I think my most memorable repair was (many years ago) back at university when I was a very very broke student and my computer monitor failed, and I didn't have the money to just replace it or pay for repair.

I opened it up (being aware and very careful of the CRT dangers) and noticed there wasn't much in terms of components where the power came in, so I bought some matching capacitors and diodes for a few dollars to repair it. An older friend mentioned it's usually the diodes that fail, so I replaced only those at first, and tested the unit - and it worked! It kept working fine until I eventually upgraded to a colour display (yes, it was that long ago!).

A funnier repair was more recently, when helping my wife's father restore an old boat - the stabilizer flaps at the back didn't work. I looked it up online and the manufacturer recommended temporarily switching 2 wires, which I think was to run the hydraulic pump backwards to flush out the valves. My father-in-law objected grumpily saying he had already tried all the possible combinations and wasn't going to waste time on stupid things. When he went in for coffee, I switched the wires, ran it and saw it worked (in reverse), then switched them back and everything worked perfectly again! All of that took me less than a minute. (after he had already spent days trying to repair it!)

Best,

-Nico

DAB  wrote:

 

This past fall my wife was complaining that there was no power on the porch, so I took a quick look, reset the GFI breaker and power was restored.

 

Always check for the obvious cause first.

 

DAB

LOL! This is the kind of fix I often run into as well, that really ticks off my wife!

This past fall my wife was complaining that there was no power on the porch, so I took a quick look, reset the GFI breaker and power was restored.

Always check for the obvious cause first.

DAB

My story is a both repair and disaster. I have an autistic daughter and her favourite toy is a toy teddy bear the spins around and talks. It talks in three languages.
It recently stop talking and moving and my daughter was inconsolable so I decided to take it apart and see if I could fix it.
I found and loose wire but didn’t have any kit or the know how to fix it, so I took it to one of my friends.
He did a great good and soldered the wire back and rebuilt the toy teddy bear. We only had one screw left over and when we turned him on, he merrily spun around. The only issue was he has only spoken in French from then on. My daughter doesn’t mind and is happy that she has teddy back.

My best fix was when I got two broken nintendo controllers and manage to get one working controller.

I was around 10~11 years old and to be able to fix the controller was a huge deal for me.

That fix was the turning point that make me curious about electronics, fast forward 25 years and here I am.

When I was around 10 years old I fixed a gameboy game cartridge that had snapped in half. My sister's friend said that if I could fix it I could have it. I got the game working and played it with no problems aside from the occasional graphics glitch.

I opened the plastic cartridge not knowing much about electronics. First I tried simply taping the circuit board pieces back together but the graphics showed up all jumbled & the game didn't work at all. Then I noticed the copper traces on the board and figured they weren't making a good connection anymore. I didn't have a soldering iron (nor did I know what one was at the time) so my fix was to tape down thin strands of wire across the crack to make a solid connection. It took a lot work to get the tiny wires taped down onto just the right spot, but it paid off to get a new game for free.

Oh, I just fixed a small breakout board I had. I think one of the fuses were blown. I quickly replaced and it worked. Hehe.

Also I recall that time I was stupidly trying to desolder a SMD switch off my power bank for a project, with the battery connected. Accidentally dripped some solder onot the IC. Luckily had some wire cuttersa nd cut the connectin from the li-poly battery. That was a bonafide bomb threat!

While working at Fry's Electronics, the Loss Prevention manager heard I tinkered in electronics. He couldn't sell his DJ equipment because it didn't work. (He needed to pay for his wedding) He brought it some place but I they couldn't find out the problem.

I took it home and within one minute disconnected and reconnected the power ribbon cable. Plugged-in and success!

I got so much street-cred from him at work. Of course, I refused payment.

I would have to say my best electronics fix was for my sons friend. His friends computer crashed and his family had little money. I took his computer and rebuilt it with newer and better parts for free. He was so happy, made it worth doing!!

Dale W

What was your best electronics fix or repair?

So many fixes and repairs to mention, but one of the most satisfying was when I was in high school.  A friend of my dad asked if I could fix some old 1940s console tube radios for him.  The reward would be I could keep some.  Some were in great shape, but others were not.  You could find me, late at night, in the garage working hard to tear them apart then rebuilding them.  Replacing old capacitors, checking tubes, replacing cracked wiring, broken solder joints and finally re-tuning each one.  The best part was they all worked.

My most important lessoned learned during troubleshooting was to not rush through it.  Take your time.  Use the correct tools and look for the obvious, but also expect the unexpected.

Oh the memories and thank you for allowing me to share.

Stay Well,

Gordon

1. P.S.  Maybe E14 could add a MultiComp MP780402, LCR handheld meter to their equipment list (hint, hint)