Leon Paul Box repairs

[Link14]

Our club has had a Leon Paul two-weapon box for the last three years. It's worked fine until recently, when it would give a constant green light when switched to the foil. We've switched fencers, floor cords, reels with no change. I e-mailed Leon Paul with the symptoms and they couldn't diagnose the problem either. Their recommendation was that one of our national armours might know where to get it fixed in the US or to send the curcuit board back to them for repair.

Anyone have an idea if I can get this fixed locally somewhere in the U.S.?

[neevel]

A few places to look (if you haven't already):

1. The LP 2-W box only checks for the presence of a signal on the A-line to indicate a valid hit, so it may be that you've got a B-A short on the same side as the green light. A likely place for this would back in or near the floor cord socket. Open up the box, take the circuit board out of the top part (you can do so while still leaving the batteries connected), and check around there.

2. I once had a Leon Paul box start misbehaving due to a dust-bunny that had accumulated in the foil-epee switch. When I blew that out, it was fine.

3. Have you tried fresh batteries? These boxes frequently act a little flaky when the batteries start to run down. A basic rule of troubleshooting electronic equipment exhibiting odd behavior is to check the power supply-- it's frequently the cause. You can get the 6-V lantern batteries it uses at any hardware store, or even a Walgreen's, Osco or Wal-Mart.

If you still can't sort it out, be advised that when you tally up the cost of shipping it to-and-from London and repair work at Leon Paul, you may end up withing spitting distance of a new Amico RS-05 ($255 from Fencesmart), Eigertek ($350 from American) or Favero ($400 from Zivkovic) 3-W box.

-Dave

[Mergs]

As for a new machine, you can order the Favero directly from them for about $230USD + about $30 for shipping (power supply not included, but you can pick one up at Radio Shack for about $12). Or if you are like me, you can save a few bucks by getting the wall mounted version and converting it to a table model. PM me for details.

As for the checking the battery thing, Dave is right. Had a similar problem this week with a LP 2W box that I had wired a power supply to, the PS was off and it was trying to utilize battery power. Worked like a champ.

OBTW, Dave, I see where Sam is having pommel nuts made.........

[Link14]

Thanks for the ideas guys. The box has a hardwired power supply in it. I brought it home last night, opened it up and cleaned it. Now it acts a little different. I can cause the "red" side on-target and off-target to go off without any problem, but as soon as I hit either on or off target on the "green" side, the green light comes on and stays on. I'm guessing its a switch somewhere on the curcuit board, but my electrical/electronic experience doesn't go much past V=IR.

We bought a Favero box last month to replace this one...I'm just trying to fix it so we can have a spare or extra strip on heavy nights.

Thanks again