Quick Morning Project

The overhead bedroom fan stopped working a while back, and my wife was looking to replace the entire system. It turns out that the controller’s batteries were so old that they leaked and corroded some of the internals. These things are easily 20+ years old, so it’s not surprising that they’ve shit the bed. Rather than spend the money, time, and effort replacing the entire fan, it was obviously easier to take the controller apart and see if something could be done.

After soaking the area in alcohol and cleaning the area with a brush, I pulled everything out that was salvagable. The area I’m calling the “negative pole spring assembly” was the most challenging part. There aren’t any replacements in my bin to speak of, so I grabbed some 24 AWG hook-up wire from my bench and wrapped it around a 1/4" guitar jack. It was the only thing nearby that fit the shape needed. Soldering it into place was real quick and easy given lots of tinning and solder.

Now it works like a champ! No problemo.