element14 Community
element14 Community
    Register Log In
  • Site
  • Search
  • Log In Register
  • About Us
  • Community Hub
    Community Hub
    • What's New on element14
    • Feedback and Support
    • Benefits of Membership
    • Personal Blogs
    • Members Area
    • Achievement Levels
  • Learn
    Learn
    • Ask an Expert
    • eBooks
    • element14 presents
    • Learning Center
    • Tech Spotlight
    • STEM Academy
    • Webinars, Training and Events
    • Learning Groups
  • Technologies
    Technologies
    • 3D Printing
    • FPGA
    • Industrial Automation
    • Internet of Things
    • Power & Energy
    • Sensors
    • Technology Groups
  • Challenges & Projects
    Challenges & Projects
    • Design Challenges
    • element14 presents Projects
    • Project14
    • Arduino Projects
    • Raspberry Pi Projects
    • Project Groups
  • Products
    Products
    • Arduino
    • Avnet Boards Community
    • Dev Tools
    • Manufacturers
    • Multicomp Pro
    • Product Groups
    • Raspberry Pi
    • RoadTests & Reviews
  • Store
    Store
    • Visit Your Store
    • Choose another store...
      • Europe
      •  Austria (German)
      •  Belgium (Dutch, French)
      •  Bulgaria (Bulgarian)
      •  Czech Republic (Czech)
      •  Denmark (Danish)
      •  Estonia (Estonian)
      •  Finland (Finnish)
      •  France (French)
      •  Germany (German)
      •  Hungary (Hungarian)
      •  Ireland
      •  Israel
      •  Italy (Italian)
      •  Latvia (Latvian)
      •  
      •  Lithuania (Lithuanian)
      •  Netherlands (Dutch)
      •  Norway (Norwegian)
      •  Poland (Polish)
      •  Portugal (Portuguese)
      •  Romania (Romanian)
      •  Russia (Russian)
      •  Slovakia (Slovak)
      •  Slovenia (Slovenian)
      •  Spain (Spanish)
      •  Sweden (Swedish)
      •  Switzerland(German, French)
      •  Turkey (Turkish)
      •  United Kingdom
      • Asia Pacific
      •  Australia
      •  China
      •  Hong Kong
      •  India
      •  Korea (Korean)
      •  Malaysia
      •  New Zealand
      •  Philippines
      •  Singapore
      •  Taiwan
      •  Thailand (Thai)
      • Americas
      •  Brazil (Portuguese)
      •  Canada
      •  Mexico (Spanish)
      •  United States
      Can't find the country/region you're looking for? Visit our export site or find a local distributor.
  • Translate
  • Profile
  • Settings
Simple Electronic Repairs
  • Challenges & Projects
  • Project14
  • Simple Electronic Repairs
  • More
  • Cancel
Simple Electronic Repairs
Documents Project14 | Earn a $100 Shopping Cart for Your Simple Electronic Repairs!
  • Blog
  • Documents
  • Files
  • Members
  • Mentions
  • Sub-Groups
  • Tags
  • More
  • Cancel
  • New
Join Simple Electronic Repairs to participate - click to join for free!
Actions
  • Share
  • More
  • Cancel
Engagement
  • Author Author: tariq.ahmad
  • Date Created: 11 Oct 2017 8:06 PM Date Created
  • Last Updated Last Updated: 13 Nov 2017 7:45 PM
  • Views 3215 views
  • Likes 6 likes
  • Comments 23 comments
Related
Recommended

Project14 | Earn a $100 Shopping Cart for Your Simple Electronic Repairs!

image

Simple Electronic Repairs

Monthly project competitions, chances to earn prizes, you decide project themes, your ideas, your projects, turn ideas into projects.

Back to The Project14 homepage image

Project14 Home
Monthly Themes
Monthly Theme Poll

 

Three First Place Winners Earn a Shopping Cart of $100 (from element14 sites)!

    • How to Win
    • Your Project Examples
    • Your Project, Your Ideas!

This month's theme is Simple Electronic Repairs and comes from fvan .  The idea is to repair a device that is malfunctioning instead of throwing it away or buying a replacement. Simple electronic repairs is good first step before tackling a full blown electronic projects on your own.  This is a good opportunity to start tinkering with an electronic gadget you love but might be missing because its no longer working.For example, want to make that discontinued ipod classic that stopped working more than just a collectors item?  You could not only repair it but give it a larger storage capacity, maybe even replace the spinning hard drive with solid state drive. Another discontinued you could repair is the Pebble watch.  The front of the glass isn't fused to the display and it includes a replaceable battery.image

 

You can also give new life to laptops, smartphones, or tablets that are sitting there collecting dust but you've never gotten around to getting rid of.  Many old Dell laptops, for instance,  label their screws and connectors for easy assembly with end user self-repair in mind.  Even when its a little trickier, such as with Apple products, many people have saved themselves a lot of money, not to mention long waits in line, by replacing batteries, screens, or hard drives that Apple would have you believe you couldn't fix yourself.

 

As fvan points out simple electronic repairs doesn't need to be complicated, such as repairing a faulty switch and will give you insights into some troubleshooting techniques.  He uses a malfunctioning Xbox guitar (pictured right) as an example. One of the buttons would only allow you to go up instead of up or down, seriously limiting your options of what you could rock to. Rather then throwing the guitar away and getting a new one he opened it up to discover a reed switch was used for each position. One of these switches was constantly "ON", even in idle position, due to the magnet and switch being too close to each other. By gently bending the legs of the reed switch a little further away, it created enough distance to move set it as "OFF" in the idle position.  image

 

Perhaps you picked up a really cool piece of vintage tech from a garage that needs a little work before its restored to its former glory. A lot of older tech has a larger and more modular design which allows defective modules or subassemblies to be quickly identified and easily replaced. This is in stark comparison to a lot of modern electronics, with a smaller footprint and necessitating more compact, specialized components and package assembly, it can be difficult to fix anything yourself without special desoldering equipment, tweezers, magnifying glass, or dealing with the manufacturer.

 

Simple electronic repairs is an opportunity learn about how your favorite electronic devices work. In the process you can bring to life amplifiers, video devices, game consoles, musical instruments, music players, speakers, cameras, phones, computers, laptops, tablets, and more.

 

How to Win

Come Up With a Clever Name
Stick to the Theme
  • A clever name can make your project memorable.
  • The right name can distinguish your project from others and help create buzz around your project.
  • This project is your baby! Part of the fun of bringing something new into the world is coming up with a name.
  • If you have an idea for a project that doesn't fit the current theme then submit your idea in the comments section of the monthly poll.
Be Original
Submit Video Proof
  • Providing the steps you took to complete your project (text, video, or images) and providing video proof should be sufficient in most cases.
  • If your project introduces something new or something that is not commercially available or affordable then that counts!
  • If it doesn't work that's fine, this program is more about the journey than the end product.
  • A short video is all that is required but you can shoot as much video as you like.
  • You are encouraged to be creative and have as much fun as possible!

Your Project Examples

Monthly Theme: Simple Electronic Repairs

Worklog : Repair of 20-year old precision multimeter, HP 3458A

imageimage
You don't have permission to edit metadata of this video.
Edit media
x
image
Upload Preview
image
You don't have permission to edit metadata of this video.
Edit media
x
image
Upload Preview
image

 

 

The Monthly Theme You Voted for: Simple Electronic Repairs

You don't have permission to edit metadata of this video.
Edit media
x
image
Upload Preview
image

You don't have permission to edit metadata of this video.
Edit media
x
image
Upload Preview
image

 

 

Roboguy
Ben Heck's Xbox Laptop Repair
You don't have permission to edit metadata of this video.
Edit media
x
image
Upload Preview
image
You don't have permission to edit metadata of this video.
Edit media
x
image
Upload Preview
image

 

Your Project, Your Ideas!

About Project14
Directions

Every month you'll have a new poll where you'll get to decide an upcoming project competition, based on your interests, that will take place a couple of months in advance. Themes are broad in scope so that everyone can participate regardless of skill set.

 

What are Monthly Themes?

  • Every month (around the 14th of each month) a new theme will be posted on Project14.
  • Submit your ideas (proposals) for your projects to get feedback from the rest of the community.
  • Submit a project entry in the Theme space once you start working on it.

 

What are Monthly Theme Polls?

  • Every month (around the 14th of each month) there is a project theme poll.
  • Vote on which project competition you want to see for the following upcoming theme.
    • The themes voted on during the previous poll decided the upcoming theme.
    • If you submit an idea for a theme that is not used then it can still be used in a future poll.
  • Themes comments and ideas from the comments section of the project theme poll.

Step 1: Log in or register on element14, it's easy and free.

Step 2: Post in the comments section below to begin a discussion on your idea. Videos, pictures and text are all welcomed forms of submission.

Step 3: Submit a blog post of your progress on your project by the end of the month.  You are free to submit as many blog entries as you like until the beginning of the next theme.

 

Be sure to include video proof of your project!

 

Visit: Simple Electronic Repairs

 

 

 

You have until December 14th, 12:00 AM CDT to submit your completed project!

 

A jury consisting of your peers will judge project submissions!

 

Let us know your ideas for a Simple Electronic Repair Project in the comments below!

 

You have until December 14th, 12:00 AM CDT to submit your completed project!

Attachments:
imageTerms_and_Conditions_Simple_Electronic_Repairs.pdf
  • electronic repairs
  • simpleelectronicch
  • project14
  • diy repair
  • Share
  • History
  • More
  • Cancel
  • Sign in to reply

Top Comments

  • pettitda
    pettitda over 7 years ago in reply to jw0752 +3
    I was able to clean up the board enough to sketch out the following schematic for this section. The board was very badly burned underneath the part, so not much chance of soldering another part on there…
  • pettitda
    pettitda over 7 years ago in reply to jw0752 +1
    I’m guessing that the manufacturer is not interested in sending out their schematic but I haven’t asked. The model I have is discontinued and they have a newer model they’re selling now. The power input…
  • jw0752
    jw0752 over 7 years ago in reply to pettitda +1
    Hi David, Great job of figuring out the schematic. Sad to see that the conflagration did so much damage to the traces and the board. If you can determine the voltages needed for operation of the board…
  • mcb1
    mcb1 over 7 years ago in reply to pettitda

    However it didn’t have enough resolution to see the markings on the top of the part.

    Or the orientation.

     

    I did note that the DC in went to the lower left, now that suggests it is Pin 6 (I've only seen comparators put volts in the middle).

    Hopefully that narrows the search.

     

     

     

    It doesn't resolve what the output voltage is, but with the feedback values, and some experiments you might be able to decipher it.

     

     

     

    If nothing else this collection of posts demonstrates how to go about identifying a part, and potential sources.

    That makes it a repair on it own, so we're all in the draw image

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +1 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • pettitda
    pettitda over 7 years ago in reply to mcb1

    The only photo I found was in their FCC filings.  However it didn’t have enough resolution to see the markings on the top of the part. 

     

    David Pettit

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • mcb1
    mcb1 over 7 years ago in reply to beacon_dave

    beacon_dave

    a Google image search can sometimes turn up usable photos of PCBs.

    I did some digging around using that theory.

    I found a lot of other stuff (it seems Mebo has an underware equivalent), but nothing for the board itself.

     

    I recall a long time ago finding some russian/ukrane site that had lots of schematics, and yes without english sometimes it was hit and miss.

     

     

     

    Mark

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +1 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • beacon_dave
    beacon_dave over 7 years ago in reply to mcb1

    If you have the make and model then a Google image search can sometimes turn up usable photos of PCBs.

     

    Sometimes it finds images from the 'hacking a <insert device>...' type blogs which can be useful in this area.

     

    You may need to be creative with the search expressions however as the blogs may be written in a foreign language or the device has a different model name/number in a different country...

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +1 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • mcb1
    mcb1 over 7 years ago in reply to pettitda

    Nice work cleaning it up.

     

    Bit of resin and some solder and it'll be good as new ... image

     

     

    You need to find someone with another one that will take some detailed images and measurements ...

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +1 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • jw0752
    jw0752 over 7 years ago in reply to pettitda

    Hi David,

    Great job of figuring out the schematic. Sad to see that the conflagration did so much damage to the traces and the board. If you can determine the voltages needed for operation of the board I would be tempted to build a new power supply around this area. A a board for a toy you don't have too much to loose and it might be fun to beat the odds against you.

    Good Luck Mr. Pettit. Should you fail in this mission I will disavow any knowledge of having participated in this and all my advice will miraculously disappear from your thread.

    John

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +1 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • pettitda
    pettitda over 7 years ago in reply to jw0752

    I was able to clean up the board enough to sketch out the following schematic for this section.

     

    image

     

    The board was very badly burned underneath the part, so not much chance of soldering another part on there even if I did find out the part number.  Here's what it looked like going backward in time.

     

    image

    image

    image

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up +3 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • pettitda
    pettitda over 7 years ago in reply to mcb1

    Yes, I saw the same FCC filing.  Everyone is concerned with protecting their IP.  However, at the engineering level most of the schematics come from vendor reference designs that are publicly available.  I doubt there’s anything on this board that is unique. 

     

    David Pettit

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • mcb1
    mcb1 over 7 years ago in reply to pettitda

    I’m guessing that the manufacturer is not interested in sending out their schematic but I haven’t asked.

    https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Sum&calledFromFrame=Y&RequestTimeout=500&application_i…

     

    I suspect not.

     

     

    Mark

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • mcb1
    mcb1 over 7 years ago in reply to michaelwylie

    Any time I've tried a repair like this and I replace the part, once I turn the unit on the same part dies again.

    Had that with a switch mode regulator on the Edison mother board ...seems the input voltage was within spec on one set of data, but not another.

     

    Mark

    • Cancel
    • Vote Up 0 Vote Down
    • Sign in to reply
    • More
    • Cancel
>
element14 Community

element14 is the first online community specifically for engineers. Connect with your peers and get expert answers to your questions.

  • Members
  • Learn
  • Technologies
  • Challenges & Projects
  • Products
  • Store
  • About Us
  • Feedback & Support
  • FAQs
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal and Copyright Notices
  • Sitemap
  • Cookies

An Avnet Company © 2025 Premier Farnell Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Premier Farnell Ltd, registered in England and Wales (no 00876412), registered office: Farnell House, Forge Lane, Leeds LS12 2NE.

ICP 备案号 10220084.

Follow element14

  • X
  • Facebook
  • linkedin
  • YouTube