c/electronics-repairers

Showerthought: I was dead wrong about compressed air cans being a scam

For years I thought buying compressed air was just throwing money away. I always used a brush or just blew into stuff myself to clean electronics. Then last month I had a PS4 that kept overheating after 30 minutes of use. I spent an hour trying to get dust out of the power supply area with a brush and got nowhere. Finally bought a $6 can of compressed air from a local shop and cleared the whole thing in under 2 minutes. The console ran cool for the first time in months. Has anyone else found a common tool they were sure was overpriced but actually works way better than the cheap way?

The toggle clamp on my bench vise loosened up after 8 years of daily use

Tightened it back down in 30 seconds last Tuesday and now it holds like new, has anyone else noticed how much longer manual bench tools last compared to cheap power tools?

Wasted 4 hours and $45 on a bad capacitor kit from Amazon

I bought this big multi-pack of electrolytic caps for $45 thinking I was getting a deal. Turns out the voltage ratings were all mislabeled on like half of them. Put one in a power supply board for a customer's monitor and it popped after 10 minutes of testing. Now I'm out the money plus the cost of the original board I damaged. Anyone else swear by a specific seller or distributor for caps that actually match their labels?

Customer told me my cold solder joints were "embarrassing" on a vintage receiver last month

He was right, I had been rushing the preheating step on through-hole boards for years, and now I let every joint sit on the iron for a full 3 count before feeding solder, so has anyone else had a blunt customer or client call them out on something that actually made them better at this trade?

Hit my 500th board repair last Friday without even noticing

I was logging a simple PSU fix into my spreadsheet and realized the counter rolled over to 500. That number surprised me because I started this side gig just to cover my own hobby habit, not 500 people's broken stuff. Has anyone else lost track of their numbers like that?

Rant: Old guy at the shop taught me something about solder flux I'll never forget

I was fixing an old Pioneer receiver at Hank's Electronics in Portland last month, and this retired TV repairman named Ed walked in. He watched me glob on way too much rosin flux and just said, 'Son, you're drowning the joint.' Then he showed me how a tiny dab does the job if you use the right heat. Has anyone else had some random old-timer hand you a tip that completely changed your soldering game?

Debate: do you reflow a board or just replace the chip on a dead laptop GPU?

I was fixing a 2015 MacBook Pro last week in my garage and the GPU was totally dead after a drop. I tried reflowing the BGA with my hot air station but the chip still failed after 2 days of testing. My buddy swears by just swapping the whole GPU chip with a donor part, but that feels risky without a proper reballing setup. Which route do you take when a laptop GPU goes bad, and has anyone had luck with a cheap reflow vs a full chip replacement?

Had to pick between a cheap hot air station and a decent one...

Last month my old hot air station finally died mid-repair on a laptop in Austin. I was staring at a $35 no-name on Amazon or a $150 Quick 861DW, and I cheaped out... big mistake. The cheap one couldn't even hold temp for more than 30 seconds before dropping 20 degrees, and I ended up frying a board I'd spent 3 hours diagnosing. Anyone else learned this lesson the hard way?

A customer told me my HDMI port soldering was "too sloppy"

I've been repairing gaming consoles for about 3 years now, mostly Xbox and Playstation stuff out of my garage in Austin. Last month a guy brought in a PS5 that wouldn't charge controllers, turned out the USB port was totally busted. I did my usual thing with a hot air station and some flux, got the old port off and a new one on in about 20 minutes. Then he looked at it under a magnifying glass and said my joints looked like a third grader did them. I was pretty annoyed at first but when I looked closer he was right, there was flux residue all around and some solder balls next to the port. So I cleaned it all up with isopropyl alcohol and a brush, reflowed a few pins, and it looked way cleaner. He paid me $65 instead of the usual $45 because he said he could tell I actually cared. Has anyone else had a customer call them out like that and change how you work?

Why does nobody talk about flux residue eating through phone board layers?

I was fixing a water damaged iPhone 8 in my shop last Tuesday and found a spot where leftover flux had literally eaten through three layers of the logic board over time. Has anyone else seen that happen on older boards?

Used to fix busted phone screens with a heat gun and suction cups - now I just use a proper press

Back in 2019, I was doing screen swaps on iPhones with a $20 heat gun from Harbor Freight and those cheap suction cups. It took me like 45 minutes per phone and I broke at least 1 in 10 screens from uneven heating. Now I've got a proper screen press that cost me $300 from a guy in Phoenix and it takes me 15 minutes tops. The press heats evenly and applies constant pressure so no more cracked displays. Has anyone else found a tool that cut their repair time in half?

Spent $400 on a fancy soldering station and it was a total waste

Got talked into buying a Hakko FX-951 at a shop in Chicago last spring. Thought it would fix everything but it's basically the same as my old $80 station for the work I do. The tips are expensive and hard to find locally too. I've gone through 3 tips in 6 months because they're so delicate. Anyone else blow money on expensive gear that didn't help with basic repairs?

Did anyone else learn they've been using thermal paste wrong for years?

Found out you can bypass a blown fuse on a microwave board with a resistor if you know the load draw

Had a Panasonic microwave come in last Tuesday that wouldn't run, traced it to a blown PCB fuse, tossed in a 10 ohm resistor on the test bench and it fired right up, but has anyone else tried this on a production repair or is it just a bench trick?

Swapped from a solder station to a hot air rework station for SMD stuff

I used to hand solder every tiny SMD component with a fine tip iron for years, but after ruining a $40 logic board on a Samsung TV last month I finally bought a hot air rework station. Now I can pop off and replace those little resistors and caps in under 2 minutes without lifting pads. Has anyone else made the switch and found it way easier for anything smaller than 0805?

Heat gun trick saved me from binning a board today

Had this old power supply board I was working on last week, and the solder on a big capacitor just wouldn't budge. Tried my regular iron, even cranked it up to 450C and it still felt like cold glue. Then I grabbed my heat gun on a whim, hit the whole area for maybe 15 seconds, and that cap practically fell out when I touched the pads. Has anyone else had luck preheating stubborn joints with a heat gun instead of just the iron?

Had a guy at the shop in Phoenix try to argue with me about lead-free solder for 20 minutes

I was fixing an old tube amp for a client and this random dude walks in, starts saying I have to use lead-free because 'it's 2024.' He wouldn't let up even after I showed him the cracked joints on a modern board he fixed last week. Anyone else deal with people who think newer always means better in repair work?

Shoutout to the trick of using a can of compressed air upside down on a crusty potentiometer

Had a 1980s stereo receiver in Phoenix with a scratchy volume knob that drove me nuts for two hours before I remembered flipping the can and freezing the contact spray directly onto the carbon track actually loosened up the grime and fixed it instantly, has anyone else tried that or do you stick with Deoxit every time?

Just wasted $80 on a 'professional' soldering iron from a sketchy online shop

Saw an ad for a Hakko-style soldering station for only $80, which seemed like a steal. It arrived last week and the tip oxidized completely after two uses, and the temp control is all over the place. I should have just saved for a real one. Anyone know a good, actually reliable brand for under $150?

Heads up on those new 'universal' power adapters for laptops

Had a customer bring in a fried Dell XPS 13 last week. They'd bought one of those cheap universal adapters with the interchangeable tips from a big box store. The box said it was compatible, and it fit the port, so they thought they were good. The problem was the voltage regulation was garbage. It was putting out a dirty 19.5v signal with crazy ripple, and after about a month it cooked the charging circuit on the motherboard. The repair ended up costing them $220, more than the laptop was worth. I had to tell them it was a total loss. The choice was between a $30 adapter and a $90 genuine Dell power supply. They went cheap, and it cost them the whole machine. Has anyone else seen a spike in this kind of damage lately, or found a reliable third-party brand that doesn't trash the board?

Debate: Is a $500 thermal camera worth it for a small shop?

I bought a Fluke TiS20+ last year thinking it would speed up finding shorts and bad components. It cost me $500 out of pocket. On one hand, it's great for showing clients heat issues on their boards. On the other, I've maybe used it a dozen times in 8 months, and a $20 IR thermometer from Harbor Freight would have found most of the same hot spots. I feel like I wasted cash on a tool I don't use enough. For those running a small repair business, do you think a pro thermal cam is a must-have or a money pit?

My uncle swore by using a hair dryer for heat shrink, but it ruined a board for me.

He told me to just use the high setting on a cheap Conair dryer I had, said it worked fine for him for years. I tried it on a PS4 power supply board, and the uneven heat warped a capacitor right off its pads. Had to source a whole new board for the client, which cost me about $75 out of pocket. Anyone else have a 'handy' tip from family that totally backfired on a repair?

I finally caved and bought a $40 thermal camera for my phone after insisting my old temp gun was fine for 3 years.

It showed a hot capacitor on a TV power board that the gun missed completely, so what other cheap tools have you guys found that actually made a big difference?

Unpopular opinion: I finally caved and bought a $40 thermal camera for my phone

I always thought they were a gimmick for hobbyists, but it found a failing capacitor on a power board in seconds that my multimeter and eyes missed. Anyone have a favorite brand for these little add-ons?

Just got a 2008 iMac back from the dead after a full recap job on the power supply board.

Honestly, I was ready to scrap it after the third capacitor popped, but a steady hand and a Hakko FX-888D got it booting for the first time in years.