Boomers Fix Stuff !! What have you repaired ?

[Oldman]

Title of this Thread was inspired by a discussion I had recently with my 31 year old......

We have a component stereo/tv system that I put together many years ago. Separate: Amp., Tuner/Receiver, TV, Chromecast, Blue Ray player, iPod etc.
Way back, I bought a Logitech 600 "multi" remote, capable of being programmed to control all the pieces individually or in an organised sequence.
It's worked fine for many years but recently the buttons have become a bit hit and miss and I commented to our eldest that I really should pull it apart and see if I can fix it.
"Bloody Boomers ! " .....was his response,
"Just go out and buy a new one....by the time you dick around with it and probably stuff it up completely, it would be quicker and easier to replace it......"

Well, after that comment I was most definitely going to have a crack at repairing it !! 
Challenge accepted 
First up, Logitech no longer make these multi remotes and if you can find one new, they are hundreds of dollars....not my first option !
So, after a bit of YouTube searching/watching, I found a Tech guy that has posted how to repair these exact remotes !!
15 minutes later and now with a remote totally dismantled, I was able to clean all the contact points of the push buttons, reassemble and the remote is now working like new !! 
Very happy that the remote is fixed and that I was able to do it with a bit of a "can do " attitude.

So, what have you fixed lately ?
(Not Kombi related....there are other Threads more appropriate for that. )

[Mordred]

Having problems with the Logitech Harmony 650 remote as well but it isnt the buttons.  It wont program at all so I will have to go and find a new one.  Not a fixable item no matter what we try.  Evilbay has a few for 50-80 dollars so might be the go.

Adrian

[KIWI]

So, after a bit of YouTube searching/watching, I found a Tech guy that has posted how to repair these exact remotes !!

Link?
PR

[Oldman]

Link to the Harmony remote fix.
Here you go…..

https://youtu.be/g51kRQB2b4A

……and I used GP thinners on a cottonbud to clean the contact points……no issues at all.

[Oldman]

Having problems with the Logitech Harmony 650 remote as well but it isnt the buttons.  It wont program at all so I will have to go and find a new one.  Not a fixable item no matter what we try.  Evilbay has a few for 50-80 dollars so might be the go.

Adrian

Assuming you’ve tried the factory reboot via the Harmony website ?
I had to do this to ditch the previous settings and then go through the process of entering every appliance again, to get it to register and work again……

[Mordred]

Assuming you’ve tried the factory reboot via the Harmony website ?
I had to do this to ditch the previous settings and then go through the process of entering every appliance again, to get it to register and work again……

Yes, went through everything but it would crash midway through the boot.  Totally bricked

Adrian

[Oldman]

Bugger…..
Hopefully a second hand unit just needs a clean….

[T1 Terry]

Yes, went through everything but it would crash midway through the boot.  Totally bricked

Adrian

You did remove the batteries and put a filament type light bulb across the positive and negative to drain the capacitors? ..... probably the place to look if you are into repairing it, the cap looses its ability to hold the charge and causes the intermittent failures.
I only know this from fixing the Prius Gen 2 dash failure problem that was common to the early generations, wrong choice of capacitor from new, replaced it with the correct value and a $1500 part is fixed for a few cents ..... and a lot a swearing removing the whole dash assembly to get the circuit board out ...... 
The speedo would work if left over night, but a short run, ignition off, then attempt to restart, no speedo, fuel gauge, odometer, high beam light and few other bits .... including no cruise control ..... a real pain in the butt 

T1 Terry

[wirrah]

"Bloody Boomers ! " .....was his response,
"Just go out and buy a new one....

Hmmm... No wonder there is so much land fill these days.

[T1 Terry]

Hmmm... No wonder there is so much land fill these days.

Sadly, the art of repairing faulty stuff is being lost over the yrs, although with the long delays and savage price rises recently, it seems to be making a comeback. I remember the old LCD screens that would fade to black, a simple diode and resistor replacement brought them back to life, better than new often because the correct value bits were used ..... that lead to the old tale about electronic equipment only being made to last for X yrs so you had to buy a new one.

Try to find a TV repair man under 50 yrs old, or someone who will repair an amplifier for that modular stereo system you have built up over the yrs.

I sold a '70's model Fairlane to one of the boys we raised, first thing he did was remove the hifi tuner complete with equaliser and replaced it with a thing that sounded like stones in a tin can being kicked down the street ......

At one stage I was repairing the cheap 40 amp battery chargers that were on Evilbay for yrs, these things  https://www.grays.com/retail/op-bc-hc-40...ry-charger People would send me their dead ones because they had bought a replacement for $40 or less, till I ended up with a cupboard full of them. When we moved to SA, the wife stayed back at the Lake Illawarra house to clean up, not long after the place was sold and we were set up over here, I started getting phone calls about that old battery charger, was I able to fix it, asked the wife where they went ...... scrap metal, no one wanted them so couldn't see the value of cluttering up the new workshop with stuff no one wanted   Turned out they were no longer cheap on Evilbay and then no longer available at all ..... there was maybe 50 cents worth of parts to repair them so no great financial loss as far as that went, but the fact that all those perfectly good battery chargers ended up as scrap really irked me
 
T1 Terry