melannen: Commander Valentine of Alpha Squad Seven, a red-haired female Nick Fury in space, smoking contemplatively (Default)
melannen ([personal profile] melannen) wrote2011-02-19 10:52 pm
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I am typing this post on a computer that actually works because I figured out what was wrong with the power cord, and spliced it, and soldered it! Myself! And now my computer will charge even if I am touching it!

And I am also listening to music. In stereo! On a pair of headphones that actually work! Because I re-soldered the wires to the speaker that had come lose!

\o/

Look out, world, I have a soldering iron and know how to use it. Sort of. No electronic gadget is safe. (actually I have eight more pairs of broken headphones and earbuds to try to fix. Maybe after that I'll be confident enough to actually do something more complicated than fixing wires.)
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lady_ganesh: A Clue card featuring Miss Scarlett. (Default)

[personal profile] lady_ganesh 2011-02-20 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
FUCK YEAH

I think I will have to try that myself with this power cord soon enough (beep, beep, beep).
melannen: Commander Valentine of Alpha Squad Seven, a red-haired female Nick Fury in space, smoking contemplatively (Default)

[personal profile] melannen 2011-02-20 11:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Good luck! The power cord and/or socket for this laptop has only broken, um, six? possibly eight? times so far. But with ingenuity and good friends, we carry on!
calvinahobbes: Calvin holding a cardboard tv-shape up in front of himself (doctor thumbs-up)

[personal profile] calvinahobbes 2011-02-20 12:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Rock. On. :oD
melannen: Commander Valentine of Alpha Squad Seven, a red-haired female Nick Fury in space, smoking contemplatively (Default)

[personal profile] melannen 2011-02-20 11:55 pm (UTC)(link)
\o/
phoebe_zeitgeist: (fire)

[personal profile] phoebe_zeitgeist 2011-02-20 03:42 pm (UTC)(link)
What sort of solder are you using? I have tons of solidarity with your feeling of triumph, but I've always stopped at the splicing-the-wires stage of the process. It works, especially when you bind very carefully with electrical tape, but it's relatively fragile and needs to be re-done periodically.

I can't imagine why it never occurred to me to solder the joins -- I occasionally do solder silver, after all -- but it didn't. And now I'm thinking, yes! could go back and actually fix some of this stuff!
melannen: Commander Valentine of Alpha Squad Seven, a red-haired female Nick Fury in space, smoking contemplatively (Default)

[personal profile] melannen 2011-02-21 12:00 am (UTC)(link)
I'm using a basic silver-bearing electronics solder wire with rosin core, and the variable-power soldering iron I got for Christmas. I am under the impression that jewellery/metalworking soldering requires much higher temperatures and much scarier equipment, but I bet if you can do that you can do simple electronics no problem with the right equipment.

And yeah, I've been making do with lots of electrical tape, too, but solder feels so much more secure! Also, electrical tape doesn't work quite so well when it's broken right at the ends - let me tell you about the time I made myself a socket out of electrical tape and bare wires. (Or, rather, don't - it only burned through the tape and needed re-wrapping about once every two days!)

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