Having taken apart my ThOR LT 4-8x thermal scope a few times to fix a few separate issues, I have a two simple fixes that don't require buying anything, and that might sound hard to people who don't generally take electronic gadgets apart but I swear are actually very easy and were discovered through sheer guessing. I have shaky hands and knew nothing about the system when I first took it apart, I just knew I wasn't gonna shell out the ridiculous amount of $ they were asking to have it serviced (and that was before S&H costs).
Tools needed:
medium-small hex wrench (3/32)
small hex wrench (5/64)
eyeglasses screwdriver (Philips head)
That's it. I said you don't need to buy anything because most people have an Allen wrench set and some tiny screwdrivers sitting in a drawer in their garage, but if you don't have the latter, you can get a fine set for ten bucks on Amazon like overnight.
OKAY, here we go. Two different symptoms of two different wire-disconnections--I'll divide my fixes by "WHAT ISSUE ARE YOU HAVING?"
1. "It'll turn on when it's plugged in, but won't accept any battery charge and so it shuts off as soon as it's disconnected from power."
WHAT'S WRONG:
There's a wire/cable from the battery to the motherboard that's gotten disconnected at the motherboard end. There's a white plastic plug that fits/slides into the back (inside-facing side) of the USB-C port/hub/bus/controller whatchamacallit which is attached--obviously, since you can see where the charging port is even before taking the thing apart--to the very edge of the big computer chip.
HOW INTERNET DUDE FIXED THIS:
Okay so, as far as I can tell, it's just a cheap Chinese part from Shenzhen (a theme that will repeat later) and the bit that clicks into place is weak. The plug is mostly held in by friction, not by the tiny snaptrap, and the friction is STRONG. When you take out the ThOR's Battery+Chip innards, this bit will probably not look like it has disconnected, even if this is your problem. Even if it has disconnected to the point of not receiving battery power, it will take more force than you expect to get it in or out all the way; take it out and put some saline gel on the end of the plug if you happen to have some. Otherwise just shove in the plug that last half-a-millimeter with your thumbnail. This, too, will take more force than you expect. Try not to yank anything else as you do this. If this was your problem, you should see/notice the plug making sliiight progress inward. I pushed the plug in one edge at a time because my hands were too big to grip both sides at once, and noticed the side I pushed in was "more in" than the side I hadn't shoved. When I shoved the other side in, I heard a veeeery quiet click, but my ears are very good-you might not hear it.
2. "Fucking thing won't accept charge and just won't turn on at all. It's fucked." or "I hear the click of it turning on, and see a blink of light through the eyelens, but after that, nada."
WHAT'S WRONG.
It's trying to draw power through the battery and can't. Again. It's the flip side of #1: the ribbon cable/wire, also connecting the battery and motherboard but this time more sneakily, fits into the crack between the "little plastic nose" of a projector which sits just past the lens you look through and the big [BATTERY+CHIP] body. These are connected by three screws. This ribbon cable is liable to come out of either end of this setup, but I find it's much more likely to slide out of the battery-end, which is what I'm referring to, in this scenario (the plastic projector bit is screwed onto the plastic battery house). This ribbon wire has no click, and is a little bitch, and its port is hard to see down there in the crack. But yeah, it's there. And the ribbon cable, like the plug, is designed to be detachable so no harm done to the machine, just bad manufacturing practice. Honestly, this isn't even China's fault, this is ThOR's fault this time--ribbon cables are meant to be barred in in situations where they're def not supposed to come out, and ThOR just didn't seem to put a bar blocker on it. Da fuq, homies? NOTE: this issue miiight have been caused by my big shaky hands on my first round of "fixing" lol, not sure if it's common "in the wild."
HOW INTERNET DUDE FIXED THIS:
You don't have to undo the three screws, and I advise you don't if you have big shaky hands like me because I had a devil of a time gettin' it back on. Just maybe loosen 'em a bit, and shine a bright lamp into the crack so you can se the white plastic rim of the slot that the ribbon fits into. It doesn't go in very far, and it doesn't hold in very hard, but since the pieces it connects are locked together by screws, it's alright I guess. When you get the ribbon into the right position to push it into its slot, you'll feel it. When you push it into the slot, it'll only go like two millimeters, and you won't feel any serious resistance but you'll feel a slight rubbing. If you have sensitive fingers, it's pretty satisfying, actually, kinda like threading a needle and feeling the thread purr at your success.
OTHER NOTES:
The plastic battery casing from Shenzhen isn't meant to absorb the shock of a rifle firing and I have no idea why ThOR thought it would be okay, but uh, when I first opened up my thermal scope, ALL FOUR of the plastic screw holsters in my battery casing meant to accept screws passing through the motherboard, to affix the motherboard to the battery securely, were irrecoverably busted. I've got no idea what ThOR was thinking, trusting that case with the security of the power i/o cables. The fact that that chip isn't secure is probably the real reason the power i/o keeps getting messed up internally. Does this fuckup does affect the trueness of the aim? Not terribly. I still get groupings the size of my fist at 100 paces. Neither the thermal sensor nor the eyepiece projector depend on the physical stability of the chip, expect that it doesn't bvreak or yank out its cables. Plus, you can use the plug-cable itself as cushioning to wiggle it all into a secure configuration. Overall, it's been a comical ride, but hey, three years of varmint popping and she still works, by the skin of her teeth.
