My Tacima 6 way mains conditioner (not a block, but a small square case) stopped working. It happened after a fuse blew in something plugged into it.
I have opened it up and there is a scorch mark where the Neutral feed is attached to the smoothing PCB. This has blown the board around the area where the lead is soldered and there is no contact to the inductors and capacitors. The live and earth pads are clean and not scorched.
It seems to be an easy fix, but does anyone have any ideas as to why this would have happened. I can post some pics later if it helps.
Rob.
I have opened it up and there is a scorch mark where the Neutral feed is attached to the smoothing PCB. This has blown the board around the area where the lead is soldered and there is no contact to the inductors and capacitors. The live and earth pads are clean and not scorched.
It seems to be an easy fix, but does anyone have any ideas as to why this would have happened. I can post some pics later if it helps.
Rob.
Massive over current ?
A fuse stops the house catching fire when the correct rating is selected.
But the correct fuse for a big Mains supply could be rather large.
Look up the datasheet for a 13A fuse and see what current it can pass for 1us !
It is indeed massive.
A pic of the inside (or a few close ups) will help us understand the problem.
It could be a bank of suppressors have gone short circuit. They each can pass many kA when asked nicely.
A fuse stops the house catching fire when the correct rating is selected.
But the correct fuse for a big Mains supply could be rather large.
Look up the datasheet for a 13A fuse and see what current it can pass for 1us !
It is indeed massive.
A pic of the inside (or a few close ups) will help us understand the problem.
It could be a bank of suppressors have gone short circuit. They each can pass many kA when asked nicely.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
The cause of the fault is a bad solder joint, where the arcing/blackening is....the solder has not disappeared, it was never there in the first case.
Resolder the whole pcb, remove flux with solvent and you should be good to go.
I have seen exactly this fault many times.
Dan.
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Planes soak away a lot of heat.
During soldering this low temperature of the plane often means that poor soldering technique results in good solder flow and attachment to the component's lead and very poor attachment to the plane.
A good technique that avoids pre-heating in an oven, is to heat the plane adjacent to, but NOT touching the component. As the solder starts to flow onto the plane, roll the soldering tip over to touch the component, a bit more fluxed solder and the joint forms from plane to lead.
During soldering this low temperature of the plane often means that poor soldering technique results in good solder flow and attachment to the component's lead and very poor attachment to the plane.
A good technique that avoids pre-heating in an oven, is to heat the plane adjacent to, but NOT touching the component. As the solder starts to flow onto the plane, roll the soldering tip over to touch the component, a bit more fluxed solder and the joint forms from plane to lead.
Is this a commercial product? If so, it's PCB is so badly designed for the application that you should consider replacing the whole set.
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