Another repair attempt- this time for our out of warranty and out of support solar monitoring system that’s been stuck on “Starting Application” for a year now..
Debugging stuck SunPower SolarBridge
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Category Archives: Rants
Nexus 5 power switch replacement
Another older repair I am getting around to post. This time it’s a Nexus 5 phone that acquired an interesting habit of getting stuck in a random reboot loop. One moment it’s working fine, next it’s stuck in a boot screen with Google logo, then buzzes and reboots to the same thing. After a bit of Googling around, I realized that the likely culprit is a power button getting stuck. To confirm, I’d smack it a bit and watch the phone exit reboot loop and work for a while. That smacking was satisfying but not sustainable if I wanted the thing to survive. So back to ebay we go. I suppose Mouser/Digikey were also an option if I felt like desoldering the original, measuring it and then combing through all similar parts to find the fit. Instead I let other people do that. Most sellers had an exact replacement switch, but one claimed a new and improved one. It also looked a bit better so for $2 shipped I grabbed one. The typical title for these is “4mm Power On /Off Volume Switch Button For LG Nexus 5 D820 D821 Optimus L4 E440”.
Tiny thing
A tale of buttons
It all started innocently enough.
I finally decided to replace my 6 years old Thinkpad X200 with a bit more modern used T440P. More power, better battery life and all the other modern goodies were all things I was looking forward to. Unfortunately I also knew that for the 44x series Lenovo changed the design of the trackpad to a single piece clickable square. No more beloved buttons, so easy to use with the trackpoint. Not a big deal- plenty of people reported using the newer design of the trackpad off a T45x series to get those buttons back, so I figured i’ll just swap it in. The laptop came in, and I tried really hard to like the trackpad as is. No go: total lack of feel, constantly pressing RMB instead of LMB and a very annoying clicking sound heard in the whole house. It had to go!
Don’t mess with success, Lenovo!
And now for something different
Hey, it’s electric!
Today we have a crappy Chinese Tea Kettle to take apart and see what makes it not tick. This is an Ovente model #GK83R bought less than a year ago. It randomly refuses to heat and smells of molten plastic.
Whirlpool Duet GEW9250PW0 resurrection
It’s been a while since we’ve fixed anything. But no worries- something always breaks around here! Lately, our fancy electrical dryer decided to call it quits. Continue reading
Rant: Our 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid (HCHII) troubles or how not to treat customers
Warning, long rant ahead! As some of you know, we own a 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid, also called HCHII (second generation). Bought new, the car has been an absolute pleasure to drive, for about two years. And then all hell broke loose and it’s been downhill since. In this post I intend to details my dealings with American Honda and the overall unhappiness with the situation. Where possible, I include screenshots or scans of the original documents. I truly hope ACH will come to its senses and take care of the customers like myself, but if history is any indication it is not very likely.
The updated ending to this story is at the very end, if you want to skip to that. Otherwise read on!
Replacing pressure regulator on Husky Air Scout compressor
Today we have a repair that’s somewhat off-topic for the typical posts here. But hey, it broke, got fixed- might as well document for others. Plus it has some wires inside- that counts!
Altium running slow? Here is one possible reason
Recently,I’ve been working on a design in Altium. Nothing that unusual or complicated, so I didn’t expect any troubles. I went through the standard steps of importing a dxf outline, creating board shape and placing parts. And then halfway through routing I started getting some very annoying slowdowns. You’d touch a net to start routing a trace from it and cursor changes into a spinning “wait” circle and sits there for 30 seconds or more. In some cases I had to stop Altium process and reopen it again. Not good when you have many nets to touch! Continue reading
Sole F63 treadmill Error LS1
My one year old treadmill decided today to quit. It would just click the relay to turn the motor on, wait a bit and throw error code LS1 (Low speed). Quick net search returned all kinds of possible causes, usually with the company sending most of the electronic bits to the customer to replace. Awesome reason to look inside I thought!
The dreaded code LS1
Philips Sonicare HX6710 teardown and repair
Today we have a new subject to tear down- my own Sonicare toothbrush. At the end of a brushing cycle it made a short “Beep” noise and went silent. No reaction to button press or to putting it on a charger. No lights, sounds or anything. Oh well, might as well take it apart.
Philips Sonicare