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You are here: Home / Archives for repair

Antec TruePower Trio TP3-550 Fan Bus Repair

2015/02/03 By staze

TP3-550Couple weeks back I got a request to repair a friends computer. It would lock up, not reboot, etc. The computer was largely for gaming, so after an initial software scan, I figured it must be heat. Opening the machine, I noticed none of the case fans are running. I had initially done the build on the machine, and new all the case fans were wired to the fan power “bus” provided by the power supply (which handled speeding/slowing the fans based on case temp), an Antec TruePower Trio TP3-550. Asking the friend, he mentioned that he had noticed the LEDs on the front case fan had went out a month or two ago. Hmm. Checking the voltage on that fan bus showed only 2V (not nearly enough to run a 12V 120mm fan). The PSU’s fan was also not running. Crap, that was probably overheating the PSU, and causing the instability.

Wanting to get his machine back up and running, I picked up a replacement Corsair power supply, installed it, and got him on his way. Then, I went to repairing the Antec power supply. Warning, because this is a power supply, and especially because this is a high wattage switcher, there are dangerous (and lethal if you live in parts of the world that run off 220/240 household) voltages inside. Make sure the unit is unplugged, off, and even give it an hour or two for the primary caps to discharge. I have seen the primary discharge relatively quickly, so there must be a bleeder resistor in the unit, but I didn’t bother tracking it down.

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Filed Under: Electronics Tagged With: Antec, ATX, repair

Quick repair of Fluke 87 (Faded Digits)

2015/01/09 By staze

Fluke 87 Faded DigitsAt my suggestion, a coworker purchased a Fluke 87 (Series 1) off eBay, with the faded digit problem, for $70 a week ago. A very good deal. I assured him I could repair it.

The meter arrived, and really, there was very little fading, but it still needed “repair”. Rather than bring it home, I pulled it apart here and showed him what to do (should it happen again). Mr. Modemhead has a great article on this, but also there is a video from Fluke themselves on the issue, even though they’re incorrect on some facts with regards to the original 87 (they say there’s only one zebra strip, when there are two). Anyway, I’ve done the modemhead way, but I thought I’d try Fluke’s suggestion, and just clean the PCB side of the connection. I used some cotton swabs and 99% IPA, and after a couple minutes of scrubbing until clean, I put everything back together, and bingo! It works great. =)

Interestingly, this meter also had a slight issue with the buzzer/beeper. Turns out the speaker (Piezo) uses two rubber “nipples” to make contact with contact points on the back of the PCB. One of these nipples had been squashed/distorted over time and if you screwed the back of the meter on fully/snuggly, the nipple would distort enough to lose contact with the PCB. Simple solution was to leave the middle back screw loose, and place a piece of tape over the screw. Problem solved. =)

Filed Under: Electronics Tagged With: Faded Digits, Fluke 87, Multimeter, repair

Mackie Mixer Repair

2014/12/31 By staze

ZOOMED_1202-VLZ3Another repair from my dad is this Maxie 1202 mixer, a 12 channel analog mixer, that has scratchy/noisy potentiometers, and one channel is reported as pretty much completely dead. Knowing it was all pots, and the unit was going on 20 years old now, I figured it was just dirty.

Taking the mixer apart was relatively time consuming, since you have to pull all the nobs. After removing the back, I did notice that the glue holding down the two power supply filter caps had lost hold, so that was added to my list of fixes (nothing a little hot glue couldn’t fix). I always find it interesting when companies use LM317’s and LM337’s for their power supplies. I guess it does let them set the upper and lower supply rails outside the standard ±5, ±9, ±12, etc.

Total time for disassembly was about 20 minutes. I made sure to index the screws using this handy mat. I also threw all the nobs into a bowl. Interestingly the upper and lower boards of the mixer are joined together by solid core, uninsulated, wire. So I had to keep the upper board slightly elevated from the lower one.

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Filed Under: Electronics Tagged With: Caig, Deoxit, Mackie, repair

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