Just wrapping up another great week at Practical Board Repair with Jessa Jones and Louis Rossmann.

This week we had students from all over the US, Bermuda, Barbados, Canada, and even Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

As usual we had a lot of fun, lots of hilarious slogan suggestions for new course T-shirts, and as usual the progress the students made throughout the week was amazing.

We started the week by developing technical proficiency and getting familiar with the equipment. Students completed:

A Samsung galaxy charge port, and learned to make microjumpers for pulled pads

Placed a digitizer connector on an iPhone 5s,

Built an iPad mini digitizer assembly.

We hit the schematics on day 2 and covered:

Small component parts sourcing,

How to orient connectors on the schematic

Types and functions of basic components

How to use the multimeter

How to read the board itself

In depth analysis of the common backlight circuits on iDevices and how to troubleshoot them.

Everybody performed a backlight filter replacement on iPad mini

iPad mini digitizer connector replacement and continuing technical proficiency skills work.

Day 3 marks the turn of the course toward more complex problems and efficient diagnosis

The business standpoint: How to translate your skills into profit for board repair

Professional water damage recovery--trying out the Crest ultrasonic cleaner

iPhone shield removal

How to use the DC power supply to force charge a dead battery

Short detection with FLIR camera, alcohol method, freeze spray

iPhone 5s trace repair

Lecture and cheatsheet to learn to instantly recognize the source of common device failures for iPhone/iPad

How to address no power, no charge, no backlight, no image

U2 tristar chip

Recognizing rabbit holes--what are the limits of what we can do

Data recovery from a hardware perspective

More electronics theory--the hows and whys of component failure

Day 4 moves us into advanced schematics and open-ended troubleshooting

Recognizing and understanding how the basic components interact to form the common circuits

DC/DC boost circuit

Current sensing circuit

Buck converters

MacBook Sys onewire circuit

How to measure and address open-ended problems

Technical proficiency for bga--the MacBook LED driver

Working together through an open-ended MacBook problem

Applying new skills to the problem boards students brought from home

And the course classic--Louis sets a board on fire

Day 5 was all about practical application of skills and technique refinement

Small group work to figure out MacBook boards with open-ended problems

Continued work on problem boards from home with instructor support

Real-life examples of customer problems right off the iPad Rehab incoming device queue

Graduation and T-shirts!

After hours, the group met informally for dinner and drinks, and lots of great information was shared.

The end of the week comes too quickly, but all graduates can join the Practical Board Repair alumni Facebook group. I love to see the memories being made and especially the proud pictures of the successful work produced back at home. We will see each other again at CTIA or eReuse conferences, or maybe an alumni advanced course in the future.