Fixing A Rotating Laser Level

A friend bought broken rotating laser level (Datum Quattro).
The unit would not switch on and appeared totally dead.
After opening it, I found exploded components and a large burn in the circuit board, and quite a few blown and exploded components!
Let's Fix it!

[@myfastcars]

LOVE the old FLUKE 77. I retired from the US Navy and back in the day, the FLUKE 77/AN was the BALLs to have. It was one of the first digital meters used aboard US Navy Submarines and once you had one, you didn't give it up! I deal with testing communication antennas and equipment and as old as the FLUKE 77 is, some of the critical test are still using the 77/AN or similar meters as a test meter. Love the channel and I learn a LOT from your repairs. You surprise me a lot. Keep up the fantastic work!

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks 👍yes I only upgraded my meter a few months ago to the newer 179

[@bills6946]

Mick. All your repairs are amazing and on the level.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks 👍 I wish the YT algo would think so 🤷‍♂️

[@thetraindriver01]

Nice fix, looked a bit of a violent failure there, lol. Good catch with the 24v charger 👌 That ribbon cable looked a bugger to put back in even in fast forward 😊

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks 👍yes it was 😂😂😂

[@fouroakfarm]

24V into 6V circuit....ya, that'll do it haha. Another device brought back to life, well done

[@BuyitFixit]

Yes. I didn't notice until near the end of the video. But I guess that's why the unit failed originally. Hope you are enjoying my content. Amazes me how some totally fake perpetual motion videos and restoration videos get millions of views yet some of the genuine work I do only gets a few hundred sometimes. Oh well, perhaps fixing stuff isn't everyone's cup of tea.

[@samuelfellows6923]

😠 ~ that is because KZbin & Google love the “fraudulent” videos = the fraudsters only want you to see the adverts in their videos to make 💰, and the views indicate how many have been hoodwinked into watching them

[@jonome9565]

Why did you cut out the most interesting part. How did you know which parts you needed, some of those voltage regulators only have a couple of letters on them how did you find the right one. What makes your videos unique to other fix it videos is the tuition quality, so helpful to us hobbyist fixers. Keep up the good work.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks for your input Jonome! I'm not sure what you mean by most interesting part? If you search "smd marking database" I've used that to find quite a few components from the markings. Thanks again for the support!

[@neiltheplayer]

Brilliant Sir

[@BuyitFixit]

Thank you 👍

[@neiltheplayer]

JUst a thought Mick, I would be curisous to see the workshop area that you film in.

[@BuyitFixit]

😂😂😂I really need to have a good clear out before I'd even consider that!

[@599miata]

Great troubleshooting skill mate.👍👍👍👍

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks Jacques 👍

[@luminousfractal420]

looking at it i cant help but think spinning the diode itself would be a simpler design than the mirrors and motors setup.

[@BuyitFixit]

Possibly but then you would need some kind of slip ring I would have thought for the electrical contacts which may give unreliable operation and wear over time.

[@alanr9496]

Wish we'd seen you sorting and patching the burned section

[@bobbygeorge77]

Great job. You certainly know your stuff. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks bobbygeorge👍. Really appreciate it. Some of my videos are quite good I think and don't seem to get the views they deserve. KZbin is a strange beast!

[@bobbygeorge77]

I'm 100% sure you will crack it. Your content is brilliant,don't ever doubt it !

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks for that. Really appreciated!

[@andymouse]

At first glance I thought ' It won't be a long video, how much can be wrong with a kettle ?'.....cheers.

[@BuyitFixit]

😂😂😂I never noticed until you pointed it out, but it does look like a kettle with steam coming out 👍

[@paulstaf]

I was yelling at the screen that someone probably connected the wrong power adaptor to the input port on the bottom. 😂

[@BuyitFixit]

You'll have to try louder, I didn't hear you! 😂😂😂😂👍

[@paulstaf]

@@BuyitFixit Next time I'll knock on the screen! :D

[@BuyitFixit]

@paulstaf 😂😂😂😂😂👍

[@robertshrimplin9130]

clever man pleased I know you

[@MostlyPosative-nj5ex]

How did you come to the conclusion of bridging the part where the transistor (Q1) went (or went before revisions and/or explosions)? I would have never figured it out that particular way. I would have looked for a photo of that pcb or schematic to confirm what was there or I wouldn’t have completed the repair. I’d be too afraid that I’d botch it somehow and burn someone’s home down with it.

[@BuyitFixit]

I can't quite remember as it was some time ago now. It seemed to be controlled from the MCU to power off the device, perhaps in a low battery situation, so that function may no longer work. I didn't observe any unusual behaviour though and it seemed to switch off and on ok. It's still working so 🤷‍♂️

[@michaelthomsen8771]

Yeah, that's a bit odd to me too. Even more so that you said you had the same device, and then didn't check out the pcb in that one. You're right in that it may just be a low voltage cut off feature, but that's kind of nice to have operational too... Anyhow will chime in here with a big thanks for some great video content.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks, I think I did look at the PCB in the one I have as that one was originally faulty too. It was the small 5 pin regulator had failed but not exploded. It just wasn't oscillating. The board was actually a slightly different revision from this one in the PSU area.

[@mfx1]

Classic death by tantalum if one has failed the others probably won't be far behind.

[@BuyitFixit]

Been a year perhaps since I looked at this, as far as I know it's still working fine. I'm sure my mate would have said if it had stopped working again.

[@inothome]

Nice! A little more involved on this one. I was wondering if Q1 could be a reverse polarity FET? Then saw the charger..... But hard to see on video, is the charger center pin negative? Not that it matters when you are giving it 3 times the voltage, which explain the damage anyway. But if you are going to do wrong, do wrong on all parts. lol

[@inothome]

And just noticed this was a year go...... YT just fed it to me.

[@BuyitFixit]

Thanks 👍Yes, I've got a few fairly good videos like this one, yet KZbin never promoted them at the time and they only got a couple of hundred views. One of the smallest things I had to solder was bond wires from LED chips, that was a rare ramtex game I repaired.

[@TinaRooney-wi1gd]

My level is working but the light is very weak, just weak line and should be round red ight can U tell me what problem

[@BuyitFixit]

Sounds like it could be the laser, they go weak with age.

[@jonome9565]

Oops commented before the end of the video

[@19Edurne]

How did you choose the value of the cap and transistor (since they were blown to smitherens and you apparently don't have the circuit diagram)?

[@BuyitFixit]

One of my early videos, I had to check back as I couldn't remember. I can't remember if I could make any markings out on it or just took a rough guestimate as I knew what the input voltage was and it was just a smoother if I remember. There was 1 transistor that I didn't replace and just bridged out. I'm not sure what it's purpose was but the unit seems to function fine without it.

[@19Edurne]

@@BuyitFixit So, you base your choice on the component's voltage range and that's enough?

[@BuyitFixit]

It was just a smoothing or decoupling capacitor on the input side. It may even have worked fine without it.

[@luminousfractal420]

​@@BuyitFixit the sorin method 😂