Winter Dragoness

I've got a 2413U manufactured in late 2012 with firmware v1.A. I bought it April 7, 2013 so it lasted 4 years before failing. For a few weeks I found it had stopped working periodically (usually after a house power failure) but power cycling fixed it. Then its LED went dark and would not turn on again. After having it unplugged for awhile I opened the case and found C7 hit 125F in my FLIROne camera after being plugged in only a couple minutes. C7 and C13 were still the older 10uF, 35V models. I ordered new caps from Mouser but found they ship from Texas instead of California so decided to temporarily use a 50V 10uF cap from a capacitor kit I have. The new cap runs cool in the IR camera and the PLM worked fine 6 days till I had time to replace all caps with Mouser versions. The original, failing C7 cap measures 3.1uF on a UT58D but 9.2uF on a UT210E meter. Both meters measure a new 10uF cap just above 10uF. I wonder what that means? Maybe the cap has slowed in how fast it builds a charge and one meter is testing too quickly? I'd say a temperature-controlled soldering station like the Hakko FX888D or similar is more of a necessity than an indulgence. I've tried various soldering guns in the past and always had enormous frustration and poor results. They might sit there not melting or barely melting solder, or they might briefly melt it, then solidify as heat spreads out through components and the iron doesn't increase power to keep the temperature up. I tried following various guides and advice online but only the Hakko actually works. A desoldering braid without Hakko is the worst: the braid pulls heat down its copper length and I could almost never get it to melt the target solder into the braids and pull it away while still wet. I'm not sure why jtara92101 says not to use a wet sponge, but Hakko comes with a stand to hold the iron and the stand holds a special wet sponge with slits in it. Wipe the iron through either slit and it keeps it nice and silver as you work so heat isn't blocked by oxidation on the tip. Bits of solder are wiped into the slit and fall below the sponge. Works great. The stand also holds a brassy brillo pad but I never feel it cleans the tip as well. Rarely, a bit of solder doesn't seem to want to come off with the sponge so I knock it off with the brillo. I also wipe the tip on the wet sponge after turning off the iron to cool it a bit faster so it doesn't oxidize so much as it cools. It's the heat that makes it oxidize (get darker) so quickly. 3-29-17: Replaced all caps on main board with the following Mouser parts: C7 and C13: 661-EKZM500D101MHB5D (EKZM500ETD101MHB5D) 50volts 100uF C8: 647-USV1C100MFD (USV1C100MFD) 16volts 10uF C11: 647-UTT1E101MPD (UTT1E101MPD) 25volts 100uF C3: 647-UPW2G100MHD1TO (UPW2G100MHD1TO) 400volts 10UF These caps have all been mentioned in previous posts but it doesn't hurt to re-post their latest model numbers as some have changed since the original post or been mistyped in various places. First number is Mouser part number, second number in parenthesis is manufacturer part number which might be found on other sites like Digikey. Note the new C3 is huge and its base needs to be pushed down to within 2mm of the circuit board or its top will prevent the cover from closing. All the caps are larger than the originals and may fit a little funny or wedge against things next to them. I used a desoldering braid dipped in a tiny bit of paste flux to remove the bulk of solder on wires of old caps. Hold braid against solder, then hold iron against braid to draw solder into braid and pull away. Cut off end of braid when it has too much solder in it. Heated one leg of capacitor and pulled out a few mm. Heated other leg and pulled out a few mm. Repeat until capacitor is removed. Used a Greenlee 1700 Desoldering Tool With Standard Tip to completely clear holes of solder after removing each capacitor. Hold the tool against hole on one side, then touch iron to hole on other side until solder goes shiny, then spring tool to suck all solder out of hole. Repeat if needed. New caps slid easily into cleared holes. Be sure to put the shorter leg of the new cap in the round hole. The cap will have a stripe with zeros (or sometimes minus symbols) on the side with the shorter leg. I found it convenient to remember to put the side with zeros in the round hole because the round hole looks like a zero. When finished, I used rubbing alcohol on a toothbrush to clean off some whiteish residue and any flux I'd left around solder points. I've found in the past that flux is slightly conductive and can make circuits malfunction so I made doubly sure to scrape it off from between contacts.