Asus UX31E broken charging port

Symptoms:
- The charging port felt 'loose'
- The laptop would not charge. Needs to 'wiggle' the DC connector to charge

Fix:

Purchase UX31E charging port from ebay (link). About $20.
Make sure it's a '5-pin' one:

Open the back cover of the laptop and

- Take out the battery (there is a small ribbon cable below it)

- Take out the SSD (one screw) as there is a screw below it

- Uplug various connectors. Here's a nice youtube video on various types connectors. Gently!!

- Unscrew the motherboard and gently lift (you don't need to take out the fan. Just the screw.

Unsolder the old connecter. This could be hard. I used soldering suction first then gently pry the connection while the lead is heated. Try not breaking the flimsy PCB!!

Nicely soldered new connector. Reassemble and test after this.

Landcruiser Prado alternator charging issue

Driving back from Canberra to Melbourne I saw the brake warning light, air flow/filter light and battery charge warning light all came on simultaneously. This indicates charging issues.

Note: I immediately turned off the aircon, stereo, and driving lights to conserve the battery. I was able to drive 250km/5hrs back home. I could even start the engine afterwards (good to know!!)

Symptoms
- Three warning lights above light up
- Checked and cleaned all battery connectors, no fix
- Checked and cleaned alternator connectors, same issue

Fix:

Most likely this is due to brush being worn out. My prado is 21 yrs old / 330K+ kms. Bought the brush from ebay ($25). It says for Landcruiser 80 series but apparently it's the same.

Take out the Alternator. You need to remove the screw below it, then above. Once all is off simply lift up/wiggle it out of the engine bay

Remove the 3 cover bolts at the back (one connector bolt) and take out the old brush and replace.

You can see compare how worn the old brushes are from 21 years of use. Reassemble and test.

Rheem water heater Pilot Light won't stay lit

The appliance is RHEEM "Rheemgas Quick Recovery Gas Outdoor Water Heater" 120810 BD. I've had this unit since I bought my house 12 years ago and would have been installed way before that. So it had been quite reliable.

SYMPTOMS

- The pilot light could be ignited, but will not stay lit
- Without the pilot light the water heating would not operate
- The resulting cold shower and unhappy household :(

Note: Thanks to Josh's Gas and Plumbing for putting up a really useful blog. He even  helped me out with my questions although I was not his customer (he's in Adelaide)! Thanks mate you're a legend!

INVESTIGATION

** DISCLAIMER: If you are not a qualified person stop here. Working with gas system is dangerous and potentially deadly ***

The gas control valve and burner is a simple assembly and could be taken of as a whole.

Shut off the gas supply, unscrew the connection to the gas control valve (use 2 wrenches to avoid ruining the copper pipe). Unscrew the burner connection and top bolt securing the plastic cover:

To remove the control system from the unit, pull up the tab and wiggle. The whole unit should come off easily. Do not force:

The system is quite simple but all components must function properly to ensure safe operation (ie. no explosions due to escaping gas). It is a EUROSIT 630 Natural Gas (65 deg C). It is available on Ebay or Reece Plumbing (product code 1318767, supplier code 079421):

1. Pilot light valve
   Inspect that the tiny hole is clear. Mine only put out a tiny flame due to years of operation. So I sprayed it with carburetter cleaner while at it.
2. Ignition
   Ensure that you can see sparks when the ignition is pressed. Do not touch parts of it while doing this to avoid electrocution!
3. Thermocouple
   This is a neat safety device. When heated it will produce a small amount of electricity (20millivolts) which activates a valve in the control unit. Hence no flame = no escaped unburnt gas. Genius!

In my case I could see spark and the pilot light can be lit - just not stay on so I know that the ignition and pilot valve is ok. That leaves the Thermocouple or the Gas Control Valve Unit

THE PROBLEM & SOLUTION

To test the Thermocouple I heated the tip on a stove and observe the temperature. As it heats up it should be increasing steadily from 0 to about 20millivolt. But in my case the reading was quite erratic and sometimes keeping at 0 volts. so I know that it is faulty:

(similar youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4izohPW3K8)

I went to Reece Plumbing and bought the Thermocouple (Product code 1317238 - Rheem/Vulcan Thermocouple F/Loader N/Gas) for $48. I tested the new Thermocouple on the stove as above and sure enough the voltage climbed very steadily from 0v to about 21millivolts. Perfect!

The new Thermocouple is a bit longer than the original one, so I had to bend about the copper tube around a bit as shown on the 4th photo above.

I installed everything back, and tested the pilot light. Now it stays on! As a final step I did leak test on the pipe using soapy water. Then a nice hot shower afterwards :)