Bodges

Missing pin on hard drive power cable

My mate snapped a pin on his hard drive removing the molex power connector. This rendered the drive useless and so a bodge was needed.

We realized that we could solder to the pin where it goes into the pcb, but this was covered by the plastic molex socket. So I used the dremel to cut the plastic away until the pin was visible and accessible. To supply power to the drive, a pass through molex power connctor was removed from a fan. With the appropriate wire removed from the plug buy pulling on it hard. When plugged in, this will connect to the 3 remaining pins in the drive. The end of the hanging wire is cut off and stripped and tinned. Then I soldered the wire to the exposed pin of the hard drive. After using a test meter to check for shorts, the drive can be tested... And it worked! Bonus.

Epson Printer paper tray

Lost paper tray on a 680 Printer? Use a coat hanger :-) Bent into shape, this has served perfectly for several months...