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Board repaired and returned to owner. It was pretty beat up, but now working fine. An interesting exercise in reverse engineering the control system and understanding the approach they were taking. Unnecessarily complex, which is why later versions used the more normal centrifugal switch to...

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana...

For goodness sake people, this is NOT a scam, it's just a misunderstanding as to how AliExpress works. i.e. "user error" Each photo/option in the advert is a different item/combination with different pricing. Almost all AliExpress adverts work in exactly the same way; click through the photos...

Not quite... As I mentioned above: " It's worth noting that LED MRxx bulbs often have real problems with electronic 12V "transformers" as the electronic 12V transformers often require a minimum current draw to work correctly and a LED replacement may be 5W instead of 50W, so the bulb may not...

Hi. The board only controls the starter winding - if you look at the schematic you'll see that pin 3 simply connects one end of the capacitor to N via a resistor - it's a permanent connection. You are correct in that the capacitor is permanently connected to the start winding and doesn't need...

Wall plate dimmers are invariably of the "phase control" type - they are cheap & cheerful and essentially vary the power delivery from 0% to 100% for an incandescent device like a halogen bulb. LEDs do not dim - they are either ON or OFF (they don't dim) - you get the ILLUSION of dimming by...

So, done a bit of testing to check my hypothesis and: The jumper sets the mark-space time for the gate pulse - the "mark" (on time) is always 20mS (one 50Hz cycle); the "space" (off) time varies between 20mS when the jumper is in position 8 to 160mS when it's in position 1. This gives a starter...

I'll update the above post as and when I make changes to the schematic etc., so that there is only one copy of the PDF, i.e. the latest. Just completely revised it.

Completely re-worked schematic layout - revised as I've begun to make sense of it. My understanding of the circuit is: It seems that the PCB is live whenever the unit is plugged in. Horrid. Found several dead active components, dry joints and cooked resistors (R1,R2,R3). There was a 13A slow...

Really interesting writeup - nice project. I like the detail in using the PID controllers & propagation mats, plus all the sensible (essential!) safety features - it's exactly how I like to do projects. My current one is installing a 3ph ATS and auto-start generator for our house out in the...

One of the duller things most Beekeepers seem to do, is that wherever in the world you go, you buy local honey. As if you didn't have enough already. Last weekend we were in Dublin and enjoyed many long and detailed conversations about beekeeping techniques with our colleagues there. We bought...

I have one of these and, NO, you definitely can't run off of a 13A plug as it'll blow the fuse and likely trip the breaker on startup. You need a 16A Commando (BS EN 60309) blue (230VAC single phase range) plug & socket with a type C 16A breaker with appropriate cabling. The "type C" bit is...

This is my design & test bench at home from a few years ago - it's rather more modern now as I've moved some of the equipment from analog to digital... The Tek 7904A has been moved to a new home as it was too big. The 2465A is still my scope of choice and the 2430A was a bit temperamental...

Not really - the 4017 clock has a Schmitt Trigger input, so it doesn't really need that clean an edge or fast rise/fall times - the inbuilt hysteresis takes care of that - it's a very old design, but a good one which is why it's still around after so many years - the CMOS 4000 series devices...

Ah! We nixologists meet again! Small world! Welcome Richard! Excellent group this! Btw. If anyone wants specific Nixie tubes as spares/replacements, let me know!

Don't raise your hopes too much! I've been sketching out the schematic as far as I can - it's difficult to get the colour codes for all the resistors and I'm pretty sure that one or more of the DO-35/DO-204AH cased small diodes may in fact be zeners. One of the TO92 devices is a 5V voltage...

I'm most certainly not a motor control person, but as far as I can see a DOL is basically an NVR with added rather crude overload protection, plus it does nothing for single phase induction motor starting as there is no support for the second winding or capacitor.

Thanks for that. Looking at the wiring diagram (SLD) and the PCB a bit more, the PCB, 4017 and associated pin header may be to do with timing the disconnect of the start capacitor. The SCR would, in that case, be delivering half-wave mains to the starter cap & winding until the timer expired...

It's unlikely that the board itself will spontaneously experience RUD, so there will have had to have been (an) external event(s). It's perfectly possible that the resistors are fried because they were initially a bit underrated and long running may have shortened their life. Alternatively, an...