In anticipation of a new toy arriving today, yesterday evening and after seeing the miserable quality of the iPhone photos captured for the ‘OMT Microscope: Part 1’ post, I dug out my ageing Canon Eos 100D SLR camera, with the idea that maybe I could use it to capture fairly decent images from a microscope. The Eos 1000d has an approximate 10-megapixel capability, which I think is a bit lower than the iPhone, but it’s a canon camera, that’s got to count for something, doesn’t it?
Of course, the charger wasn’t in the same place as the camera, but luckily, I was searching for a computer cable in the loft and almost accidently found the charger. Initially the camera’s battery charged up as you would hope, but then at some point later that evening the lamp on the charger was simply not illuminated green as it should be. I popped the battery out of the charger and into the camera. The camera powered up as expected or hoped. But now the thoughts were; when the power drains out of the battery I’ll be stumped. No battery charger, no camera operation!
Today I am going to attempt repairing the charger, but if all else fails I’ll have to buy a new one, or at a very, very last resort, figure out how to safely power the camera with an AC too DC adapter… Hold your breath!
09:30 I will be back after an intermission of undeterminable duration…
{Many Hours Pass} You can breathe again now…
18:00 I’m back. The good news, I have repaired the battery charger. The bad news, the new toy arriving today has not arrived. EVRI delayed the delivery yesterday saying they had bad weather where they were! Today they messaged me to say it has been delayed again, but didn’t blame the weather this time, they didn’t say why it was delayed. I know things happen and I must be patient, but I really want the new toy to arrive. Everything I am doing now with the camera and the charger will have all been in vain if it gets lost. So, fingers crossed, tomorrow or Sunday (Fathers Day in Britain) the fun thing will arrive.
I have recorded a series of short videos about this little problem which I’ve stitched together and vaguely edited to cut out the really embarrassing bits. If you like, you can watch the creation at the end of the writing bit; that is, if you really want to challenge your boredom coping skills.
In order to save your energies for the video, I’ll try and give a brief overview of what went down with the repair.
The casing of the charger held together with two torx screws and clipped together around the sides. The circuit board inside showed no obvious signs of damage, nothing exploded or burnt, though I could smell something had been hot. As a repair technician you get a sense for these things. The circuit initially seemed quite simple but then later I discovered it was more complex on the underside. Ultimately, I found that a rectifier diode in the secondary stage of the power supply/charger was surprisingly short circuit. Embarrassingly I didn’t make a note of the PCB designation of the diode, but the video identifies its location. The diode itself is an SB3100 3A 100V Schottky Rectifier. I did not have an exact replacement; however, I scavenged an old laptop A/C adapter for a diode that would work, a bit of an over rated diode at 30A 100V but it works, it doesn’t look pretty, but it works. Now if that wasn’t boring enough for you, try the video. If you survive the video, consider subscribing…
ENJOY!!!
After watching this video https://ivanthudd.substack.com/p/canon-eos-1000d through myself, I realise I'm talking a lot of gobbled-e-gook, so if there are any questions you might have, please do ask. I'll be happy to try and explain anything you want to know about the process of repairing electronic circuits.