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Finally fixed that power supply issue I've been chasing for months
I had this old Kenwood amplifier come in last Tuesday that kept shutting off after 10 minutes. Drove me nuts checking caps and transistors for hours. Turned out to be a cracked solder joint on the relay driver pin, barely visible even under my magnifier. Reflowed it with some fresh 63/37 solder and she's been running solid for a week straight now. Cost me maybe 20 cents of materials and a half hour of my time. Anyone else had a tiny little thing like that hide from you for way too long?
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laura1893mo ago
That cracked solder joint is a classic gremlin. I had a similar thing on a tube preamp where the filament pins looked perfect but one had a hairline fracture inside the insulation. Had to wiggle every single wire with a chopstick to find it lol. Sometimes it's the stuff that looks totally fine that'll waste your whole weekend.
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violamurray3mo ago
Oh @laura189, gotta hard disagree here. A chopstick wiggle test is basically admitting you already lost the game. Proactive diagnosis beats reactive poking every time. If you're spending weekends chasing ghosts like that, you're not using the right tools or methodology. A proper multimeter with continuity test and a good magnifier would've caught that hairline fracture in five minutes flat. The chopstick method is just swapping patience for skill.
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