What did you last repair?

I heard a story about some touring band that took their 60 hz hammond organ somewhere with 50 hz power. They had to take a spare amp, bridge it and feed it a 60 hz signal to pull off the show.
Maybe I can teach my kids the lovely speed trick I was able to pull with the M2. I am guessing it was slower than half speed.
 
Sunfire 300 joules meter lamp and stuck movement

the needle would only move under finger pressure and stay where ever you put it
unsoldered the +/- tabs ,removed the 2 face wing chrome screws and pulled it out leaving the half moon
metal circle in the white housing ( completes the magnetic field. )
thinking it was just too tight, loosened the brass slotted screw and it moved back into a free swing again
put it back into its while chassis hole sliding by the metal half circle and it did the same thing again, only move
by finger pressure.
only by tapping the +/- tabs quickly on a diode function DVM did it move and return back to normal operation
And now works perfectly - very strange behavior
 
This goofy lamp. Total rewire , rust removed, chrome polished, black repainted.
B902CB77-D13F-41F7-8D4F-010B4C3E9F90.jpeg
 
Not fixed yet, but our 7 year old GE microwave worked fine one day but buzzed loudly and didn't heat the next. It happens to be wall mounted over the stove surrounded by cabinetry on three sides. The biggest challenge was getting the 55 pound beast off the wall. That required three people.

Once off the wall and cracked open it was obvious that the buzzing sound was coming from the HV power transformer. There are only 4 parts in that circuit, the transformer, the diode, the capacitor, and the magnetron tube. It is a novel voltage doubler design that uses the magnetron tube as the second diode. This circuit does run at 3000 to 5000 volts and in this 1100 watt oven (1700 watt input) it's probably closer to 5000. More people have been killed messing with a microwave than all other appliances combined. My live testing consisted of disconnecting things and listening for the buzz. Testing for HV was limited to disconnecting something, firing it up, powering down and unplugging the unit, then discharging the cap with a pair of insulated pliers. No buzz when disconnecting the diode or cap (transformer likely OK). I did get spark with no buzz when disconnecting the magnetron and discharging the cap (transformer, diode, and cap likely OK). An ohmmeter revealed that the magnetron was a dead short from cathode to plate. A new magnetron and diode (since it ran into a dead short and is hard to test) are on order.

It seems that buzzing microwave ovens that were fixed by replacing the Samsung magnetron are not uncommon. I will know for sure once the tube arrives.
 
It seems that buzzing microwave ovens that were fixed by replacing the Samsung magnetron are not uncommon. I will know for sure once the tube arrives.
Yet another Samsung branded product defective?
Add that to the ever growing list of their products, some even having class-action lawsuits.
That's one brand that I'll never buy... or trust.

By the way, you never "dead short" capacitors to discharge them, it causes a high-current internally that compromises and damages the insulator material.
 
Samsung makes lots of great stuff - Most of which doesn't have a motor (save for vibration). Now that the USA has screwed over Huawei, they are the only mainstream phone maker I'd consider (besides Google - I wouldn't use an Apple product if you paid me).

I currently have an 85 inch Samsung TV that's been on 24/7 for a year, a 32 inch 4k monitor than been on for 3 years, and several mobile devices by them. All of which work as they should. I had a Samsung printer cack after 10 years though but it was 100$ for a colour laser when iI bought it so 10$/year for that seems reasonable. I wouldn't buy a Samsung appliance though. Or Lucky Goldstar for that matter.

Dead shorting a cap is perfectly fine if you don't really care about it / it's a small value. Hell, I used to charge a 330uF cap to 400V and short it on a frying pan just to scare my friends and I never did kill it...
Typical microwave is an oil cap which is far more robust than most others, too.
 
Samsung makes lots of great stuff - Most of which doesn't have a motor
You've been one of the lucky ones.
Keep your fingers crossed.
But tell that to the hoardes of others joining class-action lawsuits against that company.

Washing machines that literally exploded in spin cycle, punching huge holes in the wall.
TV sets in warranty that crapped out and customer service didn't want to be bothered with.
Other home appliances that failed, causing home damage.

And in the shop I've dealt with sam-crap tech service, and they're as annoying and condescending as a brattish child.
No thanks, not for me.
 
Yet another Samsung branded product defective?

By the way, you never "dead short" capacitors to discharge them, it causes a high-current internally that compromises and damages the insulator material.
It's actually a GE branded microwave, as is our entire kitchen. It was chosen primarily due to Sears selling us an $8000 kitchen and laundry room full of appliances for under $5K during their first bankruptcy filing. I had no clue who actually made the unit, and am still not really sure, but the maggie, the vent hood blower motor and a few other parts are branded Samsung.

The cap is 0.86 uF so there shouldn't be enough current in an arcing discharge to hurt it.
If the magnetron was a dead short I'm surprised the oven didn't blow a fuse...
The power supply in a microwave is a strange system designed to limit the total power in case a user runs the oven empty or nukes things that shouldn't be nuked. The transformer runs on the edge of saturation and the capacitor is too small to be a real filter cap, 0.86uF in this case. In this circuit a dead shorted magnetron (measures under 1 ohm) just puts the cap across the transformer secondary.
 
It's actually a GE branded microwave, as is our entire kitchen. It was chosen primarily due to Sears selling us an $8000 kitchen and laundry room full of appliances for under $5K during their first bankruptcy filing. I had no clue who actually made the unit, and am still not really sure, but the maggie, the vent hood blower motor and a few other parts are branded Samsung.
GE, like many other brands, have sold their souls out to cheapening overseas crap.
GE used to be an American favorite, as was RCA, Philco, Emerson, Maytag, Westinghouse, and hoardes of others.
But today?........ it's all a bunch of overseas crap.

And since buyers, even long-time ones who always trusted those American brands, aren't aware of the drastic change-to toss-away-garbage of these products, they're left with nothing but to re-purchase more of it, keeping those companies in business - selling more crap.

Sad state of affairs.
It never used to be that way.
And people laugh at me for hanging onto my old (reliable) appliances from the 1960's,1970's?
I laugh back when they are forced to keep buying junk.

I get: "You need a new dishwasher, a new washing machine, a new refreigerator!"
No, I don't.

My next door neighbor's got "upscale" GE Monogram kitchen appliances.
Fridge and dishwasher both broke down.
GE tried to rape them for parts - $535 for a little circuit board for the DW?
I think not, I managed to get for them for $150.
The fridge was on a recall, so that PC board was free thankfully.
 
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Got lucky on my Father"s GE Convection/microwave/fan overhead oven in the spring of 2020. It was at least 10 yrs old and weighted a ton also . It was buzzing bad and not working so I thought I would change the 2 cheap parts first, the diode and capacitor and luckily it is still working fine to this day! I believe it had a Samsung Magnetron and that would have only cost $40 if needed. and the $70-80 transformer was good.
 
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Remeber the Maytag commercials, showing the repairman appearing to be sitting around bored all day; nothing to do? My father had a GE fridge that he would have got 50 years of continuous service out of, but replaced it a couple years short. That'd be one bored GE repairman. How'd the oil / freon in the compressor last that long?