Saved $200 and some e-waste yesterday

[14Accent]

The remote for our bed's adjustable base developed a bad solder joint at the negative pad on the circuit board, so I hopped on Amazon to look for a replacement. Imagine my shock when I discovered that not only do they not make the original style remote with LCD screen, the compatible replacement remote looks like it came from a Motel 6 25 years ago and costs $179.99!!

I'm no electronics repair guy, but there was no way I was going to pay that for a worse product so I dug out my soldering iron and ran to Hardware Hank for some fine solder and flux. 30 minutes later, I had a perfectly functioning remote again.

Times like these make me so thankful I have the ability to learn and execute repairs such as these. The savings can be substantial!

 

[supton]

Friends pool controller quit, he looked into it, common problem for the model, similar repair price (whole board replacement). One bad solder joint. I should have used conformal coating on it for a “real” repair, but its been I think 4 or 5 years. Think I got a six pack out of that.

Years ago our microwave quit, but could look up the error code. Bad relay. NLA. But looked at the data sheet, found a sub, hacked it in, done.

Home phone in our new place was intermittent. Waited for a day that it wasn’t working. Traced it to an extension box put in at the panel, just above the now defunct alarm. They had wired it poorly, with a screw pinching the insulation and causing a short. Best I could tell, just a slight change in temp would make it come and go. (ripped all the alarm stuff out, fixed.)

 

[Klutch9]

Friends pool controller quit, he looked into it, common problem for the model, similar repair price (whole board replacement). One bad solder joint. I should have used conformal coating on it for a “real” repair, but its been I think 4 or 5 years. Think I got a six pack out of that.

Years ago our microwave quit, but could look up the error code. Bad relay. NLA. But looked at the data sheet, found a sub, hacked it in, done.

Home phone in our new place was intermittent. Waited for a day that it wasn’t working. Traced it to an extension box put in at the panel, just above the now defunct alarm. They had wired it poorly, with a screw pinching the insulation and causing a short. Best I could tell, just a slight change in temp would make it come and go. (ripped all the alarm stuff out, fixed.)

I often fix things like this instead of replacing, and the savings are usually substantial. I have an old home theater receiver that works great, but that stopped taking inputs from the remote. Evidently the IR receiver commonly develops solder cracks on this model. Sure enough, under close inspection, there was a hairline crack in the solder. Couple minutes with the soldering iron and it's been trouble free for a couple years now.

Honestly, I love repairs like this. I recently bought a new (used) mower that wouldn't start. Ending up being something simple, but I love diving into technical projects of all sizes and making something useful that others would have abandoned.

 

[eljefino]

Wife's crock-pot went kaput. Resoldered it. Not my creativity, they all break in the same place and it's documented on youtube.

Same with fixing a Prius dash cluster with a single 220 uf capacitor.

 

[gman2304]

There’s no telling how much money Youtube repair videos have saved me over the years.

 

[supton]

Honestly, I love repairs like this.

I enjoy messing with electronics, don't do enough of it (or too much--circuit board designer, involved in all levels, from concept to construction).

The wife got a kick out of seeing my 70's vintage stereo that I use in my home office, connected to my PC. Found at the transfer station, one channel dead. Could not figure out which of the transistors in a DC coupled design with a feedback loop on top of that was dead--had to resort to pulling each one and testing. Found it on the 2nd or 3rd try. Long obsolete, but I'm not an audiophile, so close enough was good enough (think I used a 2N3904).

 

[LDM]

I enjoy building circuits, last project I made was my big tesla coil. Its amazing the number of things I've saved for myself and friends over the years that only requires a little bit of soldering. Most people just throw it away and buy something new.

Same thing with working on cars. Just finished ripping out the ABS on a 99 Suburban and put in a proportioning valve. $80 for the valve vs $500+ for a reman ABS unit that may or may not work.

 

[ctechbob]

All in the name of harm reduction. ROHS and lead-free solder has cut the lifespan of many electronics short. You're lucky when the broken joint doesn't take out something else in the circuit and can just resolder and move on.

 

[cdlamb]

If it was already broken, & headed to the dump, might as well try to find what's wrong & fix it.
If you completely wreck it, you weren't really out anything anyhow, & learn for the next time.

I have repaired many things with this mindset, & like to see how it works. Now with you tube it really makes things easy to diagnose, & repair.

 

[researcher]

The remote for our bed's adjustable base developed a bad solder joint at the negative pad on the circuit board, so I hopped on Amazon to look for a replacement. Imagine my shock when I discovered that not only do they not make the original style remote with LCD screen, the compatible replacement remote looks like it came from a Motel 6 25 years ago and costs $179.99!!

I'm no electronics repair guy, but there was no way I was going to pay that for a worse product so I dug out my soldering iron and ran to Hardware Hank for some fine solder and flux. 30 minutes later, I had a perfectly functioning remote again.

Times like these make me so thankful I have the ability to learn and execute repairs such as these. The savings can be substantial!

hey I feel exactly like you do. Picking up skills along the way is priceless and your situation shows exactly how it feels to put those skills into action. It's not just saving money (that's good too) it's the fact that you were told no and you didn't listen, you forged ahead and fixed it! That right there is something money can't buy!

good news thanks for posting it! very cool..