This "cheap" repair almost BROKE me.

[@BSGSV]

Moral of the story: If a connector on your expensive device breaks, disassemble the entire device and break several parts inside to make the repair cost worthwhile.

[@maji0]

@@marcogenovesi8570 and have your employee replace the board for you

[@Haarschmuckfachgeschafttadpole]

My guess is the $600 Sony was asking was to replace the board and for calibration. I can't see them opening the whole thing up and soldering a component like that especially since labor is expensive and if they make a mistake they'll have to replace the board anyways. Still, $600 to repair a camera that still costs almost $2k today even given it's age seems like it could be worth it.

[@thejoey571]

You gotta have a extra reason to force you to cough up that cash

[@fitybux4664]

@@Haarschmuckfachgeschafttadpole Yes, toasted boards are usually shipped off to some lower tier guy or even sold to a different company that will try to repair them, and has some percentage yield of success. (Or, sometimes they even head straight for the garbage, depends on the profit margins.) When companies do repair work, they typically go for the "most likely to work, even if slightly more expensive" option.

[@soulscreme]

Would have been smoother if Linus had any idea what the hell he was doing... Lots of gear, literally zero skill.

[@rossmanngroup]

That stuff is so frustrating. I still remember in 2009 through 2013, every time I would search for a video on how to do something it would edit out all the parts that told you how to deal with it actually said it was going to tell you how to do in the title. So aggravating!

[@zexceilxaros4011]

Thankfully your videos are not filled with random background music, jump cuts and "read the poor English subtitles edited in"; removes the whole educational and helpful point of the videos.....

[@11warum11]

Hey Louis, glad you helped out with that a lot =)

[@morkovija]

Oh hey! Wild Louis appears! Cheers man

[@TechnologistAtWork]

@@zexceilxaros4011 that's why he's the best. I just wish he'd expand to more devices other than Mac books just for the sake of education and not as a regular repair with the camera on.

[@me0262]

Not only that, even with a good deal of knowledge you still don't get all of the information. What temperature is your station at? Leaded or unleaded (trick question)? How much airflow? What tips? What flux? BTW, love the videos and your cause, I sometimes put them on when I go to bed.

[@therefix342]

A few tips from someone that has spent the past few years learning this kind of thing. 1. Get a board holder. This is so important. You had the board at temperatures where the solder was molten whilst dragging it around your mat. You could have moved components on the other side of the board killing everything. 2. You can remove bridges quite easily. Flux it up and run your clean tip over the pins, or use wick. You could have saved that port. 3. Ports with holes in like this, I tend to just heat the board from underneath to prevent the heat melting the port. This port however was quite accessible, I probably wouldn’t even have used hot air to reflow it, I’d remove all the solder from the ground pins, push it though and resolder everything with an iron. This prevents potentially killing the board with excess heat, and prevents going through x5 ports. This is technically a pretty easy repair, once the board was removed it should have taken a couple minutes, so I guess this really does show how important taking baby steps is. I still really advise that people learn to do their own repairs. Probably don’t jump straight to a £3000 camera though haha(well £700 second hand now).

[@KX36]

It's a dual row surface mount connector. Can't access the inner row with an iron.

[@natsukage3960]

@@KX36 If you look at 12:39, yes it is accessible and possible to solder using just an iron with a fine tip. The rear rows and not aligned with the front. You really need to use a little solder as possible though, because bridges are going to be an issue. Compared to the USB-C on the Switch, this is at least possible with an iron.

[@todorow22]

Agreed, possible with an iron.

[@KX36]

@@natsukage3960 Ah, my experience of similar is all USB-C connectors. Still I wouldn't want to have to try to solder the inner row with an iron. Maybe just to go in afterwards and break the bridges with an iron.

[@SAFbikes]

Can y’all suggest a decent hot air station for beginners that won’t completely break the bank

[@paulgrosse7631]

A tip that I picked up when doing some work for the BBC decades ago - Any lead, like you say, is going to break the socket when you constantly push the thing in and take it out. Something needs to change and you can't change the socket. So, have a short "extender" lead that is permanently plugged into it and is taped down to the body or something that is screwed into the body (such as the mount) so that the short length of cable and the plug are not moving around relative to each other. Then when something goes, it is going to be the socket on the relatively cheap extension cable that you plugged in and not the expensive camera. Just replace the cable.

[@potthethird]

Smart

[@rodent]

until the camera falls and, of course, extender pointing to the ground.

[@Smart-Towel-RG-400]

They make magnitc connectors you plug in on once then it's like a magsafe connector or your not continuously pluging and unplugging the port just the mag connector

[@chrisd.141]

@@Smart-Towel-RG-400 That technology works well for power delivery. For data delivery, in the example, such as micro HDMI, that is not sufficient.

[@JamieSandel]

Smallrig makes a mini converter from micro to full HDMI that is designed to bolt on to a camera cage. Super handy for this

[@Airwolf-lm9cm]

Honestly while I absolutely support repairing your stuff it is also refreshing of you to show this part of the journey. In too many videos the hard and time consuming parts of these projects are 10 second montages. It doesn’t work like that. Sometimes you will make things worse. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try but always good to keep in mind.

[@kornkernel2232]

Yep, many lf the videos are shortened and done by professionals have done it for thousands of hours. They make it looks easy even though in reality, cables are finicky, some latches are almost impossible to open, some areas are difficult to get around to. But this doesn't mean a device having ability to be reasonably serviced on your own should not be a thing, even its difficult. It's okay if it's difficult due to more complex miniature components. But not when they purposefully male it difficult and frustrating to discourage self service repair. I remember try to replace portable HDD before. Those were frustrating since they designed the device ti be difficult to service for a something should be pretty easy to service. Some actually even go on their way make internal HDD replaced the SATA port into USB, making it impossible for the drive to be reused.

[@andymiller3366]

but thats exactly what they did as soon as linus was off screen. They took apart the whole thing in a montage sequence

[@agc2801]

Yep i really liked the “failed” part it’s refreshing when you see even this guy it’s an average joe.

[@st8kout961]

You just have to know your limitations. I've always tackled my own car repairs but I'd never try something like rebuilding a transmission or motor, (I did use to rebuild Volkswagen motors in the 70s, but those were simple compared to motors today.)

[@bocahdongo7769]

@@andymiller3366 let's be honest. At that point you'll spend 6-7 hour to figure it out and re-re-re-research the whole thing again. Just the reality of average user try to learn how to repair something

[@LegionEmu396]

As someone who does small electronic repair for a living, this is the most stressful thing I've seen all week

[@HanzFogl]

even as someone, who has no clue about electronic soldering, seeing the plastic of the main board melt from the heatgun gave me anxiety

[@maddog2010p]

i used to be an electronics repair specialist for a class 3 shop. yeah this stressed me out like none other when i saw the size of that soldering tip. and yeah linus a good soldering iron will be about 300 bucks american in my opinion. as i used a hakko. he also needed a board warmer.

[@Pdrum2]

@@maddog2010p He could use an magnifying equipment while working

[@AilisonCarvalho]

Linus' hands shakes more than my grandma with parkinson's. hahahahaha

[@Krabbensalat1]

and maybe use the soldering iron to remove shorts or solder it in with in the first place even though the tip is huge for this kind of connectors

[@francistheodorecatte]

on all the camera rigs I've worked on, there's a micro HDMI to HDMI adapter dongle hotglued into the camera, and the female full size HDMI port is mechanically locked to the camera rig frame to prevent someone unplugging the tally monitor slightly too roughly and writing off the camera body.

[@Idiomatick]

This camera comes with a hdmi-hdmi adapto that you can bolt directly into the side of the camera.

[@shadow7037932]

@@Idiomatick Lmao. So you're saying Linus didn't RTFM and failed hard on this in the first place?

[@stefan514]

Don't understand why they seem to miss the most obvious solution 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@LtdJorge]

@@shadow7037932 how does having the internal micro HDMI go to a normal HDMI and then the monitor differ from having the internal micro go directly to the monitor? In both options you are still tethered to the micro HDMI connector, which is the thing that breaks, because it's tiny.

[@theprovost]

@@LtdJorge what they probably mean is that the micro to full size HDMI connector cable affixes to the camera body itself, which means that the micro port doesn't have strain due to a wires tugging it around, as the connection is fixed in place

[@dil6969]

Even if it was a shit show, I appreciate an accurate depiction of a repair being attempted well outside of someone's comfort zone and skill level. Very frequently, how-to videos are heavily edited and the person in charge of the repair doesn't tell you how many devices they screwed up over the years learning their profession. It gives me a better idea of whether or not a repair like this is even worth attempting. It also gives me a better understanding as to why these cameras are so goddamn expensive. The part count and internal complexity seems far beyond your average smartphone.

[@LabGecko]

I think the difference is that smart phones just do it all small. Camera makers try to cheap out by putting less into chips and using 3rd party sourced chips, so they have to connect and route more. Then again, I'm not a camera engineer so this could be completely off base.

[@dsp4392]

@@LabGecko I have the same feeling. Canon, Nikon and Sony are big, but they're not Samsung big, so they cannot integrate everything. Plus cameras have a ton of physical buttons, interfaces, outputs and sensors that just cannot be crammed into a single chip or abstracted away in software.

[@KaptainCanuck]

@@dsp4392, many of the camera and phone sensors are actually made by, get this, Sony.

[@callumb4980]

Important time to point out that right to repair doesn’t just mean allowing you access to parts to repair your own devices, it also means allowing repair shops and trained individuals access to parts so they can repair your devices properly

[@gblargg]

I think you're taking the right too far. You have no right for companies to provide people to tutor you on how to do repairs. Fortunately such people exist naturally and the business isn't preventing such people from practicing.

[@NoName-vh1nw]

@@gblargg you literally just said the same thing as them

[@gblargg]

@@NoName-vh1nw I didn't read top comment fully (the intro threw me off). I forgot that companies prevent repair shops from stocking repair parts, instead only selling one at a time and requiring device serial numbers or other BS before selling each one, so that repair shops can't do quick repairs but must wait days for them to be shipped.

[@TheDanielHolt]

Also, schematics not being readily available means that a repair shop or individual will have a much harder time

[@Styreta]

This, so much this. The average pleb cant do minute electronic repairs but they damn sure should be able to get it done at their local corner repair store!

[@shangerdanger]

Tried to do this with a broken 1dxii... couldn't get it, put it back together wrong, and it shorted something on the board and costed extra to repair

[@roddymcgtravels]

Love ya vids man didn't expect to see you here :)

[@JamieReynolds89]

costed lol

[@onlineghost9813]

Valueable lesson here, right to repair is a good thing, however, you need to have the knowledge, in cases like this one, linus ended up spending double the amount he was going to pay by sending this in to repair. If you have the knowledge and u know what you are doing, right to repair is a fair use, however, knowledge is mostly what these service centers sell, cuz when u dont know what u are doing, u end up paying the price.

[@chanchan05]

@@onlineghost9813 I think it depends on how you look at it. If you absolutely need something fixed, sure send it in for repair. But for something broken that you have already a replacement for, I think it's fine to risk breaking it more and gaining the knowledge of opening it up and seeing the components and seeing what you can do about it.

[@shangerdanger]

@@JamieReynolds89 try hard english speaker lmao

[@linuxguy1199]

Pro tip on how to solder those connectors, wick up all the existing solder, then solder the two outermost high density pins (not the mounting tabs, DO NOT use hot air to reflow it in place - as you hopefully learned lol). Then use a square shaped soldering iron tip to do the rest of the pins at once, as long as the connector is constantly submersed in flux the flux will mostly prevent solder bridges from forming. Using .015" or .010" solder is a MUST, and preferably 62/36/2 silver bearing solder helps. Finally, solder the two tabs. Preheating and using hot air to place the connector was completely unnecessary and ricked damaging other components on the PCB.

[@antibodyarmy]

that would work for usb, but SMD microhdmi needs to be reflowed into place since there are two rows of pins to get soldered. what they actually need is a proper hotplate and a reflow oven/station

[@nirodper]

there seemed to be a second row of pins behind that could not be accesed

[@pp3v42_g3h]

That is a two row HDMI connector, only way to solder it is to preheat the board, add flux, put leaded solder on all the pads, clean the flux, apply new flux and reflow the connector with most of the heat going to the boad and not the connector. If the alignment pins have big pads/holes the positioning can be really hard. Wouldn't recommend this repair for a beginner. I've replaced many two row connectors on phones, vr headsets and apple things and it's not fun :D

[@Idiomatick]

Hard to tell from the closeup at 12:40 but micro hdmi uses 2 rows of pins so it would be potentially very difficult without air. I might still try it though. His issue really was heating the whole board with the air, he should have taped off the area. And not blasted the plastic part, lol. He looked like he had the heat and airflow set to max.... which made the job harder.

[@linuxguy1199]

@@antibodyarmy You're right! I just noticed the double rows in the video. The connectors I've done slot onto the edge of a board and have a row on the top of the PCB and a row at the bottom that can be easily handsoldered. Doing the ones in this video looks like a complete PITA, no chance in hell you could do that by hand without reflow.

[@wiktormaek9973]

1. Soldering connector back you can do without hotair. 2. Not sure what solder did you use but looks like non lead one. If you are beginner I would use lead because it is so much easier to work with. 3. Use desoldering pump for ground pins. Then you can just place connector in a correct spot and solder without hotair. Remeber that ground pin have a lot of thermal capacity so the moment you touch melted solder to it, temperature would drop and cause solder to go in to the solid state. Until you get back to melted point you will significantly heat the plastic in the connector. 4. If you see that your solder blobs are kinda crumbly and irregular, that usually means too little flux or to low temperature. You would not solder anything correctly in that way. 5. Remember about solder surface tension. It will auto align little mistakes(might not work that good with connector because of ground pins). 6. When you are doing things like this don't get too stressed out. You need to be pretty precise and fast, but becasue you didn't practise on anything that calliber before your movements are chaotic and random which probably contributes to your mistakes. 7. Practice on something that is junk anyway before. You should be able to get good results after learning a bit about basic properties of the material that you are working with. 8. Especially being beginner. Not having correct tools for the job will make it nearly impossible to do. Not having heater might not be a problem for someone that was doing a lot of such stuff before. But for you it might be doing tremendous difference. If possible always try to pause what you are doing before getting tool. By not having it from the beginning you will do probably mess and later you would get it anyway. Realizing that you could do better job. Good luck

[@adameichler]

Only the ground pins can be hand soldered, because data pins have two rows - one of them is not reachable with soldering iron.

[@wiktormaek9973]

@@adameichler You're right. My bad.

[@undefinednotfound]

@@adameichler it is possible to solder farther row without heat gun. you just need to bend closer pins up. I managed to fix this issue with 5€ soldering iron and a 5€ port.

[@adameichler]

@@undefinednotfound plausible, but scary 😁

[@kacey4k]

You can also use water to control/limit temperature spread to plastics. Either plain distilled or with a tiny amount of dishsoap, depending if you need a bead of water, or coat of water to help regulate temperature spread. The water is easiest applied from a syringe.

[@SDogo]

After working a lot of time disassembling things like this, maybe I can throw some tips. (PS: I hate soldering fpc connectors for smart phones screens) 1- Check your mechanical process. You are clearly forcing the port to come out when is not ready. Apply a heck ton of flux, and let the hot air do his magic. The port will come out on his own, it's not necessary to pull it. Also. When soldering the connector back. If you are using solder paste, you first clean the pads, then put the new port over the solder (centered), and then apply hot air. In the case of using soldering wire... You clean the pads, then apply a bit of fresh solder to the pads, then put a heck ton of flux, and finally you put the new port centered to apply air (in this step you can use some tweezers to keep the port from flying away). 2- Check your chemistry. Not every flux is equal and every variation of flux has his use. If you are expending too much time trying to remove the connector, your flux will burn away. Try a flux that can resist a bit more temperature. A good sign of the correct flux is that your connector comes out cleanly and leave behind a little puddle of flux without any marks on the board. Also, even when is not common, if the pcb to repair is old and has a bit of rust (the solder looks a lot dull), you can use an acid flux... just don't forget to clean that after soldering since acid flux tends to corrode small traces with time. 3- Check your cleaning process. This is quite simple... the more clean that's your work surface, the easier that is to work. Put a lot of flux, remove the part, clean the pads, the remove all the residual flux. With a clean surface you can apply fresh flux or even paste. If your surface is clean, the solder will flow on his own. 4- Check your soldering params. Even when the temptation to put your soldering iron to the max or the air gun to over 450C, you first need to know with what kind of material you are working. If you are trying to solder something that has plastic (most fpc and internal board connectors), you need to regulate the temperature in your station. The range depends on every station, but from experience, I can recomend something near to 325c to 350c max for hot air, and 225 max for soldering iron.

[@siontheodorus1501]

I would like to add some tips too. - Do it in a comfortable position so that your hand doesn't shake too much. Grab a comfortable chair where you can sit straight up just like using your PC or laptop. - When soldering small stuff on a PCB, buying a digital microscope or magnifying glass will significantly help in seeing those tiny traces and pads.

[@standuporshutup]

So 2 milipauals of flux then?

[@KX36]

Never use acid flux on a PCB. Acid flux is for plumbing.

[@SDogo]

@@KX36 If you clean the flux afterwards, there's no problem. That thing is made to work with rusted stuff. I've recovered a lot of old boards using that kind of flux for desoldering and cleaning.

[@SDogo]

@@siontheodorus1501 I learned a little trick. When you have a bit of shaky hands, clap harder as you can a few times. Your hands will stop shaking... or at least the shaking will be reduced. Something that I didn't include in the post. Illumination is quite important if you're working with small parts.

[@Gisleburt]

Honestly found this "experience" highly relatable and I feel a lot better about how stressed I get doing this sort of thing.

[@wilhaart5964]

Well the story there was 600$ job turned to be 600$ job with work. I still remember my first phone screen repair, 200$ phone with 40$ replacement screen. No patience or proper tools--> battery broken and screen bent. off with a new one...

[@JohnnnyMojo]

Same here. I just recently replaced an LCD touch screen on a laptop and it was pure hell.

[@GTFour]

HA, yes exactly this! I've got better but I'm not sure I'd try myself on something this expensive.

[@fffklan3986]

As a Louis Rossman viewer and someone who has never soldered anything, this video makes you realize how incredible his work is

[@bhuvangunessee]

and he makes it look so easy lol (from the few videos I've watched)

[@1418golf]

I was a Sony camera tech for 29 years...this is basic stuff really... let's see any tech these days do full mechanical repairs and tape alignments on a mini DV machine 😎

[@bhuvangunessee]

@@1418golf (assuming you're talking about this video and not Louis Rossman videos) nothing is basic until it is learnt. After a few years of experience, it might be basic to someone but to someone who's never done it it's not basic. Give someone who's never heated up food in a microwave oven or never seen one before some food to heat up, suddenly they have a not basic at all thing to do while nowadays it's common knowledge and very basic thing to do for an average person. But yes this is indeed basic, to tech repair people like Louis Rossman (mentioned in the video) and you. And if your comment was about Louis Rossman video, I've seen (including videos online) and met very few technicians that have engineer-based knowledge as him because they are so passionate while making even complex or complicated technician-based skills look so basic (again, I have only watched just a few of his videos though)

[@1418golf]

@@bhuvangunessee I guarantee a PC repairer can't fix a tape based camera mech....but there is no need to as tech has moved on..sadly alot of the repair techs who are any good have retired...can repair to component level.. understand transistor theory etc and still do it economically

[@bhuvangunessee]

@@1418golf They can if they learn how to; "they can't" is too negative to say. More will come, there always is.

[@user-lp2op9uu1w]

Some tips: 1: get some kind of magnifying device. 2: Be EXTREMELY careful not to pull of the part until it is free floating, if you pull the PCB will break! 3: Preheating is key, but for connectors like that, you can also heat the board from the other side or use heat just above the melting point. 4: Make sure your hands are stabilized, if you have to hold the part and the weight of your arms you will be damaging stuff. 5: Solder between the pads can be removed with the solder braid 6: Practice on old boards and practice some more! Cheers!

[@petrolhead0387]

Tip for future repairs, if you want to attach a new connector that doesn't have much heat resistance, you can always use the hot air underneath the board. This allows the solder to melt and give you enough time to place the connector, with little chance of damaging it, provided there is no components on the other side that could be damaged by the heat.

[@therealromster]

Exactly what I did with a micro B socket. heat from the bottom side, and if there are parts near by use Kapton tape to keeps parts in place and shield some of the heat.

[@1800Supreme]

Yup heat from below. Find a vise or any way to hold the board, so that you can work with two hands. Also most important make sure to clear all through holes so that the part will lay down flush before you attempt to solder it. To clear the holes you need to fill them with leaded solder first before you can wick it up. Or use a solder sucker most under utilized soldering tool.

[@JLeYang]

Another is they make this type of putty for putting on boards to direct the heat to only what needs to be heated too, use this putty to protect your board components during the heat up.

[@Elemental-IT]

lots and lots for kapton tape and aluminum foil.

[@LukewarmMiner]

you can also use low melt leaded on the pads/anchors beforehand to help with removing the port the first. then turn down heat and go from bottom. kepton on the stuff you don’t want heat to get to

[@gugubope21]

So, to anyone who might want to try something similar, remember: if you're changing a port, hot air is only for removal. To solder the new port on, use the iron and the iron only. Tack the legs in, then solder the pins. Also, if you bridge 2 pins together, just use some flux and touch them with the iron until it's good

[@marcellkovacs5452]

I have virtually zero experience doing this, and even I was wondering why he didn’t just use the solder iron.

[@TheMightyZwom]

The part when they removed the entire port because of a bridge almost hurt me physically...

[@pasikavecpruhovany7777]

Can't just use soldering iron. microHDMI is pure evil and has 2 rows of pins. Best is to use hotplate for preheating + hot air. It's also possible to use just a small hotplate but that kind of heat may damage the board.

[@pasikavecpruhovany7777]

One tip, do not tack the legs in. Tack data pins. Easier to fix bad positioning that way.

[@xzaz2]

Also anchor the board

[@pjmorgan]

This is literally the greatest advert for Sony's Repair Services. I doubt they could've done better themselves.

[@MrOneart]

True, shut up and take my money :D

[@majstealth]

@@MrOneart tbh, one could have done a bit more research and maybe thought about if it is a good idea to blow 500° hot air against plastic parts.....

[@TheFutureIsEloi]

It's a better advert for not buying sony in the first place (not that there's much better available from other manufacturers). This could have simply been made easier to service, or even using a more robust, high-quality, connector (I would expect both for the price of that camera).

[@andrewszczplaylist]

@@TheFutureIsEloi It's an 7 years old camera, full hdmi was super rare in that time in non-pro cameras. Newer gen has full hdmi.

[@ImTotallyTechy]

@@TheFutureIsEloi idk... Sony seems to have the most publicly available service manuals and replacement parts over other camera manufacturers. This would have been a relatively easy fix for someone with the skill set to do so. I'm all for right to repair-but I don't think that means that absolutely everyone should be able to perform every repair. We'd have to dumb down a lot of electronics to get that working.

[@SolidSquid1]

Is it just me, or could 90% of Linus's frustration and problems have been solved by using a handy helper? Could even have applied the hot air gun to the back of the board and avoid burning the HDMI socket (and possibly avoid over heating the whole board by not doing it so many times)

[@MyILoveMinecraft]

True but let's be real when it's not your job, when do you have all correct tools for the job?

[@roxxd4457]

I was about to make the exact same comment, I was so frustrated to see him trying to remove the hdmi connector and was like "DAMN PLEASE USE A HANDY HELPER !" 😂 It's kinda cheap and so useful !

[@NavyDood21]

@@MyILoveMinecraft The funny thing is, they have people there who its is probably literally their job to take care of things like this. He should have been more well prepared with the team he had, but he was still far more prepared than most people would be. And it showed how hard it was for him to do. My job for the past 10+ years has been focused a lot on small electronics repair and it took me plenty of time, and fucking things up, before I could routinely do solder work like that. I appreciate his "What do I have to lose" attitude to trying it, but I really struggle in understanding why people seem to think they are owed step by step instructions to repair something they are almost certainly not qualified enough for.

[@xNenshu]

as someone who has experience micro soldering, this is painfully hilarious.

[@instanoodles]

I had to look away, it hurt to watch.

[@nemtudom5074]

Lets go with painful

[@GabrielM01]

We can see clearly Linus spends literally 0 hours per week watching micro soldering content in KZbin

[@rafaeltogami]

If it’s any consolation, I got 0 experience in micro soldering and it was still painful to watch…

[@MCCENTx2]

Even as someone with very little soldering experience, it's still painful

[@pjforde1978]

Massive respect for LTT showing the reality of the build montage. Even more respect for modeling how mature people can deal with incredibly frustrating setbacks and ultimate failure without punching walls. Things don't always go according to plan. What your employees remember is how you dealt with it.

[@priyanshupratik1566]

its all scripted bro they didnot use any sort of holding appratus or kapton tape to minimize heat damage.

[@surft]

@@priyanshupratik1566 true kapton tape should have been used and a microscope like how Rossmann does board repair.

[@fredwupkensoppel8949]

@@priyanshupratik1566 Well, they are no experts, just dedicated fools.

[@bocahdongo7769]

@@fredwupkensoppel8949 I mean, most of us holding the camera are dedicated fools in the realm of electronic repairing

[@pjforde1978]

@@ts757arse Same! To me, this is what Right To Repair is all about; companies like Sony shouldn't be forced to publish instructables, but we should have the right to shame them for not doing it - or deliberately obfuscating information that could help. Part of the reason I bought a Framework laptop, for example, is that I hope I never have to take it apart, but I appreciate that they have my back if something goes wrong. Shame == voting with our dollars. I see no reason why Sony doesn't come out ahead if they make exploded diagrams with parts manifests available. Why force people to send back a whole camera when they could request part A57?

[@krull1x]

Little tip from someone who worked on PCBs for a long time. If you want to use a heat gun and want to minimize the possibility of desoldering or damaging other components you could put Kapton tape around the spot where you are working. 2 or 3 layers if you wanna be really safe. It's really heat resistant and protects the covered areas.

[@darrenfalconer3267]

I'm no expert or even a beginner but like to watch people solder and this video had me freaking out, I knew something was missing but couldn't put my finger on it, it was the heat tape.

[@TheBamaChad-W4CHD]

I have never felt a video so much. I always try to repair electronics and it rarely goes well. Especially the ribbon cables!

[@tormaid42]

Really should invest in a strain relief clamp for those Sonys-you can leave a micro to full HDMI dongle in there permanently.

[@Glenners]

Yeah, this is such a fixable issue lol. Hot glue a dongle on, done.

[@Idiomatick]

It comes with one. It bolts to the side of the camera. They must have lost it?

[@Dunestorm333]

HDMI over USB-C would be SO MUCH better.

[@robertzhu]

@@Dunestorm333 USB-C unfortunately suffers the same issue of just being a connector that's way too small and bendable. Many laptop manufacturers split USB-C to a daughter board so it can be easily replaceable. I would still prefer a full-size HDMI in this case.

[@jessejayphotography]

I wouldn’t even bother plugging in anything to micro hdmi at all. It will fail. I have an R5C and it has micro-hdmi, hilariously, and I just pretend it doesn’t have hdmi at all. Luckily I don’t need hdmi out.

[@michaelmarshall8425]

Suggestion, connect a micro hdmi extender to the camera so when continuasley unplugging and repliging, strain is put on the extender cable rather than the expensive to repair micro hdmi connector on the camera. When the extension cable fails, replace it with a new one, which is a lot cheaper than a motherboard replacement and will reduce wear on the camera.

[@D3M3NT3Dstrang3r]

I think that is a good suggestion. Still hard to keep the strain from the weight of the cable though. Maybe use a 3D pen to build a base at the end of the cable to stabilize it against the body of the camera and put the stress on the actual cable and not the connector, Then the only connection wear would be at the end of the adapter.

[@D3M3NT3Dstrang3r]

Also I wish they would go the way laptops did with barrel connectors and make them floating instead of fixed. That made them less likely to break the board connection from weight or accidental snags, and easier to swap if you did manage to break them.

[@SimoBenziane]

@@D3M3NT3Dstrang3r There are HDMI clamps that get attached to the camera cage, that do exactly that.

[@D3M3NT3Dstrang3r]

@@SimoBenziane Interesting, I dont have the need for one so I have done no research on the matter. But Im glad somebody recognized the need.

[@Reeferman420NL]

@@SimoBenziane I would suggest a hdmi 90 degree adapter that stays on the camera. Fixing the plug/unplug wear and the stress caused by the cable being attached horizontally.

[@cloudyview]

I know it's content that you were after, but I love that it went from $500 to fix in probably a week or two, to $600 + dozens of hours between filming and the actual attempts at repairs, along with weeks of waiting for parts and calibration 🤣

[@provax4925]

But you forgot the revenue they got basically for just torturing a broken product.

[@IhsanSantoso]

At least he get the content, i think ad revenue from this video will cover all cost that incured wkwkwk

[@VanlockFR]

Yes and it makes for very poor content imo. The conclusion of that video is really bad : you waste 20mn on a video where basically he shows how he wasted hundreds of man hours and $600+ just for "entertainment". Also just so that he's going to use that expensive camera for a bloody home streaming setup. LOL. very disappointed here.

[@Renegade605]

This can absolutely be the reality, but it also holds value outside of ending up with a repaired device at the end. For example, I blew an engine in a car I had once. I sourced a new engine but the quotes I got for replacing it ran from $1000-2500. I decided I'd do it myself. It cost me $300 to rent space and tools to do the work, and a week of incredible frustration. I damaged a sensor on one of the wheels that cost me $250 to replace, and I made another mistake that ended up damaging the transmission which cost me another $600 to fix. In total I swapped the whole engine once, and the transmission came out and went back in another 3 times. I spent more than the cheapest quote I got, but I learned *a ton*. The first transmission swap took 19 hours, the second 12, and the last one only 6. A few years later when a different car needed a new clutch, I had the experience and confidence to do it myself in a day and saved $1000. I came out ahead, and it's really hard to put a price on the satisfaction of bringing something broken back to life with your own two hands.

[@deokureta108]

@@provax4925 600$ but half of it is from the tools. next time you need to do that kind of repair you won't have to buy them again

[@MrSanemon]

I absolutely loath working on small shit. The frustration shown here is so real, I also understand not wanting to throw shit away.

[@therealexodus8462]

I love how any tech failures at LMG just turns into a video concept that honestly is some of my favorite videos of just Linus digging Into tech you don't normally get to see. Please keep posting videos like these!!

[@bnelsey]

Should probably include "helping hands" to things that you will need, they really help when soldering stuff

[@chrismitchell7494]

come to think of it, I've never soldered away from a workbench with at least one other person nearby... I never thought about it before but we ask each other for small shit all the time.

[@virtualpilgrim8645]

I was thinking the exact same thing. I have Helping Hands. However, Helping Hands is a little bit lightweight, and you would have to tape it down to the table if you needed to apply any extra pressure.

[@TypicalRiderPH]

A board holder is a better approach. They even included it in the video from another channel how to fix it (3:50). Sadly they never used it.

[@Dadspicable]

Yeah a board jig is inexpensive and insanely more helpful than helping hands but both are useful for their own reasons.

[@Later_Nerd]

I prefer a pcb holder. I use one from Hakko but end up just using it as a weight 95% of the time and not how it's intended lmao. All that really matters is something to keep it in place so it does move while you're doing high precision work. High heat tape works in a pinch fine.

[@dabigbadwolf5081]

Pro tip: put a mini-HDMI to HDMI adapter in the port, glue the heck out of it and use the Adapter as a port. Do this before the Mini HDMI port gets weak.

[@cyrkielnetwork]

Just buy $10 adapter that you can screw to rig cage (they using it anyway) and you are done. But it's only a problem with older Sony cameras. Newer ones has standard HDMI ports.

[@ahmetrefikeryilmaz4432]

we really need d-sub connectors. They are forgotten but not obsolete.

[@MrFaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

This is the wrong way to do it. You need to cut an HDMI cable off at one end and solder each wire in there to each of those tiny pads, and then glue the cable into the chassis with strain relief

[@Jehty_]

That's the solution I immediately thought of. I would also use some glue that can be easily removed if the adapter fails at some point.

[@dh2032]

@@cyrkielnetwork yes was space really that small not to put a full HDMI sized port even they made like 5mm bigger cover the larger plug size?

[@garrythomson8018]

This repair makes me feel better about some of my attempts! Thank you!

[@PrinceWesterburg]

The 'external screen' is actually a data recorder giving 10bit and higer bit rate over the internal 8bit and compressed video. The answer is to use lighter cables as its only a short run. I found some coiled ones and cable tie them to camera cage.

[@maddan.]

Securing the cables so there is no load on the connector is the key.

[@agenericaccount3935]

@@maddan. Yeah, cable clamps and a cage to mount them on.

[@purplepenguin43]

If the connector just stays attached all the time you can also hot glue it in place. Semi permanent and you can usually just peal the hot glue away if you need to take it off the camera. If it need to be plugged and unplugged a lot a 3d printed mount that supports the cable and attaches to the camera works a treat. Bonus points if you can design it so the mount stays on the camera and the cable slides straight in and out so you can’t stress the cable trying to put it in at an angle.

[@thevaf2825]

never E V E R apply any amount of force on a component you are desoldering as you may rip a pad. The idea is you melt the solder, not breaking it. It is a bit more difficult when components are also adhered into place or if there are thru-hole mounting tabs, but for most smd components if you feel it doesn't want to come out, then it's probably not reflown correctly yet.

[@iamdmc]

yeah linus isn't really competent at much nowadays

[@JohnSmith-ws7fq]

​@RogerWilco99 Yep, ZD-915 here and wouldn't do without it.

[@Infernogigas]

As someone who does this kind of stuff daily, this was painful. Still enjoyed watching the struggle though.

[@MoreOftenTopical]

Hats off to you. The amount of tiny parts there was stressing me out just WATCHING, I couldn't begin to imagine actually doing it on $1000+ equipment.

[@ddgarage7025]

Every camera tech just cries inside... me included

[@CubicIronPyrite]

@@ddgarage7025 Do techs actually use heat guns, or desoldering irons?

[@crumpets2123]

Ah yes, but we have all goofed at least once, and it made us better for it.

[@LukewarmMiner]

@@CubicIronPyrite work in console/handheld/phone repairs, hot air is common for ports, though i do it from behind connection and hit the anchors/pins with low melt solder first to help the port loosen sooner at lower temps to protect other components

[@JFHeroux]

⚠ IMPORTANT TIP - All of this could have been avoided if the following setup had been used: A right-angle cable and... black hot glue. 😜 I kid you not. We use right angle mini-HDMI cables and then use a hot glue gun and build a sort of barrier around the connector. It takes about 15 seconds to glue the cable onto the camera, the black glue is more sticky and flexible than the basic kind but all of that can also be removed easily when needed. Most of the time though, you keep the camera in the rig with the cable attached to it. So the HDMI output is protected at all times when shooting. We don't break those ports anymore. 😎👍

[@HeadsetHistorian]

Is the right angle cable like a female to male fullsize hdmi one so you can just plug in normal cables whenever? That would make a lot of sense tbh.

[@JFHeroux]

@@HeadsetHistorian Exactly. And once we glue it on with black hot glue, there's no breaking it. 10$ solution to a hundreds of dollars problem. ;)

[@messylaura]

i was thinking the same thing, just add an extension to the port so if anything breaks its a quick fix btw can you get a micro to full size adapter cable for the same purpose, to make an extended link

[@CybertroninfiniteOfficial]

What does the black glue do to prevent damage

[@swiftrealm]

@@CybertroninfiniteOfficial It holds the cable in place so you don't remove it from the connector. You don't want to be straining the socket, that's how you damage your expensive camera's output.

[@Amazingdinosaurman]

Quick tip: when trying to remove a component try not to lever it off at all, as that rns the ris of ripping up pads. Flood it with flux and wait till the solder is all wet before pulling it off!

[@NorthridgeFix]

The number of comments I received today about this video.....All I can say is, 12:20 Gone to the 9th dimension. You won't find it.

[@Derpingtonshere]

I just went through a ton of comments to find this and like it. I didn't have to, I just wanted to prove to myself that I can find it.

[@oldyoldenough7327]

Enjoyed your reaction video! I didn't detect even a hint of ridicule whatsoever, which is a perfect demonstration of your incredibly humble nature.

[@Fuzzy-88]

This right here is reason enough why some of those 14.8mill subs need to come find our man Alex over @NorthridgeFix ✍️💨 💯

[@MissingClara]

You don't need 430C, just lower it to like 350C and take it slower. Also, do a circular motion with the gun to make the heat more uniform. Going too fast will usually result in stuff like this where you melt the plastic.

[@ccricers]

I don't remember the last time Linus built a watercooled PC with hard tubing (or if he ever did). That would be one experience where learning how to properly and evenly heat plastic is important.

[@ald3nt3]

this, and also putting a bit of capton tape over it helps to spread heat evenly preventing the plastic from melting. IMHO i'd even ditch hot air soldering in those cases; the connector should be easily soldered by hand given enough flux and a microscope.

[@GulfCoastGrit]

@@ald3nt3 Normally, you'd be right about doing it by hand! Micro-HDMI SMDs have a second row of pins (check out 8:28) that are inaccessible once it's in place (12:34). Hot air is pretty much the only way to get these on.

[@overclock1993]

nah, you can only remove a solder joint when the soilder reaching its melting temperature. No mater you do it slow or fast. Manufatures use lead free soldering with high melting temperature. The only way you can remove it with less heat is using low melt soilder (content Bismuth) , mix it with the soldering joint using iron, then apply heat, cover a board with Al foil with you don't want to expose to heat. This video demonstrate a poorly skill and have no idea what to do will runing you think. Please don't do it. Practice it on something you dont care first, make some research.BTW You can easy repair ribbon cable just soilder a wire back.

[@ald3nt3]

@@GulfCoastGrit ah, crap, yeah, two rowed connector, then it's hot air time

[@markmutti]

Micro HDMI is the worst. I recommend getting a camera cage and clamping down an adapter (to actual, real HDMI) that just always lives with and in the camera.

[@dustojnikhummer]

miniHDMI is even worse than microHDMI

[@joemonteithcinematography7477]

No miniHDMI is way better. Still not great but sits in-between microHDMI and full size HDMI in size.

[@wheresvr6]

Any hdmi is crap for professional use basically. It's a household connetor, it wasn't designed to withstand any proper amount of forces that occur to it when moving a camera even when we're talking about full-size hdmi. BNC is the way to go, but i get it that it's impractical for dslrs

[@saltananda3227]

@@wheresvr6 I wish they kept the standard of being able to secure video cables with those 2 screws, like vga and dvi cables

[@wheresvr6]

@@saltananda3227 yeah. Now that's basically what all these cable holders do

[@myaccount__7269]

Why not use a micro hdmi coupler and keep it always connected to the camera ? Then you don’t have to wear out the port

[@firefly2472]

Yupp. 5 dollar fix.

[@charliebrownn6622]

You are correct 👍, attached to a micro rig cage is a solid solution

[@thewafen763]

The cable will still put weight on the coupler causing it to lever on the micro HDMI more. Also, it would be more annoying to rig the camera out because of the profile of the coupler. I suppose the levering part could be remedied by a 3d printed cable support or sum like that. What we need to do is stop supporting these companies and buying their new products

[@stefan514]

Because the guys at LTT aren't the brightest people sometimes 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@mynameissang]

Hindsight is 20/20

[@gordon_kwong]

The newest generation of Sony full frame cameras all use full size HDMI now. These cameras are amazingly small for how many components they contain.

[@jacobmussi1684]

There is nothing more valuable than the chance to learn from other peoples failures. Thank you so much for posting this process with all the bumps and bruises. I love the right to repair movement and will always advocate having a better understanding of your hardware and doing your own maintenance if possible. However I feel to many repair advocates skip over the fact that if you don't know what you're doing or aren't following the directions of someone who does, you can easily double any potential professional service bill or wind up needing to pay for a full replacement. Right to repair wont make everyone a skilled technician, but it will empower people to do the simple repairs that can double the lifespan of everyday items like phones and laptops.

[@MarshallHoff]

Agree, and certain devices are just a thousand times harder to repair than others. I frequently repair smartphones, and advocate for right to repair on them. They are difficult to repair, but doable, I have personally done dozens and not broken a one. Even with multiple years of experience doing smartphone, laptop, desktop, iMac repair, I would NEVER touch a camera. I love photography and own multiple camera's, new and old, and I looked into repairing an old Canon AE1 film camera, and it is crazy. Mad respect for the people who repair cameras, because the way they are packed together with a million insanely fragile ribbon cables, its a nightmare.

[@Razzlion]

@@MarshallHoff To be fair, alot of the difficulty is because they make stuff as horrible as possible to fix without patented tools..

[@wayland7150]

We each saved several hundred $$$ watching Linus do this so we did not.

[@siliconalleyelectronics187]

If I had a nickel for every ripped pad and burned PCB because someone thought it would be an easy fix...

[@Poldovico]

No legislation could ever make technicians obsolete. Right to repair means you can bring your stuff to a technician you trust and get a fair price, instead of the manufacturers giving themselves a monopoly on repairing their own stuff and price gouging everyone.

[@Daggz90]

Welcome to small-tech repairs Linus, lol 14:15 is typical behavior when working in a shop and under time pressure. Hilarious to watch how quickly he adopted the spirit of a real technician. Great stuff, keep it up. All the best!

[@jp-ny2pd]

On removing the old connector you'd want to wait until you can just kind of tap the top of it and it wiggles before you start trying to remove it. I'd also recommend trying to gently tap it to the side when you think it's ready before lifting on it. If you got a pad stuck you're less likely to rip anything with a sheering force then a prying one. As far as the new port goes I'd have used solder paste and hand soldered the through-hole mounting pins to hold it in place before hand. I would have definitely been doing all this under a microscope or at least some sort of magnification to make sure the alignment is right. Other than that, this is just what gaining experience looks like. You took what you knew, tried to apply it, had some setbacks, and now you'll know more for next time.

[@thebrotherscurtin9827]

As a l3 electronics technician I highly recommend getting a set of helping hands. Also if solder bridges pins on the connector just flux it and use some wick to absorb the bridge

[@unlink1649]

Helping hands have so often damaged PCBs of mine with their strong clamps and sharp teeth.

[@thebrotherscurtin9827]

@unlink use ones with rubberized teeth and only hold by pcb edges

[@deathventure]

This was painful. Tip for soldering pins like that. Clean the pads with the wick and flux. Then clean the area with isopropyl alcohol. Make sure it's all clean. Don't bother with the solder paste. Flux the pads again, load the iron with some solder and load the pads that way. The flux will prevent the solder from bridging if done correctly. Clean the area again with isopropyl alcohol. Use some copper tape, kapton tape, or high temp tape and block the area around the connector. Flux the pads well and lay the connector down on the pads. Take the temp of the heat gun down slightly so it won't kill the plastic of the connector. Also, turn down the fan intensity of it. Try to keep the heat on the pins and pads more than the connector itself. Be patient and keep the heat moving back and forth. It'll take a little bit but you should start seeing the solder melt. Don't get excited and take the heat off yet. Keep moving it around until all the solder is completely molten on pins and the grounds. After that, pull the heat away and let it sit for 5-10 minutes to cool down.

[@EdHayes3]

Ya, that temp on the hot air was very high

[@bullettube9863]

A friend of mine many years ago told me that a short extension for HDMI and USB ports will make the port last longer as you will not be applying pressure to the port when connecting and disconnecting it. Most short extensions are 3 ft or less and cost very little compared to the cost of repairing-replacing ports.

[@IntoxiKaded]

I do this stuff everyday and watching this reminded me of all the stuff I broke. You learn a lot from messing up but it sucks more when it's a customers device :(

[@dewaldsteyn1306]

Well lets just hope the costumer isnt a karen😂

[@brandongers]

As someone who had to tear down my A7III to replace the audio jack and in the process ruined my back screen, I feel your pain.

[@PrecisionEngineeredJank]

As a preventative measure. On a larger rig you can use a connector saver. This is just a super short extension cable. Only unplug the main cable, always leave the extension on, that way the wear acts on the easily replaceable extension. Of course this isn't perfect but it extends life of the main connector some. I use this concept on high volume tests systems that go through 40k insertions a year.

[@bobski3333]

Connectors and hot air do not get along. Hot air is great for removing already-broken connectors, but a pain for installing new ones for all of the reasons Linus illustrated. The only time you want to use hot air for installation is if the component has terminals you can't reach with a soldering iron. Even then, you want to pre-heat the PCB to as close to the solder melt temperature as you can reasonably manage. Radiant (think toaster oven coils under the PCB) or convective (similar to the hot air station, but wide, slow moving and under the board) board heaters are common. If all the terminals are accessible (not sure if Linus' were), the good old soldering iron is the way to go. Bridging contacts is actually okay - add a little flux and clean off the extra solder with solder wick. The same capillary action that makes the wick work will keep solder between the terminal and PCB pad, assuming the terminal is flat against the pad. That means doing your best to clean off the pads before adding flux and placing the component. They can be tinned (solder colored) but should look completely flat. In this case, you don't add any solder or solder paste before placing the component - the flux already in the joint, a pre-heated PCB and the iron heat will let regular old wire-type solder flow into the joint in a heartbeat. Don't try to solder individual pins. Do 3 or 5 (or however many fit under your iron tip, which should be the largest you can physically use for the job BTW - better thermal transfer) terminals at a time, or even get a blob of solder on your iron tip and (gently) drag it down the row of terminals. With a little practice, the blob will heat up the contact and pad, flow some solder into the joint, then separate cleanly (assuming the flux hasn't all boiled off) as the blob moves on. Again, bridged terminals can be de-bridged with wick and still more flux.

[@peter.s.3207]

If yo do more soldering of connectors like that I would definitely recommend hand-soldering rather than hot air for reattaching it. Solder the mechanical pins first, getting it aligned properly, then hand solder the data pins on and then remove the excess with a wick. It's much easier to get the connector aligned that way than trying to reflow the whole thing all at once without a proper oven / paste / hot plate.

[@peter.s.3207]

Also when applying hot air to a board make sure to put kapton tape (or something else heat resistance) over the rest of the components on the board. Particularly important for plastic connector headers, leds, etc, as those like to melt when exposed to even slightly-to-high temps.

[@anthonydiiorio]

The connector used has a row of pins that are inaccessible behind another row of pins.

[@VilmaHallikas]

That particular connector had two rows of data pins, not gonna hand-solder those.

[@peter.s.3207]

@@anthonydiiorio Oh interesting! After you pointed it out I re-watched and it does indeed. I've never encountered that before on leaded SMD components. That would definitely make this repair annoying without the proper equipment.

[@ZaPpaul]

I do SMD repair and watching Linus ripping up that port as he was heating it loose was painful viewing. That's a real easy way to rip off the pads/traces and then you have a whole different repair to endure.

[@Cyber_Akuma]

Yeah, haven't done this kind of work.... yet, but I have been watching a lot of soldering, SMD, and repair videos as I want to learn. Was he really supposed to use the hot air rework station to try to put the new port on the board? I thought that's mostly to remove components and/or reflow, not attach them unless you have solder paste for SMD components.

[@Nullmoose]

Omg I posted the exact same comment the I decided to read what others were saying. I’m glad I found this one so I know another solder tech is sharing my pain right now haha!

[@bocahdongo7769]

@@Cyber_Akuma Try it, It's a legit pain for the first try

[@avrel820]

You should use no clean flux for a job like that it's the best. Soldering paste should be perfect once you have finished use isopropyl alcohol to clean up the PCB with a soft toothbrush

[@sd8213]

Hes a professional he dosnt need your help

[@keithdenzelroque2072]

@@sd8213 if the comment was also a professional then you wouldn’t know what the fuck you should do then lmao

[@muazqamar]

@@sd8213 He clearly isn't. But he has a team around him that is

[@sd8213]

@@muazqamar do you have a youtube channel with 10 mill Subaru's

[@muazqamar]

@@sd8213 I don't think anyone has a KZbin channel with 10 million Subarus, brother

[@nic.h]

Plugging a cable into the connector while trying to place it can help. Gives you decent control compared to the tweezers and helps to act as a heatsink to remove some of that heat building up on the part. I usually do this for XT30/60 plugs that I use in quadcopters as it keeps the pins aligned correctly, and reduce the chances of heat damage.

[@Reploidx9]

II was wondering when I'd find a comment mentioning this. This is exactly what I do, the amount of stress it helps mitigate is nuts

[@JohnTTA]

"I tried to save money. I failed HARD." Me too, Linus, me too...

[@TheRealEncy]

So Basically People Who Tried To Fix Apple Product lol. _( Press F To The Apple Macbook Charging Cable That My Dad Tried To Fix )_

[@DignityDC]

Yep a

[@BK_Ben_FTW]

Title change gotcha

[@Airbag888]

The part where Nick takes over is like a tech horror movie.. Anyway, the real lesson is when you are quoted $ X for a job and you find the parts only cost $X/10 realise you are not factoring in your time/stress/high risk of failure and experience (whether formal or not) of the guy/company offering the repair service.

[@Boardwoards]

or that they don't bother with the stress and replace the whole board with another machine assembled one, maybe we should design more repairable or less fragile devices.

[@mitchellmiller6644]

depends on the company apple for example is notorious for quoting 750 to 1500$ repairs for a 5$ cap because they want you to say its not worth it and spend 1200 on a new macbook

[@tiavor]

I already thought in the middle of the soldering attempts: "if your goal is to toast the board, you've done well" usually you don't use the heat gun to solder connectors, only the solder iron (if possible)

[@pasikavecpruhovany7777]

This one is extra painful - two rows of pins. Preheating with the brick + heatgun set at lower temperature could have worked.

[@ps3customgamer]

@@pasikavecpruhovany7777 did you notice temperatures of the hot air

[@nathantron]

I love Brandons reactions as he takes it apart, gasps of terror on his precious camera.

[@myrealusername2193]

I’ve also worked on a camera recently (sand in the lens assembly unfortunately) and OML is it insanely hard compared to even an iPhone. While stuff isn’t glued down, there are so many more tiny ribbon cables and layers of screws all going around to different places. Could also be the fact that I’m much more used to taking apart smartphones and similar devices but damn does it feel really different.

[@Heightren]

I'm also trying one and there's a spring I can't get right

[@phuzz00]

My limit is laptops. After seeing this, I am never going to volunteer to work on a camera.

[@Graine01]

That is why repair costs a ton, you pay for a person not to fuck it up. 99+% of customers are not like linus who can write off 3+k loss because if they fuck it up they will make more from the video.

[@myrealusername2193]

@@phuzz00 I would say phones are a bit harder than laptops simply because of a lot of components being bigger/sturdier. Cameras though are on another level of delicate.

[@Hiwired96]

This is how I felt repairing my laptop's usb daughterboard. Halfway through you really start having a breakdown, and wished you had just brought it to a repair center. However, when it all works out in the end it feels very satisfying!

[@justmf]

I love how he tried to save 500$ and ended up spending 600$ and lots of his time 😭

[@craftmaster300]

Plus all the man hours spent

[@CRCinAU]

.... but got content! :)

[@iamdmc]

700

[@nagasako7]

Sony tech was actually fair price lol

[@fitybux4664]

@@nagasako7 "And this video, is brought to you by Sony!" 😆 (Even if they don't directly receive a check from Sony, they might receive some sort of good will, or free parts in the future...)

[@yo-xe1ps]

15:06 can't stop rewinding to that insertion. So satisfying.

[@perkulant4629]

It's easier if you apply solder (like you did) in prep, then flux (like you did). Then place component in place, hold it down with tweezers then apply heat with lower airflow. You feel the component slot into place while applying the gentle pressure.

[@ChodaBoyUSA]

It is impressive watching Nick C. work on something so small and delicate with his huge bear paws. You should highlight more of his skills.

[@agc2801]

😂 use him in the first place, would have saved a lot of money, still appreciate the average joe approach I’ve been there.

[@iamaromalms24]

8:26 Linus actually heated the other side of the board probably the capacitor/LED and other small transistors, that could be reason why the board actually powered off during the boot.

[@ributsuria]

Kudos to Nick for the attempt of "un~linusing" the camera👍

[@the_queen_fisher]

This is one Linus' most relatable videos yet for me. I've had 2 pcbs with broken usbc connectors and ripped pads that I've been trying to repair. I've never been so irritated in my life. Where's Nicolas?

[@slartibartfasttynsol420]

This does look like a horrible board to rework, but a couple of suggestions for future repair efforts: 1) Boards often have big copper power plains, either visible or on an internal layer. Preheat the whole board (not all the way to reflow temps) to make desoldering with the hot air soldering station easier/less damaging. And turn the air flow down relatively slow. 2) Once the old component is removed, clean up with flux and wick until the pads are completely free of solder. 3) Solder paste - ideally with a stencil for the component, but with careful freehand alternatively. Then place the component, preheat the board as before and hot air (at low air flow rate) to melt the paste. 4) Post repair cleanup with isopropyl alcohol (IPA), and a soft toothbrush. Flux is generally corrosive, so you want to get rid of it. With no-clean flux this is less critical, but it can still gum up connectors. I normally leave the board completely immersed for a while, and then rinse with clean IPA. Note, IPA will dry out your skin, wear gloves. It's also very flammable, and evaporates quickly so you should make sure to have good ventilation. 5) For ribbon cable replacement (and removal) I suggest tweezers.(I.e. www.ebay.com/itm/192762181131?hash=item2ce185760b:g:CugAAOSwu3ZcGOOG (no affiliation)) And for the love of god get ESD grounding straps, table mat (and ground it). Even if it works just after the repair, ESD damage can result in 'walking wounded' boards that'll fail after a short time, or worse have weird behavior. I'm a FW engineer, and I have spent a month trying to solve a FW bug that turned out to be a half dead board.

[@SAFbikes]

Any suggestions on a decent hot air station that won’t break the bank for a beginner? I got a bag full of old boards waiting to be messed with.. even a full VX2000 my buddy smashed

[@ne_nravitsa]

I had the same thoughts while watching the video Thumbs up for you buddy

[@alexatkin]

This is what annoyed me about the "Can static kill your PC video". They completely glossed the fact that its not that ESD will immediately kill your PC, it can degrade components so they fail sooner, it could be days, it could be years.

[@slartibartfasttynsol420]

@@SAFbikes I use a cheap Tenma unit with a built in soldering iron - I don't think they make the model I have any more. I'd suggest getting one without the soldering iron - I have a Hakko soldering iron which has much better power and temperature regulation.

[@Crimin4L]

What did I learn from this video? Don't take my camera apart unless I have a team of paid professionals to clean up my mess. Thank you Linus for the valuable tech tip!

[@RannonSi]

Better to learn it now than after you've opened up your camera! ;)

[@zm7160]

Use the iron before the heat gun, you can replace/dope the crappy lead free solder with low melting temp leaded solder. That way when you go in the heat gun you're dealing with lower melting point, the part comes off easier. Flux is still a must.

[@Neoxon619]

Can’t USB4 2.0 (god, I hate that name) with USB-C pretty much eliminate the need for Micro HDMI? Hell, it could probably replace DisplayPort given the 80Gbps transfer speeds.

[@MrD0r1an]

That is already possible with normal USB-C via the HDMI alt mode. It simply uses the USB lanes as HDMI lanes. This works because both formats use 4 twisted pairs.

[@MaxRovensky]

It’s usually a matter of workflow I haven’t really seen a compact type-c to HDMI cable I can run from my Sony to my Atomos HDMI is standard on cameras and tons of equipment are already designed for it Would be nice tho

[@Mindbulletz]

Wait, they really went USB 420?

[@Neoxon619]

@@MrD0r1an True, but I thought previous USB standards had to make some sort of compromise because they couldn’t either match or surpass existing HDMI &/or DisplayPort standards.

[@sunspot42]

@@Mindbulletz it’s dope!!!

[@Minicraftiano]

Linus: Complains about the plastic from the port being melt Also Linus: Proceeds to use a bad quality hot air station at 487 degrees (10:16)

[@LanteanStargater]

It's only 250º C

[@MrSgtBlade]

I've been using the exact same one for many years now and it works great. My recommended temperature for most situations is 350 degrees (Celsius)

[@woopsserg]

It's Canada, not US. Normally they use Celsius, not Fahrenheit.

[@xaytana]

@@LanteanStargater No, these display celsius, just as the vast majority of lab equipment does.

[@vivekvs1992]

This reminds me of the days when I open up kitchen appliances to "fix" them and just leave behind a box of parts that just don't fit together afterwards

[@MrConminer]

reparing boards like this is my student job rn and it reminded me of my first days, appreciate showing people out of their comfort zone and also shows how important right to repair is

[@me0262]

Yes, keep in mind when you're trying to do repairs like this on your own, that even with the proper tools you may end up making things worse. I learned this when replacing a USB-C 2.0 port on a tablet, where I broke the MicroSD port on the board while taking it apart, and ended up also having to replace that port as well, because it was needed. I have a couple of non-working PS3 3D TVs, one where someone tried to affect repairs on his own, and ended up lifting some pads off the U4 EEPROM, and blowing off some 0402 resistors. I also have a Pioneer LaserActive Sega PAC that while it was working before, after replacing the capacitors, stopped functioning. Know that a lot of these repairs are complex, tedious, and require a lot of patience, good (and proper) gear, and experience, and in non-professional hands you may pay for this in spades.

[@ShaggyMummy]

I had to RMA several cameras (zoom q2n) because the micro usb power port broke and the camera would overheat causing them to stop recording. It was cheaper for zoom to send me brand new zoom q2n 4k’s as a replacement, than to repair the original that was discontinued. They also have micro hdmi ports on them, luckily they havent broken on me yet, but considering the camera is ~$200 I doubt its worth repairing them

[@nathanmiller1456]

I love this kind of exploratory repair content. More repair, engineering, and electronics stuff please! You've got the staff to come up with some killer projects.

[@fex_sal]

I am a do it yourself guy when something breaks and on my own experience, I always end up breaking up something inside small gadgets such as cameras, phones, computers when trying to fix them. There's always a ribbon cable that breaks, or connector that gets damaged, so I can relate to this video. My advise is, if the broken gadget does not work at all, and the possible fix is inexpensive, go ahead, but learn when to stop before becomes more expensive than buying the item you are trying to fix new.

[@KingKool2099]

"They wanted five hundred to fix it!" (Four hundred dollars for a new board and two hundred dollars for calibration) "Fixed!" Good old Linus.

[@cyrkielnetwork]

Plus apporox 10h+ of Linus and others work (not inculudig camera operators etc. thier work was to made video, not repair camera)

[@Nevermind-ls4wp]

I'd hot glue a short microhdmi extender to the camera and just use that. When that inevitably breaks, you just replace the extender, hot glue comes right off with ipa.

[@Nullmoose]

Im a microsolder technician and watching Linus do almost everything the wrong way angers me to my core but its also pretty cool to see him branching out to things other than snapping together PCs. 10/10 on the effort and for sure the most entertaining thing ive seen all day. Practice makes perfect!

[@lucasrem]

i have seen the machines you use, you make PCD's too, or buy them custom?

[@0Asterite0]

Who are the clowns he's hiring for the lab if they cant tell him the right way to repair an hdmi jack?

[@relic985]

Yep, I've broken my fair share of ports during repairs. When you get frustrated, you've really got to step back and approach the problem later with a cool head (and a hot board!)

[@jerelima]

First mistake: Not using a microscope Second one: Dind't use something to hold the board, and them start the work.... And the list continues ...

[@Alucard-gt1zf]

Wow its almost like he's never done this before

[@pieterrossouw8596]

More professional = less views. Linus figured that out ages ago

[@Beregorn88]

First mistake was letting Linus anywhere near to the camera...

[@mr.transposon5017]

Even a magnifying glass would have sufficed

[@alexanderbonnot]

As an IPC trainer, I think this kind of video is my favorite. Nice to see many of the struggles and remedies aren't edited out.

[@Lauren_C]

As someone that was trained with basically a “Here’s what we want, figure it out.”, this video is totally relatable. SMT was pretty easy for me, owing to watching tons of Louis Rossmann, but soldering to plated housings is pain…

[@hardwarerepair200]

This is my favorite repair video so far. Instead of a pro repairman making things look easy, it shows all the real difficulties in DIY fix. Sometimes the journey itself is more valuable than the outcome.

[@TheHobohobbit]

This doesn't actually show any 'real' difficulties, what this does show is what happens when you completely ignore all of the advice and tips that even a first year tech can give you.

[@bruce-le-smith]

this made me feel so much better about learning to do something hard and resiliency, thanks for sharing! great background video while I'm working on stuff

[@marcberm]

Seems that Linus only proved that repair work is more than the sum of the value of repair parts. Labor equals time and effort, which is also worth money.

[@riomisterio6665]

Yup, but a repair work also shouldn't always cost as much as replacing with new stuff

[@chanchan05]

And knowledge, which either comes from a training course or breaking enough stuff that you know what to not break.

[@marcberm]

@@riomisterio6665 Repair cost should be proportional to the effort and skill involved, and it often is. Sometimes things do legitimately cost a significant chunk of the replacement cost just to repair, because either the parts are expensive or the labor is intense or both. It generally bothers me to see a professional's work in any trade be devalued by consumers who have no idea. It's like the folks who think the pawn shop is going to buy their item for expected retail, or that an electrician is going to come swap their light fixture for barely more than the cost of the fixture itself. To be clear I'm not saying I think you feel or think that way, just a tangent about a thing that gets me riled up lol.

[@Manofvideos292]

I'm always trying to fix stupid little things like this. It's nice to see Linus having as much trouble as I do. Makes me feel somewhat normal.

[@jcben]

Now you understand why Sony asks 500$ to repair it 😁 Of course using such crappy connectors is a shame in the first place

[@teslatrooper]

With the right tools (like a clamp to hold the workpiece for one) this was a 10 minute repair job not counting disassembly. 1: take the old connector off with hot air on full blast 2: clean flux and solder from the board 3: apply paste (they would have a stencil for that so you just align the pads and wipe a glob of paste over it, would've been $10 to order one for this video) 4: place the new connector and reflow the corner of the board on a small hotplate ($90), cleanup with soldering iron if needed. done.

[@Graine01]

@@teslatrooper Yeah but as customer you have to pay for those tools and disasembly and work done of hte person.

[@Graine01]

@@teslatrooper Average customer will fuck it up and brick 3+k camera. Also those right tools are 1000s usd worth of tech. Look at rossman a single microscope for such work can cost 10+k. But hey peopel on the internet know better.

[@DJ3thenew23]

It's funny that this started as a right to repair video and ended as proof that sometimes its better to just let the company that made the thing fix the thing

[@Gokul_Yt]

@@teslatrooper there is a much better way to make this make the io board a daughter board just like sd card slot

[@tsprouse1322]

By the way there is a way around this … small rig makes a clamp for those cables as well as making an awesome light weight micro to full size adapter that screws right on to the cage. Actually there you only plug in the micro hdmi once and then the little bolted down adapter where the full size hdmi comes out is the thing that you plug in to regularly keeping weight and stress off the small port

[@danielgawedzki3425]

Hey there, I work as a tech on Sony cameras. You're supposed to remove the top board before you remove or install the mainboard on almost any Sony camera. There's a screw in the front side of the battery compartment, which helps you take off the grip, which helps you take off the top board.

[@xWood4000]

I like to know how my things are assembled so I've got some idea of how sony cameras can be disassembled. Your job is pretty impressive, high economic risk if you make any mistakes

[@danielgawedzki3425]

@@xWood4000 you can say that. The largest issue I've encountered is finding broken cameras to use for parts.

[@pqfamilyadventures]

I think one of his tools should be a magnifying glass. They have always been super helpful for me with that kinda work

[@rexsceleratorum1632]

Cheap digital microscope rather

[@TheHobohobbit]

The worst part is that they mentioned having a microscope multiple times and still refused to use it for the actual repair.

[@Devin1364]

This is how I feel repairing things including the frustration

[@DamnThisAllNow]

As someone who broke the connector on his drawing tablet i find this whole experience highly relatable, although you were supposed to use heat resistant tape around the area to reduce the chance of damaging the surrounding components, it might still have happened anyways as i can attest...

[@jagadishk4513]

You should use kapton tape on parts that were beneath the connector and on parts that you don't want the hot air. By the way terrible soldering. Just remove solder completely from pads. Apply paste put the connector and use hot air. Remove bridges with wick

[@83hjf]

and don't use the fine nozzle. just the wide outlet and parts won't fly out.

[@josephgood2704]

I love this. Lol it makes me appreciate channels that do this stuff nonstop so much more. They always have quick highlights of doing it perfectly. I guess nobody is good at doing stuff the first time.

[@eldibs]

"...and, now you own all these tools." So many people underestimate that value. Good tools, if taken care of, will last you many years and projects, so you can essentially treat it like the cost of the tools is split between all the projects you use them on.

[@Papinak2]

When dealing with plastic components, you can set the air temperature to 320C at most. It's good to have bottom hot air preheater to help you heat up the board - that's what you want to heat up, not the component. Also, you should place the component into the solder paste (if that's what you were using) instead of melting it beforehand - the flux in the paste should help against bridging of the pins. BTW, to improve longetivity of the connector, I'd add a short extension cable and a 3D printed holder to keep everything fixed without stress to camera's connector.