c/electronics-repairers

Pro tip: I started using a $15 thermal camera attachment for my phone on every board check

It shows cold solder joints and shorted components in seconds, which used to take me half an hour with a multimeter. Anyone have a better budget thermal tool they like?

Finally fixed a vintage amp that's been sitting on my bench for months

It was a 1972 Fender Twin Reverb that came in with a blown output transformer and a weird hum. I spent maybe 20 hours total on it over three months, waiting on parts and trying different fixes. This week I found a cold solder joint on the phase inverter tube socket that was the real culprit. Got it singing today and the customer was so happy he almost cried. Anyone else have a piece that just needed that one last look to come together?

I just fixed my 100th broken screen this month and the number really hit me

I was cleaning up my bench last night and checked my repair log. I'd fixed exactly 100 cracked phone and tablet screens in the last 30 days. It's not a record or anything, but seeing that triple-digit figure written down made me stop. I guess I never really added it up before. It's mostly local drop-offs from people who don't want to pay the big box store prices. The work is steady, but it's also kind of the same thing over and over. I started thinking, is this what my shop is now? Just a screen replacement factory? I still love bringing old stereos and game consoles back to life, but those jobs are maybe one in twenty now. Has anyone else felt stuck in a rut like this, where one type of fix takes over everything?

Update: I was wrong about cleaning old circuit boards with just isopropyl alcohol

For years I'd just spray 99% IPA on a crusty board and scrub, thinking it was good enough. Then I got a batch of 80s arcade PCBs from a closed pizza place, and the flux residue was like glue. A guy at the local repair meet said to try a 50/50 mix of IPA and distilled water with a drop of dish soap, and it cut right through without harming the old silkscreen. It's a small change, but it saved me hours of picking. Anyone else have a go-to mix for really stubborn grime?

TIL a client's ancient VCR tried to eat my multimeter probe in Portland yesterday.

I was checking a voltage on the main board and the tape loading mechanism suddenly cycled, trapping the tip inside the cassette bay for a solid ten minutes while we figured out how to manually eject it.

My $40 hot air station was a total game changer for phone repairs

I used to struggle with those tiny phone connectors using just a soldering iron. About six months ago I bought a basic 862D hot air station for around $40. It lets me remove and replace those small BGA chips without cooking the whole board. I fixed three iPhone charging ports last week that I would have messed up before. What other tools under $100 have made a big difference for you guys?

I always used a heat gun for old solder wick... until a guy in the shop showed me his $12 desoldering pump from Harbor Freight.

A customer's odd complaint about my soldering iron tip

A guy brought in a vintage radio and, after I fixed it, he said my Hakko FX-888D tip looked 'too shiny and new' to be trusted. I started keeping a slightly used, tinned tip on the bench just for show during consultations. Anyone else get weird feedback about their tools?

Tried fixing a 2015 MacBook Pro with a heat gun set way too high and ended up melting a nearby capacitor I didn't even know was there.

I learned the hard way that even on a low setting, you need to shield everything within a two-inch radius when applying localized heat, so what's your go-to method for protecting surrounding components during a reflow?

I used to think fixing old tube TVs was a waste of time

Last year, a guy brought in a 1972 Zenith from his garage, covered in dust. I almost told him to junk it. Instead, I spent a weekend on it, mostly just cleaning and replacing a few caps. When I powered it on and that old picture tube lit up, his face was pure joy. He said it was the first TV his family ever owned. Now I look for those jobs. They're not about the money, they're about saving a piece of history. Anyone else get a kick out of bringing truly old electronics back from the dead?

PSA: I fixed a dead 2018 MacBook Air by heating the board in my oven

I had this MacBook Air come in last month, no power at all, just dead. The usual checks showed a short on the main 3.3V rail. I figured it was a bad capacitor or chip, but my thermal camera was out for repair. Out of ideas, I remembered an old forum post about using an oven to reflow boards, which I always thought was a crazy last resort. I took the logic board out, put it on a rack in my kitchen oven at 385 degrees for exactly 8 minutes, then let it cool slowly. When I put it back together, it booted right up. I know this is a total hack and could easily ruin other parts, but the customer was ready to trash it anyway. It's been running fine for 3 weeks now. Has anyone else ever tried something this extreme that actually worked out?

Pro tip: I thought those cheap usb power testers were junk, but one just saved a laptop repair

I had a guy bring in a gaming laptop that would not charge at all. I was ready to order a new dc-in board, but I plugged in a little $15 power meter I got online a while back. It showed the charger was putting out the right voltage, but the current draw was jumping all over the place. That pointed me right to a shorted capacitor on the main board near the charging circuit. Fixed it in an hour. Anyone else find a simple tool that turned out to be way more useful than you expected?

My brother-in-law said to just replace the whole power board on a Samsung TV, but I tried the $2 fuse first

He's not even in the trade, just a guy who watches a lot of YouTube. The set was a 55-inch Samsung that wouldn't turn on, just the standby light. He was so sure it was the main board because of a video he saw. I checked the service manual (found it online, thank goodness) and saw there was a separate fuse on the power supply. Pulled it, tested it, and sure enough it was blown. Replaced it with one from my kit for basically nothing. Been running fine for three weeks now. I guess the lesson is to always check the cheap stuff first, even when someone is really confident they know the answer. Anyone else have a story about ignoring 'helpful' advice from a non-techie and finding a simple fix?

A customer's comment about old radios made me stop and think...

Had a guy bring in a 1970s tube radio last week, saying his grandpa used to fix it with a butter knife and a prayer. He watched me use my $400 meter and said, 'You know, sometimes the old way was just a guy with a hunch and a steady hand.' It hit different because I'd just spent 2 hours tracing a single bad resistor... and he was kinda right. Made me wonder how much we rely on gear versus just feeling out a problem. Anyone else ever have a moment like that, where simple fixes beat the fancy tools?

Had a weird one with a 10 year old flatscreen that just would not die

Got a call from a neighbor last week. His old Samsung TV from 2014 had a dark screen but sound still worked. Figured it was a simple backlight strip swap. Opened it up, tested the strips with my meter, and sure enough one was out. Ordered a new set for about 35 bucks. Put it all back together, powered it on, and the screen stayed dark again. Spent another hour checking the driver board and power supply voltages. Everything looked fine. Finally, on a hunch, I pulled the main board and reflowed the solder on the backlight connector pins with my iron. That did it. The heat from years of use must have cracked a joint you could not even see. Has anyone else run into a backlight fix that needed more than just the strips? Makes you check the simple stuff twice.

Back in 2012, I was fixing a tube TV in a basement and the flyback transformer arced out loud enough to make me jump

I spent $250 on a thermal camera for board work and it's mostly been a paperweight.

I got it six months ago thinking it would be a game changer for finding shorts and bad components. In reality, for the kind of consumer board repair I do, a good multimeter and my eyes find 95% of the issues just as fast. The camera is cool, but it's overkill and the learning curve to read the images right is steep. Has anyone else found a specific, regular use for one of these in a small shop?

I was reading an article about e-waste and the number of phones thrown away each year blew my mind

I found a report from the UN that said over 5 billion mobile phones were dropped in drawers or tossed in 2022 alone. That's a global number, but it really hit me how many potential repairs are just sitting in people's homes gathering dust. It made me think about how we could get more of those devices back into the repair loop instead of the trash. Do you guys ever run trade-in events or something to pull those old units out of closets?

My niece asked me why I still have a box of old TV tubes in the garage

I was showing her my workbench last weekend and she pointed at a dusty cardboard box labeled 'CRT Yokes, 1998-2004'. She said, 'Uncle Jordan, can't you just look up the part number online now?' It hit me that she's never known a world without instant search and next-day delivery. I told her about driving to three different parts shops in the city on a Saturday, hoping one had the right flyback transformer for a 27-inch Sony. That hunt, and the guys you'd meet in those stores, was half the job. Now you just click a button and a generic part shows up. The fix is faster, but something about the chase is gone. I'm not even mad, it's just different. Do you guys still keep any of that old stock around, or is it all just taking up space now?

Appreciation post: My buddy in Milwaukee told me to always check the fuse before anything else on a dead power supply

I spent an hour tracing a circuit on a gaming PC that wouldn't boot, only to find a blown 5 amp fuse on the board. He saved me from ordering a whole new unit. What's the best 'check the simple thing first' advice you've gotten?

My old Fluke 87V started reading voltage about 0.2 volts low after I left it in my truck overnight during a cold snap.

It was about 15 degrees Fahrenheit last week, and I left my meter in the toolbox overnight. The next day, I was checking a 5V rail on a board and it was reading 4.8V consistently. I warmed it up inside for a couple hours and it went back to normal. Has anyone else had a meter drift from the cold like that, and is it a sign of something failing?

Warning: My neighbor's old TV repair story made me check my own gear

I was helping him fix his 1990s CRT and he said, 'I bet your modern meter can't even read the ripple on this power supply.' He was right, my basic $50 multimeter just showed 'OL' when I tried. What's a good, cheap tool for checking older analog power circuits like that?

A client in Phoenix told me my repair bench looked like a bomb site and it actually helped

He said, 'How can you find anything in that mess?' I used to think a chaotic workspace meant I was busy and creative. But after he pointed it out, I realized I was wasting maybe 15 minutes a day just looking for the right driver or a specific capacitor. I cleared off a whole section, got some basic organizers from the hardware store, and now I label my bins. It's not fancy, but my repair time on a standard TV board swap dropped by a solid 10 minutes. Anyone have a simple bench setup that actually works for them?

A client in Tampa told me my bench was a mess and it changed my whole work flow.

I was fixing a laptop and they pointed out all the loose screws and parts just sitting out. They said, 'How do you not lose things?' I bought a $25 magnetic mat and now I lay everything out in order. Has anyone else had a client call them out on something like that?

Shoutout to the guy at the Portland swap meet who sold me a 'working' power supply

I bought a cheap power supply there last year for a monitor repair. The seller swore it was pulled from a working unit. Got it home, hooked it up, and it let out a loud pop and a puff of smoke that smelled like burnt plastic. It fried the main board I was trying to fix, turning a $50 job into a $150 paperweight. Now I test every single used part, even if the seller seems honest, before I connect it to a customer's device. I keep a cheap load tester in my kit just for swap meets. Has anyone else learned this lesson the hard way with second hand parts?