Hi all.
Bring here your solved task of the day story, with the headache or not, pride of success

My TV died last night. Not turning on. Tried the buttons instead of remote, worked ! Tried another remote, new batteries, nope. Today checked infrared emission with a camera, OK.
Replaced the infrared sensor canibalized from defunct equipment, fixed ! Buttoned up; Did not work at all. Opened again, checked if I forgot something, nope. The 19V external power supply brick was dead . From behind the spider webs, rescued a 16V laptop brick, Works several hours so far.
Nasty coincidence. 12 years plugged working fine and died under surgery.

 

Not today but last week I fixed this 1957 Monarch Lucerne that would not start.
Problem was bad contacts on the vacuum sensor.

 

A few days ago I fixed a bread maker that had a blown thermal fuse.

 

Repairs to a industrial ion accelerator today. One will be back online soon, the others are hanger queens. Training the local techs how to troubleshoot equipment built before they were born. Good people but they don't have the intuition to see the obvious issues the machines have.

 

Fixed my doorbell. It a radio remote type with the button powered by one of those small 12V batteries. I thought the battery was dead as it had been there a few years. Measured the battery voltage and it was fine. I put the battery back in the button to measure the voltage when the button was pressed. The voltage was good and the bell now worked. I presume it was the battery contacts though they looked clean and shiny. I gave them a squirt of contact cleaner.

 

I fixed my cheap chinese weather station. Every so often the lcd display goes blank. I thought it was a poor solder connection on the board (where the factory girls put the connecting wires onto the pcb - the pcb is a nice job) so I redid all those. Nope - failed two months later. Re-engineered the poor quality battery compartment. Not that. Thought it might be a code hangup in the processor needing battery POR. Seems not. When it fails it is DEAD - nothing on the board. Should be easy. Today I faffed around pulling the batteries and bashing it - anything to avoid opening it up AGAIN. Just when I had given up it came right.

It only cost $15 new. It's wasting my life. I should toss it but now I need to know what is going on. Months between failures.

 

Do Jerry rig repairs count? The other day one of my drill driver’s required way too much pressure to activate. I opened it up, and the microswitch activated by the trigger appeared really loose in it mount. I wedged a wood chip behind it and it works fine now.

 

Fixed a lot of my colleague’s dodgy soldering.

 

A few days ago I fixed a bread maker that had a blown thermal fuse.

Those are a frustration of mine. I have two failed appliances in the basement right now that blew their thermal fuses. Different rating, of course. The expense to get a new one (or a pack of 5 or more), plus the effort of reassembly, plus the fact that it's a well-used appliance, just don't justify the repair. If I had a good old local Radio Shack or wherever to buy the fuse I need, I'd probably go ahead.

 

Today? Damn I seem to spend my entire life fixing things.

Yesterday I repaired my on-demand water heater.

 

I repaired a pallet conveyor and a relationship with someone I've been at odds with for a long time over something that didn't really matter.

 

I can mend anything that is broken, except I cannot mend a broken heart or a broken relationship.

 

No repairs due to failures in the last few months to speak of. Plenty of routine maintenance and a few replaced parts simply because the daily driver is closing in on 300,000 miles and I don't want to be stranded (still a few more items I'm debating on). The occasional use vehicle has also had some attention recently also as it's been just over a year since I bought it and haven't put enough miles on it to even warrant an oil change yet... it's changed now. I miss troubleshooting at work since the change in employment, but the new place has other advantages.

 

Insinkerator.

 

I replaced the insinkerator two weeks ago. Today I redid the dog run so she had a bit more freedom. Wish I could find the 3.25" leash clasps, the 3" ones are a bit too big for my little Shih Tsu.

 

Tried to charge a Nissan Leaf which had been sitting unused for three months and could not open the charge flap at the front where you plug it in.
Apparently if the 12V battery is discharged then nothing works because it’s used to activate all the relays etc. Opened the car door with the real key, thankfully they still provide one concealed in the remote key, popped the hood, thankfully that’s still mechanical, and used a screwdriver to release the latch to the charge flap so I could plug in the charge cable. Still nothing happened. Battery charger on the 12V battery and suddenly the main battery starts to charge!
Would I be right in thinking, with the trend towards EVs, all the good engineers who are capable of doing joined up thinking are leaving the automotive industry to do something more interesting

 

I have not repaired anything in a very long time.

 

I have not repaired anything in a very long time.

That’s because you don’t have the lovely wife Morticia “encouraging” you to do so.

Yesterday I fixed our automatic pond filler valve and replaced our under sink water filter cartridges. Who knows what new “opportunities” will arise today!

 

I'm trying to repair app code broken by OS updates.

 

That’s because you don’t have the lovely wife Morticia “encouraging” you to do so.

Yesterday I fixed our automatic pond filler valve and replaced our under sink water filter cartridges. Who knows what new “opportunities” will arise today!

Actually my lovely wife, Katrina does all of that stuff, having been well trained by her "old school" father.