Repair.IT, again – Samsung CLX-3305FW Colour Multifunction Laser Printer

Recap: Back in October 2018, I wrote about the repair of this Samsung CLX-3305FW printer.  Fast forward about a year – I was printing a long document that I needed for studying my CompTIA Security+ course, and partway through, the printer stopped feeding paper.

I went and checked the paper feed roller – just like last time – but this time, it didn’t work. In the meantime, I needed to finish the printing, so bought a reasonably inexpensive Brother MFC-L2730DW Mono Laser Multi-Function printer, which could also do automatic double sided printing, which meant that I could save on paper as well.

The Samsung was relegated to the garage where it was stored, until fast forward to Feb 2020. Just a week ago, I decided that I found a requirement to print something in colour. So, then the Samsung came out of the garage, and I decided to do further troubleshooting to see if I might be able to repair it this time.

This meant removing the paper tray, so that I could see the paper feed roller in action. There is an interlock switch, so I opened the rear cover door, put something into the tray sensing switch to indicate that the paper tray was installed, then another to set another switch to think that the rear cover door was closed.

After powering on, I selected the menu to perform a network configuration report, which should print out the network settings. By using a torch shining into the area that the paper tray would normally sit, I waited for the paper feed roller to rotate – after a number of clicks and attempts to feed paper, the printer stopped with an error – Paper Jam, and of course, no movement of the paper feed roller.

This would explain why adjusting the paper feed roller did not work this time. After an extensive google search, where 95% of the responses was to replace the paper feed roller, I found an article that mentioned something about a paper feed solenoid. A check of the service manual, showed that this device actually did exist, buried in the internals of the frame base-paper path mechanism. But no troubleshooting diagrams in the manual involved the solenoid.

After finding a Youtube video from someone cutting a piece of foam rubber, and attaching to the solenoid – I thought, why not. I had nothing to lose by trying this. So the steps I followed was:

• Remove all the toner cartridges and place them somewhere safe
• Open the rear cover door
• Remove 4 screws and remove the rear cover
• Release and remove the right cover
• Release and remove the left cover
• Remove 4 screws that secure a printed circuit board, and partially remove the connectors and the board

• Remove some screws and remove a gear assembly – actually this might not have been necessary, because maybe only one or two screws were needed, but I had done this anyway.

• 6 screws removed, and then the frame base-paper path assembly could almost be removed.
• 3 cable connectors on the left, when viewed from the back and 1 connector on the right needed to be released so that they could be threaded through the metal chassis, before the aforementioned assembly could be completely removed.

The picture above is viewing the side of the assembly that has the solenoid on it – as pictured in the service manual. After removing the gears as needed, the solenoid was released and could be looked at. Sure enough, there was a black pad, that seems to have compressed almost completely over time.  The printer was bought mid-2014 so after 5 years of only moderate use, this black pad had deteriorated.

The reasoning behind this is that the pad should have been probably 1.2mm thick, so that the clapper plate would be within range of the solenoid operation.  But being further away, meant that the solenoid wasn’t strong enough to pull this plate in, which would then release the gear that allowed the paper feed roller to rotate.

I remembered that I had some natural rubber sheet, previously bought to repair a vacuum pump, so got a piece of it out and cut it to similar size and after scraping off the original black foam, it had some sticky stuff left on the plate that my replacement appeared to fasten firmly.

I added a dab of plastic glue, just in case, but normally the solenoid retainer would keep this in place.  Next is a photo of the solenoid re-installed, but without the gears.

Then finally, all the gears back on, together with the paper feed motor.

You can just see that solenoid buried inside. Then the chore of re-installing everything back in, keeping to the order that things were removed, then putting the covers back on and count how many screws remain – none, great, so everything is back in place.

Occasionally during repairs like this, there is the extra screw left over, which had been removed at one stage, and when memory doesn’t work to put it back, so taking lots of photos before and during disassembly helps, to see if there is a missing screw.  My extra screw collection is quite small – I have heard of engineers accumulating large numbers of these extra screws, but that is another story.

So did the printer work, I can see you asking. Yes, definitely. On power-up, a page was fed and ejected, due to the paper feed gears being in a position to rotate. Next up, print the network configuration report – the output was very crisp, meaning that the printer was working properly.  Yes, I did also remember to install the toner cartridges before powering up.

The big test was printing a colour certificate. I had only recently in the past week passed my 210-255 exam for the Cisco CCNA CyberOps certification, so just wanted to print the certificate while the original was being processed for shipping. Success again, the certificate printed out with only a slight discolourationin the pale blue background – but hopefully that should clear up once the printer gets a few more printing jobs done.

Now since I have also passed my CompTIA Security+ and CompTIA CySA+ certifications, I should try printing the CompTIA Security Analytics Professional certificate which I get by completing those two CompTIA certifications.  Now I will concentrate on studying for the CompTIA PenTest+ certification.

Repair.IT – Vertical Blinds broken or detached cord

I was asked to look at some vertical blinds at my sister’s apartment where the cord had either broken or detached, such that the blinds could not be opened or closed. This was after my nephew had moved out of it. It turns out that two bedrooms, and the balcony blinds were in this state. The information I got is that something broke off some time ago, and it had been left like this until I was told about it.

Since I am the handyman of my house, and especially for things that others are unlikely to know about – I had first look at the problem. The ends of the loose cords were blackened, very likely from using a cigarette lighter to seal the ends – so that meant that the cords were not broken as such, so should be relatively easy to fix.

After working out how the system works, I managed to thread the cord ends back to where they should go.

Here in this photo – it would seem that both cords should be fastened to this white plastic bit, that should have a metal clamp on it that had broken off.

The intact metal piece on a working blind. So how do I join this? After some considering, I remembered that I had some crimp eyelets from a miscellaneous small size nut and bolt set that I had bought back in 1977. I found some of these.

I only had five of these, so also decided to use a slightly larger eyelet. The idea being that I would drill the white piece with a 2mm drill, then use a self tapping screw to anchor the eyelets after crimping.

Here I have crimped the eyelets to the ends of the cords. You can see the blackened ends sticking through the crimped area. Next I drilled the small hole, to enlarge the existing hole in the white plastic, then screwed it in place. As I was doing this, I heard a cracking sound – uh oh, the white plastic is too brittle with age.

Ok, so the white piece had split but was still connected to the clear plastic piece. Back to the drawing board – how do I make sure that the ends will stay connected to the white piece?

Why not use some cable ties? After checking some dimensions, I realized that I could use a wide cable tie to go around the white plastic, then a small cable tie to go through the eyelets and through the larger cable tie – well, this is where this article is IT related.

After doing this, and trying it out, it seemed to be satisfactory.  So I cut the cable tie ends off as shown here.

Then to look at the other one on the balcony.

This white piece is a bit more broken, but the cable tie method should still work. Well it was done, then finally, the second bedroom was done the same way. The blinds will open and close properly and the materials used were 6 irreplaceable crimp eyelets, and 6 cable ties of two sizes. Time-wise, about 1-2 hrs in total, the slow bit was figuring out what to do, then threading the cords back to where it needs to be connected.

That beats the cost of replacing the vertical blinds since the broken part is likely not to be available, or needs the track to be disassembled completely in order to replace it – which would be a lot more labour. Now, I wonder what that white plastic piece is called…

Recalibrate.IT – Eagnas Plus 8000 Electronic Tension Head

In the past months, I have been receiving some comments about the calibration of the Eagnas Plus 8000 Electronic Tension Head, and I realize that I may not have given any details about this procedure since it is documented in the user manual.  It appears that many users do not have the user manual, so when I mention the calibration, the users are still in the dark.

To help out, I have found my photocopy of the instructions and referred to section 7 which details the steps for calibration and will describe them here.  The content is straight from the instructions with slight grammar changes and I have added a couple of notes in blue.

7 – Calibration

1. Calibrate the Eagnas electronic tension head when the Eagnas Plus 8000 stringing machine does not perform properly.  NOTE: It is recommended to wear safety glasses during the calibration.
2. Unplug the power cord from the wall outlet.
3. If your model has the VR1 and VR2 on the back panel, please skip steps 4 through 11.  [My note: The earlier models had the two potentiometers mounted on a circuit board inside the machine.  If you are lucky enough to have a newer version, then they are mounted on a small board that is accessible via the back panel.]
4. Use a screwdriver to loosen two screws that hold the side cover to the string gripper.
5. Remove the side cover from the string gripper.
6. Place a small stick against the dowel pin and use a hammer to apply a light force to the dowel pin as shown.  Push the dowel pin out of the string gripper housing.
7. Carefully lift up the string gripper from the string gripper housing.
8. Use the 5mm Allen wrench to loosen two screws that hold the string gripper housing to the electronic tension head.
9. Carefully lift up the string gripper housing from the electronic tension head.  [My note: most of them have a pair of wires that attach to the switch using a small connector.  This usually has glue on it, and it needs to be disconnected before the cover can come off.  During final re-assembly, if you have a hot melt glue gun, use some glue to ensure that the connectors don’t come loose.]
10. Use a screwdriver to loosen four screws that hold the cover to the electronic tension head.  Carefully lift up the cover from the electronic tension head and put it on the side of the electronic tension head.  Make sure the cables are still connected to the tension controller printed circuit board.
11. Re-assemble the string gripper housing back to the electronic tension head.  [My note: don’t forget to plug the connector back in for this step, otherwise the electronic tension head may give an error on the display.]
12. Plug the power cord into a properly grounded wall outlet.  Turn the power on.
13. Set the tension setting to 60-pound position.
14. Use the Eagnas string clamp to secure the string on one end of the Eagnas TCG-100 tension calibrator and place the string that is attached to the other end of the Eagnas TCG-100 tension calibrator into the string gripper.
15. Press the pushbutton tension switch to activate the tension pulling.  Check whether the tension indicated by the Eagnas TCG-100 tension calibrator is the same as the tension setting of the electronic tension head.
16. Press the pushbutton tension switch again to release the tension pulling.
17. Repeat steps 15 through 16 four or five times to have the correct tension indication on the Eagnas TCG-100 tension calibrator to avoid poor calibration due to string stretch.
18. If the tension indicated by the calibrator does not match the tension setting of the electronic tension head, adjust the potentiometers “VR1” and “VR2” on the back panel slightly.  Or adjust the potentiometers “VR1” and “VR2” on the tension controller printed circuit board slightly.  NOTE: There will be a range of tension from the maximum tension at which the electronic tension head stops pulling, to the minimum tension at which the electronic tension head starts pulling again.  The difference between the minimum and maximum could vary 2 – 4 pounds depending on the string and the tension calibrator used to calibrate the electronic tension head.  Therefore, it is recommended that the tension setting of the electronic tension head should be calibrated on the maximum reading to ensure the consistency in the calibration procedure.
19. Turn off the power.  Press the “+10” key and hold down.  Then turn the power on.  The display should read in between 34 – 39.  If it does not, then turn the potentiometer VR1 to increase or reduce the number into the correct range.
20. Use a small screwdriver to adjust the potentiometer “VR1” slightly.  To achieve a higher number, turn this potentiometer “VR1” clockwise.  To reduce the number, turn it counterclockwise.  NOTE: Do not apply excessive force; this will damage the potentiometer.
21. After making the adjustment, press the “+” key and the machine will run the normal program.
22. Set the tension setting to the 60-pound position.
23. Press the pushbutton tension switch to activate the tension pulling.  Check whether the tension indicated by the Eagnas TCG-100 tension calibrator is the same as the tension setting of the electronic tension head.  If not, press the pushbutton tension switch again to release the tension pulling.
24. Use a small screwdriver to adjust the potentiometer “VR2” slightly.  To achieve a higher tension, turn this potentiometer “VR2” clockwise.  To reduce the number, turn it counterclockwise.  NOTE: Do not apply excessive force; this will damage the potentiometer.
25. Repeat steps 23 through 24 until the tension calibrator reaches the 60-pound position.
26. Repeat steps 19 through 25 four or five times to reach the right tension.
27. After calibration, turn off the power.  Unplug the power cord from the wall outlet.
28. If your model has the VR1 and VR2 on the back panel, please skip step 29.
29. Disassemble the string gripper from the electronic tension head.  Carefully install the cover back to the electronic tension head.  Use a screwdriver to tighten four screws to hold the cover to the electronic tension head.  Re-assemble the string gripper back to the Eagnas Plus 8000 electronic tension head.

Ok, so there you have it, or is that it?

As you can see, it is an iterative process to do the calibration.  VR1 and VR2 obviously affect each other.  The aim is to have VR2 set so that the tension will be pulled correctly while VR1 keeps the zero balance to read between 34 and 39 – does this make sense?

Another comment I would make is that you should calibrate it so that it is correct for the maximum tension that you would ever use.  I.e. if you only ever string at 50-55 lbs, then calibrate it at 55 lbs.  If you are stringing badminton racquets, then I would suggest calibrating at 26 to 30 lbs, whatever the maximum your clients ask for.

The tensioning is non-linear, so ideally, you would create a calibration chart.  What do I mean by this?  Make a chart of set tensions and read what the calibrator shows the actual tension to be.  45 lbs on the tension head gives ?? lbs on the calibrator, do this every 3 or 5 lbs up to the maximum that you string at.  Then you can extrapolate so that if you actually want 50 lbs, you can set the correct number on the tension head to get the 50 lbs.

Next question is that the Eagnas TCG-100 tension calibrator is a spring calibrator which itself might need also need calibrating so what should we use?  Ever see those electronic or digital luggage scales?  Those are quite handy and they are available to read in both lbs and kgs.

I bought a couple of different ones, so that I could use them to compare each other – if they both read the same, then generally that is the right tension.  I use it check the calibration on my Wise 2086 tension head – and I found that these luggage scales are quite good.  I prefer the ones like the one above which has a ring which is handy to attach string to.

So there you go, the calibration procedure, if you don’t have your instructions.

 

Repair.IT – Kleenmaid TO500X Oven door hinges replacement

The other day, my son heard a cracking sound when he opened the oven door, and it wouldn’t close properly anymore.  It seems that the oven door hinges spring wasn’t working to hold the weight of the door and when closed, the door would sit ajar.

On further inspection, the pin that would connect to the springs was broken, so there was no choice except to remove the door from the oven so that I could have a better look at the problem.  Fortunately the manual showed how to remove the door, which in this case was very easy, lift it, and then pull outwards while tilting back towards the oven.  If the springs were working, we would have to normally open the door, then engage the hinge latch which would allow the door hinge to stay in the open position for the door to be removed.

I found that the part number was GN166667 and after a quick check on eBay found a supplier that had a pair of these original hinges for around AU$64 after an eBay discount was applied.  If I order this from the spare parts warehouse, I would be paying AU$55 plus delivery for each hinge, so I ordered from eBay and saved a bit of money.

On my Kleenmaid oven door, there are two screws that hold the inner door from the outer glass door.  Also around the top and sides of the inner door is a sealant that has also deteriorated.  I found by at Bunnings, a Sika 300g Black Sikaseal Appliance Sealant for AU$14.78 that has a high temperature resistance, up to 250°C which appears to be the right sealant for the job.

Next step was scraping off as much of the old sealant as I could – a razor blade would have been handy, but who has one of these nowadays with electric shavers.

A few days after I had ordered the hinges, they arrived.  The hinges are held to the inner door by three screws, two on the base, and one screw that is at the top of the hinge, only accessible when the inner door has been separated from the outer door.

The inner door, by the way had two sheets of glass – one that is facing the inside of the oven.  This means that the door assembly has three sheets of glass, so good insulation of preventing the heat from radiating through the door.

Here is a picture of the two hinges after removing from the door.  The top one should not be able to stay like that since the spring should be pulling back, except of course it is broken.  From recollection, a while ago, the door didn’t seem to be closing properly which could mean that one hinge had already failed at that time.  Also I didn’t find any broken bits of the pin, so no idea how it broke unless it had just kept wearing away, due to the door being opened and eventually there was not much left of it.  The oven is 12 years old – and I have worked on this in the past, with various electrical issues, but this was the first mechanical issue.

After the replacement hinges were installed, I then applied the sealant – it was difficult to squeeze the trigger and move the tip at the same time, to get the sealant into a good straight line with the correct thickness.  Of course, if I did this over and over again, like the appliance repairers do, I could then do a good job each time, but for my first, I did an adequate job.  Once the sealant was on, the inner door was mounted and screwed up.

I did have a bit of sealant squeeze out, so used a cloth to wipe around the edge of the inner door, and got most of the excess sealant off and cleaned up well enough.  The sealant generally takes 24 hours to cure, so it was left in the garage to do this (also the sealant smells, and wife doesn’t take kindly to stinky things in the kitchen).

The next day, I wipe the door over, since the garage is dusty – then needed to extend the hinges and lock them in the open position.  I used an adjustable spanner, to hold the tip of the hinge, then cranked it open – then moved the latch, and released the hinge.  Both hinges were done eventually.  I did slip with the spanner a couple of times, without breaking my fingers, but one was a little sore afterwards.

This picture shows the door removal and installation process – showing the movable lock that I call the latch.

Then it was a matter of getting the hinges into the slots in the oven frame, then letting it settle downwards and latch, then open the door fully, release the latches then the door can close – actually they closed very well – looked better than new, no gaps at all.

Now I have most of a tube of appliance sealant left over, who needs some?  By the way, if I got an appliance repairer to do this job, I wouldn’t need the sealant since they would have it, but it would cost AU$250 for the callout, and then plus parts and whatever additional labour is needed – so likely to be around AU$400 or so, but this has cost me AU$75 to do it myself.  There it is – another repair done, and the wife is happy!

Replace.IT – Power plug on workshop light

Sometime early this year, I was given a workshop fluorescent light which I thought would be good to improve lighting for my metal lathe in my garage workshop.  The light hangs from a couple of hooks that I placed on the support rail that my garage door rolls on.

Anyway, this is not really about the light as it could apply to any appliance.  I noted at the time that the power cord had a plug on the end which did not have the cord grip nut which clamps the cord to the plug so that pulling on the cord does not pull the wires out of the plug.  I had bought a replacement Deta 10A Grey Plug Top from the local Bunnings to replace it at a time of my leisure.

That time happened this afternoon, so on removing the plug cover – I noticed something which unfortunately is all too common.  The wires had been damaged, so it was a good thing that I was replacing it.

The insulation on theground and neutral wire appeared to have been cut.

Turning it over (although a bit out of focus in this photo – I should retake the photo but my camera battery needed charging), shows that similarly, the active wire insulation is also damaged.  This happens if a Stanley knife or common box cutter is used to cut the outside insulation which if cut too deep ends up cutting into the wire insulation, thereby exposing the conductors.

I cut the end off the cord so that I could show you what it looked like, then fitted the Deta replacement plug wired according to the instructions and firmly fitted with the cord grip nut.  The motto is – if possible, always check appliances that you are given in case they have been modified – or have someone do this for you.

 

Rectify.IT or maybe not – Microsoft Word 2007 error on Windows 10

This came up recently for a client.  When they open a Microsoft Word document, they get this popup message:

Now the funny thing is that there is no dialog boxes open, but if they click on OK, then the document comes up fine.  The annoying thing is that it happens all the time.  A google search on the internet shows a lot of people having encountered this problem, with just as many fixes like removing templates, etc.  One thing that does work is to open Microsoft Word and then open the document – which is an extra step.  Most people just want to open the document because they have browsed through windows explorer, found the file and double-click to open.

Now, it turns out that it is Microsoft Word 2007 which is really not supported anymore but still appears to work with Windows 10.  After a bit of investigation, I determined that it must be something to do with antivirus, in this case McAfee.  If I turn off the Real-Time Scanning for a short time, like 15 minutes, then this problem doesn’t happen at all.  But turn it back on, and – yeap, you guessed it, the popup box is back again.  We can’t really go without antivirus, so maybe the option is to look at alternatives for antivirus.

Then I checked to see if there was an update from McAfee and found that they already know about this.  To see what they say, you can do a search for:

mcafee TS102841

I suppose that if it gets fixed, maybe that document might be updated.  For now, accept it as it is, or use a different antivirus is really all I could suggest – apart from upgrading to perhaps Office 365.

Re-adjust.IT – Garage Door opener

Not sure if re-adjusting is a real word – please let me know if there is a better word.

Most of us who live in houses, often have a garage.  The garage door can be either manually operated or remote-controlled.  My garage door had a problem some time ago, which I thought I had written about, but can’t seem to find it.  It had a broken spring, which meant that with only one working spring, the door could not be opened fully and would only raise about half way.  Ok, this is a different story – where the remote control would work, the mechanism would make a noise and the door would … not open.

This happened a couple of years ago, and a couple of years earlier as well, and I had never really thought about writing an article on it, but as it turned out, on Monday night – my kids came home with the car, and the garage door would not open.  I opened the internal door and could see that the garage door opener light came on, but the motor did not spin and the door would not open.

This afternoon, I removed the two light bulbs that are on the garage door opener mechanism and then removed the cover.  I decided to have a look at the entire mechanism, which is relatively simple – in terms of parts.  A remote control receiver, gets it power from the opener, and in turn, activates by way on an internal relay, the input contacts of the opener.  The opener contains some power circuitry, like a transformer to reduce the line voltage to 24V, and a relay, some lever switches, and a motor with a separate gearbox, and a couple of limit switches.

Rear of Garage Door Opener, with cover off, and the cam wheel adjusted until it is working.

Importantly, it also had a ratcheting type of arrangement that would turn a special four sided cam wheel which is part of a ratchet relay marked with SR-35B.  Now this four sided cam wheel is usually what I moved previously to fix the problem.  The cam wheel only turns one way, and lever of a switch rests on this wheel in the fully down position.  A bit hard to explain, anyway, I turned the wheel clockwise (from my perspective) until the lever switch engaged and suddenly the mechanism kicked into life and the garage door started opening and continued to open until it was fully open.

Closeup of cam wheel – the silver lever was on the flat section when not working. You can see the white ratchet gear just behind it.

This is when I decided to take a photo of what it looks like.  Behind it is what appears to be an actuator on a solenoid that has this weird toothed hook, that pushes a ratchet gear that I could see in another photo.  It looks like it pushes the ratchet gear, one quarter turn each time.  So there is was, a re-adjustment of the cam wheel and the garage door opener works again.

Oh dear! The V Belt looks like it is a little torn, and you can just make out cracks on the inside of the V – bottom right at the edge of the metal wheel.

While I was at it, I had a look at the motor and can see that the rubber belt is starting to come apart, and has some cracks in it, so might need replacement in the near future.  Now might be the time to get a replacement belt, don’t you think?

In any case, the garage is back to working order – until next time this happens, I suppose.