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A repair that I did for a local gentleman recently. (lemmy.ca)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by MapleEngineer@lemmy.ca to c/soldering@lemmy.ca
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I have an ad up on Kijiji saying that I will do electronic repairs. A local gentleman contacted me and said that he had an air hockey table that he had bought that had a broken connector on the controller board. I said I would take a look. I visited him and found that he was in his 80's.

When I opened the controller this is what I found.

I assumed that he probably had the table for his kids or more likely grandkids to play when they visited.

Some super glue, a bunch of scraping, some small pieces of wire, and some careful soldering later and he's back in business.

It turns out that he and his wife play air hockey from time to time.

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[-] harpo@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

Nice work! Repairing these old things always gives you that warm feeling, because this part would otherwise be impossible to replace.

[-] MapleEngineer@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

Thanks. The gentleman had tried to find a replacement part but struck out. I honestly thought that it was a write off but the break was such that I could glue it and the repair actually turned out really well.

[-] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 year ago

You do what a lot of people consider magic. This is so impressive. Fantastic work!

[-] MapleEngineer@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks. I was just really lucky with how the break occurred. The large surface of the break made gluing the board back together very easy. I then scraped off the solder mask on the traces and used thin bodge wire to span the crack to remake the connections and strengthen the repair. Had it broken any other way it would not have been repairable.

[-] Zoidsberg@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Those factors all helped make it possible, but you're still the one that made it happen. Good on you. I'm sure you brought that couple some happiness.

[-] MapleEngineer@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks. I haven't spoken to him since the day that I reinstalled the board. We hooked it up and everything fired up and he was very happy. He said, "You're not going to leave without playing a game, are you?" We played a game so that I could make sure that all of the features and functions were working (score, music, lights, etc.) When we walked upstairs his wife said, "Was that air hockey that I heard?" I hope they play it any enjoy it.

this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2023
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