Adventures in soldering

[annathepiper]

So this afternoon, I attempted to get butch enough to actually fix a couple of broken things: the tuner I use to tune my instruments, and our treadmill. Unfortunately, both of my attempts appear to have been in vain.

The broken wires in the tuner were soldered easily enough, and I got that done with solarbird looking on to advise me on how to best solder stuff, since I hadn't done that in some time. And we got electrical tape wrapped around the connections, to try to keep them from breaking. The trouble was, this didn't resurrect the tuner. Dara thinks the part to which the battery connects is screwed up; she couldn't get it to beep when she prodded it with the multimeter. Fortunately, she says, that's an easily replaceable part that we can pick up at Radio Shack for 40 cents or so. So hopefully we can get that fixed tomorrow or so.

On the other hand, the treadmill is proving a bit more of an adventure. The basic problem is that while the thing powers up okay, the console is totally dead; none of the displays come on at all, even with new batteries. So I went poking around online, found the manual for the thing, and reminded myself how to take the thing apart--because this is not actually the first time I've had to fiddle with the treadmill to make the display go again. I found the thing called a "reed switch" which is supposed to be about 1/8th of an inch away from the magnet set into the pulley that actually makes the treadmill turn...

And discovered that the wires leading into the reed switch were broken. Snapped off practically right at the side of the switch itself. I tried to solder them back on, but the break is so close to the actual part that I couldn't manage to get everything lined up right to make a connection. Grf.

Fortunately the part seems to be orderable online from the same site I found the manual, but when Dara gets home from her concom meeting tonight, I shall get her second opinion on whether the part is solderable or whether we'll just have to order a new one. The good part of the latter option is, at least, that ordering the part should only cost us about ten bucks. And that's way cheaper than a new treadmill.

All in all, though, I feel suitably butch for having tackled both of these problems with my own two hands. Didn't actually fix either device, but at least I ID'd the issue all by myself on the treadmill. ^_^ So that's something!

Comments

[solarbird]

Well, you fixed the thing on the tuner that you tried to fix. There was just an extra separate thing that was also broken and needed a new part.

[annathepiper]

Very true! :)

[shikyrie.livejournal.com]

Fortunatley for me, most of my "fixit" jobs seem to be successful... though supergluing Kat's eyeglass frames where the little screw goes in was a little extreme (the inner screw threads were so stripped I couldn't get a new screw in)... got it to hold and told her to check out wallyworld on Monday or Tuesday to see about replacing the frames...

[annathepiper]

Good for you for fixing them long enough to hold, anyway. Hope she gets new frames.

Reed switch..

[(Anonymous)]

Ten bucks for a reed switch? No way! Take the old one out, go to Radio Slack,and find one that's the same physical size/amperage rating(few reed switches go over three or five amps)..or close enough,depending on how much leeway you have where it's located. You should be able to get one(possibly a package of them) for a couple dollars or so. These are very common items.Or you could get a little geeky and substitute a Hall Effect switch..Scott

Re: Reed switch..

[annathepiper]

This would have been much more useful advice had it arrived before I ordered the part off the treadmill maker's site last night. :) Ah well.

I didn't know they were common parts.