on the market -- I've seen some silver patch cords that I couldn't even *find* the conductors in with an x-acto knife. You probably need something that's at least 24AWG, preferably 22AWG -- those are the supported conductor sizes for most crimp-on RJ11 plugs. This should be no problem with decent name-brand cable, but can be hard to come by when you're scavenging cheapo cords.

LOL, I do remember that damn wire was a PAIN to work with (and a PAIN to find with an exacto!). Hence me not looking forward to messing with it later tonight.

[HighVoltage]

Originally Posted by ezatnova

No, no, I didn't jam the tester pins of the multimeter in the add-a-fuse while the detector was powered. What I did was REMOVE the fuse (the "added" fuse of the add-a-fuse) and jam the pins in THERE, to effectively see "from the source" what power the detector would be getting. What I was trying to do was eliminate the phone cord fromthe equation. For example (this is NOT what happened) if it read 12 v when I stuck the pins in the add-a-fuse, then when I put the fuse back in, powering the phone cord, and I took a readind off of the RJ11 jack and it said 10 v, I would know the CORD was the problem. No such luck on a simple answer like that.

At this point I would get the splitter like I mentioned. Plug it all in and measure the voltage at both the fuse tap point and then the splitter. If the cable is decent the voltage differential should be minimal. This will also tells us the effect of the load. Also try wiggling the cord a bit to see if the voltage fluctuates.

As far as piecing together a kit "off the shelf"...that isn't the case. The add-a-fuse is a nice piece...that isn't the issue (I doubt it at least...it has a thick wire and all) and the phone cord part of it (RJ11) was a kit I bought on ebay for hard wiring the 8500. It probably IS just a cheapy phone cord though.

Hmm, hard to say then. Ive used the kind from places like Best Buy with no issues. In fact I installed one in my wifes Honda that now has the X50 with one of those..

I'm not quite 100% clear on what you guys are recommending I do as far as a phone cord ("building my own" rather than just buying a new one to try and cutting one of the jack ends off to attack to the ground and power?).

We were just emphasizing to be cautious about using a regular phone cord is all.

I also read somewhere that the really beefy phone cord line is TOO thick and can put up too much resistance to function properly.

Actually thats a bit backwards. An increase in size(decrease in gauge) will decrease the resistance...

[fdiprete]

Your cig lighter connector has a fuse in it. You probably popped the fuse rendering it dead. Just open it up and replace the barrel fuse.

As to the low voltage on the direct wire; as others have said, cheapo phone chord may be the culprit. Human hair sized wire in that stuff over a length of cable has very high resistance, thus causing a lower current draw to maintain 12 volts to the detector and the error on the detectors input voltage circuit.
(and yes, the thinner the wire the higher the resistance / thicker wire is lower resistance)

Voltage is one third of the equation.
ohm's law:
v=ir

where
v=voltage
i=current
r=resistance

Say that the normal load is 300 ohms (just an example - not the real value)
i=v/r = 12/300 = 0.04 amps

If that load goes up to say 400 ohms:
i=v/r = 12/400 = 0.03 amps

A higher resistance can move the current draw outside of the unit's operating specs.
It just doesn't have a "low current" warning

Assuming that the voltage input on the detector is not damaged by improper loading for a year, then using a cable from the manufacturer may make it go away.

Good luck

[ezatnova]

Originally Posted by fdiprete

Your cig lighter connector has a fuse in it. You probably popped the fuse rendering it dead. Just open it up and replace the barrel fuse.

As to the low voltage on the direct wire; as others have said, cheapo phone chord may be the culprit. Human hair sized wire in that stuff over a length of cable has very high resistance, thus causing a lower current draw to maintain 12 volts to the detector and the error on the detectors input voltage circuit.
(and yes, the thinner the wire the higher the resistance / thicker wire is lower resistance)

Voltage is one third of the equation.
ohm's law:
v=ir

where
v=voltage
i=current
r=resistance

Say that the normal load is 300 ohms (just an example - not the real value)
i=v/r = 12/300 = 0.04 amps

If that load goes up to say 400 ohms:
i=v/r = 12/400 = 0.03 amps

A higher resistance can move the current draw outside of the unit's operating specs.
It just doesn't have a "low current" warning

Assuming that the voltage input on the detector is not damaged by improper loading for a year, then using a cable from the manufacturer may make it go away.

Good luck

Thanks for the input. Actually, the cig lighter plug DOES NOT have a fuse in it. I was surprised, and actually asked the tech on the phone why not. He said they leave it up to the fuse in the car that the cig lighter socket is connected to. Strange.

[ezatnova]

Well, after 3 hours of cursing, piss poor soldering, and some luck, it's all working now.
I made my trips to Pep Boys (for a new Add-a-Fuse) and Radio Shack (for new phone cord wire, which by the way they looked at me like I was insane when I asked about thicker-than-normal gauge phone wire).
I thought, well, FIRST I should check the ground to make sure it's firm. It was actually loose so I tightened that screw and plugger 'er in .. LOW VOLTAGE. . Then I thought I should just undo the electrical tape on the old add-a-fuse where it's soldered to the phone cord wire that's in there now to check the condition of things. Sure enough, it looked all flakey-yellow with some corrosion somehow. Bingo, I thought, I'll just cut this clean and solder it back together fresh. An hour of tryng to hold four things (the line of solder, the gun, and the two wires) and solder the friggin 2 strand wire to the thick add-a-fuse line, IN my car (didn't feel like yanking all the hidden wire out if I didn't have to!) and I finally got it soldered again. Plugged it in... LOW VOLTAGE.
The hell with it all then, I thought, so I yanked everything out and unwrapped all the new items and began fresh. Let me tell you, I yet again did not enjoy manually stripping the phone lines with an Xacto since they were too small for a wire stripper. One little slip of the blade and there goes the inch of wire I was trying to carefully peel the plastic off of.
Two hours later with some fugly soldering, I got a firm connection on both the ground wire to the ring connector that the ground screw goes into, and also the power line going to the Add-a-Fuse thing. Plugged 'er in and it WORKED. Showed 11.5 volts from me having the car open for 3 hours now. Fired it up and it went to 14.2 volts.
If I can be picky and think of a problem now, I don't know if this is normal, but when I turn on the car, the voltage display on the detector sort of slowly steps up to 14V, over about 3 seconds (starts at 11 or so). I wonder if that's a side effect of the power struggling to get through this new, also $hitty phone wire (or my fantabulous hunk of solder!)? Hopefully it's no big deal.
Lesson learned though, if this damn thing ever acts up again, I think I'll suck up the wait time and shipping cost and order the $19 part #30 from Valentine (since they use the same RJ11 jack) and just work on attaching that to the fuse box, which hopefully would avoid the whole stripping and soldering of the 4 strands of copper phone line awfulness.

Last random thought...makes you wonder why Escort/Passport doesn't offer a good hardwire kit like that, from what I see. They basically sell you the same phone cord that I just bought myself, not a nice contained unit that you wire in and click the RJ11 wire end into, like the Valentine piece.

Anyway, THANKS to you guys for all of your great thoughts and help. If nothing, I learned some stuff (and some patience) going through this, and I saved the $59 minimum diagnostic fee of sending in the detector for repair.
Now, High Voltage, I will still attempt to post up a pic of that mystery white part tonight, that I think is causing my coil cord to be broken...just to satisfy everyone's curiosity.

Thanks again!

[ezatnova]

Here is the thing in the coil cord that I'm asking about. It's the white one.

[fdiprete]

Ah - mystery solved.

That is a voltage regulator circuit. It's purpose is to hold the output voltage at 12v given an input voltage of 11.5 to 14 volts that you are seeing.

It does this by biasing the transistor Q1 with current applied to base and collector using the source voltage and 2 resistors (R). The other resistors limit the current being pulled through the LED's so they do not burn out.

The mystery white component (F2A) is a fuse
I bet it popped when you were measuring the voltage earlier.
An ohm meter across it when un-soldered from the board should read open / infinite if blown.

Looks like your unit relies on the external voltage regulator in the cig plug rather than having that circuit in the unit itself. I had a unit like this once. I hard wired it in using the regulator circuit from the cig plug like yours in line.

[fuse tap] - [ voltage regulator ] - [detector ]

Running it without it will send 11.5 (or less) to 14 volts of power to your unit without regulation. I'd replace that fuse on the regulator (or get another cig plug and take it apart) and wire the circuit in. Let the regulator do the job you are trying to do with re-soldering and wire.

[HighVoltage]

Originally Posted by fdiprete

Ah - mystery solved.

That is a voltage regulator circuit. It's purpose is to hold the output voltage at 12v given an input voltage of 11.5 to 14 volts that you are seeing.

It does this by biasing the transistor Q1 with current applied to base and collector using the source voltage and 2 resistors (R). The other resistors limit the current being pulled through the LED's so they do not burn out.

The mystery white component (F2A) is a fuse
I bet it popped when you were measuring the voltage earlier.
An ohm meter across it when un-soldered from the board should read open / infinite if blown.

Looks like your unit relies on the external voltage regulator in the cig plug rather than having that circuit in the unit itself. I had a unit like this once. I hard wired it in using the regulator circuit from the cig plug like yours in line.

[fuse tap] - [ voltage regulator ] - [detector ]

Running it without it will send 11.5 (or less) to 14 volts of power to your unit without regulation. I'd replace that fuse on the regulator (or get another cig plug and take it apart) and wire the circuit in. Let the regulator do the job you are trying to do with re-soldering and wire.

Youve made quite a few assumptions from one photo...

The white part is a fuse (2 amp) but that is not a voltage regulator for the X50. It is being used for the alert led and Mute circuit.

Have a look here:
http://www.escortradar.com/x50-accessories.htm

You will find a Direct Wire Cord, that is not the Smart Cord. Only the Smart Cord contains that circuitry. The Direct Wire Cord only has an in-line glass fuse. Ive had the X50 open and there does appear to be a simple buck-boost to regulate the power.

[ezatnova]

Originally Posted by HighVoltage

Youve made quite a few assumptions from one photo...

The white part is a fuse (2 amp) but that is not a voltage regulator for the X50. It is being used for the alert led and Mute circuit.

Have a look here:
http://www.escortradar.com/x50-accessories.htm

You will find a Direct Wire Cord, that is not the Smart Cord. Only the Smart Cord contains that circuitry. The Direct Wire Cord only has an in-line glass fuse. Ive had the X50 open and there does appear to be a simple buck-boost to regulate the power.

Sooooo, (in Human language...sorry), does it makes sense that when I put the continuity tester clipped from the posotive (the metal nipple on the end of the plug) to the side of the little white fuse solder on the board, it passes, but if I put it from the positive nipple to the OTHER side of the fuse solder on the board, it fails. Seems like a blown little fuse to me. Annoying it's not a normal replaceable little guy, like in make cig lighter plugs. I assume there's no great way for a solder butcher like me to fix this thing on the cheap??

[HighVoltage]

Originally Posted by ezatnova

Sooooo, (in Human language...sorry), does it makes sense that when I put the continuity tester clipped from the posotive (the metal nipple on the end of the plug) to the side of the little white fuse solder on the board, it passes, but if I put it from the positive nipple to the OTHER side of the fuse solder on the board, it fails. Seems like a blown little fuse to me. Annoying it's not a normal replaceable little guy, like in make cig lighter plugs. I assume there's no great way for a solder butcher like me to fix this thing on the cheap??

Yes that makes sense. One side of the fuse goes directly to the metal nipple and the other goes on to the detector.

This is something you can replace yourself. You can either pick up the same fuse or just get a standard glass fuse in the same rating and solder in yourself. It looks likes a slow blow with that white coating but you can probably get away with a fast blow.

If you get a a fuse in a different form factor (i.e not the same physical dimensions), you will just need to be sure when you put the whole casing back together it isnt going to break loose or make contact with another part of the circuit.

If it were me, I would cut the old out one. Pick up a mini in the same ratings, rough up the metal edges so they will wick solder and put it in. Use a little electrical tape after the install to keep it isolated. The only slight problem with using tape is it looses its adhesive over time, so you may feel you want to try something else. Up to you.

[fdiprete]

I stand corrected. The direct wire chord does not include a voltage regulator.