Author Topic: Fixed my phone charger.  (Read 2174 times)

prodarwin

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Fixed my phone charger.
« on: September 28, 2013, 10:09:42 PM »
Ok, not super badass.  But, I'm pretty sure 99% of the public would toss their charger and buy a new one for $5-15 when it broke.

10 mins of my time, a used zip-tie, $0.02 in electrical tape and it works great.  Just had to break open the end, shorten the wires, and re-solder them to the board.  It broke from the wires flexing too much near the plug, so I took a piece of the excess of the zip tie and wrapped it in with the tape to add a little structure to the area.




gimp

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Re: Fixed my phone charger.
« Reply #1 on: October 01, 2013, 10:45:55 AM »
Oh dude, absolutely! Almost any broken charger is broken because one of the contacts worked its way loose. And those are usually large, easy to hand-solder contacts. You can usually epoxy or glue the charger back together. It's a five minute fix and teaches you awesome repair skills.

This also works often for things like remotes and other small, cheap electronics. Contacts that broke or fell off the PCB (some wires are surface mounted instead of stuck through a hole).

Having said that, if you ever work with a charger that plugs into the wall: wear some sort of gloves when you take it apart. If you see a big capacitor - it looks like http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Electrolytic_capacitors.jpg - put it back and don't touch it unless you know what you're doing.

And don't even think about taking apart really old TVs and monitors, since they often have huge capacitors that keep a 400V charge for decades.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!