Digest for sci.electronics.repair@googlegroups.com - 5 updates in 3 topics

8:55 AM Penedão
root <NoEMail@home.org>: Jan 13 06:43PM

The power button on a Garmin 305 is covered by a
thin rubber sheet that is part of the watch body.
The sheet covers a small plug that goes inside the
watch to contact a micro-switch. Over time the
rubber deteriorates until the rubber plug falls
out and the watch is exposed to rain, and the
on/off has to be activated by a toothpick.
 
I have tried putting my own plug in place and
covering it with a dollop of silicone, but that
only lasts a few weeks before it peels off.
 
I would appreciate any suggestions for how I might
hack some fix for the missing plug. Maybe a
suggestion for something better than silicone to
hold the plug in place (it has to be flexible enough
to allow the plug to move down to activate the
switch).
 
Thanks.
N_Cook <diverse@tcp.co.uk>: Jan 13 09:56PM

On 13/01/2015 18:43, root wrote:
> to allow the plug to move down to activate the
> switch).
 
> Thanks.
 
Assuming you can safely get inside, wire in a lead and then an external
arrangement to do the same
John-Del <ohger1s@aol.com>: Jan 13 01:07PM -0800

On Tuesday, January 13, 2015 at 11:35:47 AM UTC-5, N_Cook wrote:
> > Beside one of the holes is a white dot. Is that where the positive of
> > the capacitor goes?
 
> No standard on that, compare with other caps/dots on the same pcb
 
And if there are no other electros on the board with which to compare it, check the voltage across it, or get a non-polarized cap instead.
mroberds@att.net: Jan 13 06:26PM

> Got one of these in and the customer seems hot to trot.
 
Most likely, he's making copies of DVDs from Redbox, or possibly from
the local porn store, if they rent DVDs. (Some people *still* haven't
heard of the Internet.)
 
> are a bit hard to find. [...] I nbeed a read drive and a write drive
> and I need black fronts to match.
 
> So I see a burner on there for $16.
 
The local used computer place has piles of used optical drives for, I
think, $5. Not that you'd sell the customer used drives, but it'd be a
cheap way to make sure that you can use any random drive.
 
The local new computer parts place (Micro Center) has a brand new LG
DVD-ROM for $8.09 and a brand new DVD-RW for $10.79. As usual, Best Buy
is a ripoff.
 
> Another question is, this isn't one of those deals where I have to get
> the drive from them is it ? (whoever they are)
 
It's hard to say. I would lean a little towards "any drive should work",
because People's Shining DVD Duplicator Factory #4 has the same problem
you do: the guy that they bought drives from last week, 500 drives @
$0.97, can't get any this week, so they had to buy them from a different
guy, 400 @ $0.98. They *could* be making weekly firmware changes to
support different drives, but I think that is a little less likely.
 
> If they are using standard drives, maybe there is no hardware
> detection and it set to the OEM drives ?
 
The only thing like this I can think of: if it has one DVD-ROM and one
DVD (+,-,sqrt) RW in there now, it might depend on detecting the DVD-ROM
drive to know which one is the source and which one is the blank. If
this is happening, it probably doesn't care that the DVD-ROM is an LG
model 1234, just that it's not a burner. They might not be doing it
this way, though.
 
One thing I do know: back when DVD burners first got faster than 1X,
they were software limited to like 1.5X when sold in the US (MPAA
problems). You had to download modified firmware and flash it to the
drive to get the full speed it was capable of. This was in the 2X and
4X era; I don't think it applies to DVD burners faster than that. Even
with this restriction, using a random burner may *work*; it'll just be
slow.
 
Another thing I've seen, this time with hard drives: Original SATA ran
at 1.5 Gbit/sec. SATA 2 runs at 3 Gbit/sec and SATA 3 runs at 6
Gbit/sec. However, if you plug a SATA 2 hard drive into an original
SATA controller, there's a good chance that it won't work. Most SATA 2
hard drives I've seen have a jumper to limit the hard drive to SATA
speed, and I've had to use that jumper to get it to work before. This
may not affect you; I don't know if any DVD drives have SATA 2 or 3
interfaces.
 
> Also, if these things respect copyguard the job could get blown off.
 
I don't know about the region code thing.
 
Matt Roberds
whit3rd <whit3rd@gmail.com>: Jan 13 12:25PM -0800

> Got one of these in and the customer seems hot to trot.
 
> it must have worked because the burner drawer is not closing, and the eject button is out of the read drive. Figgure we will just change both drives and be done with it.
 
If this is intended to copy DVD videos, there's a problem. All DVD mechanisms read all tracks,
but recording mechanisms never RECORD the DVD-video leadin/region code tracks. For
that, you need a special mechanism, and/or special blank disks. Without some special
hardware, a DVD duplicator only copies data DVDs.
 
I'm not certain that a read mechanism reports the video leadin information, it might
sequester/digest that internally.
 
You might just be better off putting a new belt into the 'not closing' drawer mechanism.
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