John Wiltrout's Blog

Vacuum Chamber for Pulling Wires through a Sheath

2022-12-05T02:21:44Z

This is my first Blog in over a year so you will probably not see any improvement in my style or deliver from previous attempts. I have a hobby business where I repair or recondition specific parts for various pieces of Dental Operatory Equipment. On...(read more)

Grafting 2 Damaged Circuit Boards

2021-05-16T17:52:02Z

In the picture above we have two circuit boards from two Dental Table Top Sterilizers. The board on the left has had a solder joint crystallize, arc out, and set fire to the back of the board. The board's logic section is still working properly b...(read more)

Solder Wick Repair of Damaged Circuit Board

2021-02-03T15:20:39Z

The circuit boards used in the counter top sterilizers of the medical and dental industries are subjected to a lot of stresses. The high moisture content in the air combined with the heating and cooling inherent in their operation puts them at higher...(read more)

Climate Change Anyone?

2020-10-20T23:42:20Z

This is about 5 weeks early even for us: Slip or get your feet wet I refuse to shovel in October! John(read more)

Repair of a Burned Circuit Board using Grafting Technique

2020-09-30T05:59:28Z

This is the main circuit board from a Dental Clinic Sterilizer. It is a very popular brand that has been sold extensively across the USA as well as internationally. One of the power outputs of the board is controlled by a 30 amp relay that powe...(read more)

Lie Detector Fact Checker and Commentator

2020-08-23T05:18:43Z

Recently I have been having a hard time watching my television. There are a lot of people on the TV lately who like to make up things and tell lies or at least bend the truth around so that one can not tell which end of the horse to kiss. These alter...(read more)

How I poked out an Eye of my Oscilloscope - A cautionary tale

2020-08-19T05:33:26Z

For about a year I have owned a Hantek 8060 dual channel oscilloscope. I have been very pleased with the scope as it is well suited to my needs. I use it in my simple experiments and I use it for helping me diagnose equipment that is in need of repai...(read more)

Repairing an Inexpensive Scope Probe

2020-08-18T21:22:34Z

Recently my scope and I had an unfortunate encounter with some high voltage and it left me with one channel out. I am slowly working through the process to see if I can fix the scope. I will blog about my journey at a later date whether I can fix it ...(read more)

A Do Nothing Machine

2020-06-20T21:15:27Z

The Thinker Revisited The Thinker Revisited is an Electronic Sculpture built on an X-Ray Control circuit board. I usually salvage these boards for the parts but since I had already taken a ...(read more)

World Tour

2020-06-12T23:29:17Z

I got the idea for this Blog from jancumps . Since the Covid 19 has kept us from getting out and traveling I thought it might be fun to give you a short tour of my home town Chippewa Falls Wisconsin USA and to invite you to add your own tour of your ...(read more)

Anyone seen circuit modules like this before?

2020-04-03T19:40:35Z

I am busy salvaging circuit boards while my mind resets and a new idea for a build takes form. Yesterday I disassembled a circuit board from a Planmeca X-Ray machine (a company from Finland) that dated from the 1990s. Among the salvaged components we...(read more)

Playing with Circuit Boards while the Virus Storm Passes

2020-03-30T23:11:35Z

I am very lucky to have a son in the Dental Equipment Service Business who faithfully watches for circuit boards that he can salvage from discarded equipment and deliver to the old man (me). Here is the cache that I got on Friday. Sometime...(read more)

Making a Load Bulb for Board Output Testing

2020-03-24T15:05:20Z

Today I am working on a circuit board from a Dental Statim Sterilizer. This sterilizer is unique in that it doesn't work by heating water inside the sterilization chamber but rather it has a separate boiler. Water is injected into the boiler and ...(read more)

AC Optocoupler LTV 814

2020-02-22T06:21:41Z

When I used to repair dental chairs it was very common to find a logic circuit communicating with a line voltage triac through an opto-coupler. The chair's actuators were typically 115 Volt AC motors. These opto couplers had an internal LED tied to a...(read more)

One of My Favorite Building Blocks

2020-02-16T07:59:14Z

I like to think of the parts and pieces in my shop as building blocks. I very seldom design my creations from the ground up. Like the Borg, I prefer to assimilate technology. Once I have a board or circuit that I find a useful building block I go to ...(read more)