The Airport Express ready to converted from 110/220 volts to 5 volts. Mark drill position
Mark depth: 3 mm and be careful the tape does not move while drilling
Large hole - 3 mm deep - marked by tape
Drill horizontally to whe weight of the machine does not provoke an accident
Unplug with tweezers
Pull out the plug to the wifi board
Plug removed with tiny screwdriver
Check that it works: Black to ground, orange to 3.3 volt and red to 5 volts
Disassemble power plug. Some force required.
This is hard. Push a thin thread through with screwdriver. Pull a thicker thread back and use it to pull 3 new wires through. Expect strings to break!
"Sheet Bend" used to do the pulling
Success! Wires pulled through ready for soldering, isolation and being pushed back inside and covered by a 10 mm plastic plug.
The 9.5 to 11 mm plastic plug for closing the hole
Parts for the new power supply. Notice the plug which will cover the hole when the wires have been cut, solderd, isolated and stuffed inside the shell.
Not much space. The inside of the plug has been drilled and cut out.
Assemble the parts also used in the hacksaw version of this repair, pack inside the hollowed out plug and close with a hot glue gun. This is easy to disassemble if needed
The 5 volts power plug connected. The 3.3 volt converter gets a bit of fresh air so it can get rid of its heat