4 ms·

Probably once or twice a year, I find some piece of electronics out on the curb by the street (stereos, TVs, whatever). It is almost always a blown capacitor on

Probably once or twice a year, I find some piece of electronics out on the curb by the street (stereos, TVs, whatever). It is almost always a blown capacitor on the power board, because we don't have a grid where I live, and so we have pretty unstable power supply (at least by the standards expected by most Americans). Still vastly better power than most places in the world, but it does kill a lot of electronics, which most people just don't fix. So they toss it. And then I come pick it up, replace the blown caps with high quality replacements, and then I have a perfectly good television. It's pretty crazy.

justboxing 9y ago
> And then I come pick it up, replace the blown caps with high quality replacements, and then I have a perfectly good television. Sweet. I think there's a business model in here somewhere...
- fapjacks 9y ago
  You're probably right, and I've repaired so many over the years that I've started to run out of friends and family to give them to. I get so much out of the actual repair work that I don't feel like I'm losing out on anything, but your comment has got me thinking that it's something that could be valuable charity. I'll look for a proper place to donate. Thanks for the suggestion.
germinalphrase 9y ago
Not being super savvy with electronics - but enjoying to tinker - is this a visually apparent problem or do you need the test the capacitors to identify the issue?
- fapjacks 9y ago
  This is almost universally a visually striking thing to identify. If you google for blown capacitors you'll see what I mean. I should also mention that "capacitor plague" is a different specific issue caused by poor quality components. I've seen a few different kinds of failures, but the majority of them are bad capacitors on the power board. The way these things fail (when it's due to a power issue like we see here), there's a loud "pop" sound, and that's a capacitor exploding, usually on the power board. It leaves black marks, soot, etc. I have very rarely ever needed to use my multimeter, although I do use my multimeter anyway, just to ensure I'm actually doing worthwhile repair work. Other things cause shorts on the boards which can damage something and cause someone to throw it away. I have opened up a TV and found one of those big, tropical, "outdoors-only" cockroaches that straddled the wrong traces. Heh I've seen some weird stuff but yeah, usually the problem is very easy to spot.

justboxing 9y ago

> And then I come pick it up, replace the blown caps with high quality replacements, and then I have a perfectly good television. Sweet. I think there's a business model in here somewhere...

fapjacks 9y ago
You're probably right, and I've repaired so many over the years that I've started to run out of friends and family to give them to. I get so much out of the actual repair work that I don't feel like I'm losing out on anything, but your comment has got me thinking that it's something that could be valuable charity. I'll look for a proper place to donate. Thanks for the suggestion.

germinalphrase 9y ago

Not being super savvy with electronics - but enjoying to tinker - is this a visually apparent problem or do you need the test the capacitors to identify the issue?

fapjacks 9y ago
This is almost universally a visually striking thing to identify. If you google for blown capacitors you'll see what I mean. I should also mention that "capacitor plague" is a different specific issue caused by poor quality components. I've seen a few different kinds of failures, but the majority of them are bad capacitors on the power board. The way these things fail (when it's due to a power issue like we see here), there's a loud "pop" sound, and that's a capacitor exploding, usually on the power board. It leaves black marks, soot, etc. I have very rarely ever needed to use my multimeter, although I do use my multimeter anyway, just to ensure I'm actually doing worthwhile repair work. Other things cause shorts on the boards which can damage something and cause someone to throw it away. I have opened up a TV and found one of those big, tropical, "outdoors-only" cockroaches that straddled the wrong traces. Heh I've seen some weird stuff but yeah, usually the problem is very easy to spot.