Articles tagged “Repairs”
Connecting an old receiver/amplifier to an HDMI television, apropos achieving surround sound
Now that the charity shops have reopened in the UK I enjoy hunting for good bargains and recently picked up a DAV-S400, a home cinema system originally sold back in 2002. I was not particularly interested in its DVD playback capabilities, especially as it only outputs composite video, but the integrated 5.1 surround sound amplifier and optical input made me think that I could use it to replace my current stereo amplifier for a better home cinema experience. The inclusion of SACD support was an added bonus as I'd bought myself a copy of The Dark Side of the Moon in that format back in 2004 and only been able to listen to it once, so if I couldn't get the home cinema side working at least the SACD part was self-contained and I'd be able to enjoy that.
Repairing damaged plastic pegs
It's not uncommon for parts of old electronic devices to have damaged plastic pegs, like the one in this photo:
If you still have the snapped off plastic peg you may be able to glue it back on, but this can leave a weakened part that doesn't hold up very well. In other cases you might have lost the part entirely. This happened to me recently with the purchase of a six-button Mega Drive control pad. I ordered it from CeX's website and so couldn't see what condition it would be in until it arrived in the post.
Fixing the Dreamcast Race Controller's dead zone with a simple microcontroller circuit
I recently bought myself a Race Controller wheel for the Sega Dreamcast and was a little disappointed with the way that it performed. I had read reviews online before buying it and some did mention that it didn't handle particularly well but others did mention that it was about the best controller available for the system so I didn't feel it was too risky a purchase. The issues I have with the wheel stem from its excessively large dead zone – you need to turn the wheel quite far before your car starts to turn, making it feel sluggish and unresponsive.
Repairing a PlayStation controller to USB adaptor
I recently purchased an inexpensive PlayStation controller USB adaptor for my PC. Several reviews confirmed that it was compatible with the controller's analogue joysticks so I thought it would be what I was after. Life is rarely that easy with cheap electronics, unfortunately! When it arrived I plugged it in and Windows installed the appropriate HID drivers for it automatically, but as much as I waggled the joysticks on a connected DualShock 2 controller the axis preview in Control Panel remained resolutely in the zero position.
Ejecting discs from a damaged camcorder with a remote control
I hope that those of you who celebrate it had a good Christmas break and will have an excellent new year! I recently attempted to repair a DVD camcorder that had been dropped; the eject button no longer worked, though the disc could be ejected by connecting to camera to a PC, right-clicking the DVD drive that subsequently appears in Explorer, then selecting Eject. I started by removing all of the screws around the affected area, but the plastic casing remained strongly held together by some mysterious internal force.