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[tom j]

Say guys was thinking about buying one of these possibly because of the zoom and the night vision, looking for your opinions before I dump 300 big one on a Chinese made camera I did hear that if the gears wear out you're on your own, see below but want about picture quality and the nighttime vision is it worth the money? Thanks

Tom j

http://www.x10community.com/forums/index.php?topic=11187.0

[Aquadeveloper]

Tom,

You can buy extended warranty to cover the gears, etc.
But, if I were you I'd look into the link you provided for better gears for the long run.
Other then the gears, the cameras great, IMHO.

[BFD]

This is more follow-up on the broken Vanguard gears topic: 
http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=11187.0
http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=11186.0

The place I originally recommended for replacement gears has been sold out of that particular gear for a couple years now.  I finally got around to fixing the rest of my cameras and thought I'd share what I had to do to make it work:

I ordered here:  http://www.amazon.com/Traxxas-32P-Pinion-Gear-15T/dp/B0006O5L36/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1307743232&sr=8-4

The hole in the purchased metal gear is too small.  Grip it with pliers and drill the hole larger using a 3/16" bit.
Both this gear, and the one I previously recommended are too tall.  I used a Dremel to cut the extension off the gear while holding it tight with a pair of pliers.  Now, there was no way to secure the gear onto the Vanguard camera motor axle(s).  The 3/16 hole that was drilled will still be too small (barely).  Wiggle the drill around just VERY slightly after drilling the hole, and that will make it just very slightly larger.  Do that until you can get it to slide onto the camera motor axle.  I laid a square patch of plumber's tape (1cm x 1cm square) over the gear hole just before pushing it onto the axle.  That would cause the tape to push up onto the axle and between the axle and gear interior while the gear slid onto the axle.  Usually that would make ithe gear snug enough to not spin on the axle, but sometimes I needed two squares of tape if I had drilled the hole too large when wiggling the drill around.

Finally, the gear needs to pushed down far enough onto the axle so it isn't raised any more than the original gear was, when repairing the left/right rotation gear on the camera, else when you put the camera back together, it will rub on the bottom plate of the camera bottom and that's enough friction to keep it from rotating from just the force of the motor.  So get the gear down and flush.

I was able to repair most of my cameras.  A few have mysteriously stopped responding to the remote, and one, the up/down motor axle broke from the interior motor it was attached to, when I was pushing the gear on, so be careful not to use too much force.

[tom j]

You know I'm thinking these things might not be worth the money, just poor construction and engineering I guess if the Chinese really made quality stuff like the Japanese did then we would all be out of a job but not to worry I guess I don't see Chinese overall quality improving that much that we really have to worry. 

tom j.

[dave w]

You know I'm thinking these things might not be worth the money, just poor construction and engineering I guess if the Chinese really made quality stuff like the Japanese did then we would all be out of a job but not to worry I guess I don't see Chinese overall quality improving that much that we really have to worry. 

$0.02
They will eventually improve just like the Japanese after US quality gurus like Juran, began teaching quality to Japanese manufacturing in the late 1950s (they listened, we didn't until they started to over take our consumer electronics and auto industry markets with better products. With American companies like Apple, Motorola, Intel, etc. forcing Chinese manufacturering plants making their products to use quality programs like ISO 9000 and Six Sigma,  other Chinese manufacturers will catch on.  I think even the Japanese are worried about China "waking up".

[tom j]

You know I'm thinking these things might not be worth the money, just poor construction and engineering I guess if the Chinese really made quality stuff like the Japanese did then we would all be out of a job but not to worry I guess I don't see Chinese overall quality improving that much that we really have to worry. 

$0.02
They will eventually improve just like the Japanese after US quality gurus like Juran, began teaching quality to Japanese manufacturing in the late 1950s (they listened, we didn't until they started to over take our consumer electronics and auto industry markets with better products. With American companies like Apple, Motorola, Intel, etc. forcing Chinese manufacturering plants making their products to use quality programs like ISO 9000 and Six Sigma,  other Chinese manufacturers will catch on.  I think even the Japanese are worried about China "waking up".

Well like I said if they do we'll all be in trouble, but I still think that's a ways off. Everyone use to talk about the cheep Japanese electronics of the 60s but no one ever complained about the quality.

Tom j.