Fixin' to be Green

Fixing a Cordless Drill

2010-10-01T07:00:00.000-06:00

I have a DeWALT DW953 cordless drill and it's seen a lot of use over the last 15 years or so.

Recently, the speed selector / gear shifter broke (see picture to the right; small black part top center) rendering the unit useless.

The shifter mechanism had been growing stiffer and more difficult to use in the year or two prior to its failure.

Rather than throwing it away, I thought I'd try to fix it and get another 15 years of life out of it. Here's how I did it.

Summary
The factory part is no longer available for purchase, so I had to fabricate a part that would serve the same purpose using readily available material and a minimal set of basic hand and power tools.

Factory Parts?
Factory replacement parts are always a good option versus fabricating or hacking your own fix. It's easier and doesn't usually cost much. I started at DeWALT's parts page. From there to the DeWALT service net which allows you to find parts for this and other brands: Porter Cable, Delta, and Black and Decker. I found the exploded diagram.

DeWALT DW953 Exploded Diagram

The broken part is #9, the "SHIFTER", and is no longer available. Probably because it was poorly designed and all the spare parts stock burned up a long time ago.

The Shifter

The shifter is a piece of plastic which engages a C clip (the curvy thing extending from the rectangular part 9 above) to move the shift collar in the drill. Part 10 is a detent spring that locks the shifter in the high or low position. You can see the C clip below and you can see the channel that part #9 rides in.

Note shifter wire (C clip) and channel for part #9

Shifter Details and Failure

The shifter is a piece of plastic with a channel in it, into which the C clip fits. The channel essentially broke in half as you can see in the top center of the picture below. Below the broken part is a teaser of my fix.

The shift selector split in half

Options and Solution

I could have used plastic glue to repair the part. I've used plastic glue before with some success. But I don't entirely trust it for high stress areas and the design was already weak when it was a solid piece of plastic. A glued piece of plastic might not hold well.

Epoxy can make strong repairs and may have been a good option, provided both halves and the wire C clip were all glued together with a big blob of the stuff. This would've strengthened the area and it may have survived for a long time. But not as long as metal.

Instead I chose to crudely fabricate a replacement out of aluminum. Any of us mere mortals without a CNC machine in the garage can replicate this work with basic hand tools.

Making a Replacement

I made the replacement out of two pieces of aluminum arranged in layers. The top layer slides in the original channel in the drill's body (below).

Channel where shifter slides. Some material had to be removed.

The bottom layer (right) has a slot to hold the C-clip. The slot has to be only just wide enough to hold the C clip rigidly upright so it can shift the geartrain of the drill.

Top layer (left) and bottom layer with slot (right)

The top layer (left) has a relief cut to let the c-clip fully seat into the bottom half slot. I cut the slot in from the side as that was the simplest approach.

Bolted together

The layers are bolted together. I used a tap to make threads in the bottom layer. A bolt with two nuts serves to hold the pieces together and provide something to grab to select the drill's speed.

Finished and installed

I also had to remove some material from the drill body, specifically the channel in which the part slides. Otherwise it was a pretty straightforward process.

The Results

How does it work? The first iteration didn't work well as I positioned the knob/bolt in the wrong spot. The second time around I got it right. Shifting has never been smoother.

Which is good but also bad. There's no longer a spring to make the shifter click and stay in place. It slides so easily that the shifter will slide forward and backwards just with gravity.

I'll figure out a fix for that one of these days... But at least I have my drill back.

Batteries

I'm due for new batteries, however. I am thinking of getting rebuilt battery packs rather than buying new. I looked around and I think I'll go with Voltman Batteries. We'll see.

Fix a Flaky USB Mouse

2010-09-01T07:00:00.008-06:00

The cheap, broken mouse

I bought these cheap $5 optical computer mice from a local computer store (CompUSA, when they still had storefronts) several years ago. They've held up great to daily abuse but after awhile, one of them started turning itself off if I moved the mouse in certain positions. One of the wires inside the USB cable had broken.

Sure I could throw it away like everyone else and add yet more crap to the landfill. Or I could pull the ultimate "in your FACE, throwaway society" move and actually repair an ultra cheapo piece of disposable modern technology. Well, obviously the latter was my choice.

Ha. Take that!

Identifying the problem, it was pretty clear from bending the wire with the mouse plugged in that the break in the wire was very close to the mouse body itself. I'd have to cut out the bad section of wire. Easy.

First, take apart the mouse. Most look pretty similar inside. A small circuit board with optical sensor, USB chip, etc., to which the USB wires are soldered, an optical sensor on the board. Couple of buttons, scroll wheel, etc.

The exposed mouse guts. USB wire at top, sort of left

Next, cut off the bad part of the wire, desolder the end of the bad wire off the board, making careful note of the position of each of the colored wires.

Newly stripped USB cable with color coded wires re-soldered

You might consider knotting the wire to prevent it pulling out of the mouse housing. Now, strip the remaining good wire outer jacket. Then individually strip a short section of each of the wires, and resolder to the board. Reassemble the mouse and you're set.

I didn't bother with the strain relief at the mouse body. A blob of RTV would work but I think it'll be fine as-is. There, that's all that it takes to repair a bad mouse wire!

New Fixes Coming...

2010-08-15T14:03:00.000-06:00

For new readers, welcome! For everyone, there are some new fix-it articles coming. I'm now posting new articles every month and will continue to do so until I run out of things to fix or talk about (we'll have flying cars by then I'm sure). Some upcoming titles:

Fix a Flaky USB Mouse,
Broken Radiator Bracket,
Fixing a Cordless Drill

Enjoy and thanks for reading!

Fixing Another Chair

2010-08-01T07:00:00.033-06:00

I never realized how much I rely on my office chair's arm until the thing came off. I'm not throwing out the chair for something that is this simple to fix. That would be absurd. Yet I'm sure people do just that all the time.

Here's what I did to fix it, so you can keep your chair if something similar happens.

First you have to figure out the broken item in question is constructed.The arm is attached to the back with one bolt through the back frame. It screws into a threaded insert in the arm. The arm attaches to the seat with two bolts and two threaded inserts.

Two threaded wood inserts attach arm to seat

Threaded insert

Next, figure out the root cause. I tried simply reattaching the arm but it didn't work; the threads seemed stripped. Further investigation revealed something else going on.

The bolts in the seat didn't extend out very far at all. As a result, they engaged only the first couple of threads in the inserts and those threads finally gave way. Either the countersunk holes in the seat weren't drilled deep enough, or the bolts weren't long enough (maybe I used the wrong bolts when I assembled this thing?). Fortunately, the bolts at the back do extend far enough and fully engage the inserts.

Bolt is too short to engage threaded inserts

Finally, evaluate repair and redesign options and pick the one that best meets your needs. I could have gone through the trouble of drilling the countersunk holes deeper. But why not just install longer bolts for a minimal cost (if you don't happen to have bolts of the right size and pitch)?

Well... that was easy.

To prevent a similar failure on the left side, I swapped those bolts too. Thread locking compound on the bolts will hopefully prevent them from backing out.

This chair has been in heavy use for five years or so. Aside from tje finish fading in a few spots, you may have noticed that the seat (is it leather or is it naugahyde? or pleather?) is cracked and coming apart. Clear packing tape is holding it together for now, but a recover and repadding is in order. My butt will thank me.

Fixing a Chair

2010-07-01T07:00:00.064-06:00

One of our dining chairs' seats came loose. I guess if they still had it in stock we could've bought one. But fixing it was easy and only took me about 20 minutes. Here's what went wrong. The seat is attached to the chair frame with three screws in pocket holes (arrows, below). Two of those three screws stripped loose from the wood and so the top was loose.

Arrows show pocket hole locations

I don't have a pocket hole jig, so the next best approach was to drill vertically through the 4" deep chair frame. However, the screws I have aren't long enough to go all the way through, so I needed to drill a large countersunk hole, bigger than the screw head, and drill a smaller concentric hole through which the screw shaft would pass and finally drill a small tap hole in the chair seat. Drill stops make it easy to ensure the right depth of the larger counter sink hole.

Screws and tools required: drill bits and drill stops

Most drill bits don't have pilot bits on the end, so your best bet is to drill the small hole first and then drill the countersink using the first hole as a guide. Or, use a Forstner bit with a spike on the tip, or as I did, a bit with a pilot tip, and use the small center hole these bits create as a guide to drill the smaller hole. Position the chair seat, screw the screw into the chair wood a little, to create a mark, then drill the tap hole into the chair seat. Now fasten the two parts together. Below is the countersink hole offset from the pocket hole.

Pocket hole, top; countersink hole, bottom

Fix it better than new!

2010-06-01T07:00:00.000-06:00

One of the things I learned from my dad is that it often isn't enough to just fix what breaks. Sometimes you have to fix the original design, too. Fix it better than new!

If whatever broke in the first place was due to bad design and engineering then fixing what broke will probably fail again. The best way to fix something is to understand why it failed and improve upon the original design.

I'll try to give you examples of this principle in all the fixit articles I post. Like adding the spring to the step pedal trash can. It reduces the forces needed on the pedal, so less chance of failure in the future. Or the Yamaha receiver's display backlight bulb. Throw a small resistor inline to run the bulb a little cooler so maybe it'll last several years longer than last time. If the mechanical structure failed, reinforce it.

Fix an Old Solar Calculator

2010-05-01T07:00:00.003-06:00

I wonder how many calculators get thrown away every year? Rather than pitching it, I'm going to give my trusty old scientific calculator some TLC and extend its life another couple of decades*.

Though worse for wear, I've had this Casio fx-115M solar-powered engineering calculator since I bought it new around 1988 for Electrical and Computer Engineering 101. That's 22 years ago. Dang, I'm getting kind of old.

Anyway, it served me well through college and continues to be my go-to engineering calculator for many of my hobbies and projects like robotics, electronics, home repair, mechanical repair on the Jeep and more.

Early on in it's life, the calculator's critical inverse key tore loose. I replaced it with a carefully cut piece of eraser which remained in place all these years despite constant use. The fix worked surprisingly well, believe it or not. Even so I decided to "upgrade" to a newly and squarely cut piece of white vinyl eraser. (I spared no expense on this repair!) :)

Inverse key was replaced 20 years ago

The screen is pretty scratched up. Some day when I finally get a buffing wheel I'll polish it back up again, a technique that should work for most plastic faceplates on a variety of products.

And with a little Goo Gone, I'll remove the Professor Fahey's sticker (verifying it is not programmable and ok for use on ECE exams). The stuff works wonders at removing many kinds of adhesive residue.

Several years ago, the battery backup function stopped working. The other day I finally got fed up and decided to fix it. I removed the two screws on the back of the calculator, carefully unlatched the tabs holding the shell together (actually one tab was broken).

Just two screws--easy!

Battery, holder, negative, and positive clips.

I found a small battery labeled National GR927. This link says to use a common 399 Silver Oxide battery, which I found at Radio Shack. With the battery reinstalled it will remember what "mode" it was in when I turned it off, eliminating my only frustration with the calculator.

When done, this old calculator will be good as new for another two decades. By then we'll all have brain implant calculators, I'm sure...

...with no inverse keys that tear loose.

* Why did I keep this antique calculator all these years? What features would possess me to hang onto it, or for that matter, what would possess Casio to continue making it, in an upgraded fx-115MS form? A short list of feature I like:

ENG button converts to engineering scientific notation: kilo, mega, milli, micro, pico, etc... extremely handy for electronics
It does math on fractions. No, not decimals, real fractions! Enter 1/2 + 1/3 and it gives you 5/6.
Does binary, hex, and octal conversion and logic operations--helpful for programming geeks
Does degrees, minutes, radians math
Change precedence with parentheses
Does combinatorial math
Does factorial math
Does inverse trig functions -- give it a ratio, it gives you the angle.
And a bunch of stuff I've never used like standard deviation

Trade in Working Electronics

2010-04-22T07:45:00.004-06:00

Radio Shack sent me an email saying they take working electronics for trade. More information here. They refurbish the electronics. Didn't know that. Cool deal!

Happy Earth Day 2010 (April 22). Maybe it's a good day to fix something instead of throwing it away. Or take it in to Radio Shack to save some green.

Lamp Repair

2009-09-08T18:24:00.003-06:00

Lamp stopped working? Knob popped off and can't secure it again? What piece of junk, right? But not the kinda junk you toss, the kind you fix. One of our floor lamps had a socket that went bad right after the knob cracked and fell off. But it's a nice looking lamp, and I wasn't about to trash it!

I did a little web searching to see if I could find instructions for how to replace lamp sockets -- yeah, they are out there. You can do your own search, or find a book at the hardware store, etc. You'll want to follow reasonable, sensible precautions to work safely and to repair the lamp to a safe state.

In my case, just the socket itself was bad, though I bought the entire assembly from the hardware store. They are pretty cheap so no big deal.

Fixing was just a question of unscrewing the cap over the socket, pulling the socket out of the lamp (feed the lamp cord into the base to give some slack), and then swapping in the new socket -- after pulling that socket out of its assembly.

I preferred to swap one wire at a time to ensure the right wires remained on the right screws/tabs of the new socket. You'll probably want to make sure you get the same kind of socket, too -- like, 3-way vs on/off, same watt rating, etc.

Organize by Reusing Containers

2009-07-17T07:00:00.000-06:00

Here's another Fixit Fundamental. You can reuse (hoard?) containers to help you fix other stuff. So you're repurposing some things while helping you do a better job of keeping other stuff out of the landfill. Wild!

I always seem to have several repair projects going at once. These things take time, so as I take a break from one thing I start up on something new, or continue with another project. But always there's little nuts and bolts and pieces and whatnot that I invariably lose.

You can reuse any of the following containers and more, one per project, to contain those bits and pieces. Label the container with tape and a sharpie as to what project's parts are contained within:

Plastic yogurt container with lid (some brands have lids; large or small)
Plastic salsa container with lid
Illy espresso tin with plastic lining and screw top lid (yummy coffee too)
Steel coffee can with plastic lid (I also like Lavazza espresso but anyway...)
Large plastic pickle jar
Prescription medication container
I'm sure you can think of more...

Ok, sure, much of this stuff you'd recycle, but re-purposing is probably even better, right? Especially if it helps you keep track of several simultaneous repair projects.

Mostly what I look for is any container that has a lid that stands a reasonable chance of staying on even if bumped or dropped. Doesn't really matter to me if it is metal or plastic. The other thing is I try to hoard anything I use regularly like yogurt or salsa containers. Hope this helps you organize your repairs!

Squeezing more life out of that PC

2009-07-11T08:00:00.001-06:00

I say you can get up to 10 years of useful life out of a computer!

I know. You think I'm nuts. Or a luddite. A 30+ year computer geek regularly using a Mac G4 450MHz tower and a Compaq 1.5GHz Pentium 4 tower in the year 2009?!

They still work for me because, with a few techniques, you can squeeze 5-10 years of real, genuine usefulness out of a computer, and another 5 years of limited duty use before all the thing is good for is recycling or reuse.

The most important technique is to resist the urge to upgrade just to have the latest, greatest. I think it's more cool to squeeze life out of a computer than to get the latest, greatest. It's definitely cheaper and less wasteful.

In the interests of full disclosure :) I do have a 2.2GHz duo-core MacBook as my main computer but I also plan to keep it another several years. The iBook G3/800 that preceded it lasted me 6 years before it broke.

The Mac G4

I got the G4 in 1999, factory refurbished to save a little money, and it has been an excellent machine. (picture from http://www.adoptamac.com/ where you can buy these older Macs)

It holds all my music, many photos, and lots of other data on an external 300G drive. I've used it for web development, iPod updating, productivity, web surfing, movie editing, picture editing, and lots of other stuff I've forgotten.

What works and what doesn't

It is running an older Mac OS X operating system, Panther (10.4), iLife, the latest iTunes, the latest version of Firefox, an older Photoshop 7, Microsoft Office for Mac, and other stuff. Most of this stuff works fairly well.

Firefox is starting to get pretty slow, particularly client side code (AJAX). OpenOffice 3 is very nearly unusable because it takes SO long to load. Ripping CDs takes forever and with USB version 1, photo loads off the camera take a long time, too.

Software

Sometimes if you can get away with older software, like my old Microsoft Office X, it will continue to run fairly well. Sometimes it is unavoidable. If you're a gamer, none of this applies, obviously, because you always have to have the very latest, fastest machine to run the latest, best games. Even if you surf the web, having the latest feature-rich browser can really tax your old computer. Some browsers are more efficient than others. Firefox tends to be a bit of a pig where Safari is less so. I haven't played with Opera in awhile but when I first used it I remember it being quite zippy.

Memory

The main key to the life I've gotten out of this machine is memory upgrade. Once I upgraded to 768M of memory, it worked pretty well until probably 2007 -- 8 years. But the memory is speed limited, too. It would probably work a little faster loading larger software images like OpenOffice and Firefox if I maxed out the memory.

CPU

But it is still very CPU bound as evidenced by CD imports. For this, it may be worth trying to find a used Sonnet (or similar) accelerator card on that famous auction site. Even upgrading to 800MHz might help a little, but the computer's bus is still stuck at a slow speed and there's nothing you can do about that.

Other Hardware

I finally got around to installing a CD-R in the machine, something I'd been wanting for a long time so I could burn my music, photos, etc. I got a used one off of that auction site for something like $20 shipped.

If you play some older games and find the video card lacking, you could upgrade that too.

And it is possible to find USB 2 cards for the machine. I would suggest buying older, used versions of this hardware to keep costs down.

For any Mac you might want to check this website for tips on getting more life out of the machine: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/

Operating System

You might consider installing a different, somewhat more efficient operating system, particularly YellowDog Linux. You can select what packages are or aren't installed. You can even choose to disable the graphical interface.

Mind you, I'm not saying ot use an outdated operating system that is no longer supported with security patches. That is a recipe for disaster. I am saying to use a modern operating system that is more efficient.

Narrow Purpose

Once you get to a point where the system is really unable to do much of anything, you might find a very narrow use for it. For example, I could turn my G4 into a music server so that it's only purpose is to deliver music to my stereo. Or, if I ever get around to building that homebrew CNC machine, it could be used to run the control software. Or perhaps I could turn it into a firewall or a wireless access point.

The Pentium 4

I got this computer for $5 at a yard sale. It's a Compaq Presario 5000, 1.5GHz P4. It had 256MB of memory and came with XP. I loaded it up with OpenOffice, Firefox, IE8, and few other goodies.

Memory

All of this worked pretty slowly. Until I added 512MB of memory for a total cost of $26 shipped. Now it is tolerably fast running all the above software. I'm also using it to run LTspice, which is software for designing and simulating electronic circuits. This software is pretty lightweight and speedy.

I used to use the Pentium III as a software development station for one of my robots so I will transfer that software to the new machine. If I go back to managing my GeoCaching hobby on Windows, I'll transfer the data from my Pentium III and reinstall the necessary software.

I anticipate this machine will be pretty useful for some time to come.

CPU

Unlike a Mac, with a PC, options are a bit more open for upgrades. I can upgrade the motherboard and CPU. I'd tend to want to buy used because I could get a motherboard that's a few years old much cheaper than a new one.

Other Hardware

Video card upgrades are easy enough as well but I've pretty much given up playing new games and I think this system will do fine running my older games should I ever bother to load them up again.

Operating System

If it comes down to it, I may end up loading Linux or one of the BSD variants. But right now I am running some Windows specific software so XP does the trick. I wouldn't even consider Vista on any but the newest systems due to its tremendous CPU and memory requirements.

Reaching the End

At some point, you just have to throw in the towel and admit that your machine is fundamentally too slow and no amount of upgrades or leaner software will help. Throwing more money at it doesn't make sense.

When you finally reach the real end of usefulness for the computer, now what? For example, this Pentium III is just too slow to tolerate. I could load Linux but I don't really have any genuine use for it. I will look into recycling or else I will donate it. I don't have any info or experience recycling computers yet but I'll do an article on this when I learn more.

I used to have three Mac PowerMac 7500s with YellowDog Linux and really all they did was run Seti@Home. Slowly. :) (Pictured is a PowerMac 7200, image from www.forevermac.com) I had upgraded the CPU daughter cards in each one from a somewhat newer PowerMac.

One of them was a file server and one was a print server. It was tough finding decent sized SCSI disks, so the file server thing didn't work too well. Finally, I didn't really need file or print servers anymore, so I donated one to an art gallery after loading it with some older graphics editing / publishing software. The other two went to Goodwill in hopes someone would be able to do something with them.

Meanwhile I still have my rugged old IBM Thinkpad 760EL (133MHz Pentium II MMX, picture from thinkwiki.org) that I bought over 10 years ago--it was already obsolete at the time. I originally bought it as an information security laptop.

All I needed was command line Linux so I loaded RedHat 7 and some security tools and after upgrading it to 48M of ram (!) it was a useful little tool for several years and it performed fine.

It also has a Windows 95 disk (you can easily swap drives on this model) and now the only use it sees is to run an old version of GPS navigation software connected to a Lowrance GPS of 1997 vintage. It's such a solidly built machine I think it's perfect to ride in a Jeep but it's not terribly useful for much else.

I do know that some people find other uses for their computers, like this picture I found at www.riscx.com, a site dedicated to Mac case mods. :)

Laptop LCD Screen Repair

2009-07-08T00:47:00.014-06:00

You can get more use out of a laptop with a broken LCD. Here's how.

I recently got an old, broken laptop from a nice fellow off of Craigslist. Fortunately he'd just kept it around instead of throwing it away (too many toxins in electronics equipment to do that!)

The machine was in good shape, save for a broken LCD screen. Fortunately, this is a pretty easy fix. New LCD screens can be found on eBay for around $60 and on the web for a little over $100. (Seems to me this fix could remedy a broken desktop monitor's LCD screen, too.)

So, before we dive in, you may wonder: is it worth fixing a 5-10 year old PC? I say YES! I find that you can squeeze quite a bit of extra life out of your old PC or Mac, depending on how you use it. And that's a topic for a later blog post. Back to fixing...

Removing the Screen

Here's a quick overview of the repair and some important lessons learned. I went through some pain fixing this thing, so hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.

First of all, removing the screen is a question of removing the laptop's screen bezel, disconnecting the outer casing from the frame, and then removing the LCD from the frame.

On this particular model, an HP Pavillion ZE4900, two stickers and two small rubber bumpers cover screws that hold the bezel to the screen frame (see pic).

The Dell Lattitude D630 I use for work is similar. My older iBook has frame screws on the side of the housing (see picture).

On the HP and Mac, the screen frame consists of two vertical metal channels, one on each side of the screen. The LCD is screwed to the frame on the side at the four corners, but to get to those screws on the side, you have to remove four other screws that hold the frame to the outer casing.

Finding the Right Replacement Screen

For me the big challenge was finding the right LCD screen replacement part. The original was an LG Philips LP150x08(A5)(N1). I had hoped one could cross reference other manufacturer's part numbers and find an equivalent replacement, but I wasn't able to find a cross reference database.

Finding an exact replacement with the exact same OEM part number ensures a hassle free fix, but you may have to way awhile to find the part on that famous auction site, or you may have to pay more to get exactly what you want.

I suppose it is possible that you can get away with a similar model number. In this case, for example, maybe an LP150x08(A3) or LP150x08(TL)(A2) would've worked. I have no idea.

On the other hand, finding an equivalent may mean you end up buying one or more parts that don't fit. You can resell them, as I did with the WXGA screen, but you may end up being money ahead just getting an OEM replacement. However, if you feel like going through the effort of finding an equivalent replacement part, here are some tips that I learned the hard way!

Screen Dimensions and Resolution
Of course the most important thing is to ensure you get the right physical dimensions and screen resolution. A blog entry on icustompc.com explains the different types:

Standard	Resolution	Typical Use
XGA (Extended Graphics Array)	1024×768	[some 13- and 14-inch and most] 15- and 17-inch LCD monitors
SXGA (Super XGA)	1280×1024	15- and 17-inch CRT monitors 17-and 19-inch LCD monitors
UXGA (Ultra XGA)	1600×1200	19-, 20-, 21-inch CRT monitors 20-inch LCD monitors
QXGA (Quad XGA)	2048×1536	21-inch and larger CRT monitors
WXGA (Wide XGA)	1280×800	Wide aspect 15.4-inch laptops LCD displays
WSXGA+ (Wide SXGA plus)	1680×1050	Wide aspect 20-inch LCD monitors
WUXGA (Wide Ultra XGA)	1920×1200	Wide aspect 22-inch and larger LCD monitors

XGA is typically what you'd find on old school standard aspect ratio screens in 13-, 14-, and 15-inch sizes, like you'd find on original Mac iBooks or this 1.5GHz Celeron Pavillion, or a Thinkpad T42, or other computers of this era.

I mistakenly bought a WXGA screen because the seller claimed it was for a ZE4900 laptop. It wasn't. I needed an XGA. Oops. Don't do that.

In some cases, the video card on your laptop may support a higher screen resolution than the OEM screen can deliver. For example, the Pavillion was perfectly happy driving the WXGA screen above, though it obviously didn't fit, physically.

Thickness and screw hole spacing is critical, too. You could try to find datasheets for other models and verify that the thickness and screw hole spacing is the same as what you have. I didn't have a lot of luck finding datasheets for LCD screens except for a pretty big collection of LCD datasheets here at beyondinfinite.com. Hope that helps in your search.

Connectors
Also make sure the connectors are the same. Count the number of pins and look at the original connector socket on the screen to be sure.

The screen I replaced had 30 pins as pictured above, but I mistakenly got another screen that only had 20 pins, pictured below. Oops. Don't do that, either.

I did find a website that sells various inexpensive adapters between different LCD screen connectors. So this is one option if you find a screen that fits physically but uses a different connector than OEM.

As far as I can tell almost all of these screens use the same power connector to deliver power from the inverter, a long, narrow printed circuit board mounted below the screen on the frame, which powers the cold cathode fluorescent lamp backlight for the LCD screen.

Installation

As all the technical manuals say, installation is the reverse of removal. :) You might want to test everything before you fully reinstall. And that's all there is to it. A nice simple, inexpensive fix.

Sure beats spending hundreds on a new laptop and you save another piece of useful electronics form the trash (not that you'd throw it away, would you?) while getting the most out of the energy spent to build the computer in the first place.

Fixing a heat gun better than before

2009-06-26T07:55:00.002-06:00

This heat gun was destined for disaster! Followed by a simple fix; I'm not a huge fan of fixes that require machinist skills. Partly because I don't have the skills or equipment but, also, I'd rather share simple fixes that anyone can implement so that more stuff is diverted from destination Dump.

I bought this über-fancy Craftsman heat gun a few years ago for heat shrink tubing since using a cigarette lighter was a really sucky tool for the job of applying heat. And of course, I couldn't possibly get the low end heat gun like my wife did for her crafts. No, I had to get the heavy duty version. It even says INDUSTRIAL on the side, so it must be good! (It is at this point that we roll our eyes...)

After a couple months, I dropped it and the heat control dial ceased functioning properly. It felt like something broke off inside. That really sucks for a $110 heat gun.

I could've lived with it stuck at one (wrong) heat setting. Or, I could've opened it up and set the internal potentiometer to a more usable setting but left it non-adjustable. Or I could've simply glued the broken bits together to restore it to original condition. But what fun would that be??

I suppose most people, faced with an expensive, broken heat gun, wouldn't have thrown it out at this point. Maybe they would've had it repaired, or ordered replacement parts, I don't know. That isn't really the point. By not only fixing it, but making it better than it was before, there's a good guarantee the thing will last a long time and stay out of the trash and give the owner their money's worth out of it. So hopefully I'll inspire you to seek to fix and improve your broken widgets and wingdings.

Sometimes stuff we buy isn't engineered very well, and this heat gun's temp dial was a great example. The large flat disc was molded with a spindly little shaft coming out that engaged with the potentiometer. When I dropped the heat gun, that shaft snapped clean off because it had no real reinforcement at it's base. Chances are, Sears sells replacement parts but I'd wager they'd be just as prone to break.

So I took it apart. There are a few screws on one side that come out with a Phillips screwdriver. Easy enough. You have to unscrew the heat shield before you can separate the halves of the heat gun. Once you do pull it apart you see some electronics, a little motor to drive the fan, the heat dial, and some other goodies. What I originally found was the broken shaft (I could hear it rattling in there before I took the thing apart).

The shaft had parallel flats on the end where it engaged the potentiometer.

So instead of gluing the plastic shaft back in place, I decided to use a piece of threaded brass rod clamped to the dial with brass nuts. I chose brass because it is very easy to work with. I'd need to file down the flats and cut it to length. Brass is sufficiently sturdy and is kind of cool looking too.

I drilled a hole through the center of the dial, cut the brass rod to approximate length, then filed the flats by hand to fit into the potentiometer. Then assembled the dial, rod, nuts.

Then I put the dial back in place in the housing to test fit rod length. After adjusting for length using the nuts, I cut off the exposed end just long enough to put a fancy brass cap nut on it so it looks nice and holds the outer nut in place. A lock washer on the inside nut would've been a great idea. I've been using it for a couple years since the fix, it continues to work beautifully, and I am confident it'll hold up to all sorts of abuse.

Food for thought: another option would've been to use JB Weld or plastic compatible epoxy to reattach the shaft and also add reinforcement at the base. I like the brass better, but that's just me.

Stock up fasteners!

2009-06-22T05:05:00.003-06:00

Here's a tip I learned from Dad that's really helped me out. Hoard fasteners and oddball plastic and rubber things that may be useful some day. :)

Stock up lots of fasteners! When you don't have to always go to the hardware store to fix something, it sure is a nice time saver! When I need a bolt or nut, especially the small ones, I buy lots of them.

I have a fairly good stock of #8 machine screws (A) in a couple lengths with nuts and lock washers. I use these all the time for myriad fabrication and repair projects.

I stock up on drywall screws--they're good for simple wood fastening, home repair, hanging art, and more. I also save lots of small screws (B) which come in handy when doing computer and electronics repair. For auto repair I tend to save every bolt and nut I can (C) because you never know when you need one. This is especially helpful for lug nuts. And I tend to like to save all the wood screws I come across (D).

As for the hoarding of oddball things... particularly rubber and plastic items (E) seem to come in handy all the time.

Don't Toss that Turntable

2009-06-18T13:32:00.009-06:00

Do you still have your old records? Is your old turntable broken in a closet? Why not enjoy those nostalgic tunes again like so many other people lately?

Sounds like a job for you, The Fixer!

I remember all too well when CDs were new and within a few years, vinyl records were declared dead. Well, record sales never completely stopped. Now CD sales are declining while record sales, though small, continue to grow! After all, the ritual of playing records is way more fun and rewarding than pressing play on your iPod or CD player.

For right now, let's focus on a simple fix for your belt drive turntables. It turns on but the platter spins too slow or takes to long to spin up. Easy to fix! Just replace the belt.

You can still get new belts for old turntables from several reputable sites online (see below). That's what I did for my old JVC AL-A1 and for a recently acquired BIC 980 (pictured upper right; recognize the album, anyone?). You can still get new styluses and cartridges. And there's quite a few selections to choose from, too!

To replace the belt, follow these simple steps for most belt drive turntables. You might want to check vinylengine.com --register for free and get a free service manual for your turntable, if available.

First, remove the turntable mat. Next, lift the platter up off of the spindle and the belt should come loose. If you can't remove the platter, consult the service manual
Place the new belt around the belt drive surface on the platter. Some platters may have a convenient place to temporarily clip the belt so it'll drop over the motor pulley, otherwise, hold as best as you can.
Place the platter back onto the spindle and manually spin it until one of the access holes permits a good view and access to the motor pulley.
Place the belt over the motor pulley.
Replace the mat

You may want to replace that old stylus with a new one to prevent (further) damage to your records. I'll list a few of my favorite sites to get cartridges, stylii and all these other parts.

If the (semi-) automatic mechanism on your turntable is broken that is quite a bit more complex to fix, but it is doable. You can get help on the AudioKarma forum among others. Generally speaking, most automatic turntables need their mechanisms fully disassembled and cleaned and lubricated. That is how I got my BIC 980 to work perfectly once again.

Lastly, to get rid of those pops and crackles on old records, well... I'll save that for another article so I can do that topic justice.

Company
LPGear.com
NeedleDoctor.com
TurntableExperts.com
www.garage-a-records.com
VinylEngine.com
SoundStage Direct
Records-by-Mail
AudioKarma forum

Products
Cartridges, stylii, belts, record care
Cartridges, stylii, belts, record care
Parts for your Dual, Garrard or BIC
Various turntable parts
Free manuals for turntable, protractors
Great mail order record store for new records
Here's a great place to get used records!
Friendly helpful folks on The Best vintage audio forum

Stereo light burned out? Easy fix!

2009-06-17T08:50:00.007-06:00

Sometimes the backlighting on an older stereo receiver display will burn out. You can send it to Goodwill but then what kind of green fixit superhero would you be? Instead, you can easily replace the lamp and get years' more service. You can even try an improvement to increase the life of the bulb.

Assuming you have some very basic electronics safety and repair skills, this should be pretty straightforward. You'll need a screwdriver, soldering iron (and soldering skills), flux, electronics solder, possibly some small wire, a multimeter, and a wire cutter and stripper.

A couple months ago I was in the Goodwill again looking for vintage audio equipment, one of my (myriad) hobbies and spied an early 90's Yamaha stereo receiver that was marked as broken, as is, and priced cheap. So I thought I'd test it.

I connected some of the ubiquitous cheapo speakers nearby, turned the volume all the way down, and plugged it into the wall. When it powered up, the speaker protection circuit relays went "click" indicating all's well. (Most halfway decent receivers have protection circuits). When I turned up the volume, lo and behold I got sound.

The display was blank and black, however. I bought it, took it home, and pulled the cover and remove the mini "grain of wheat" bulb from the display housing. It was was silvery-black -- burned out. These small bulbs are available from a variety of sources like Radio Shack, Tower Hobbies, and one of my favorite electronics stores, All Electronics. They come in several voltages and some machines use wedge bulbs or other bulb types and you can typically get these too. If not you can find somethng close in size.

Next step was to power off, unplug, and clip the lamp off, strip the leads in the stereo. Use multimeter to measure voltage across the lamp wire (without letting them touch!). Use mini clips (see pic) to clip to the stripped leads, then plug in and power up with hands outside of the stereo. Measure for both DC and AC voltage. Then find a lamp that matches the voltage you read. It doesn't matter if it is AC or DC because the incandescent lamp won't care.

Next step is to solder in the lamp. If you get a lamp that comes with longish wire leads it is easier. If the wire leads aren't insulated it might be wise to put shrinkwrap over them and shrinkwrap over the base of the bulb. With the bulb connectted and hands away from the stereo's guts, power up and make sure it lights. If so, unplug, power off, reinstall the bulb, and replace the cover and you're done.

For the advanced types, if you find the voltage on the leads for the bulb is at or above the voltage rating on the lamp, you could install a small resistor inline with the bulb which will reduce voltage. It'll be dimmer, but hopefully run a little cooler and last longer than the original.

When I finished up with the Yamaha I enjoyed it for several days. It was really an excellent stereo, good imaging, soundstage, and that Natural Sound that Yamaha was known for which offers a high degree of timbral realism! Huh? Look, it sounded good, ok? :)

I then sold it to a nice fellow for a few bucks more than I paid, so he ended up with a deal, I ended up with a little money for my hobbies, and the machine will no doubt serve him well for years to come. I didn't manage to get a picture of the unit after the fix so you'll just have to trust me.

I also performed the same fix on an old Technics receiver I've had laying around, as well as an old Pioneer CT-F8282 cassette tape deck. I really love simple fixes!

Don't trash your trash can, fix it!

2009-06-12T09:47:00.018-06:00

We have one of those trash cans with the flip lid that you activate with a foot pedal. Ours failed and I think this is a fairly common problem with these cheap step cans.

The design is pretty poor, like so many things these days, meant to cut costs to the bare minimum (gee, thanks Carnegie), longevity be damned. (Or in some cases I should say, "obsolescence be planned")

First, the lid is heavy and there isn't a lot of mechanical leverage to lift it. A rod is actuated by the foot pedal and always required a lot of force to open the lid. It always annoyed me. The foot pedal is attached to the can body with metal tabs. Over time with all the forces involved, these tabs bend loose and the foot pedal comes loose.

So do we trash the trash can? Well, obviously not, judging by the kind of blog this is. So how did I fix this one? I gained a few months by fixing the bent metal tabs on the foot pedal. After a second failure, I had to come up with something more permanent.

With the main issue being the forces required to open the lid, I decided to try and use a spring to aid in the lifting of the lid. I got a pack of springs from HarborFreight a few years ago and they are always coming in handy.

I did a little guesstimating and playing around with the mechanism and decided on a couple of mounting points on the of the lid hinge. I didn't get it right the first time, but eventually I got the spring to where the lid will lift -- and also stay up -- with a fairly light pedal press. Then I fixed the pedal tabs again, hopefully for the last time (if not, I'll try something sturdier).

A little more creativity could be applied to camoflague the bright chrome spring. Flexible paint? Wrap in a heat shrink tube? Any ideas?

About

2009-06-12T09:00:00.007-06:00

Fix the useless to use less. Fix more, trash less, use less.

I like fixing things that break. It's something my dad taught my growing up because he is always fixing things. But, at least in the U.S., we live in a time and place where most of the time, broken stuff gets pitched in the trash.

Lately I've had a nagging feeling that I should be using my fixit skillz to live a greener lifestyle and encourage others to do the same. So I put together this blog to provide tips on living a greener lifestyle by fixing stuff. I'm convinced you can save some money doing this, too.

Maybe you're already mechanically inclined. Perhaps you even fix stuff all the time. I hope I can inspire you to set aside the time to save useful objects from going to the landfill. If you're new to fixing things maybe I can share some tips that will help you out.

Contact Me

2009-06-11T09:00:00.003-06:00