Snap On Charger Repair

[Brad93]

My snap on CTC 720 charger has given up the ghost. Turned on this morning, went back to look at it, no lights.

Got nothing.

Have checked internal fuse and diodes, and visually inspected.

That's about the limit of my fault finding skills when it comes to PCB's.

Anyone fancy a go at it? A used replacement is about £40.

 

[Brad93]

Does seem to be some sort of breakdown of the board coating here

 

[dan.taylor.1]

I think the general consensus with tool repair places is that chargers aren't worth repairing, boards often aren't available and if they are cost more than a used charger.

However if you an find a dodgy component it may be worth repairing. Last time I tried was for my dad's cordless sheep clippers, swapped a burnt resistor and powered up but it went pop somewhere else, new one was only 20 quid so not worth my time to go further with it.

 

[mtt.tr]

£40 would probably buy you half hour if repair time.

 

[winchman]

Show me the top of the charger as I might have a spare one.

 

[MoreWellie]

Have you checked the fuse in the plug?
just asking

edit: and the socket it was plugged in to!

 

[Brad93]

Have you checked the fuse in the plug?
just asking

edit: and the socket it was plugged in to!

I would think the multimeter sat next to the offending item would confirm i've already moved past fuses

 

[Chippie]

If no one offers to look at your charger that lives nearby, I’d be happy to look at it….but would mean posting…the postal costs would go towards buying your £40 s/h charger if that’s worth thinking about? Let me know via pm.

 

[Brad93]

But the bullet, didn't fancy throwing more money after bad chancing a used charger, so i've bought a new one. £130 daylight robbery, he almost convinced me to part with another £95 on a Dead blow ball pein

 

[armalites]

It's world we live in, many of these things could be fixed for pennies if you can find the right person who does it for fun. In my first job I ended up as a prototype wireman and we had a guy in a the design lab who could look a PCBs and know by the chips and layout what each section was doing. I proper geek who did all kinds and weird and wonderful stuff for fun. I remember him saying he sat there with his osciliscope monitoring a TV channel signal that went offline late at night. They did sell a special box that allowed you to view. He found all they were doing was inverting the signal so built a little to invert it back and all was good, I vaguely remember they did something else after that but he soon had that sorted . When he bought his lad his first radio controlled car christmas he thought it was too fast and the batteries would run too quick so he took the motor apart, counted the windings and then rewound it so it ran slower and hence batteries lasted longer. He would sit there at lunchtime grinding lenses for the massive telescope he had built at home.

When he built prototypes he used to stick the chips on their back on a piece of board and solder components directly to the legs, not only did he know what the legs did he was working in reverse.

We would have something like this fixed in no time assuming it wasn't a bespoke component.

Sadly those kind of people are few and far between now.

 

[voipio]

A bit late to the party, I know, but did you (Brad93) check that juice was getting down the mains cable to the board, taking the usual precautions, of course?

 

[Brad93]

A bit late to the party, I know, but did you (Brad93) check that juice was getting down the mains cable to the board, taking the usual precautions, of course?

Yes i've follows the power right up to the diode bridge.

 

[Arclikeharrypotter]

would have been £95 well spent @Brad93 those ball peen are real nice to use

 

[Brad93]

would have been £95 well spent @Brad93 those ball peen are real nice to use

I fancy a small one but he didn't want to do a good price in a little one, this was 32oz or something

 

[Erie Fred]

I'm surprised you bought the same thing, after the first one failed, and with no repairing.

 

[Turbo]

Hitachi drills & batteries give great service if looked after. The same cannot be said for their chargers, I have a collection of dead/broken ones & I've yet to successfully repair any of them!
Hitachi liberally cover most components on their pcb's with a hard potting compound, which I think causes some components to overheat, you can see the discolouration in the potting. To test these components you have to take off the very difficult to remove potting & even when you do that there are no markings left on the component to id it from the overheating (usually resistors).
No circuit diagrams available either so that you can id the component value that way!

 

[Brad93]

I'm surprised you bought the same thing, after the first one failed, and with no repairing.

What's the other option. The chinese copies have terrible reviews.

If i went to milwaukee (which don't last in my opinion) and had to buy a combi drill, an angle grinder, a ⅜" impact, a ½" impact and three batteries I wouldn t have much change from £1000-1200

 

[Erie Fred]

What's the other option. The chinese copies have terrible reviews.

If i went to milwaukee (which don't last in my opinion) and had to buy a combi drill, an angle grinder, a ⅜" impact, a ½" impact and three batteries I wouldn t have much change from £1000-1200

I thought there were others on the market that did the same.
I guess you have to grin and bear it.