Introduction 

Main Log

Introduction

Canon A560 Camera

A550/A560 Lens Assembly

 I have repaired countless electronics consumer items. In fact, whenever I go to visit friends, they almost always have broken items set aside for me to repair. I'll put down my experience in this area here.

Again, so far I've not been keeping notes on what I repair, but in the future, whenever I repair something, I'll take notes and reproduce tips here. I don't know how to format this area, but once I've collected more notes from future project, I might work it out. For now, I'll put down some tips:

1. Mircowave ovens: 99% of microwave ovens that I have repaired have had problems with varistors, aka transient/serge absorbers (see this link for an example). Only in one case, the protection switch, which keeps the microwave from turning on when the door is open had burnt out. This would happen if you drop the microwave, and the switch gets cracked. This will result in loose connection, and the resultant sparking will in time completely burn out the switch.

More on transient/ surge absorbers. These are passive components, which are normally put right after the rectifier circuit to absorb any surge. They look like a fat, round ceramic capacitor, normally in a dark colour (deep blue, red or black for example). Their resistance depends upon the voltage across them, and in case of a surge (a spike in voltage), their resistance decreases, providing a shunt for access current, and thereby protecting the electronics circuit to which the rectifier is providing power. With age, they degrade (this will make them fire on lower voltage than they're supposed to, and you'll see intermittent operation), or fail altogether, in which case it will stop working.