Hello, I don't know if you remember that a few weeks ago I published a Wifi antenna prototype in order to gradually put together the necessary parts to connect to a Wifi network several streets away. Well, for this project to work, a signal repeater is necessary and they are extremely expensive, although we already have a solution!
In the previous post I also mentioned that we could do it at home with an old router and as if by divine grace, a friend saw the post and told me that he had a damaged one at home, that if he wanted it, it was mine...
Honestly, I got really excited when I read that message, so I quickly went to his house to look for it before he threw it away and here it is. The truth is that it is rubbish haha
I mean, it doesn't work, it doesn't have wires, it doesn't have an antenna, and it's probably been discontinued for years, but it's going to work for us. Let's repair it first ☺️
Uncovering it didn't get anything burnt, which is always a good sign. One trick that I have learned is not to look for signs of heat on the plate, but rather pay close attention to the plastics that surround it, because they are the ones that could show signs of burns, that is, they melt and you can see, instead on the plate it is only noticeable if something turns black.
As I said, the gift did not come with a cable, although I am very grateful to the manufacturer for placing a number with the necessary voltage just below the connector, that saved me a lot of time searching on Google.
Although I don't have a 12 volt charger, I have a pink source with many different voltages, it's homemade, I made it myself and I took many photos of the process, maybe I'll make a post these days about it ☺️
The question that now arises is, which is the positive and which is the negative? 🤔
The connectors for cheap devices or generic brands are usually all the same, although when it comes to recognized brands such as Motorola they are usually different, since that forces you to buy special chargers, which do the same as the common ones, but they're more expensive.
I really don't want to go crazy looking for a special connector. So I'm going to measure continuity and so I can see which of the two pins is grounded, that will correspond to the negative. In this case it is also very obvious, because the track is clearly seen and right at the beginning there is a huge space for a capacitor that says + on one side.
You won't believe me, I already got the problem! I am very happy ☺️
Just when I was measuring continuity to find out which was the positive of the connector, I noticed a strange object with a zero on top, initially I thought it was a fuse, although I got confused because it says R101 on the board and all components initially marked with R It's usually a resistor..
Look, it's that little thing over there, I measured it to see what it was and wasn't conducting current. As I have been researching and consulting friends who know about the subject, they tell me that it is indeed a resistor, although it is a 0 ohm resistor, which means that it does not act as a resistor but rather as a simple cable or conductor.
The thing is that it is done for two reasons, the first is because the same board can be used for more expensive Routers with better features and instead of placing that resistor there, they would put a different component, which makes sense because we also saw empty spaces , like the huge space for the condenser further on.
And the other valid option is that it is much easier for a machine to weld a resistor than a wire. I asked if they put it in as a substitute for a fuse and they told me no, that it can do the job, although since it is more resistant to heat, it would not do that job well.
A drop of tin was enough for this repair, although we still have the problem that we don't have a charger 😭
Although, I have an idea. Knowing that all the metal part is negative, I simply have to worry about the positive and looking inside the connector I realized that I only have to isolate the bottom part from the center part and insert a cable there. It's a bit confusing, but very easy, a couple of toothpicks will help me with that ☺️
In the end I had to change the cables because the tip of the home source did not fit into the connector, a pity, although I can't complain, I have a free Router ☺️
I also added silicone to everything, not so much because it won't come off, but to prevent oxygen from damaging the connections. If there is no rust there are no bad contacts.
🚧 Let's make it flashy 🚧
Today everything is going well for me and turning out to be very easy and fun, so since the repair took less than expected I decided to make the Hive logo on one of the sides.
It didn't fit me perfectly, but it looks pretty good.
Since the Hive logo also took a short time, I decided to make the #GeekZone logo to see if it came out. Keep in mind that I first marked it with a freehand pencil and I painted and let it dry color by color ☺️
In the drying process I spent some time on the reliefs that the router already had. I think they will look good in white and although I don't have the talent to paint something so small, I am very ingenious and after a while I realized that doing it clumsily was the easiest 😂
In the end it turned out like this, I really liked the result. Although I didn't dare to write "Hive Blog" freehand just below the logo, so I made a strange but very nice shape.
Then I realized that I could have placed a recycling symbol or a Wi-Fi signal. I'll keep it in mind for next time, for today I'm happy with the result. Thank you very much for reading ☺️