Warning: Lightspeed Aviation No Earseals or Parts Thirty 3G Teardown Firmware Backup

Warning: Lightspeed Aviation No Earseals or Parts Thirty 3G Teardown

Big Issues with Lightspeed Aviation. This is a set of Lightspeed Aviation Thirty 3G they were placed in climate controlled storage (Rubber amid tub in a closet) 8-10 years ago. There are No Ear Seals or Parts available form the manufacture.

These Ear Seals and headbands Deteriorate and Cannot Be replaced. The Manufacture no longer makes them and there are no third party vendors.

The Cables are very low quality and suffer form dry rot like the $99.00 low end headsets like asa/flightcom. Lightspeed Aviation CEO said these headsets were rebranded items form a china vendor refused to disclose the vendor maybe a chance to source cables and earseals.

Photo of the of the Ear Seals they just flaking and they fell off the clips. If someone was good with a sewing machine and seam ripper one could break them down and reproduce these in lambskin leather and glue them to the mounts and they would last almost a lifetime.

Ear Seal Clips

As if this posting it is my opinion if you are considering a Lightspeed Aviation Headset I Say Stay Far away from Lightspeed Aviation products Run Fast!

The Lightspeed Zulu Headsets also suffer form Cable Rot and Deterioration of the earseals and head pads along with turning to sticky goo..

Teardown, Small Battery Leak Repair, And Firmware Backup.
This headset initially was Shelved and used as a Passenger set when I got my Zulus and Batteries Leaked they were removed and leakage I thought was neutralized prior to storage.

I Removed the Wires and Cleaned up the Boards a Little, Still a Lot of Dried up Flux form factory Production. Not sure what the deal is with that tantalum cap maybe a factory bodge?

Other Side of the PCB, I am not Going to Remove the Can Covers.

MCU is a PIC 16F505 (Generally Most Pic Chips are Code Protected.) Since Lightspeed Aviation is not #righttorepair friendly I will attempt to backup this chip up.

Lightpseed Aviation Thirty 3G MCU PIC 16F505 Chip Removed

Lightpseed Aviation Thirty 3G MCU PIC 16F505 Chip Removed In an Adapter Socket.

I Lit up the Xeltek 6100N Programmer Loaded the PIC16F505 8K Algo Set the Mega Magic to DX2045 Crossed Fingers Click on Read and Verify.

Check the Device Configuration… Ohhh Yes Code protection is Off 🙂

Lets Check the Buffer, We now have a backup of the Firmware for the Lightspeed Aviation Thrity 3G Firmware

There is also an eeprom U2 24LC00 1K

Same Procedure but general Serial eproms code cannot be protected (Some modern ones they can)
LS Thirty 3G U2 24LC00 Chip Removed

LS Thirty 3G U2 24LC00 Chip Removed In SOIC Adapter.

Thirty 3G U2 24LC00 Chip Read and Verify Success.

Check the Buffer and See data Not Much May be a counter or Firmware may access it to give model info who knows.

To Be Continued: Headset Drivers (Speakers/Microphones) Teardown Soon!

Left Ear Cup/Dome Opened 5 Screws 3 on the edge and 2 low near the microphone. The one screw under the Illegal Warranty Void Sticker. Stickers that claim a warranty is void if removed are often illegal because they violate the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act by implying that using third-party parts or services will automatically void the warranty

Unplug the Wires and 3 small screws to remove the board

Board Is Out this must be the brains of the the ENC..

There it is another Pic chip 12C508A You know what we do Lets Remove it and attempt a backup.

Remove the Lead free solder so less heat can be used so no damage to plastic connectors.

Removal with no melted connectors.

Now Lets Read it.. 12C508A Selected DX1032 in the MagaMagic Chip In the Adapter..

Read / Verify Ok..

Check the Device Config.. Another winner Unprotected!!

Check the Buffer, Looks like there is data What it Do Who Knows… I am not a Coder but if there I ever have a need for a repair there is now a back up of the firmware.

Final thoughts on this firmware backup it is very “repair friendly” for them to no keep the chips unprotected. I hope the zulus are the same!