Stopped by a repair shop in Omaha and saw a trick for old game console power supplies

I was picking up a part from a shop called Circuit Fix on Maple Street last Tuesday. The owner showed me how he tests the capacitors in original Xbox power bricks without taking them apart. He uses a thermal camera on his phone to spot the ones that heat up too fast when plugged in for just 30 seconds. He said it saves him about 15 minutes per unit because he doesn't have to desolder every cap to find the bad one. He just replaces the hot ones and the brick usually works. Has anyone else used a phone thermal camera for quick fault finding like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

ericfox1mo ago

My buddy runs a small shop and tried that exact trick on a stack of old PS2 power supplies last month. He said the thermal camera showed one capacitor getting warm while the others stayed cold, which was the whole problem. It cut his repair time in half because he didn't have to poke around at every single part. He's totally sold on using the phone attachment for quick checks now.

the_uma1mo ago

Yeah that's exactly why those phone thermal cams are so good for repair. @ericfox, your buddy found the bad cap right away instead of guessing. It saves so much time when you can just see the heat spot instead of testing every part.

allen.cole27d ago

Yeah I bet that saved him a ton of headache, right? Those old PS2 power supplies are notorious for caps going bad, and it's always a guessing game without a thermal camera. I've been thinking about getting one of those phone attachments myself after hearing stories like this. It's so frustrating to spend an hour probing every solder joint only to find a cap that's just slightly warmer than the rest. Your buddy probably felt like a wizard when he spotted it in seconds instead. It's honestly one of those tools that pays for itself after just a few repairs.