There is a nasty thing out there called ‘built in obsolescence’, which is supposed to cure the fact that most things are actually made quite well and would last a long time if left to themselves. Here is a microwave:
Well at any rate, there’s most of a microwave. The ‘cancel’ button was no longer working. What makes me think the entire microwave is being held hostage by a £0.03 switch? Let’s take the case off and have a look:
Microwaves are about the only bit of domestic equipment which will easily electrocute you. So we stay a long way away from all the high voltage lines:
Helpfully, a ‘schematic’ is provided. It would be nice if it actually told us something about the ‘digital programmer circuit’.A multimeter on the back of the switch and, sure enough, mechanical failure. Of course, they went and glued the knob on, so we can’t just unscrew the board, but need to desolder it:
The only similar switch I could find was on
another board saved from something long thrown out and had to be
desoldered. And of course, the shaft was the wrong length, and I
noticed after soldering it on, so it had to be cut and filed in
situ.
And there we have it. Put it back together carefully…
…and it now ‘cancels’. All for a switch which, in the end, cost me nothing. I wonder how many of these are shipped around the world to bury them each year because of something as simple?