The ghetto mod thread

[Spork Schivago]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Rubber bands rock!

There seems to be some clear plastic sheet between fan & heatsink, what's that for Momaka?

I like this mod by Momaka and I might use it.

[Dan81]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

My ghetto mod for this year must've been a cooling fan to cool myself because it was hot in here. I simply used an Allied AL-8400BTX PSU (the one I've repaired in the PSU section here) and a 92mm AVC 12v fan wired up on the PCI-E connector (at least it's worth something ) along with a jumper wire between green and black. (PS_ON and GND)

[eccerr0r]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

I wonder if my Coolmax PSU fix is ghetto enough... It this jury rig a kludge, bodge, or ghetto fix?
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...7&d=1501352814
The two brown jumper wires were added by me to fix the burned track underneath.

If I had twisted the wires together and left them above the board, epoxied down or not, then I suppose it would count... LOL

[stj]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

i draw the line at bodging psu's - i dont want to risk anything downstream.

[diif]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

I wonder if my Coolmax PSU fix is ghetto enough... It this jury rig a kludge, bodge, or ghetto fix?
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...7&d=1501352814
The two brown jumper wires were added by me to fix the burned track underneath.

If I had twisted the wires together and left them above the board, epoxied down or not, then I suppose it would count... LOL

That's not a bodge but a photo of the very rare solder sloth upside feeding on some vegetation.

[eccerr0r]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

A lot of these are calculated risks I suppose. Main reason why I went ahead and kludge/bodge fixed this is because this is in the primary circuit - if primary fails, everything is down, anyway - unlike if the control circuitry is bodged, then the output could go out of spec and cause downstream damage. The burned tracks were too weak to reuse so I had to use the solder to make up for the loss of the foil.

I figured that the main risk of repairing this is repeat insulation failure, and that I spent extra effort trying to ensure that it doesn't fail again. I'm not sure how others would have repaired this damage, or could have just treated this as a total loss/parts unit (which I was intending this PSU to be when I first got it).

[stj]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

i would have cut the burned section of pcb out, and rebuilt it with epoxy.
then probably lined or partially butchered the casing!

[momaka]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

I like this mod by Momaka and I might use it.

Go for it. Just beware that those rubber bands dry-rot and degrade very quickly. When I made that mod, I didn't know better. Luckily I didn't use the computer like that. I replaced the fan with a better one and got rid of the rubber band.

A lot of these are calculated risks I suppose.

Exactly.
There's no guarantee you won't get a bad PSU even from a reputable manufacturer that manages to burn itself out and the rest of your equipment. With repaired PSUs, at least I know what was wrong and what I fixed and how I fixed it.

That's not a bodge but a photo of the very rare solder sloth upside feeding on some vegetation.

lol

[diif]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Here's one from yesterday/today. A vestel taken off the wall still with two HDMI cables plugged in.
I possibly should have looked on ebay for a board and I wasn't given the remote so haven't tested it yet.
I will be sealing the wires once I've tested the repair as they are bare strands of copper and not coated magnet wire.

[eccerr0r]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Maybe we need a different thread for bodge/kludge jobs and leave this one for the ghetto, I think that HDMI fix is too "professional" to be a "ghetto" fix (and perhaps my burned track fix too...)

[momaka]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Here's one from yesterday/today. A vestel taken off the wall still with two HDMI cables plugged in.
I possibly should have looked on ebay for a board and I wasn't given the remote so haven't tested it yet.

Dang, I thought I've done some fine trace repairs, but never so many next to each other. I admire your patience for this one.

On that note regarding removing equipment with the wires still connected... I had a 17" CRT monitor that I forgot was plugged in the wall. So when I lifted it up and started moving it, all of a sudden the CRT pulled away from my hands and fell on the floor. Surprised the crap out of me when that happened. Luckily I have a carpeted floor so nothing broke. Also had a similar accident with the VGA cable plugged in another CRT monitor. But them D-SUB bastards are built tough and made to handle rough handling (lol ).

As for ghetto mods, I am working on a video card + fan upgrade for one of my old PCs. Just made a metal bracket to hold an 80 mm fan to the case where the add-on card screw to. Will take pictures when it's done.

Maybe we need a different thread for bodge/kludge jobs and leave this one for the ghetto, I think that HDMI fix is too "professional" to be a "ghetto" fix (and perhaps my burned track fix too...)

Yeah, I thought about that too when I made the "Worthless/Pointless" repairs thread. I figured that since a lot of my ghetto repairs are worthless, I wouldn't need to... but now I see that we may need one indeed. In fact, you can see that a lot of the "mods" I posted here in the past are actually repairs.

[diif]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Thank you for your kind words Momaka, it was you worthless/pointless repairs thread I was looking for, perhaps I should have tried harder (used search).
The repair probably took about an hour on and off, so pointless from a labour point of view vs cost of a replacement board maybe, but more an exercise in can it be done. Certainly quicker than waiting for a replacement board if I can find one.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

You guys should see my (soon-to-be-old) work computer.

[stj]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

T12 soldering iron stand.

ingredients:
1 weller iron stand - base section for weight.
1 joke stand from china.
1 pencil eraser
2 M5 screws.

[diif]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

T12 soldering iron stand.

ingredients:
1 weller iron stand - base section for weight.
1 joke stand from china.
1 pencil eraser
2 M5 screws.

Nice work

[stj]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

it's actually more comfortable just throwing the iron onto a "V" instead of poking it into a spring!

[momaka]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

it's actually more comfortable just throwing the iron onto a "V" instead of poking it into a spring!

Indeed. That's pretty similar to how I made the stand for my soldering station as well.

*Edit*
Looks like I even posted this a while back:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...&postcount=290

[kc8adu]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

anyone remember wordless workshop?

[piernov]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Power Mac G4 Quicksilver PSU replacement
Original PSU failed, no power at all, and I didn't know how to fix them back then (6 years ago). So I took an ATX PSU and modified the connector's wiring.
And I added a laptop power brick (from a Compaq Armada 4120) to feed the +24V line (with 20V but it works) as I was using the original Apple display which doesn't have an external power connector. Before that the +24V was feeded by the +5VSB.

[momaka]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Power Mac G4 Quicksilver PSU replacement
Original PSU failed, no power at all, and I didn't know how to fix them back then (6 years ago). So I took an ATX PSU and modified the connector's wiring.
And I added a laptop power brick (from a Compaq Armada 4120) to feed the +24V line (with 20V but it works) as I was using the original Apple display which doesn't have an external power connector. Before that the +24V was feeded by the +5VSB.

Ha, nice! I think I've seen people do/suggest that here before on BCN when those proprietary Apple PSUs bit the dust. It works, so why not.