Camera Battery Charger Repaired Part 2
I went to take some pictures with my camera and the battery was dead. So I put in a fresh battery and put the dead battery on my charger, and the charger was dead – again! Those that remember my last article fixing this charger will remember that it had bad solder joints on one or both through-hole inductors. You will also remember that I purchased a new battery charger with extra batteries on Ebay. Below is the first article:
https://www.jestineyong.com/lcr45-peak-atlas-tester/
As you can see in the picture, the LED is not lit, indicating that the charger is not working. So let’s see what is wrong this time.
I took it apart pretty easily this time by carefully hitting a screwdriver with my hand to break the 4 drops of superglue on each corner of the case that I applied after the first repair. I looked over the PCB and components on the board and did not see anything wrong. Rather than start taking off components and checking them, I decided to assume that I had more bad solder joints.
So I sucked the old lead-free solder with my Hakko 808 de-soldering pump on the mains connector, fuse, R29 resistor, and the other e-caps that still had original non-lead solder on them. Then I soldered them back with good leaded solder.
Success, it is working again!! I was right about there being another bad solder joint! The other battery in the first picture is being charged in the new charger that I bought, so I used this extra battery to test this charger with.
This article was prepared for you by Robert Calk Jr. from Texas USA and he is a Hobbyist that loves learning & repairing electronics. He welcomes any comments and suggestions you care to contribute.
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Merlin Marquardt
November 21, 2014 at 11:07 pm
Very nice.
Robert
November 22, 2014 at 6:32 am
Thanks Merlin.
asim
November 21, 2014 at 11:21 pm
Nice to share this good experience
Robert
November 22, 2014 at 6:33 am
Thanks Asim.
Humberto
November 21, 2014 at 11:21 pm
Another good repair Robert. I've been seeing you own good tools.Keep up and congratulations.
Robert
November 22, 2014 at 6:34 am
Thanks Humberto. I love my tools and meters.
Anwar Shiekh
November 21, 2014 at 11:30 pm
The lucky people in aerospace, the military and medical industry are still allowed to use good old leaded solder.
Gerald
November 22, 2014 at 4:39 pm
Hi Anwar,
I was not aware of that. Good information thanks. It certainly shows the world that there are serious doubts about the reliability of lead free solder...
Cheers,
Gerald
Yogesh Panchal
November 22, 2014 at 12:00 am
Congratulations! Mr.Robert
Robert
November 22, 2014 at 6:35 am
Thanks Yogesh.
randy warren
November 22, 2014 at 12:15 am
Hakko 808 rules! Now that is what pros use for de-soldering, not a solder sucker, nice!
Robert
November 22, 2014 at 6:38 am
My Hakko 808 is worth it's weight in gold! It is such a time saver.
Raghu
November 22, 2014 at 12:55 am
Mr. Robert a good article. Thanks for sharing this article, but can you please tell me that how do you find the dry joints exactly? Is it by your experience or any method you have?
Robert
November 22, 2014 at 6:41 am
Thanks Raghu. Sometimes you can't see the bad solder joints because they look good on the surface. So you just have to re-solder the components in the hope that you will find the culprit.
Patrick
November 22, 2014 at 2:46 am
Wow,AWESOME!
How do you find bad solder joints with the naked eye?
Does it cracked or changed color?
Thank you.
Robert
November 22, 2014 at 6:52 am
Thanks Patrick. I have a lighted magnifier visor, a 20x lighted loupe, and magnifying lenses. You can't find every bad solder joint because they look good on the surface and the bad connection is hidden beneath the surface.
So like in this instance to save time, I just re-soldered a bunch of components in the hopes that I would find the culprit. If you want to and have the time, you can re-solder them on at a time and find out which component the bad joint was in. But since I already had bad solder joints on this device before, I decided to just re-solder all of the through-hole components that I didn't re-solder the last time I fixed it.
And fortunately it fixed it!
Robert
November 22, 2014 at 6:58 am
Also, in my picture I'm wearing my Aven Carson Pro lighted magnifier visor.
Patrick Yun
November 22, 2014 at 4:55 pm
Thank you for giving good tips Robert.
I will try to use good magnifier like yours.
Robert
November 23, 2014 at 5:58 pm
You are welcome. The visor is real handy. The Aven that I'm wearing in the picture is kind of expensive and comes with different removable lenses of different strengths that fit in a plastic case. It is so much better than the cheap ones though.
Mark
November 22, 2014 at 10:32 am
Hey Robert,
Thanks for sharing your work. Dry solder joints can be one of the hardest repairs to find and yes it may be best just to resolder the joints to find the culprit.
I have bought a Digitech QC3199 magnifying camera that goes up to 300X and is USB connected. It is great for the details.
I haven't used a de-solder pump before, but after doing some research, it will be high on my purchase list, next time I manage to save a few dollars.
Keep up the good work!
Robert
November 23, 2014 at 6:20 am
You are welcome Mark. I forgot to mention my digital microscope that also takes pictures.
My Hakko 808 was only about $150US. It saves so much time and also transfers less heat to the components and PCB's.
Waleed rishmawi
November 22, 2014 at 11:52 am
Good job on the repair my friend. Keep up the good work.
Robert
November 23, 2014 at 6:21 am
Thanks Waleed. I hope things are going well for you.
Waleed Rishmawi
November 24, 2014 at 2:21 am
thanks Robert. yes, things are going great. yes, I started another job and then the repair work got better and better..now, I can not keep up with it and it feel great to do repairs again..it is lots of work though but loving it
i am doing maintenance job for a company here located in Bethlehem and now other people are sending to get their stuff fixes through this company. it opened a new field of repair for me. wireless units receivers and transmitter units, dimmer lights, sound mixers and others. it is great
beh
November 22, 2014 at 12:07 pm
ROBERT: yes you did this .and that is why you are the great man of DFW metropolitan .
Robert
November 23, 2014 at 6:26 am
Thanks Beh. I'm just a Hobbyist learning like everybody else. But having good tools and great books from Mr. Yong and others makes repairing devices easier.
Vicken Mardiros
November 22, 2014 at 2:53 pm
thanks Jestine for and Robert too for repairing this charger
Robert
November 23, 2014 at 6:27 am
Thanks Vicken.
Gerald
November 22, 2014 at 4:48 pm
Hi Robert,
Good input, thanks. It confirms my suspicions about the lead-free solder.
By the way, I like your isolated variable AC power supply. Regarding the Hakko I have a 474. The de-soldering gun is damaged beyond repair and they ask too much money for a new one. So I am back to the sucking tool and de-soldering wick 🙁
Cheers,
Gerald
beh
November 22, 2014 at 5:10 pm
HI GERALD
recently i repaired my de- soldering gun too. min is japan brand GOOT and after dis assembly just by a few drop of light oil repaired and now is working very well .tell me what is the problem of your gun . to tell you what to do.
thanks
beh
Gerald
November 23, 2014 at 7:47 am
Hi Beh,
Thanks for your input. Here the heating element is clogged with a sort of very hard reddish compound, looks like rust. The external parts of the heating element are rusted too. Obviously lack or preventive maintenance from my side... The humidity is very high in Malaysia and we get this kind of problems. Even with high temperature I cannot get rid of whatever is inside.
Maybe you have an idea?
Cheers,
GM
Robert
November 23, 2014 at 6:28 pm
Hi Gerald,
There should be something that you could use to keep your tools out of the humidity. I think some people here in the USA use cedar chests, if I remember right. Or maybe you could make a closet into a de-humidifier like cigar stores do.
beh
November 23, 2014 at 10:09 pm
Hi Gerald
if the problem of your de-sodering gun is heating element . the only way to solve this problem is to buy this element from the HAKKO company and replace it .but my problem with GOOT de-soldring gun was because of the lack of the lubricant on mechanical part of the vacuum pump the pump was stocked and just by few drop of oil the problem was solved and mechanical arm start to work again . here i do not have problem with humidity and is dry every where sea is 1000 mile away from here
all the best wishes for you
beh
Gerald
November 24, 2014 at 4:21 pm
Thanks Beh,
Yes I have to look out if I can find the heating element alone as the whole gun is too expensive.
Humidity is a problem but also has one big advantage: we do not have much static electricity problems 🙂
Cheers,
Gerald
Robert
November 23, 2014 at 6:31 am
Thanks Gerald. I'm sorry to hear about your de-soldering gun. I don't know anything about the 474 but my 808 saves so much time it pays for itself.
reza
November 22, 2014 at 8:24 pm
hello mr robert
good article.
thank u.
Robert
November 23, 2014 at 6:33 am
Thanks Reza. I'm glad you liked it.
biruk aweke
November 23, 2014 at 12:13 pm
hi mr. Robert it is very nice repair mostly short circuit can be made by cold solder.
Robert
November 23, 2014 at 6:03 pm
Thanks Biruk.
G
November 23, 2014 at 12:18 pm
thank you for sharing your good and useful experience.
Robert
November 23, 2014 at 6:04 pm
It was my pleasure, G. Thanks.
Anthony
November 23, 2014 at 2:52 pm
Good work Robert! Did you know that my cordless phone didn't charge up ? This happened about a year ago. I didn't think that there was a problem on the phone,so I took the phone's base apart and I found the same problem like your camera charger ,it was cold solder.I tapped the circuit board to see if the charger's red led lite up.It did that off and on. It was a cold solder joint. The de-soldering tool are better and faster when you are trying to remove digital feed thru. chips,ICs.Do you guys find find it better when your try to remove the feed thru holes chips than the SMT chips with this de-solding tool in the old days?If you are using the leaded solder,alway make sure that you put an ion fan in front of you. I know this sound funny,Bob,did you know that my former co-worker name is Robert Calk Jr. too. Did you ever worked for a CAD/CAM company long time ago in Massachusetts? You do look familiar.
Robert
November 23, 2014 at 6:22 pm
Thanks Anthony. I have different sized tips for my Hakko that I use. Yes, it is perfect and less stressful for IC's to use the de-soldering gun, and much faster. If my house burned down and I lost everything and had to start all over, the Hakko 808, Fluke 87V, a good analog VOM, and the Peak Atlas DCA75 Pro, would be the first tools that I would buy.
No, I have never lived in Massachusetts. But I was a truck driver and have been there many times. It's a very beautiful state!
Joshua Oloo
November 24, 2014 at 5:35 pm
Thanks for the article sir.keep up the good work.Regards !
Robert
November 24, 2014 at 8:23 pm
You are welcome, Joshua. I will do my best.
beh
November 25, 2014 at 1:26 am
GERALD : go to this link and find the element there
http://www.amazon.com/Hakko-A1174-Heating-Element-Desoldering/dp/B000E9ZDCC
Gerald
November 25, 2014 at 10:27 am
Thanks Beh, I really appreciate your help.
The de-soldering gun I have is 809. Not so sure if the 807 at Ebay is the same so I will contact Hakko to check before buying.
Cheers,
Gerald
beh
November 25, 2014 at 12:19 pm
GERALD :you are welcome i am sure you can find for your own model.and
happy repairing
beh