Did you know washing machines,  like couples can suffer from communication problems? With a washing machine the effects are immediate and obvious. They just stop working and some, most in fact these days will throw out an error code, a series of flashing lights or bleeps.

 The 10 year old washing machine i was working on today came up with the error code e70. A quick google revealed the fault as a communication error between the pcb's (printed circuit boards)

One pcb was the display board that my lovely customer (thanks for the coffee, chocolate chip cookies and a bar of chocolate!) uses to choose her favourite  programmes, the other being the 'brain' of the machine, tucked away deep inside.

These 2 boards are linked through a couple of wide flat ribbon cables with edge connectors that, like you might guess, push onto the edge of the pcbs. When they come ever so slightly loose the display and the brain stop talking to each other and the machine packs in.

Having isolated the machine from the electrical supply by taking out the plug, ( i'm to young to die a horrible death through electrocution)  removal of the cables (very tricky access) and a squeeze between the finger a thumb of the edge connectors was enough to repair the machine

Time to drink coffee, eat biscuits and enjoy good company while the machine made its way past the point where it would normally stop and begin its bleeping and flashing, not this time though so i was on my way to the next job, a  Hotpoint washing machine refusing to spin...

www.daviesdomesticappliance.co.uk