Repair on Colin O'Flynn

Modifying Welding Pedal for a Miller 6-Pin Connector (ArcCaptain Pedal)

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 02:45:53 +0000

I bought a Miller 161 STH welder which has a little hand remote control included, and found it was more difficult to use. I wanted to try a welding pedal but the miller ones are much more expensive than other brands, like ArcCaptain, and I found the ArcCaptain one sturdy enough. This post is how you can adapt other welding pedals to the Miller 6-pin connector. I made a video about the process, this post has the reference material:

Fixing Ubiquiti Dream Machine (UDM) SE Hard Drive Not Detected Errors

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 02:34:43 +0000

My UDM SE can fit various hard drives. Ubiquiti have decided to have a cool tray the hard drive snaps into & slides into the UDM, which also means you have to have a very good fit. As it turns out, the fit may not be good enough without shimming the drive out!

I used a Seagate Skyhawk 4TB Video 3.5 Inch SATA (ST4000VXZ16/ST4000VX016) drive, which is reported as being compatible. In sliding the drive in there was no spin-up sound. I then tried rebooting it & repositioning the drive several times, it wasn’t clear if the hot-swap should work or not. But there was never a spin-up sound or a LED flashing on. Very annoying, especially if you are rebooting your houses internet for a “5 min project”!

Intel LGA1700 (12th/13th gen, i9 3900k) Top Resistors/Capacitors

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 01:46:06 +0000

If you’re a bit careless with your CPU (especially if e.g., delidding it) you can knock these resistors off the topside. From measuring a known-good device (but without removing them) I measured the following values as a reference:

i9 13900K image source: techpowerup.com

These all appear to be 0402 sized resistors.

If you do damage them, the best source would be another 12th/13th gen device, as they look to be identical. You could find a used/defective low-performance device and use that to get resistors/capacitors.

Metcal MX-500P Soldering Station Review & Repair

Wed, 09 May 2012 13:08:00 +0000

For some time I've been using a METCAL soldering station. I picked mine up used on E-Bay, as they are expensive new.

They have phenomenal heat transfer ability - they use RF energy to transfer heat right to the tip. It means you can go from soldering a 0402 capacitor to desoldering an entire SMA connector with the same tip, and it all works perfectly.

There is a few "must" tools for anybody deeply involved in electronics. The Metcal soldering station is very high on that list. Simply put you are wasting your time with a normal soldering station. I previously used a fairly good soldering station - ceramic heater element, good temp control, etc. The Metcal is still just that much better.