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[joe]

Does anyone know where to find replacement
gears for the guts of the vanguard cam?
Both the pan and tilt are broken now and I
have already glued them once.  PLEASE HELP
if you can!

[max]

This is the same thing that happened to me
and many many other customers I am
sure,,this is why X10 is BS because thay
should have spare parts for such an easy
fix,or be able to tell us to send
somewhere,or simply make camera with a metal
gear. Nice Junk thay sell for top
dollar.$500.00 US for a cam that lasts under
a year like used it 5 times and its broken.
Buyers beware.

[mike spitzer]

I have a Vanguard Camera which, apparantly,
had been either running into the side of a
5 sided box I built to house the camera
against a  window, or one of the sides of
the box itself (the 6th  side of the box is
actually formed by the window itself when I
mounted the box to the side and top of the
window jam).

[mike spitzer]

Part 2 (of 6)

When the camera ceased panning, and I took
the box down, I noted that the wood
platform I mounted within the box, on which
I mounted the camera's base via a standard
tripod sized  bolt (which I had inserted
upward thru a hole I drilled in the
platform) had come loose, thus the camera
was probably not able to pan or tilt to its
extreme positions without being obstructed
by either the window or one of the sides of
the box.

[mike spitzer]

Part 3 (of 6)

As a result, or for whatever the cause
actually was, the main nylon gear attached
to the horizontal main drive shaft of the
interior of the camera has split in a
radial fasion (i.e., a crack from the metal
shaft outward, like a bicycle spoke),
opening up a very narrow pie-piece shaped
missing chunk from the gear.

[mike spitzer]

Part 4 (of 6)

If there was some way to simply glue the
round gear back together at the crack (and
clamp it while it dried) it would restore
perfect operation to the entire camera,
HOWEVER, I know of no glue that will adhear
to nylon or polyeurothane, and even if I
did, I would not wish to risk damaging
other interior components (e.g., like glue
vapors damaging EXPENSIVE optics,
etc.)...especially when a replacement gear
most probably could not cost more than mere
pocket change...probably pennies IF it were
a standard generic size gear available in
small quantities at a parts house or Radio
Shack.

[mike spitzer]

Part 5 (of 6)

This gear is approx. 3/4 inch inch in
diameter (I can supply you with exact
dimensions to any degree of accuracy you
might need if you request, i.e., I have
calibrated micrometers, etc., if
necessary), it is the only white in color
nylon gear visible upon opening just the
main case of the camera's base unit, and is
the only gear that is attached to the only
inch or so of this main shaft that is
visible without further disassembly, as it
disappears into  an inner area of the base
that is not immediately visible withour
further AND UNNECESSARY disassembly, i.e.,
the replacement of the gear we are talking
about requires simply to be pushed onto the
inch of the shaft that is visible without
further disassembly of the base, and then,
all that would be needed would be for the
outer shell/casing of the camera to be
reinstalled.

[mike spitzer]

Part 6 (of 6)


I spoke with Kim (one of X-10's sales and
tech support persons) who, due to her
department having no part number for such
replacement parts, and due to the fact that
the cost with shipping which I incurred
when I purchased the camera was OVER
$500.00 (i.e., I bought it within 48 hours
of you you first offering them in this
country a few years ago BEFORE you offered
any discounts (i.e., far too much money to
discard or replace the entire camera versus
obtaining this relatively extremely
inexpensive part, which again, is all that
is needed to restore  perfect operation).
She referred me to the Tech Experts on your
website, i.e., this area of your support
website pages, telling me that it would be
the most direct source for any/all
necessary  ordering information I would
need in order to purchase this part
(possibly from your own warranty service
department, "or even from the manufacturing
facility in China," she said) via credit
card for shipment to my home?

Thanx for your speedy reply while I
anxiously stand by needing badly to restore
this camera to its position securing my
children while I am at work!

[duckman dave]

Hi Mike,  If you know a machiness he could
make you a gear from aluminum as long as
you have the broken parts.

[mike spitzer]

8/6/05
Part ONE (of three)

Duckman Dave,

Thanks!  I shoulda thought of that!

And, I *do* still have the split gear (it's
still one piece and goes to its original
size and shape when I squeeze it
together).

I don't know of any machinists, tho.  Might
any of you?  I'll try to look into that if
I can think of how/where/who to ask.

What do you think a custom made gear like
that should cost?

I wonder...the X-10 design engineers, I
would think, would not have designed that
gear to be a unique size UNLESS ABSOLUTELY
NECESSARY, simply because, *if* a standard
size nylon gear was usable, they could be
bought in volume for probably no more than
a few cents each, IF THAT, versus the
*heavy* expense of having to design and
fabricate custom/unique castings and/or
machine inserts, and then, contracting,
renting, hiring, etc., a company to tool-up
a manufacturing run on a multi-million
dollar computerized injection, extrusion,
casting, or blow molding machine, of which
even a few hours usage (let alone a half
day) of such would be probably be several
10's (or even 100's) of thousands of
dollars.

Problem is, I have no idea of even which
catagoy in a major city's (eg., Chgo, N.Y.,
L.A.) "Business to Business" Yellow Pages
in which to look for the type business that
might sell or make hundreds of thousands of
*standard-sized* little nylon gears like
this, let alone one or two single gears.

(con't)

[mike spitzer]

Part TWO (of 3)

I would imagine that if I knew where to
look for large volumes of such gears for
sale, I could probably talk someone there
out of one or two for a nominal shipping
and PERSONAL handling fee, i.e., as a favor
for their time...e.g., maybe a $20 bill
wrapped up in a few sheets of notebook
paper and snail mailed to them to
cover postage and handling/their trouble???

Whaddaya think?

Anyone have any idea of where they sell
standard parts like that?  There's gotta be
suppliers of such things other than the
companies that manufacture them...you know,
the distributers (or parts warehouses) for
commonly needed manufacturing parts for
companies that assemble or build large
numbers of consumer-type products like
simple little toys using standard sized
gears like this.  Hell, I have probably
seen thus exact same gear hundreds of times
in my life since I began tearing things up
as a kid to see how they work, or now, to
see if I can repair things such as electric
can openers, etc.

There's gotta be clearing houses/sources
for stuff like this, like .dll
extensions...you know, ...libraries at
websites that archive common applications
like system timers, clocks, or random
number generators commonly used by
programmers and computer code writers, only
for commonly used manufacturing parts, so
the compaies needing such a part don't have
to RE-manunfacture it every time they need
one in a new product??

(cont')

[mike spitzer]

Part THREE (of 3)


And also, now that I think about it,
there's gotta be

places that *DO* sell singles of such parts
for use

when design engineers need to build a
prototype of a

possible new product, eg., for presentation
purposes,

etc.  There must be catologs or online
parts houses

like hobbiests, kids, science teachers,
and/or amateur

scientists use Edmond's Scientifc Catalog,
e.g., for

often needed parts like this that they
might need for

school projects, inventions, etc.

Design/mechanical engineers MUST have MANY
sources to

get parts for prototype products they might
be working

on, as well as large volumes of little
parts for full

production of millions of their company's
new product

that uses such parts.....JUST LIKE X-10
would need to

fisrt have a prototype, and just like THEY
DID

eventually manufacture MANY of these
Vanguard Cameras!!

You know, THIS IS A FILTHY
SHAME...literally LUDICROUS

that after begging SEVERAL X-10 locations
and

departments for a response to this MOST
EASY **FOR

THEM** FIX for one of their products that
their

NON-wealthy CONSUMER customers payed A
STINKING WEEK'S

PAY FOR...after FOUR EMAILS NOW --count'em,
FOUR to

each of 4 different X-10 departments and/or
locations

in as many states and/or countries...

THE FREEKING ASSES HAVE ABSOLUTELY ZERO
EMPATHY FOR

US!!

(I lied:-0  con't in Part 3b)

[mike spitzer]

(conclusion)

Something like this would take almost no
time -- less time than reading EVEN ONE of
my emails!

Instead, the F##KING A$$HOLES HAVE F##KING
TOTALLY ignored every stinking one of my
implorings.

Wow?!?!

Totally defies explanation, huh??

I can see no reason for this, other than a
disgruntled or slighted heir-to-the-
business wishing to see the destruction of
X-10.

The One-and-Only Van-f##king-guard, ...X-
10's very "Elite" Vanguard Camera, which,
after approximately 18 months from its
unveiling into THE United F##CKING States
of America, "THE Mother of All Cameras" (as
one of their e-vertisements so erroneously
touted), a 3 or 4 cent part goes out [and
this happening IN MANY OF THEM, no less],
and they tell me ...and if NOT in similar
words, then to this EXACT effect (or nearly
so;-), "HAH, hah! SORRY, but YOU'RE ON YOUR
OWN, MOTHER F##CKER...and GOOD LUCK, cuz
you're gonna need it, you POOR, STUPID
BASTARD BITCH!  CLICK!  Dial-tone!"

Well, at any rate, and again, Dave (or
anyone), any further thoughts, ideas, help
with any of the above, no matter how
trivial, would most likely be of HUGE help
to me!

And, thanks again, Dave, for your help so
far...and thanks in advance to anyone else
who might add to this thread and/or reply
to this request for ideas/help :-)

"Desperate" Mike
Grand Canyon, AZ, USA

[p023063]

Mike, when you were in school, did any of
your teachers ever mention the concept of a
run-on sentence? I am exhausted after
reading your entries. Good night.

[future sale]

Hmm....I would get a machine shop to try to
make you a few gears, and resell a few on
here to the others with the same
problems...just a thought