Posts Tagged ‘repair’

The Sangean HDR-1 is a HD tabletop radio which supports digital radio & hybrid signals and RDS functions on FM stations. Other features include dual alarm, IR remote control, multicast capability and Program Associated Data service. Overall, a pretty nice unit. But certain productions runs of this radio had a problem. The radio would quit powering up for no apparent reason. Lets see why.

Continue reading “Sangean HDR-1 Repair” »

Thanks to a friend, I received 11 non-working Itona VXL thin clients. All exhibited the same symptom, no power. While disassembly is a little more involved than other thin clients, the repair only requires a soldering iron and ~$10 in parts.

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While not the geekiest thing in the world, cleaning is something that has to be done.

One tool that I use to keep things tidy happens to be a Bissell SpotBot. I have a cat, and as cats are known to do, she enjoys leaving hairballs in all sorts of inconvenient places. The SpotBot is a miracle worker when it comes to cleaning up the aftermath. I fill it up, set it on the spot, hit “Surface Stain” and I walk away. The machine sprays, scrubs, and suctions off all the nasty stuff while I go about my other business. Anyone that has a pet or child under their care knows that stains on the carpet are inevitable, so I wholeheartedly recommend this machine to everyone.

That said, after 5 years of abuse, my SpotBot stopped spraying solution. I knew that something was up a while back when the manual attachment stopped spraying anything more than a trickle. The death knell came the other day after my cat spewed up what appeared to be a completely separate feline in various places throughout my house. The SpotBot stopped spraying altogether right as I started cleaning. The pump, it seemed, had given up the ghost.

Because I am a geek at heart, I will not let any electronically powered device I own hit the trash heap before I get a chance to take it apart. I thought that the pump was dead, but I wanted to ensure that it was not just a simple blockage or crimped hose.

A word of caution – This tutorial involves the disassembly of a consumer product that utilizes 120v A/C current. Taking this device apart not only voids your warranty, but it may also be dangerous. Exercise caution when working on this machine as it operates using water. As you may recall from childhood, electricity and water do not mix. For safety’s sake, at least unplug the SpotBot before working on it!

Taking the SpotBot apart is a pretty easy task. All you really need is a Phillips head screw driver and a few minutes. A pair of pliers will be useful later on when moving hose clamps.

Continue reading “Bissell SpotBot Pump Repair” »

Recently I acquired 17 non-working Termtek TK-3370 thin clients from a friend who works in the e-waste industry. All were in great physical shape but none of them would power on.  The repair turned out being identical for all 17 units.

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I recently purchased an Xbox from eBay afflicted with the Red Rings of Death, in hopes of repairing it. While it ends up the console itself was beyond repair, I had hoped to at least salvage the DVD drive, if not other parts from the console.

I figured my hopes were dashed when I hit the eject button on the DVD drive and nothing happened, aside from a short whirring of motors. Upon taking the drive apart, I found that someone had drawn a big “X” on the drive tray with a Sharpie marker – at this point, I was pretty sure this broken Xbox would yield nothing useful other than some spare capacitors.

Eventually, I noticed that a gear and belt was missing from the drive assembly, and I figured that this was the cause of the tray not opening. You can see the two missing parts highlighted in the image below:

[Image from Llama.com]

The belt is connected to the motor at the front of the DVD drive, which is also connected to the gear that I was missing. This gear drives the larger tray gear on the left, allowing the drive to open and close.

I opened up a bricked hitachi I had laying around in hopes of pulling the gear and belt from that drive and transplanting it into this one. Unfortunately, the gear from the Hitachi drive was not only too tall, but a little different in design as well. It was pretty clear that it would not be a suitable replacement.

Looking around some more on Llama’s site, I found the image below as part of a writeup on Xbox 1 DVD drive disassembly.

As you can see, the drives are laid out in similar fashion, which would be expected as they are both manufactured by Samsung.

I dug up a DVD drive from an old original Xbox I had lying around and took apart the drive. I pulled the gear and belt, but much to my chagrin, the gear was too tall for the Xbox 360 drive. So, I decided to go out to the garage and see what a hacksaw could do about that. I ended up cutting about half a centimeter off the bottom of the gear, then I filed it flat to ensure good movement in the drive. I popped the gear into place, put the belt on, and crossed my fingers.

Much to my surprise, the fix worked like a charm! The drive opened and closed smoothly, and I went from a complete loss to a working drive in just minutes.

I don’t know how often this sort of thing happens to people out there, but I figured it might help someone who took their drive apart and either broke something or lost some parts.