6630 series system power supply is sturdy as a rock, but has a rotary encoder sticking out that it’s almost guaranteed to wobble if you buy it used.

I thought they would have known better to secure the rotary encoder with a nut so it won’t wobble (HP usually does a perfect job making their designs reliable. This one is a rare miss), so I opened it up to see what I can do about it.

My initial guess was that the solder joints were weakened as it was used to mechanically support external forces for users of the dial. But I was wrong. Here’s what I’ve found:

The weak metal strip retainers gave in and the whole rotary encoder is about to break loose! The encoder was actually still functioning before I opened the case up. So HP assumed their vendor for the mechanical rotary encoder did a good job withstanding frequent wiggling. Apparently their vendor completely failed them: the metal retainer design was hopelessly flimsy that I wouldn’t even consider using it even in light-usage applications! FAIL!

There’s a huge number of these high quality power supplies on the market because Motorola/Nokia closed down their massive operations, flooding the market with 6632Bs for years to come.

I’ll now strengthen (I came up with a solid technique to make sure the dial will never fall apart again) the 6632Bs I have for sale to businesses that needs a perfect unit (which I sell for $699/ea). If you are a hobbyist, feel free to send me a message and I’ll tell you how to do it, provided that you do not share it with anybody else (I’ll trust you). If you are a business, I can restore 6630B series to a professionally salable state starting at $499.

* Note that I included 66332A despite it’s a mobile communication DC source (66300 series) here because the guts of it is actually 6630 series. Every other 66300 series (3 Amps max) or less has a different form factor (that’s more like a 33120A) and the only odd one out of the series is 6632A (5 Amps max).