Скачать или смотреть I Broke This Emergency Triangle Light While Fixing It

Originally recorded December 20, 2022.

Some days you got it, other days you don't. Yet other days, even if you got it, don't have it in for you. This was one of those days.

The wif had commandeered this Triangle Worklight from Harbor Freight as soon as I got it. I was OK with that, I had made my video and it was going to sit with the rest of the blue lights from Harbor Freight, not doing anything anyway. She had used it for some time. Then, one day, the batteries in it died and she asked me for replacements, so I replaced them. She continued to use it, but it soon fell into disuse.

For whatever reason, it recently surfaced again. It now had one of the red LEDs not working properly. Plus it had aged. She told me she doesn't really use it anymore and gave it back to me. Oh joy. That's great, now that it's broken.

One of the reasons it was broken is that she probably dropped it several times. Inside I found broken plastic. Could that be why the LED was failing? Possibly. I chalk it up to made in China. Likely, that LED had a dodgy solder joint at best, and dropping it make it break loose fully.

Since I have it, I figured we'd throw it under the 'scope and take a good look at it. Sure enough, that LED had a bad solder joint. I got out the trusty Weller and, while I really don't do any solder work on boards, I figured I could TRY and fix it. Worst case I'd break it and it would be no great loss. Or I'd bridge the solder joints, preventing the whole chain of LEDs from working, but I'd see that and correct it. Or I'd rip the trace on the board and then it wouldn't easily be fixed, at least not by me. So, knowing that I really didn't have much to lose, I touched up the solder joints on that LED, and it seemed to work quite well, perhaps I'm more skilled than I give myself credit for.

Now that it worked perfectly again, it was time to reassemble, and here's where things went sour. It had aged. Aged plastics become brittle. When made out of Play Doh™ plastic from China, it really gets brittle. Despite my using a manual screwdriver and watching the torque, the plastic promptly broke, leaving the case open with no way to close it back up. The fine folks at Scotch Tape had a solution for me, so I taped it shut. It's not pretty, but it works. When the batteries need replacement, the tape can easily be peeled off, batteries replaced, and the tape replaced. Not my best work, but sometimes, the equipment just doesn't have it in the cards for you.

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