Water Fountain Leakage

Problem:    Water leaked into PCB
Solution:   Replace components
Brand: N/A
Cost new:   £45
Cost of fix:£4
Age:
Success?:   Yes

Water had gotten into this solar powered water feature and had shorted out a bunch of features on the PCB. Normally as this was such an extensive repair we wouldn’t take it on, but it was a sentimental item to the customer so I put a bit of extra effort into it!

The input for the motor connector had rusted and corroded away so this was replaced. Then the circuit to determine when the magnetic switch to turn on the PCB had failed, so I replaced the passives and the transistor that amplified the signal from the hall effect sensor and glued that back into place. Then a new battery was required as that had also corroded, and that was soldered into place. Then it turned out the pump had also failed!! But amazingly there was another pump of a similar type in the big e-waste recycling toaster, so I could grab that and use it instead but it needed a lower voltage, so I used a buck module to chop up the voltage so I could use the new pump I found.