So the garage door at work breaks. Repair guy comes out three times during the day to fix it. Can't seem to find anything wrong.
A few hours into my shift, it breaks again. I do what he suggests, power-cycling, etc. I sorta get it working again. The case is only
held on by one screw (he pointed this out), and I pop it open to have a peek. I remember I have my FLIR ONE on my iPhone 5 and point that
at it. Picture below:
Turns out there is a 2 Watt resistor that's almost 200 degrees F while it's idle and under no load. (couldn't keep the camera steady enough to
catch the peak in the picture.) Anyway, the temp under those conditions seemed, well,
wrong. So, I let it cool off for half an hour,
and then it works again. This explains why he couldn't find anything amiss: It had been cold and off every time he'd got there to check it.
I think it's hilarious that he had this van full of garage door repair equipment, and couldn't debug it in three visits, but I managed it in a
couple seconds with my phone!
IR Cameras rule! His company should buy him one.