The community repair thread

roundthebend

So, here's how I started. The old cable knitted so it didn't fall down the back of the cupboard.....but.....



.... At the other end (bottom) it has been pushed up and I can't fish it out with needle-nose pliers.



So....I decide to pull it all the way out and attach a stack of rare earth magnets wrapped in a piece of paper to stop them separating. Not the greatest photo, but the magnets are cylinders of about 5mm diameter.



My plan was to get them close to the bottom and then use the needle-nose pliers. It kind of worked, but the hole was a bit tight so they kept snagging and letting go. So I got some even bigger magnets and used them to attract the whole assembly out with some force. It worked.



Next, I taped the new, colorful, cable to the old one and pulled it all the way through. Success. 

Simonh

I did the same job in our kitchen when we moved in about 5 years ago, I cheated by pulling the cable back to the top of the cabinet and then running the LED strip around the top of the cabinet, down the side (where it can be seen even when it is on) and across the bottom. gives a nice effect and was much easier then buggering about fishing cables!

boogieman

Simonh said:

I did the same job in our kitchen when we moved in about 5 years ago, I cheated by pulling the cable back to the top of the cabinet and then running the LED strip around the top of the cabinet, down the side (where it can be seen even when it is on) and across the bottom. gives a nice effect and was much easier then buggering about fishing cables!

We had our kitchen done not long back and the sparks was going to chase the walls for the under cabinet LED lighting strips. I told him not to bother, so he just put the drivers on the cabinet tops (where you can’t see them cos they’re covered by the trim ) and then dropped the cables through small holes inside the back corners of the cabs. They’re very thin anyway but you don’t even see them when there’s stuff in the cupboards, all looks fine to me. 

roundthebend

@boogieman ; through the cupboards would be quite neat, agreed. But I already had the channels and couldn't let myself ignore them. They were taunting me.

roundthebend

I'm on a bit of a roll now. I wired in the mains supply this morning, very quick job, but then wanted to test the lights. My blocker here is that I couldn't get the strip to slide into the solder-less connector. I then noticed that the end of the strip had raised metal blobs, like solder blobs, which might be why it wouldn't fit. I was about to snip across the copper join a few centimetres up the strip but thought that was a waste of valuable LEDs, so I went to the opposite end of the strip and measured out a section that I need for one cupboard - 30cm and snipped it there.

IMPORTANT CLEVER BIT: the strip had to be connected with the right wires in the right order, so it's important to check this when choosing where to cut. I was lucky to have a moment of clarity in my head before going ahead.

The strip was easy to cut with regular kitchen scissors.

I have a small problem to resolve. The remote control doesn't seem to do anything. On/off or colour change, nothing works. So I'm stuck with green at the moment. 

Photo #1 shows the raised connectors.
Photo #2 shows the flat copper ones.
Photo #3 shows the double-sided tape peeled away to let the strip slide into the connector. If you're neat with this you can then fold the sticky bit back into the connector to help hold it all together and to fix the connector more securely to the mounting surface.

Simonh

won't a dab with a soldering iron melt those blobs away?

boogieman

I’d check the battery in the remote. Sometimes they have a bit of plastic covering the cell contacts that you have to remove first. 

thermionic

I recently upgraded my hifi speakers so trying to sell the old Tannoy Mercury floorstanders. The metal dome tweeter of one is dented (no idea how it happened) which will affect the value I’m likely to get for them. I’ve tried tape and a vacuum cleaner but with metal dome tweeters you really have to push them out from the back. Any idea how I can get this out of the cabinet?

https://i.imgur.com/IlQLoND.jpg

There doesnt appear to be any fixing to undo to take the back of the cabinet off, and unlike many drivers, there are no fixings to allow them to be pulled from the front.

Danny1969

I don't think you will get it back completely unmolested looking as the alloy will be creased. You could try dipping a piece of cardboard in hot glue then touch it against the dent and let it go hard. Then try gently pulling it out, then gently heat with a hair dryer to melt the glue and gently remove it. 

thermionic

I realise it will never be perfect, just trying to make it look a bit better before selling!

If it was mounted on a plate I’d take it out and see if I could push it from the back with a cotton bud. Bit annoyed there doesn’t seem to be an easy way of opening up the cabinet.

I don’t have a hot glue gun, might try a different type of tape later.

Danny1969

A few repairs done recently. 

Horn distorting / crackling on an EV PA speaker. Before changing it I took a good look at it. Look carefully where I'm pointing to and you can see the solder joint has failed. Redid the joint with 60/40 and it's as good as gold again. 



Computer can't boot because Harddrive won't spin up, customer in a panic. Quick check with the Fluke reveals the +12V line is shorted to ground. This is almost always a shorted cap and indeed it was the first cap I lifted ... 



Then I didn't even bother replacing it as it's only there to remove ripple on longer cable runs. I just connected the drive to my machine and backed up the data before anything else could go wrong with the drive. What could have cost hundreds cost £70. 


Digital desk with faulty chip which creates the voltage rails  needed to run the input opamps and the phantom power.




I put the silver tape over the nearby sm resistors and caps because I don't want the hot air I'm gonna use disturbing them. 


 Here's an easy way to remove a package like this. Get some Chipquick ... this is a very low melting point type of solder. Smear it all over the pins, it will add thermal mass and allow you to heat all the pins at once so you can quickly remove the chip without ruining the pads. 



So chip off and pads cleaned and ready for new chip 



Have to wait for chip to be available now. I have brought one form Ebay but I just don't trust it to be genuine and you don't get many chances to get this kind of repair right. 

bertie

I have a question,  does this community really need repairing  ?

Danny1969

You do

Kittyfrisk

I was visiting my parents yesterday when my Dad asked if I wanted his old Samsung Galaxy Tab, as the battery had swollen & it wasn't working. He knows I can usually fix things or recycle them properly if I can't.
I wasn't really prepared for the situation, but I still took it home (very gingerly & with a fire extinguisher close to hand).

The bottom edge in this photo is the plastic case back & that white air bag is the battery FFS!
Despite the huge deformation, the screen hadn't cracked (god knows how) & the frame wasn't permanently bent.





Old battery is out & now resides in a fire/explosion resistant metal key-safe case until disposed of.
New battery is ordered, so we'll see if it has survived...

thermionic

Any tips on fixing a CD player? My Marantz CD5005 started skipping a couple of weeks ago and it’s got progressively worse. At first I thought it was a dirty or faulty disk, but now it skips on everything -typically it skips back about a minute… then does it again in a couple of tracks time… then repeatedly skips what looks like the same time gap and finally gives up altogether and refuses to recognise that there’s a disk in the machine.

Google suggested I take the cover off and gently clean the lens with a cotton bud and ipa. It worked for a short time but the problem soon returned. I also checked the ribbon cable between the laser head unit and the main board and it was secure. It’s only about four years old and has been looked after. Is it toast?

Danny1969

thermionic said:

Any tips on fixing a CD player? My Marantz CD5005 started skipping a couple of weeks ago and it’s got progressively worse. At first I thought it was a dirty or faulty disk, but now it skips on everything -typically it skips back about a minute… then does it again in a couple of tracks time… then repeatedly skips what looks like the same time gap and finally gives up altogether and refuses to recognise that there’s a disk in the machine.

Google suggested I take the cover off and gently clean the lens with a cotton bud and ipa. It worked for a short time but the problem soon returned. I also checked the ribbon cable between the laser head unit and the main board and it was secure. It’s only about four years old and has been looked after. Is it toast?

Generally it's because it can't read the TOC ... this can be an alinement problem, dirt / dust problem or laser / laser power supply problem. They can be a bugger to fix reliably, I try and swerve CD and DVD repairs these days if it's a transport problem. 

Good info here though 

https://www.repairfaq.org/sam/cdfaq.htm

thermionic

Oof… looks like I should bite the bullet and get a new one then!

Kittyfrisk

thermionic said:

Any tips on fixing a CD player? My Marantz CD5005 started skipping a couple of weeks ago and it’s got progressively worse. At first I thought it was a dirty or faulty disk, but now it skips on everything -typically it skips back about a minute… then does it again in a couple of tracks time… then repeatedly skips what looks like the same time gap and finally gives up altogether and refuses to recognise that there’s a disk in the machine.

Google suggested I take the cover off and gently clean the lens with a cotton bud and ipa. It worked for a short time but the problem soon returned. I also checked the ribbon cable between the laser head unit and the main board and it was secure. It’s only about four years old and has been looked after. Is it toast?

Genuinely sorry to hear you have issues.
Regarding the IPA, I'd suggest an organic cotton bud & something less American New England style, that like smell like fruit salad (sprinkled with weed), and taste like a shite fresh fruit punch. 
Those bits really screw up a CD lens...

thermionic

Typical… I switched it off for half an hour and it’s reached track 8 without skipping a beat. I think I’ll open a can of IPA!

Kittyfrisk

Kittyfrisk said:

I was visiting my parents yesterday when my Dad asked if I wanted his old Samsung Galaxy Tab, as the battery had swollen & it wasn't working. He knows I can usually fix things or recycle them properly if I can't.
I wasn't really prepared for the situation, but I still took it home (very gingerly & with a fire extinguisher close to hand).

The bottom edge in this photo is the plastic case back & that white air bag is the battery FFS!
Despite the huge deformation, the screen hadn't cracked (god knows how) & the frame wasn't permanently bent.





Old battery is out & now resides in a fire/explosion resistant metal key-safe case until disposed of.
New battery is ordered, so we'll see if it has survived...

Update : It turns out that Samsung Galaxy Tab 3's are fairly tough