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Resurrection of a dead Garmin GSC-10

bawbag

Maximum Pace
Mar 20, 2013
450
276
The speed sensor on my Garmin started playing silly buggers on my ride home last week. Thought the battery must be running low, so replaced it at the weekend. No go.
By yesterday, it was failing to register for 99% of my 20km commute, occasionally baiting me by letting me know I wasn't going as fast as I thought before lapsing back into silence.
After reading up a bit, it seems that the reed switches in the sensor arm are sketchier than a Moss Side council estate, yet about as solid as a Faberge egg. Time to give Akiba a visit...

200 yen later, I was in possession of five brand spanking new reed switches, and battle commenced. By that I mean I hacked open the arm along its mold seam with a stanley knife, pulled out the little board upon which the reed switch is mounted, did a bit of desoldering, a bit of soldering, put it all back together and stood victorious over the little bastard thing. Back in action.

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Nice - bloody hated that GSC10 sensor so got rid or it all together and got some Garmin Vectors :D
 
yeah I gave up on mine altogether as well. But nice work on the reconstruction!
 
Cheers!
Totally doable with a cheapo soldering iron and some solder braid instead of my fancier setup for those who wish to give it a go.
The new reed switch is a tad smaller than the original, so the sweet spot is a bit narrower, but it's totally fine. The electronics shop actually have the right size switches, but they were out of stock when I visited.

Here's a link to the ones I wanted:
http://akizukidenshi.com/catalog/g/gP-04400/
 
Bravo! I have four bikes and thus four sensors and I was sort-of resigned to having to replace them every once in a while. Now I know better. Thank you. (X-post to r/helpful please.)
 
I am curious about what state the plastic case was in after you put it all back together. How did you seal it to ensure that post-surgery it would still be water-tight? I imagine that could be a bit of a challenge.
 
Superglue has made do for the time being, primarily as I want to be able to prise it open again after a few test rides on the off chance my l33t soldering skills aren't all that. Once I'm certain everything is in order, I'll indeed epoxy it together. As I was fairly careful in my hacking open of the casing, it sealed up extremely easily. I made sure not to bend the halves apart too much too, so I only needed to apply a modicum of pressure while gluing it up.

I guess this could go in the wiki section if someone with godly powers wishes to move it.
 
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