Arcam Delta 290P keeps blowing fuse

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If any of the diodes are faulty (short circuit... which is how they would fail) then that is measurable in circuit.

Always try and gather the evidence by measurement rather than just replacing in hope 🙂

A readily available IN5408 would have been fine as a swap to prove the point.
 
Thanks for the clarification on that.
I wonder if I am better to desolder the 3 inputs from the toroidal transformer (green and 2 blue) so I can test all components in circuit?
Well I could at least just desolder one leg of a diode, that would be easy...
 
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I don't think so jaycee. In fact I've just tried it with a DVM on a PSU feeding 6800uF caps and on the diode range you see a low (but increasing) value whichever way around the leads are connected. On low ohms you see around 200 ohms and rising, again independent of lead polarity. That shows they are not short and failing short is the typical failure mode. A leaky diode simply couldn't survive in a leaky state, the current flow would fuse it short pretty much instantly.

This is why I say that 'catastrophic shorts' are measurable in circuit and the readings we are seeing of 000 and 001 are certainly that, particularly if that is on a diode range on the meter.
 
Yes, not on RS or Mouser, but some on eBay, in France. No harm done in getting them anyway, may turn out to be the problem, who knows....
Also got a FAIRCHILD SEMICONDUCTOR LM393AN Analogue Dual Comparator for good meaure. Hope I don't need it.
Plus I have a working 290 integrated if I need any major parts.
And 4 nice DNM designed split foil guided current capacitors intended for upgrade of both power amps once no. 2 is working!!
Back to work!
 
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OK, so I have taken out the capacitors and they appear to be fine (ran an ohm test on them and they started low and kept going up which is what should happen).
I took out one of the diodes and it measures fine.
I have previously taken out the transistors and they appeared to be fine.
Everything looks clean and fine.
Could the toroid be knackered?
Otherwise I am stumped as to where to go next and how to test the entire board.😕
 
I doubt the transformer is faulty. Its dead easy to check though by simply disconnecting the secondary's. If the fuse still blows (or the bulb tester lights) then yes, either the transformer is faulty (or there is a short somewhere on the input wiring).

Its way down the list of suspects though.

You could do with finding out why you are reading 0000 or 0001 across the diodes when you do a check in circuit. On a DVM on diode range that reading means short. We need to find a reason for that. Is it a meter problem, or is there really a short there, or is it a problem in interpreting the result.
 
You mean this:

I ran that test as described above on the four old mosfets taken out of the amp. Multi-metre set to 2000.

Black terminal to middle, red to right:-
683/675/673/675

Red terminal to middle, black to right:-
1/1/1/1

At face value they seem OK. The 600 readings are the internal parasitic diode across drain and source with the meter polarity agreeing on that.

The 1 ! is an odd result for any meter I have seen. Usually you would see 1.999 or similar, or perhaps a higher reading on some meters such as 3.999. Those are simply the open circuit voltage across the probes.

When short the probes you would expect to see 0000 or 0001. A short is a short is a short after all.
 
Yes, those. I was thinking initially the 1 was 1ohm, but I have a meter that shows 1 for an over scale reading, so that could be it. And then because of my initial assumption I thought the 6-- was far too low.
Also Peter, you didn't confirm that you are using a Time Lag (slow blow) fuse.
 
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