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!
Another addition to my growing collection of vintage multimeters is this Weston Schlumberger Model 6000 meter from the mid 1970s
Old vs new(ish)- notice how square it is
The meter was listed as in almost like new condition except for a spot on the front panel. It came with (very rubbery) test leads and an actual printed user manual- a rare thing these days.The Ebay posting was worded very carefully to never mention whether the thing actually works, so I figured it did not really matter. If it does not- teardown turns into repair attempt and either way we learn something new. Continue reading
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
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
Today’s quick teardown target is a 1985 vintage electronic load made by Kikusui of Japan. It came from eBay with a noisy fan, but was otherwise fairly functional despite the considerable age.
Only 2 inches wide
Today’s repair subject is a Fluke 8840A bench DMM that has some display troubles. It would work normally for a bit and then start fading out. A bit later it would come back and work again. The initial thought was that the display simply had too many run hours and is worn out. In that case a replacement is required and is not a very cheap solution. Continue reading
Today we have a new patient in the lab: a Galaxy Nexus phone that took a dunk in a river. It has been dried right after that and continued to function for a good six months after until it finally died. The only thing that happens when power is turned on is you get a short but blinding flash of camera LED and then everything goes dead. Time to take it apart and see what we can do. Continue reading
Today’s rant is about a Glentronics Basement Watchdog backup sump pump system I’ve installed a while ago. The system overall is relatively simple- a 12V DC pump lives in the pit and is turned on by the controller when the water level rises above a level set by magnetic float sensors. The pump is fed by a big 12V Lead Acid battery that’s always charging. So when power goes out or the main pump fails, I’d have at least some pumping going on for a bit instead of me having to bail out manually. At least that was the idea. Continue reading
It appears there is no end to things breaking and ending up in Kuzyatech lab. Today’s patient is a Seagate FreeAgent Theater+ media streaming box that decided to stop noticing USB drives. The box is a nice little device that can play audio and video content from the network or from one of the three local USB ports: front, rear or a dock-like middle one that’s used to connect Seagate’s own portable hard drive. Both front and back ports were dead. Well, time to take it apart! Continue reading
Today’s teardown target is a DLO Power Bug model MH-01DU. This was a relatively expensive portable charger, that lasted a few years before getting into Kuzyatech lab. The complaint was that it made arching sounds, smelled hot and was not charging. Continue reading