Opinions Matter

c/electronics-repairers

2

ryanh56•1mo ago

I was WRONG about ultrasonic cleaners being a gimmick

For YEARS I thought those ultrasonic cleaners were overpriced toys for hobbyists. Then I brought in a crusty old circuit board from a 1990s stereo receiver that I spent 3 hours scrubbing with no luck. I borrowed a friend's $150 unit from Amazon, threw the board in with some simple green for 10 minutes, and it came out spotless. Now I'm thinking about getting one for my bench. Anyone else change their mind on a tool they used to hate on?

10

victorb17•1mo ago

Had a talk with a retired TV repair guy that made me rethink my soldering

Met this old timer at the flea market last Saturday, he must be 80 easy. He looked at my iron and said I was running it way too hot, that I was cooking the boards instead of joining them. He showed me his old Weller station from the 70s, still works perfect, and he said patience beats power every time. Made me wonder how many boards I've ruined without even knowing it. Anyone else ever get humbled by someone who's been doing this since before surface mount was a thing?

13

tyler_wilson•1mo ago

The 'just solder it' crowd has never worked on a多层 board with buried vias

I run into this all the time on forums. People see a bad cap and think a fresh solder joint fixes everything. Last Wednesday I had a guy argue with me for 10 minutes about reflowing a chip on a 6-layer board. He said I was making excuses. I told him to come watch me trace the internal ground plane that delaminated after heat stress. Has anyone else had to deal with customers who think microscopes and thermal profiles are optional?

14

mark_thomas•1mo ago

Fixed a monitor with a cracked panel, but the client didn't believe me

Had a customer bring in a 27" Dell that wouldn't show video. Told them the LCD panel was cracked, but they claimed it wasn't dropped. Spent 30 minutes showing them the spiderweb pattern with a flashlight, still argued. Has anyone else dealt with customers denying obvious physical damage?

2

king.andrew•1mo ago

Blew $250 on a so-called professional soldering station that lasted 2 weeks

Picked up a fancy digital soldering station from some online shop because the reviews looked solid and it promised precise temp control. By day 10 the display started flickering and then the tip stopped heating altogether, turns out the heating element was glued in with cheap epoxy. Anyone else get burned buying gear that looks pro but falls apart fast?

17

the_jenny•1mo ago

Hit 1000 board repairs last week and it caught me off guard

I've been tracking my repairs in a notebook since 2021, and last Thursday I crossed 1000 boards fixed. That number hit me different because I still remember struggling through my first 10 on a busted Samsung TV in Detroit. Most of the work has been power supply caps and bad solder joints, nothing fancy. Has anyone else kept count and been surprised by the total?

20

troyreed•1mo ago

A TV that took me 4 hours to fix because of a single bad solder joint

So I had this Samsung from like 2015 come in last week, no picture but sound was fine. I figured it was a bad T-con board or maybe a ribbon cable, the usual suspects. I spent two whole afternoons swapping out panels and testing voltages, getting nowhere. Finally on day three I decided to reflow the main board just to cover my bases, and bam, the picture came back. Turns out it was one tiny cracked solder joint on a voltage regulator, looked fine to the naked eye. I felt like a total clown for not checking that first, you know? Has anyone else chased a ghost like that for way too many hours?

22

wyatt_green31•1mo ago

The capacitor plague thing keeps coming up at my bench, are old caps really that simple?

I see guys on here blaming every dead power supply on bad caps from the 2000s, but my own bench says half the time it's a blown FET or a cracked solder joint hiding underneath. Am I being too generous to the old capacitors, or are we just skipping the deeper diagnostics?

19

holly_sanchez75•1mo ago

TIL a guy at a repair shop in Austin taught me about using a thermal camera for finding shorts

Honestly, I was just dropping off a power supply for a quote at Austin Electronics Repair last Tuesday. This older tech saw me struggling with a burnt board on my own time, and he let me borrow his $150 thermal cam for 5 minutes. Ngl, I found a cracked solder joint under a capacitor in like 20 seconds that I'd been probing for an hour. Has anyone else tried one of those cheap seek thermal cameras for board work, or are they all just gimmicks?

14

stella_murray•1mo ago

Talked to a guy at a component shop in Denver and it messed with my head

I was grabbing some caps at this little hole in the wall on Colfax last Tuesday, and the old man behind the counter asked me what I was fixing. I told him it was a blown power supply from a 90s stereo receiver, and he just goes, "You sure it's the caps?" then pointed me to check the solder joints on the transformer first. He was right... there was a hairline crack hiding under some glue. It got me thinking about how I always jump to the obvious fix without stepping back. So now I'm wondering, how do you folks decide when to stop and look deeper on a repair?

30

craig.sage•1mo ago

Wasted $200 on a cheap soldering station from an online auction

I figured a $40 station would be fine for light work, but the tip oxidized in under 10 uses and the temp control is a joke. Has anyone else burned cash on bargain tools that just made your job harder?

6

sarah531•1mo ago

My old mentor told me flux is flux, so I bought the cheapest stuff for 5 years

I was cleaning a board last week and the joints looked terrible. After 3 tries I finally asked a guy at the local electronics shop what I was doing wrong. He pointed at my $4 bottle of flux and said that's the problem. Switched to a name brand gel flux and my solder flows smooth now. Anyone else get bad advice from someone who seemed to know what they were talking about?

23

umamartin•1mo ago

That 'simple' capacitor swap that turned into a 3 day nightmare

I picked up a 2012 Samsung plasma TV last week, dead power supply, figured it was just a few bad caps on the primary side. Popped the board out, saw three bulging caps, replaced them all in 20 minutes flat. Plugged it in and it blew the main fuse instantly, so I spent the next 2 hours chasing down a shorted MOSFET that I missed because it was hidden under a heatsink. Then after I got that fixed, the standby voltage was still off by a whole volt, turned out a resistor had drifted way out of spec from heat stress. Two more days of swapping parts and checking datasheets before I found a tiny crack in the solder joint on the main transformer. The whole job I thought would take an afternoon took me 3 full days of after work tinkering. Has anyone else had a simple capacitor job blow up into something way bigger like this?

29

derek_schmidt6•1mo ago

That one customer who brought in a TV with a bullet hole in it

Last Tuesday a guy walks into my shop with a 55 inch Hisense. He sets it on the counter and there is a clean bullet hole right through the center of the screen. I asked him what happened and he just shrugged and said 'target practice went wrong.' I told him the panel is shot, literally, and a replacement cost is more than the TV. He got mad and said I was just trying to upsell him on a new one. I spent 10 minutes explaining how LCD panels work and he still left thinking I was scamming him. Has anyone else had a customer bring in something that was clearly a total loss but refused to believe it?

6

haydenbutler•1mo ago

Finally fixed that power supply issue I've been chasing for months

I had this old Kenwood amplifier come in last Tuesday that kept shutting off after 10 minutes. Drove me nuts checking caps and transistors for hours. Turned out to be a cracked solder joint on the relay driver pin, barely visible even under my magnifier. Reflowed it with some fresh 63/37 solder and she's been running solid for a week straight now. Cost me maybe 20 cents of materials and a half hour of my time. Anyone else had a tiny little thing like that hide from you for way too long?

10

robert_anderson69•1mo ago

Swapped a $2 fuse for a customer and they asked for a $50 discount on the service call

Got a call about a dead microwave, found the internal fuse blown, replaced it in 5 minutes with a part I had in my pocket, and the guy tried to haggle me down from my $60 flat rate because "it was just a fuse" - anyone else have people argue your pricing based on the part cost?

11

sullivan.finley•1mo ago

Unpopular opinion: Those fancy desoldering stations are overrated

I spent 3 years thinking I needed a $300 Hakko desoldering gun to do proper board work. Then I watched a guy at a shop in Austin pull a chip off a multi-layer board using just a cheap solder sucker and flux. He did it in under 2 minutes with zero lifted pads. That convinced me to practice more with basic tools instead of throwing money at gear. Has anyone else found a simple tool they underestimated for years?

4

julia_miller24•1mo ago

Serious question, did I mess up choosing lead free solder?

I had to pick between leaded solder and lead free for a repair on a vintage radio from the 60s. Went with lead free since the customer mentioned kids around the house, but now the joints look brittle and I'm worried about long term reliability. Should have just used the good stuff and warned them to wash hands. Anyone else run into this catch-22 on older gear?

0

sullivan.finley•1mo ago

PSA: That time a client's home theater in Austin taught me about heat damage

I was installing a new receiver and amp setup for a guy near downtown Austin last summer. When I pulled his old gear out of the cabinet, the thermal paste on the chips had turned to dust and the capacitors were bulging. The whole rack was stuffed in a closed cabinet with no airflow. Some guys say heat sinks and fans are overkill for home audio gear, but I just saw $3,000 in fried parts. Do you think a few extra vents or a small vent fan is worth the hassle, or do you leave it up to the customer?

32

grant_hart•1mo ago

Just crossed 200 board repairs and nobody talks about the real burnout point

Honestly, I hit my 200th logic board repair last week on a late 2013 MacBook Pro. I thought I'd feel proud but instead I just felt tired. Ngl, most people hype up the first 50 or 100 as the big milestones, but 200 is where you start questioning if you even like soldering anymore. The repetitive thermal pad swaps and corroded charging ICs just grind you down. Has anyone else hit a weird number like that where the excitement totally flipped?

20

jones.anna•1mo ago

Recapped an old stereo amp and got a nasty hum instead of clean sound

I swapped out all the electrolytics on a 1980s Kenwood KA-7100 last weekend, but now it puts out a 60Hz hum that gets louder with volume. Triple checked my solder joints and polarity, everything looks clean. Did I maybe disturb a ground loop in the process or pick the wrong replacement caps? Anyone run into this ghost hum after a recap job?

15

nina_jenkins•1mo ago

Caught a tiny mistake in a power supply that had me stumped for 2 days

Was fixing this old Dell monitor power supply from 2012 and kept getting no output. I checked all the big stuff like caps and diodes but it was a cracked solder joint on a tiny resistor near the optocoupler. Took me 2 hours with a magnifying lamp to spot it because it was hidden under some glue. Anyone else ever wasted time on something that small?

18

alexw75•1mo ago

Overheard a guy in a workshop saying hot air rework stations are overkill for most board repairs

I was at a parts counter in Portland last Wednesday picking up some caps and this older repair guy starts talking to the clerk about how he fixes nearly everything with just a soldering iron and flux, no hot air gun. He said something like 'if you need hot air for a simple capacitor swap, you're compensating for bad technique' and it really made me think about how much gear I've bought that I barely use. Has anyone else scaled back their repair kit and found they actually do better work with less?

2

margaret304•1mo ago

Unpopular opinion: flux pens are way better than paste for tiny SMD work

I tried a flux pen for the first time last week on a busted phone board with 0402 resistors I kept losing. I figured paste would be fine but the pen let me put just a tiny dot exactly where I needed it. No splatter, no cleanup like paste always gives me. Has anyone else switched over from paste and found it works better for fine pitch stuff?

13

simon717•1mo ago

TIL those cheap solder sucker pumps are actually decent if you know the trick

I was dead set against using those $5 spring loaded desoldering pumps for years. Always thought they were junk compared to my old Edsyn vacuum station. Then my station died last month and I grabbed one from Harbor Freight just to get through a job. Gotta clean the tip on a brass sponge every 3-4 pulls and it works way better than I thought. Anyone else found a cheap tool that surprised them?