Electronics > Repair

most broken equipment you run into?

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coppercone2:
What equipment do you think breaks the most?

IMO from what I have seen, its either scopes or power supplies. In terms of breaking without a bad user, its scopes IMO. Lots of broken supplies because of solenoids or batteries, but scopes just break.

In the repair equipment closets I seen, scopes seem common.

And they are usually treated better, since supplies are cheap compared to scopes.

Zenith:
Scopes don't just break, they can struggle on for years being useful to the owner with only one channel working, or the triggering not working properly, or some feature not working, etc. Back in the day they were expensive prized possessions, and wouldn't be lightly thrown away, even if they didn't work at all. There were commercial repair services, but they were quite expensive. I'd say that power supplies were more likely to be thrown away.

Scopes are almost certainly inherently less reliable than power supplies because of complexity, many switches and controls which can cause problems and very high voltage circuitry.

I haven't taken a count, but I have the impression I see more second hand/junk scopes than bench power supplies. Maybe it's just that I notice the scopes.

I don't see many of those little analogue multimeters around that were popular in the 60s and 70s. They were fairly easy to damage and most people would prefer a DVM. There'd be much less reluctance to throw one away.

coppercone2:
i still see it with new scopes though ;D like keysight

MadTux:
Well, with oldish Tek scopes, unless tube or a few custom parts break, it's all user fixable, even tube and ASICs can be salvaged from part units.

Nowadays, break any custom chip in a scope and it's usually bricked. Unless you have BGA rework station and a unit for scrap to salvage parts, you're screwed.
Then shitloads of programmed parts, too. Where you usually can't get firmware for.

Power supplies, until maybe 2000s, it's usually easy fix, unless VFD display or something.

It's even fricking welders, nowadays. Imagine that thing for 20years in metal dusty workshop, electronics fry for some reason and you have the fun of fixing it.
https://www.mikrocontroller.net/topic/557851

Zenith:

--- Quote from: MadTux on December 09, 2023, 08:05:13 pm ---It's even fricking welders, nowadays. Imagine that thing for 20years in metal dusty workshop, electronics fry for some reason and you have the fun of fixing it.
https://www.mikrocontroller.net/topic/557851

--- End quote ---

Low end amateur grade inverter stick welders are a likely contender. They are built on the cheap, they are kept in damp sheds and often showered with metal particles. No conformal coating or channeling to direct the cooling air only to the heatsinks. They are very clearly not intended to be repaired and there's very often no service information at all.

El cheapo SPMSs cause a lot of problems.

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