Thursday 6 April 2017

Repairs to digital readout

The digital readout on the mill decided to pack it in this morning, although powered up it was skipping numbers and not giving accurate readings. The usual beep when it starts up had become a feeble squeak and the LED display was pulsating. Discovery found the build date was 1998.

In the last couple of weeks it was becoming noticably sluggish to turn on but would come good after a while.

The unit was pulled off the mill and box opened up to see what's inside...the suspicion was an electolytic capacitor may have had its day, and best to change them out now incase they are all crook.

The circuit boards were pulled out and a necessary trip to Jaycar was made to get some replacements. There were 16 to replace plus the onboard battery. 

After some mucking around replacing all the capacitors, the battery was removed from the board and was seen to be breaking down releasing some powdery substance. This was replaced and also the keypad was given some repairs being glued back onto the front of the box.

Some of the original capacitors looked suspect and deformed, not sure whether it was a rough install to begin with or signs of damage.

All went to plan and the unit was re powered up and now remembers the position after being turned off and back on again...something it didn't do before.

Happy steaming!

Nigel

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