Recently [Bits und Bolts] found himself in a bit of a pickle, when on boot his PC would complain about a connected USB device drawing too much power, before shutting down again. After unplugging various USB devices, the problem was narrowed down to an Elgato Cam Link 4K video capture device.
Some prodding and poking around with a thermal camera on the disassembled device while powered showed that an onboard IC had sprung a power leak. Sadly, even asking nicely, Elgato support wasn’t going to provide board-level repair help, so this was left as an exercise to the owner.
Although the markings on the chip didn’t offer much help, it turns out that this is a more common issue, with a convenient repair guide by [Uldis Melderis] identifying the part as the TI TLV62585 buck regulator.
After purchasing a couple of spares, the defective IC could then be replaced. Following this a quick test showing decidedly less angry electrons. From there it was a matter of reassembling the device in its plastic case and seeing whether the PC was happier with the now hopefully fixed device, which fortunately turned out to be the case.
Any such analysis and repair obviously raises a number of questions, such as why these buck regulators are dying, and why you’re supposed to just toss out a $100 device instead of doing a repair involving a $0.20 part and a few minutes with a hot air gun.
Saying “fixed for 25c” is being at least slightly disingenuous.
It would have cost the average Joe at least $100 to get this repaired, because we’re talking a minimum of an hour’s work in troubleshooting and then repairing, not to mention the tools that a non-techie person most likely won’t have.
On this website, “fixed for 25c” is accurate. Maybe you shouldn’t be here?
Assuming you’re an electronics nerd, not a software, firmware, robotics, laser, network, radio, radar, or security nerd. (And apologies to everyone I missed out…!)
Or indeed even just a different type of electronics nerd – maybe digital, audio, radio, high voltage, tube, …
HaD’s breadth is wide enough that no one can master it all.
Of course, if the diagnosis is done for you (e.g. known issue), then replacing the part is something a far wider chunk of HaD readership could attempt…
… assuming you’re got the tools for hot air work – kicking myself that I passed on a set years ago, but I can count the number of times I’ve needed them on the fingers of my right eye.
Though the time is tricky to estimate; this turned out to be a couple of hours for OP but we all know it could have been a rabbit hole of replacing parts to find it was dead anyway.
And all of this assuming that your own time has zero value, and you wouldn’t be using that time to earn a higher rate, pursue a hobby you find more enjoyable (see the list of nerd-types above…) or spend time with family.
Yeah,
it’s like saying “got new teeth for 2$ at the dentist”. That’s the material price, not labor.
but – like this article – you COULD say “made myself new teeth for $2”. Which, if you could do it yourself, would be a true statement!
ie he wasn’t saying ‘took this somewhere and they fixed it for me for 25c”…
25 cents is just the part if you’re capable of diagnosing and repairing it yourself. You just need to decide if it’s worth the labor to fix the item. Elgato Cam Link is $100 new so I would say it’s worth an hour or 2 looking for leaking electrons and replacing defective part(s)
An average Joe probably wouldn’t be able to diagnose and repair it himself and would probably buy a replacement, then either toss the faulty unit or sell it on auction site “for part or repair”.
For the first person, yeah. But if this is a recurring problem, a decent hackerspace / repair cafe should be able to resolve it relatively quickly and affordably.
Your time does not have intrinsic monetary value. You need to work for someone else to ask for money for your labour. If you can really extract money from every minute you draw breath, wtf are you wasting that money on writing a controversial comment?
I will happily invest my spare time to save on the money I generate through my job. And I already have the tools, because like most other readers here, electronics is my hobby.
Things don’t exist in a vacuum, this article isn’t for everyday joe, it’s for us, the makers and hackers. Most of us will have access to the right tools.
To summarize:
– I have to purchase 25 cents worth of parts
– spend some of my spare time that doesn’t magically generate money otherwise
– use tools I already own (and that have paid themselves in repairs I made with them many times over)
So yes, this was a 25cent repair for someone like us.
The only thing you could argue is that electricity costs money too and they didn’t factor in the power they used for the repair. But that’s probably not even a kWh.
i liked the other replies to this and just wanted to say that from my perspective, there’s still a steep cliff at surface mount. my hands shake. i don’t have hot air rework or solder paste or even a particularly fine tipped iron. this project would require a major level up in skills for me so from my perspective it’s impossible and i’d throw it away. but there’s people out there replacing BGAs in their garage who would do this as easily as i replace a frayed power cable
I had a Reolink camera crap out and traced it down to a failed 0402 decoupling capacitor. After some prodding, I got someone there to tell me the value and was able to fix it for a few cents + $8 shipping
Buck regulators live a hard life, one dying should be no surprise.
As for repair, yes, it’s a rough deal to chuck $100 things over 50¢ parts, but realistically the cost to make a million of these is better if you just plan on a few percent failure before warranty is over.
Usually you can buy a knock off for $6-12 many places that can do the same thing.
Not having a CamLink myself I don’t know if they’re guilty of this particular design error but I’ve seen a fair number of devices which (to reduce cost, size, or both) have insufficiently capable bulk caps at the input and output of their switching regulators which puts more stress on ’em especially when powering devices whose peak current draw is significantly larger than their average current draw.