Friday, December 5, 2014

Gerbings Rant and Nexus Repair

I had the opportunity to break out my iFixit tool kit this afternoon. The replacement microphone/usb circuit board for the older Nexus 4 arrived from somewhere in China (ordered off of Amazon). After cracking the case open (2 screws), removing the plastic motherboard cover (9 screws), speakers (2 screws) and the battery (2 screws), I was able to pry out the tiny circuit board. Pry as in components were taped into the case. Then reassemble and test. A whole lot more screws than the iPhone 4 I took apart earlier. (2 screws)

It worked like a charm and it looked like there was one small "fried" component after it's trip through the washing machine by someone who shall remain nameless. Total cost for the repair was $6.98 with free shipping. Plus I got to play with my toolkit and now have a spare, unlocked GSM phone.

On Tuesday morning, there was up a foot of fresh snow on some of the roads. The main roads were mostly clear as long as you didn't need to change lanes. The Ural had no problem though it was running really rich by the time I arrived home yesterday afternoon. I suspect the air filter was soaked from all of the fresh snow getting sucked into the air cleaner. This rig really needs some sort of snorkel to keep snow out of the air filter. Maybe I just need to cover the rig when it is sitting at the University to keep snow from building up.

After a week of longer rides, the bottom started to drop and winter was threatening to return. From +15°F on Thursday morning to -11°F by the end of the day. It was time for the light fleece over the Gerbings liner.

Speaking of Gerbings, I had sent in my liner and gloves in to Gerbings for repair and specifically mentioned the left glove not working right (higher resistance which suggests that one circuit had a broken wire). They repaired the broken wire in the heating circuit of the glove and it worked maybe once. Then the wire broke at the fragile connector (I had mentioned that as well) Rather than deal with them again, I just cut off the broken connector and replaced it with a part from Radio Shack and now it works fine. I should've just fixed it myself in the first place as they didn't even test their work. 

10 comments:

  1. Nice work on both counts. Definitely micro-repairs, and very cost-efficient ones too.

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    1. Pretty straight forward repairs especially with websites such as ifixit.com. They had all the instructions on how to open up the Nexus 4.

      The gerbings repair was more annoying than difficult. Especially since I mentioned that there seemed to be a broken wire next to the connector. I won't be sending any more business their way...

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  2. Richard your talent never fails to amaze/impress me.

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    1. You are obviously easy to amaze/impress but thank you.

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  3. Electrical gremlins must fear your presence! Nice job with the fixes. In NH this week and it had been in the 30s but dry so far, not anymore, there's ice on the road and we're hoping for the salt trucks to be rolling.

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    1. With that toolkit, there isn't anything electronic that you can't take apart. It even has bits for all of those weird "security" screws.

      In NH for work or vacation?

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  4. It wasn't until I was finished with your post that I even knew what a Nexus was though I do know about Gerbings. Nice job on the repair(s)!

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    1. Sorry about that. The Nexus 4 is a Google marketed Android phone (I.e. Doesn't have all of the garbage software that other companies install). It has a Barrow local phone number so that it can be reached toll-free from phones located in Barrow.

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  5. Nice job with the repairs. Good thing you are handy that way.

    I don't know what it is about Gerbings, but I still don't know of anyone who hasn't had trouble with their wires breaking.

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    1. A few years back, I couldn't figure out why anyone would opt for battery powered heated gear. Now I know, to eliminate the most unreliable part, the support wiring.

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