Amber light of death
 

Okay I have been into zipzaps off and on for the past here now. I recently went to my local radioshack and bought a bunch of clearance zipzaps. Then a couple of months later I am trying to play with them and had really never used them before. I come to find out that none of them work except for the lights and steering. So I take off the bodies and on one I put in an old ZZ motor and old ZZ motor clip. I try it out and charge it up run it in my hands and it works perfectly(without the body on) so I put it on the ground and it doesn't work. I repeat this with the same results. The third time I try it i just keep it running. It works fine that time. So I go back to my room and put on the Aston Martin Body and plug it in. Now when I charge it I will get the Amber light. So I try to shut off the ZZ and turn it back on, shut off the charger and turn it on again, and run through all the channels all this to no avail.I still get the Amber light. So I shut off the charger to type this and as I'm trying to take the body off (which is very hard and I fail) So for some reason i turned it back on and accidentally pressed the trigger and it works!! Why is my SE doing all these strange things?

Edit: Now after that use I try and charge it and I get he Amber light again. It seems to be charging it though.

Not sure. I'd check all the connections. Particularly the drive motor. Make sure it's seated properly and getting a good connection on all contacts. If this irratic behavior persists you may want to check the internal battery for a bad connection or leakage.

Funny thing is it is suddenly happening on my others too.

When all else fails, replace the batteries in the transmitter. It has worked for me.
Hugo

They are freshly charged batteries, but I'll try and recharge them.

I'm wondering if this might be your problem. What is the rating on those rechargeables? I'm thinking 1.2 VDC fully charged. Four of those in your controller gives you 4.8VDC and that's freshly charged. Whereas non rechargeables are rated at 1.5VDC. Four of those gives you 6VDC. You are starting out low and going lower everytime you charge a car. This would indicate the problem is in the controller/charger.

I don't think its the batteries as my freind uses the same kind perfectly and the controllers with regular batteries are doing the same thing. ANd its on different controllers.

I'm also getting the amber light with on of my recently aquired SEs. I tried all the channels.

Maxx

It's been a while since I've dabbled with ZZ's, but I seem to remember that happening if the power switch was on or off.... In one of the positions it would do that, I don't remember which.

It won't be the batteries since you're charing a 2.4V pack with 4.8V.

The SE's were always kind of sketchy to me.

I've had this problem twice and I know how to fix it if all else fails. You have to take your controller apart and take the little black charging module apart. There's a piece of metal you have to bend to make it work right. I'll take some pics if I remember to. The piece of metal is in the middle (I think) and it only needs to be bent a little bit to make it work again. Then you just put it back together. and tada! it works again!

So, this is like a loose connection in the charging pad then. I think I know the piece of metal you are talking about and that makes sense. You may have the answer there.

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I got the same problem on one of mine
possible to get a pic of this piece of metal?

this happened to me today it turned out i think its called the pbc was compressing the wires so i just opened it up and fiddled with the wires and it worked so that might be your problem

I'll try to get a pic for you guys. I haven't been since that post, lol.

need more info
 

I as well am having this issue...ripped open the charger plate, and see the center piece of metal you are talking about.

Which way should it be bent? Should it be bent suc that it will make contact with the other center piece, which comes out of the top of the charger, or away from it (think touching it, since the piece would be useless since it's going nowhere).

FYI...think my problems in the TX as well, somewhere...tried to charge another SE on the charger, to no avail (it was a different release, though).

TIA...Eric