war story: Brother printer won't turn on
My LASER printer / scanner, a Brother MFC-L2729DW, would not power on. Normally something like this is due to a power supply failure, but I googled and found this: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgkHv1c01tQ> (The video is incomplete; there is another one that is linked from the first, but all the useful info is in the first.) Following his instructions, I found that I could reset the machine to work. But he said that it would fail again on a power failure or even just turning it off. Furthermore, doing this too many times breaks the printer. It turns out that settings are kept in a RAM that is powered by a supercapacitor (instead of a battery). Furthermore, that supercapacitor wears out. All you need to do to fix the printer is to replace the supercapacitor. The video claims all recent Brother printers have these supercapacitors. The video shows you how the replace the supercapacitor. You need a new supercapacitor, which he will sell you. Armed with this information, I - bought a suitable supercapacitor from digikey.ca (cheaper and faster than ordering from Australia). Actually I bought a slightly smaller one, but that seems to be OK. The original was 0.33F, 5.5V. I paid $3.48 for two, plus $8.00 shipping, plus HST. - pulled apart the printer, as per video - hacked out the old supercapacitor and soldered (badly) the new supercapacitor. (Doing the job right would have required removing the circuit board. Instead, I left the old supercapacitor's legs and soldered the new one's legs to the old ones.) - struggled to get the plastic panel back in place. It works.
On 2024-01-19 14:08, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk wrote:
My LASER printer / scanner, a Brother MFC-L2729DW, would not power on. Normally something like this is due to a power supply failure, but I googled and found this:
Good for you! Last year my Braun WaterPik stopped working. I disassembled it and identified what looked like a blown fuse. Bypassing it worked. Two weeks ago, the same device started making a squealing sound of the motor spinning freely at high speed. I disassembled it again and fabricated a metal shim to hold the motor against the gearing. Squeals like a stuck pig but works just fine. -- Michael Galea
I've had a CDP-L2520DW for at least a decade. Touch wood, no problems like this. FWIW, I've found Brother tech support to be quite helpful -- I used their chat-wirth-an-agent system instead of phone or email. The problem I had -- fuser related -- was solved quickly. While I have no idea where she was located, she did know her stuff. For those of us not intrepid enough, or lacking confidence in keeping a soldering gun steady -- I wonder if Brother might make available a replacement circuit board. More expensive than buying a single capacitor but less than replacing what has otherwise been a pretty good unit (from a company that has supported Linux very well). - Evan On Fri, Jan 19, 2024 at 2:09 PM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
My LASER printer / scanner, a Brother MFC-L2729DW, would not power on. Normally something like this is due to a power supply failure, but I googled and found this:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgkHv1c01tQ>
(The video is incomplete; there is another one that is linked from the first, but all the useful info is in the first.)
Following his instructions, I found that I could reset the machine to work. But he said that it would fail again on a power failure or even just turning it off. Furthermore, doing this too many times breaks the printer.
It turns out that settings are kept in a RAM that is powered by a supercapacitor (instead of a battery). Furthermore, that supercapacitor wears out. All you need to do to fix the printer is to replace the supercapacitor.
The video claims all recent Brother printers have these supercapacitors.
The video shows you how the replace the supercapacitor. You need a new supercapacitor, which he will sell you.
Armed with this information, I
- bought a suitable supercapacitor from digikey.ca (cheaper and faster than ordering from Australia). Actually I bought a slightly smaller one, but that seems to be OK. The original was 0.33F, 5.5V. I paid $3.48 for two, plus $8.00 shipping, plus HST.
- pulled apart the printer, as per video
- hacked out the old supercapacitor and soldered (badly) the new supercapacitor. (Doing the job right would have required removing the circuit board. Instead, I left the old supercapacitor's legs and soldered the new one's legs to the old ones.)
- struggled to get the plastic panel back in place.
It works. --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
-- Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56
| From: Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | I've had a CDP-L2520DW for at least a decade. | Touch wood, no problems like this. I've found Brother laser printers to be fairly reliable, especially considering how complex and mechanical they are. I don't buy other brands so I cannot compare them. I've bought several refurb Brothers from their web site. Since the pandemic, the prices seem to be way higher. Brother seems to allow clone toners. That's good. Brother's say that the toner cartridge is empty a bit prematurely. Luckily there are sequences of key presses that override this. | FWIW, I've found Brother tech support to be quite helpful Good to know. I've rarely found any tech support useful so I try them last. Google is much better. I wonder if chatGPT would be better still. | While I have no | idea where she was located, she did know her stuff. I always ask CSRs "what City are you in" as a kind of stamp collecting. I do it at the end because it isn't important and I don't want to throw the conversation off. | For those of us not intrepid enough, or lacking confidence in keeping a | soldering gun steady -- I wonder if Brother might make available a | replacement circuit board. | More expensive than buying a single capacitor but less than replacing what | has otherwise been a pretty good unit (from a company that has supported | Linux very well). I'd like to say that soldering is a basic life-skill, but it isn't. One could try Dropping in on the Hacklab open house (Tuesdays starting at 18:00)? <https://hacklab.to/visit-us/> Ohh: I thought that the Repair Cafe had died but I'm wrong: <https://repaircafetoronto.ca/> The repair is pretty easy if you've done any soldering. I solder about twice a decade, so I'm not very good at it. I don't know what soldering guns are good for. Probably not electronics. I use a cheap soldering iron I bought three to five decades ago. Probably from Radio Shack. For electronics work, you want a low power and small iron. The latest cool cheap soldering iron is the PINECIL V2. It has a RISC-V processor and open source software. Why, I don't know. I'd have bought one but the shipping doubles the price and irks me. <https://pine64.com/product/pinecil-smart-mini-portable-soldering-iron/>
"I'd like to say that soldering is a basic life-skill, but it isn't. " I think it is. If you do any kind of electronics repair or hacking, then you must know how to solder. It isn't difficult. You just need practice. Tutorials abound on YT. Knowing how to use a multimeter is also an essential life skill. Without these fundamental skills you must trash equipment that somehow went awry and buy another one. This is similar to mending your clothing. You can just pitch the clothing and buy new, or buy better quality and learn to mend what you have. The choice is yours. With the quality of product dropping as time passes, there is more of a need to repair older but better quality products (computer tech excluded) than to simply buy new. Learn how to solder and sew yourself, find someone that knows, or pay someone to do it for you. On Sat, 20 Jan 2024 at 11:51, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
| From: Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org>
| I've had a CDP-L2520DW for at least a decade. | Touch wood, no problems like this.
I've found Brother laser printers to be fairly reliable, especially considering how complex and mechanical they are. I don't buy other brands so I cannot compare them.
I've bought several refurb Brothers from their web site. Since the pandemic, the prices seem to be way higher.
Brother seems to allow clone toners. That's good.
Brother's say that the toner cartridge is empty a bit prematurely. Luckily there are sequences of key presses that override this.
| FWIW, I've found Brother tech support to be quite helpful
Good to know. I've rarely found any tech support useful so I try them last. Google is much better. I wonder if chatGPT would be better still.
| While I have no | idea where she was located, she did know her stuff.
I always ask CSRs "what City are you in" as a kind of stamp collecting. I do it at the end because it isn't important and I don't want to throw the conversation off.
| For those of us not intrepid enough, or lacking confidence in keeping a | soldering gun steady -- I wonder if Brother might make available a | replacement circuit board. | More expensive than buying a single capacitor but less than replacing what | has otherwise been a pretty good unit (from a company that has supported | Linux very well).
I'd like to say that soldering is a basic life-skill, but it isn't. One could try Dropping in on the Hacklab open house (Tuesdays starting at 18:00)? <https://hacklab.to/visit-us/>
Ohh: I thought that the Repair Cafe had died but I'm wrong: <https://repaircafetoronto.ca/>
The repair is pretty easy if you've done any soldering. I solder about twice a decade, so I'm not very good at it.
I don't know what soldering guns are good for. Probably not electronics. I use a cheap soldering iron I bought three to five decades ago. Probably from Radio Shack. For electronics work, you want a low power and small iron.
The latest cool cheap soldering iron is the PINECIL V2. It has a RISC-V processor and open source software. Why, I don't know. I'd have bought one but the shipping doubles the price and irks me. <https://pine64.com/product/pinecil-smart-mini-portable-soldering-iron/> --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
On Sat, Jan 20, 2024 at 11:26 AM Don Tai via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
"I'd like to say that soldering is a basic life-skill, but it isn't. " I think it is.
If you do any kind of electronics repair or hacking, then you must know how to solder. It isn't difficult. You just need practice. Tutorials abound on YT. Knowing how to use a multimeter is also an essential life skill. Without these fundamental skills you must trash equipment that somehow went awry and buy another one. This is similar to mending your clothing. You can just pitch the clothing and buy new, or buy better quality and learn to mend what you have. The choice is yours.
With the quality of product dropping as time passes, there is more of a need to repair older but better quality products (computer tech excluded) than to simply buy new. Learn how to solder and sew yourself, find someone that knows, or pay someone to do it for you.
Hmmmmm - - - - you pretty much put your age in neon with a comment like that - - - lol. Not that I disagree in fact. The ethos has evolved to where from about 15 to 20 years ago it is now considered ethically imperative to discard and buy new on a very very regular basis. Someone has to be spending money quite regularly to make all those nice salaries that mid and upper management from most large companiesand the increase the wealth of the financial elite. Heaven forfend if the financial elite's net worth isn't increasing by at least 15% per annum! HTH (tongue firmly in cheek)
yes, I am old, but my next generation both know how to solder and how to sew. My daughter has both a sewing machine and a serger. She has become the "Go to" person in her circle to repair a treasured possession instead of the pitch and repurchase cycle. When you have little money, maintenance becomes more important. My son learned to solder at the age of 5. We've had a great run of economics these last 15 years, but this will not last. The nextgen will need to work harder than the Boomers. On Sat, 20 Jan 2024 at 14:10, o1bigtenor <o1bigtenor@gmail.com> wrote:
On Sat, Jan 20, 2024 at 11:26 AM Don Tai via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
"I'd like to say that soldering is a basic life-skill, but it isn't. " I
think it is.
If you do any kind of electronics repair or hacking, then you must know
how to solder. It isn't difficult. You just need practice. Tutorials abound on YT. Knowing how to use a multimeter is also an essential life skill. Without these fundamental skills you must trash equipment that somehow went awry and buy another one. This is similar to mending your clothing. You can just pitch the clothing and buy new, or buy better quality and learn to mend what you have. The choice is yours.
With the quality of product dropping as time passes, there is more of a
need to repair older but better quality products (computer tech excluded) than to simply buy new. Learn how to solder and sew yourself, find someone that knows, or pay someone to do it for you.
Hmmmmm - - - - you pretty much put your age in neon with a comment like that - - - lol. Not that I disagree in fact.
The ethos has evolved to where from about 15 to 20 years ago it is now considered ethically imperative to discard and buy new on a very very regular basis. Someone has to be spending money quite regularly to make all those nice salaries that mid and upper management from most large companiesand the increase the wealth of the financial elite. Heaven forfend if the financial elite's net worth isn't increasing by at least 15% per annum!
HTH (tongue firmly in cheek)
On 2024-01-20 11:34, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk wrote:
I've found Brother laser printers to be fairly reliable, especially considering how complex and mechanical they are. I don't buy other brands so I cannot compare them.
Some years back (don't remember how long ago) I bought a Samsung wireless laser printer. IIRC, I needed a new cartridge for the old (HP?) laser printer and the cost of it was more than for a new printer. I chose the Samsung because it had the lowest cost on replacement toner cartridges vs other printers available at the time. After quite a few years of faithful service I went to turn it on one day and it just flashed an orange light at me. An Internet search said a capacitor on one of the circuit boards located on the side of the machine needed to be replaced. It wasn't easy removing the side panel of the printer. Once I got it off I immediately saw the bad capacitor just as in the photos shown in the web page that showed what I should expect to find. I pulled out the circuit board with the bad cap, desoldered the bad one, and put a new in. After putting everything back together again the printer is working fine once again. One more bit of electronics gear brought back to life instead of going to e-waste. -- Cheers! Kevin. https://www.patreon.com/KevinCozens | "Nerds make the shiny things that | distract the mouth-breathers, and Owner of Elecraft K2 #2172 | that's why we're powerful" #include <disclaimer/favourite> | --Chris Hardwick
excellent fix, and you, hopefully, improved your soldering technique! On Fri, 19 Jan 2024 at 17:46, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
My LASER printer / scanner, a Brother MFC-L2729DW, would not power on. Normally something like this is due to a power supply failure, but I googled and found this:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgkHv1c01tQ>
(The video is incomplete; there is another one that is linked from the first, but all the useful info is in the first.)
Following his instructions, I found that I could reset the machine to work. But he said that it would fail again on a power failure or even just turning it off. Furthermore, doing this too many times breaks the printer.
It turns out that settings are kept in a RAM that is powered by a supercapacitor (instead of a battery). Furthermore, that supercapacitor wears out. All you need to do to fix the printer is to replace the supercapacitor.
The video claims all recent Brother printers have these supercapacitors.
The video shows you how the replace the supercapacitor. You need a new supercapacitor, which he will sell you.
Armed with this information, I
- bought a suitable supercapacitor from digikey.ca (cheaper and faster than ordering from Australia). Actually I bought a slightly smaller one, but that seems to be OK. The original was 0.33F, 5.5V. I paid $3.48 for two, plus $8.00 shipping, plus HST.
- pulled apart the printer, as per video
- hacked out the old supercapacitor and soldered (badly) the new supercapacitor. (Doing the job right would have required removing the circuit board. Instead, I left the old supercapacitor's legs and soldered the new one's legs to the old ones.)
- struggled to get the plastic panel back in place.
It works. --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
participants (6)
-
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
Don Tai -
Evan Leibovitch -
Kevin Cozens -
Michael Galea -
o1bigtenor