How to connect Canon CanoScan Lide 50 to Windows 10 x64 computer

As Canon has decided to obsolete old scanners among them are also CanoScan Lide 50 they are not providing drivers for Windows 10 anymore.

I managed to Google it and find unofficial drivers from here https://www.webwhitenoise.com/item/2009/05/canon-canoscan-lide-50-x64-drivers/

File name is called DNA Canon  LiDE50 x64 Driver.7z

After installation story is yet not ended because you also need an app to use scanner. Original Canon CanoScan Toolbox was not working, it stopped with error "Cannot select TWAIN source". I tried several versions and failed to make them running. Free app called Scan which is available from Microsoft Store also is not working. Finally I managed to find NAPS2 software, and that works like a charm. You can download it from here https://www.naps2.com/

If you have difficulties with steps above you might need to enable Windows Test mode. Here is how it can be enabled/disabled https://www.howtogeek.com/167723/how-to-disable-driver-signature-verification-on-64-bit-windows-8.1-so-that-you-can-install-unsigned-drivers/ 

And maybe also this is needed http://www.damirscorner.com/blog/posts/20141215-InstallingCanoScanLide50ScannerOn64BitWindows81.html

In my case folder to add to PATH was C:\Windows\twain_32\CNQL60

 

CDT Bad character sequence encountered

Today Atollic TrueStudio for STM32 when compiling yells about error:

Bad character sequence encountered: 

Reason was next to #define name in another header file was a an apostrophe symbol. Something like 

#define SPEED' 100 and on laptop screen it was hard to see it because of dust particle on my screen exactly at that place where. That was a funny. Cannot decide what to do, to clean a laptop screen or connect external monitor. Hmm. Ok. Starting looking for cables.

iRobot Roomba charging error 3

This post is confirmation that fix for charging error No 3 for iRobot Roomba 555 that is shown in this Youtube video

really works.

After struggling with bad accumulator I bought a replacement from Ebay. Cleaner with bad battery worked maximum 10 minutes. New battery was good for a couple of cleaning sessions, but then after a longer idle time I got the error above. It was very unpleasant situation, because just bought a new accumulator and another error came out. Atfer short googling I decided to proceed with solution from Youtube. Disassembled my Roomba, but did not see any corrosion. Just small amount of yellow stains. Almost invisible. Despite of that I decided to clean the area with alcohol. And it helped. Error disappeared. Apparently there are located some sensitive feedback circuit for battery voltage or current detection.

Here you can see some tips on disassembling iRobot Roomba

HP AC Power Adapter 0957-2242 repair

Had a broken HP-Photosmart printer power supply. Its parameters are input 100-240VAC 50/60Hz and output 32VDC 625mA. Condition  - not working. My first steps were measuring output voltage on DC cable on pins 1 and 2. No output. Green LED is not on also. Checked AC cable for continuity. AC cable was OK too.

Next steps apparently was to suspect inside electronics. I started to open supply enclosure hoping on easy fix. You need to unscrew hex bolt from bottom. Enclosure is holding on some clips what I did not know at that moment and made unnecessary damage to plastics. Later had to use an epoxy glue when assembling back.

Shortly problem were short diodes (1N4007) in diode bridge, which led to burnt fuse. It can easily be checked with multimeter in resistance/diode mode. Diodes were in short, and fuse in open.

In picture below you can see bad components.

At the moment I had no exact parts available, so I replaced 1N4007 with 1N5408 and fuse with round one (same rating F4A) with piece of wire soldered to one of outputs to reach holes in PCB.

Here is how board looks with replaced alternative components.

Power supply is functional again. Hard to say to what was the main reason for broken diodes. Maybe some voltage or current spike while turning on...

Digital DVB-T tuner ETR-500CHD repair

Symptoms were following - after turning on tuner shows "Initializing..." on grey background on TV screen. After a moment screen goes black and no picture anymore. Next idea after checking power supply output voltages inside of device was trying to update firmware. Unfortunately that is quite an old model and I was not able to find an firmware file. But I was lucky trying contacting support at https://www.elpa.lt/ I described the problem and after requesting serial number of my tuner they sent me "dh-update.ud" file. Flash needs to be formatted (I chose FAT16 to be sure), copied update file to it. And than with USB Flash drive connected turned on the tuner. And magic happened, LED indicator started to blink indicated different update stages. It took maybe 3 minutes and now tuner is alive again.

Repair of a remote

Recently my sibling gave me DVB-T set top box describing problem - probably remote is bad. Receiver itself was functioning OK, using face panel buttons, so I decided to start investigate remote.

Checked batteries -> OK, looked on IR led through phone camera kind of blinking but little bit strange. Checked  remote internals visually, kind of OK. Resonator looked little bit suspicious, it was not fixed to PCB, but still connected and soldered well. I have seen lot of times badly looking resonators but I have never needed to replace one. Thought this is probably same also this time. After checking everything all is in place, remote still not working. At this moment one could just give a try and replace resonator, but I wanted to make sure. I have no scope available, but than I remembered I have multi-meter with frequency measurement option. I measured resonator outputs while pressing remote key. And noticed strange behavior, frequency value started with 98 KHz, and than fluctuated up to 1MHz and again down below even those 98 KHz. It does not look normal for resonator which should be running around 455 KHz according to figures on component package. Originally there was green rectangular component, letters PG on top and NSB 455J. Not clear is it a manufacturer's quality issue or result of badly dropped remote. Anyway I was lucky that I had a spare part in my component storage, replaced and that was it. Remote is functional again.