More Repair success :-)

MartyMart · Apr 4, 2013

Hey,
Have not been around for quite some time for various reasons, sorry for that !

You know how it goes, one piece of kit "goes down" swiftly followed by one or two more !!

So I have a list of stuff to repair - if I can, my RME FF800's PSU has gone bad, so being a fairly
complex SMPS I have ordered a new replacement SMPS, that will be here in a couple of days.
It would save me hours of trying to figure out what was wrong and visually it all looked perfect
with no burned spots or bulging caps.
Fingers crossed on that one.

Next, my Line 6 Echo pro rack suffered the same fate but after a phone call to a friend who had
the exact same problem, he recommended replacing the board mounted T5 type fuse.
The unit was a bit of a pain to get apart and ALL components are on one large board - XLR's
to unscrew etc etc.
Soldered in the new fuse in a few minutes and HURRAH !! Humans win

Third rescue will be my old Korg Trinity plus, that seems to have lost all power too ..

.... hmmm is there a power problem in Berlin perhaps ? ... time for a UPS !!

I'm chuffed, you know how tough repairs can be, nice to have an easy fix !

Regards,
Marty.

VanGenz · Apr 4, 2013

Regarding the Korg Trinity power problem: I have never repaired this before (guess it is a switchpower) If no transistors/diodes is blown/shorted check/exchange electrolyt caps, especially low voltage ones. I like to use a Hun tron tracker for this. The circle you get starts to become "uneven" because of internal resistance making them faulty.

JohnRoberts · Apr 4, 2013

Yo Martin.. long time no hear...

Sometimes a fuse blows for a reason, sometimes they are just marginal and it's their time. Internal fuses are usually added as a consequence of UL testing to prevent fires should some component fail catastrophically, and as a consequence heat up some other associated components hot enough to combust. Sometimes but less frequently, internal fuses may be added to reduce incidental damage and limit repair costs.

If it works with the new fuse it clearly wasn't responding to it's primary function, and the secondary application is not very common, so it's all good. If it fails again I'd dig a little deeper for cause. Hopefully you replaced with the same value fuse. A higher current fuse will thwart it's primary function.

I once got into a scrum with the UL inspector because one small batch of products were built missing the fuse value sticker for one such internal fuse. I agued about the odds of such fuses being replaced by consumers was low... apparently not zero.

I also rained on the factory supervisor who did not notice or care about the left over stickers at the end of that build.

I made sure it didn't happen again. You should never have any parts left over after building something in a properly run factory.

Only you can prevent product fires. 8)

JR

MartyMart · Apr 4, 2013

Thanks for the replies, will keep an eye on the "fuse" situation JR

Hope you're well ?
The Korg - I have not looked at yet, perhaps just a blown fuse but it has not worked since
I moved from London to Berlin, that was the only thing that seemed to get a knock in the
move.

M.