That Tuesday where I fixed 12 boards in 8 hours was a miracle

Last month I had a stack of dead power supplies from a local audio shop, and I cleared 12 of them in one shift by just replacing bad caps and bridge rectifiers. Not a single one came back, which is RARE for me. Has anyone else had a day where everything just clicked like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

burns.fiona7d ago

Ha, that's wild - most people would say "miracle" but maybe it's actually a test of your own process? I've noticed on my good days I'm just way more careful with solder joints and checking for cold spots, not because I'm trying harder but because the rhythm lets me spot things I'd normally miss. Like I had one batch of those cheap no-name PSUs where I started replacing both the input filter caps and the startup cap on every single one, and suddenly none of them came back for months. Makes you wonder if the real miracle was just finally finding the right pattern for that specific failure mode.

wyatt_shah857d ago

Wait, did you test them under load before sending them out or just replace parts and fire them up? I've had days like that where everything lines up perfectly, but it's usually because I got lucky on the first one and then just kept riding that wave... sometimes the parts are the real issue and not the repair skill. A full day of no returns is pretty much unheard of for me, so I'd take that as a win and not overthink it too much. Were any of those boards from the same batch or model?