I have a Fluke Scopemeter I salvaged from stuff being thrown out at a place I worked. With the power supply brick attached it would power on for a couple of seconds and then abruptly power off.
I figured that the battery pack was toast, so I opened it up, tested a couple of cells which showed almost zero voltage, and went about rebuilding the pack, using 18650s since they are the same size as the cells that were in the pack.
I stupidly didn't think to check the original pack, to see that it specified 7.2V, and instead built a ~24V pack, (even more stupidly thinking they were 3v cells, instead of 4, and 6x3 = 18V which seemingly matched the 17.5V power supply brick..) Upon connecting it and trying to power on some magic smoke came out.
I initially thought this was the surface mount fuse right near the battery connector (which apparently it was, as the plastic surface became all brittle and has flaked off), but I can see the zig zag track in it, and it still tests as closed/continuity.
I got the service manual, and started tracing the circuit, getting as far as the voltage transistor which supplies the P ASIC, and seeing it's a BC859, looked up the data sheet to find it's a base/collector/emitter pin 1/2/3 standard line up, and the service manual says there is supposed to be at least 3V coming out (or up to 20). I see just over 10V on the emitter pin, but very strangely zero on the collector, so I'm not sure where this is coming from..
As a quick test, in an attempt to identify if it's just the transistor I blew, I shorted the collector and emitter (which should normally be "on" since it's a PNP) using the tip of the probe, just to see if there were any signs of life. The only noticeable result of this is that the Garfield chip (D ASIC?) gets hot enough to give me a 3rd degree burn quite quickly.
I'm pretty sure this means I've buggered the ASIC, at which point it's not worth trying to fix since I don't have the tools/capability/parts to attempt to swap the ASIC.
Suggestions? Should I just put it on ebay saying I've blown up the charging circuit and the ASIC, and let someone else use it for spare other parts, since it has a good case/LCD/leads etc?