electronic repair of tractor parts

[k0ua]

I made a modification to my 756pro3 transceiver a few days ago, the components I worked with were smaller than a a small grain of sand. I almost chickened out, but I went forward with it and was successful. My soldering iron tip looked like a fencepost in comparasion to the small size of the components.

View attachment IMG_20170215_182218690_HDR.jpg

 

[jenkinsph]

I made a modification to my 756pro3 transceiver a few days ago, the components I worked with were smaller than a a small grain of sand. I almost chickened out, but I went forward with it and was successful. My soldering iron tip looked like a fencepost in comparasion to the small size of the components.

View attachment 499890

I can't see as well as I used to and probably shake too much too. Glad you got it done.:thumbsup:

 

[k0ua]

I can't see as well as I used to and probably shake too much too. Glad you got it done.:thumbsup:

I still have steady hands, but that was at the ragged edge of my abilities. Looking thought my bifocals, and thru the magnifying visor and all.

The photo is at the maximum magnification of my cell phone too.

 

[Coyote machine]

< Snip>
During my lifetime we have had tube jockeys, later pcb jockeys and now we just skip the parts jockeys and replace the entire item. I don't see this changing or reverting back anytime soon. Unless you are an electronics enthusiast for lack of a better term it will be difficult to fix much of anything to save money.

Exactly my point since I first stated it, albeit in different words, that may ruffle some feathers, but the point is still, dinos can do it, if they want to, and there's nothing wrong with going that route, but realize it is the exception, NOT the norm today FWIW.:confused3:

 

[k0ua]

My feathers aren't ruffled. I realized several decades ago that people that knew how to troubleshoot down to the component level were as rare as hens teeth. Even in my career By the time I got into TV repair back in the 70's fully half of the TV's we worked on were repaired by swapping boards. Sure we worked on plenty of point to point wiring sets and performed diagnostics and replaced single components, but the handwriting was on the wall. But a "board swapper" does not a technician make. He will never understand how things actually work. And now we don't repair them at all, we just toss em.

 

[skyhook]

A good technician is like a mechanic, tell him the problem and he will know where to look, I've repaired a few in my day's,, with and without,, schematics. You get a feel for these things. k0ua's post show's SMT technology and that's where it get's difficult, I no longer do this because of this, unless it's for personal friends/family. If the power supply of an item is good, I go no further because of SMT technology, but most of the time, the problem is in the power supply. A good magnifying glass and a few shots of rum:licking: keep my hands and eye's in sync. It's like riding a bicycle, some things you never forget. But there is definitely no more money in this type of work except for personal satisfaction. I still have my trusty "Fluke" scope and auto range digital multi-meter along with my old analog Radio Shack meter.
Again, k0ua is right in board swapping, but thats "if" you worked for a company and not self employed. Much more money to be made if you swapped out a bad component, but these company's didn't have the time to " trouble shoot " and pay an employee to do so. To the original poster, if you take out the suspected transistor, you should be able to verify what it is, npn, pnp, etc with a multi-meter. Now day's, they are equipped with diode checkers etc, and this should give you an idea, hope you get it worked out...keep at it.

 

[sd455dan]

A good technician is like a mechanic, tell him the problem and he will know where to look, I've repaired a few in my day's,, with and without,, schematics. You get a feel for these things. k0ua's post show's SMT technology and that's where it get's difficult, I no longer do this because of this, unless it's for personal friends/family. If the power supply of an item is good, I go no further because of SMT technology, but most of the time, the problem is in the power supply. A good magnifying glass and a few shots of rum:licking: keep my hands and eye's in sync. It's like riding a bicycle, some things you never forget. But there is definitely no more money in this type of work except for personal satisfaction. I still have my trusty "Fluke" scope and auto range digital multi-meter along with my old analog Radio Shack meter.
Again, k0ua is right in board swapping, but thats "if" you worked for a company and not self employed. Much more money to be made if you swapped out a bad component, but these company's didn't have the time to " trouble shoot " and pay an employee to do so. To the original poster, if you take out the suspected transistor, you should be able to verify what it is, npn, pnp, etc with a multi-meter. Now day's, they are equipped with diode checkers etc, and this should give you an idea, hope you get it worked out...keep at it.

Yeah SMT is fast becoming the Norm for most electronics.

Even welders-

I brought this up over on Welding web after seeing pictures of the internals of one of the newest inverter welders coming out of China- and was informed that it was not confined to inexpensive chinese welders...
And being a dinosaur myself made the point that once one of these SMT based units developed a problem It would Not be something that could be easily serviced by a tech.

i will eventually be in the market for a new AC/DC inverter welder with all the bells and whistles for Aluminum welding, I did find out that AHP Alpha TIGs still are completely built using (through Hole components) So at least there must be a few brands/models that this dinosaur will be able to chose from -for now.

In another 10 years, Will even $1500+ name brand welders be shipped back to a repair center where they just verify it doesn't work and send out a new one.?. And if it is a week out of warranty they say sure we can fix it for 80 % of the new price??

Once SMT is the only game in town It will be the defacto end of home servicing of electronics even by techs unless it is a simple power supply part failure imo.

My hat is off to KOua, being successful at soldering an SMD, but I refuse to buy a hot air station and squint through a magnifying glass to replace parts or attempt to troubleshoot by trying to get a scope lead touching just 1 pin of even a 6 pin device.


I had already totally given into TV's being throwaways,- once flatscreens showed up and trying to buy replacement Fluorescent back light tubes for my 1 month out of warranty Sanyo- which cost about 1/2 of what the TV did.

That 1 irritated me enough to use my 8000# Rhino tractor on it and I was successful,
at making it a Much flatter Flat screen TV -now fully nonfunctional and disposed of in a garbage bag at the local waste management electronics area to be re-claimed.

What do you know-in the end I got the double bonus satisfaction of working on a SMT equipped device using one of my favorite tools- my tractor:laughing:

 

[k0ua]

Yeah SMT is fast becoming the Norm for most electronics.

Even welders-

I brought this up over on Welding web after seeing pictures of the internals of one of the newest inverter welders coming out of China- and was informed that it was not confined to inexpensive chinese welders...
And being a dinosaur myself made the point that once one of these SMT based units developed a problem It would Not be something that could be easily serviced by a tech.

i will eventually be in the market for a new AC/DC inverter welder with all the bells and whistles for Aluminum welding, I did find out that AHP Alpha TIGs still are completely built using (through Hole components) So at least there must be a few brands/models that this dinosaur will be able to chose from -for now.

In another 10 years, Will even $1500+ name brand welders be shipped back to a repair center where they just verify it doesn't work and send out a new one.?. And if it is a week out of warranty they say sure we can fix it for 80 % of the new price??

Once SMT is the only game in town It will be the defacto end of home servicing of electronics even by techs unless it is a simple power supply part failure imo.

My hat is off to KOua, being successful at soldering an SMD, but I refuse to buy a hot air station and squint through a magnifying glass to replace parts or attempt to troubleshoot by trying to get a scope lead touching just 1 pin of even a 6 pin device.


I had already totally given into TV's being throwaways,- once flatscreens showed up and trying to buy replacement Fluorescent back light tubes for my 1 month out of warranty Sanyo- which cost about 1/2 of what the TV did.

That 1 irritated me enough to use my 8000# Rhino tractor on it and I was successful,
at making it a Much flatter Flat screen TV -now fully nonfunctional and disposed of in a garbage bag at the local waste management electronics area to be re-claimed.

What do you know-in the end I got the double bonus satisfaction of working on a SMT equipped device using one of my favorite tools- my tractor:laughing:

I got a good morning laugh out of your post there. The mental picture of you making a a really flat screen TV was hilarious. :laughing:

To be clear I did not successfully solder those extremely tiny SMD devices, I de-soldered them. More like heat up the area and scrape them off.

 

[sd455dan]

I must admit, It was very therapeutic (servicing) that TV

 

[k0ua]

I must admit, It was very therapeutic and felt very relaxed after (servicing) that TV
Which reminded me of Office Space:


Although my english was more like the Uncensored Version:laughing:

I might of 12 gauged it.