On 8/15/2014 11:29 AM, Jay Ts wrote:
A sharp, hi-res photo can show a lot.
At least a few of us here on RAP would find a photo of the PCB
interesting and informative.
It's gone now, so I can't take a photo for you, but for future
reference, what would you like to see? Can you point me to a photo on
the web or on a file host that shows what you'd find valuable? And also
point out what you're seeing that's useful. I'll try to help next time
around if you can convince me that a photo would be more useful than
just to prove that I was able to open the case.
Incidentally, I tried to get a good picture of the different color
states of the meters and it just wouldn't work, even with a fully
adjustable digital camera in the hands of a decent technical
photographer friend. If the top red section was on, half the meter
photographed red, and that's not what it really looks like. My friend
speculated that a film camera might work better for this application,
but we didn't bother.
You wrote that the unit was not easy to repair because it's all SMD, but
there are different kinds of SMD parts, some larger than others, and are
more open to repair, depending on individual skills.
Trust me on this one. When I said that it wasn't easy to repair, I meant
it's not something that the average user would attempt, or if he tried,
would probably not be successful at it. Maybe one out of a few hundred
users will have the tools and skill to repair it, that is, assuming you
could get a schematic and board layout drawings from the manufacturer.
But in the real world, if anything on the circuit board goes, perhaps
with the exception of a power supply component, it's not going to be
repairable by anyone but the factory.
I've replaced a couple of SMD 2-terminal parts if there's some working
room, but this was so cramped that I didn't have tools small enough to
work with. But then, I'm still in the analog and discrete world when it
comes to service.
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