Over the last 4 years I have paid a TV-Satellite repair in Montana total of $300 ($100/visit) to diagnose my circuit boards; and every time he did I saved me thousands of dollars in return, because I did not take my RV in for service, and I was back in business 3-days latter.
What could be easier, cheaper or faster than repairing our circuit board yourself? ...Nothing.
One time I took my whole Dimensions Inverter/Charger to this TV-Satellite Repair Shop in Montana, and for $100 he fixed my the charger side of the Dimension unit when everyone else said, "Get rid of it!" And these same types told me I needed a pure sine wave inverter for my residential refrigerator, or else it would fail inside of 2 years. ...No it didn't. ...I still have my wonderful residential refrigerator 5 years latter; and that $100 circuit board repair to my Dimensions Inverter saved me thousands!
The next year this same shop repaired my Vehicle Data Computer (VDC); and that was after Freightliner quoted me $2,200 to replace one of my dash instrument gauges; and get this, that was not the problem.
I.e., Freightliner misdiagnosed the problem and this shop in Texas charged me $500 just to wrongly diagnose the problem. ...But that's another story I may tell you more about later. The point here is that I did another happy dance after I got my VDC circuit board repaired for $100.
This year the TV repair shop fixed some cold solder joints on the back of my Ventline Holding Tank Sensor board. ...You know the one. ...This is the CB that drives the LEDs to light up when you press the black and gray holding tank button inside your coach and outside in your water service bay.
FACT: I saved thousands of dollars by repairing the old circuit boards, and now I'm learning that sometimes, the only problem with these CBs are cracked solder joints -- and this is a repair almost anyone can fix with a $10 soldering iron from Walmart and a pair of reading glasses. So that is why I posted this thread.
HOW TO SPOT A COLD SOLDER JOINT
* Simple. Just flip the CB over, and with a pair of high power reading glasses or magnifying glass... you just need to visually inspect the back of the CB for cracks.
* In particular, you should look where the power and ground pins are, and then find some diodes. These are called Suppressor Diodes, because they block AC transient spikes.
* Apparently, these diode solder joints crack over time due to vibration. Why, I do not know for sure, but you don't really have to know to fixt your CB problem.
* Moreover, when you have a cracked solder joint it will eventually become an "open" circuit and that's when your device will stop working. Until then, it may work sometime and then other times not work. So I would say, if you have an appliance that sometimes works, all you might need to do is to pull the CB and inspect the back of the board for cracked solder joints. (Aka "cold solder joints.")
* Just use a simple solder iron -- AND FOR FREE -- you can re-flow the existing solder on the pin of the device that has the crack, and that's it. The existing solder will melt and reform a new, tight solder joint. And you really can't hurt the board, unless your solder touches the pin next to it, but that's pretty hard to do.
* You can also do a continuity check with your multimeter if you have one.
* Now just return you board to service and maybe you can do your own happy dance.
https://www.winnieowners.com/forums/...lies/dance.gif
Below are some pictures of the circuit board repairs I discussed above; and in future posts I will provide you with links on where to get more information.
==> If you have any similar stories, about how you or your local TV Repair Shop fixed your old circuit board, then please post some picture and tell us your story.
It does not matter if you have new or old RV, we all have circuit boards in every appliance; and they all fail sooner or later.
Note: Older circuit board are also subject to corrosion and so you might want to watch a YouTube video on how to properly clean corrosion off your circuit board, or you can just sync-up with a good TV Repair Shop in your neighborhood and bypass the RV service shop all together.