Hi Richard, fully agree with your assessment. Hopefully everything works. I would just have coated that damaged area with some coating, like UV-soldermask to prevent condensation from causing another arc-over, seeing that the rest of the PCB is under conformal-coating, I assume this PCB is from the outside unit.
Yeah it is. I still have it at the moment as today (15th Aug) is a public holiday - the assumtion of mary or something like that whatever she assumed - . I do have some soldermask so can give that area a coat before they collect it. Yeah it's from the outdoor unit (compressor?)
When I was doing air conditioning/heating repair work, I've ran across many a critter, including mice, numerous types of bugs, snakes, bats, bees/wasps, and probably more I cant remember. Always fun
I once worked at a small office on some electrical equipment, the mains was connected to 13amp fused spur which was mounted in a galvanised single gang box which was surface mounted. The top cable knock out was missing, therefore dangerous, which is where I found a mouse. The last thing said mouse did was to see what 230v tasted like leaving it’s back end sticking out of the cable knock out.
I came down to our bathroom one night to find the electric shower running constantly. I checked the switch with bleary eyes, it was off. I pulled the cord to turn off power to the unit and the water stopped. On further investigation I pulled the cover to find a large slug shorting the solenoid! On removal of the body the shower was all good. I ruled the death as misadventure...
Ohm's law suggests it could have been a 4.17 Amp and 57.55 Ohm lizard (assuming a 240V RMS incapable lizard). This aircon clearly has a poor reptile IP rating.
Awesome work deciphering how the thing works, I really don't know how you keep it straight in your mind, your ability to do that will never cease to amaze me. On a side note, what is with the huge tracks that are populated with small squares? I am assuming there is a reason for this but I am at a loss with guessing.
You probably had an arc over from low voltage AC 24v to high voltage. HVAC units have transformers that use 24v AC for signaling. That is why you see 2 different AC inputs on the board.
Once had a cockroach short circuit my driveway gate controller board in Spain. Never bothered to calculate its resistance lol. Let’s see part two if this ac will cool again. Interesting videos you make.
Could be that there is an internal layer beneath the blown area, but hopefully not or we will be seeing this again, for sure. Definitely worth testing at this point, though. It will either work or it wont!
This was really great as usual!!! But I’m wondering on a simpler board if you could explain the how’s and why’s and how you decide in your mind first that this should connect to this element on the board and why? Maybe that’s too much to ask but that’s where I’m stuck. I am reading and researching, testing and have fixed several electronic problems so it’s working. I do subscribe and contribute to your work and I really appreciate all that you do. Cheers!!!
I think the relay probably wasn't powered so the lizard was taking power from the control circuit to the main circuit. That would cause a large inrush current which blew both the fuse and the lizard.
I'm going back and forth on this. I think the lizard would have enough resistance to act as a decent inrush limiter - enough to prevent the fuse from blowing from the single spike, at least. But it's possible, those caps are huge. But that lizard was charred. And although this is one thing from these vids I will never, ever test myself, I don't think you could cook a lizard to even medium rare on an inrush surge. My own guess is that after switching the circuit on and receiving a quick death, it's tail or foot hit ground or neutral, and that's what gave him the Anakin treatment and blew the fuse.
@@SkippiiKai It is possible part of the lizard touched neutral. I'm the same with you on this one, a both the tracks where it clearly flashed over are live, as is the wider track with some melting/discolouration under the lizard. I accept that not all the lives may have been live at the same time due to the startup relay but I think the current path that blew the fuse, and the lizard, was from the head and underside of the belly on live, to the right hand front and rear legs on neutral
@@LearnElectronicsRepairHomophones can be a lot of fun indeed😁I feel bad for Lizzy. (s)he might have been drawn to this unit attracted by the smell of food from the exhaust, or to unexpectedly have a way to keep itself warm, despite nightfall. Such a harsh punishment😥.
I would if it were me. Given the condensation that happens in air conditioners, I wouldn't want that kind of liability. Of course, if the laquer actually gave good protection from the circuit, Geico would still have their mascot.
@@SkippiiKai I still have it at the moment as it is a public holiday in Spain today, Thursday, and the shopping centre where my workshop is located is closed of course. I'll put some solder mask on before they collect it tomorrow.
Heya, oke it looks oke now again so the owner can try it nice. that pcb looks a little like the main PCB that I have blown up from my all in 1 hybrid inverter that I'm trying to repair whitch I probeble are not able to repair myself. maybe I'm gone ask you Richard to help me some how
Hi Richard, fully agree with your assessment. Hopefully everything works. I would just have coated that damaged area with some coating, like UV-soldermask to prevent condensation from causing another arc-over, seeing that the rest of the PCB is under conformal-coating, I assume this PCB is from the outside unit.
Yeah it is. I still have it at the moment as today (15th Aug) is a public holiday - the assumtion of mary or something like that whatever she assumed - . I do have some soldermask so can give that area a coat before they collect it. Yeah it's from the outdoor unit (compressor?)
@@LearnElectronicsRepair You can use Nail Paint also instead of solder mask
@@rahulmechatronics Dont' tell my missus! she hasnt' got over the uses I found for her nail files and cotton buds yet! 🤐
@@LearnElectronicsRepair 🤣
When I was doing air conditioning/heating repair work, I've ran across many a critter, including mice, numerous types of bugs, snakes, bats, bees/wasps, and probably more I cant remember. Always fun
I once worked at a small office on some electrical equipment, the mains was connected to 13amp fused spur which was mounted in a galvanised single gang box which was surface mounted. The top cable knock out was missing, therefore dangerous, which is where I found a mouse. The last thing said mouse did was to see what 230v tasted like leaving it’s back end sticking out of the cable knock out.
That area may have been where the arc showed, but the lizard is quite long, so its feet , body or tail could have been across the neutral ?
I came down to our bathroom one night to find the electric shower running constantly. I checked the switch with bleary eyes, it was off. I pulled the cord to turn off power to the unit and the water stopped.
On further investigation I pulled the cover to find a large slug shorting the solenoid! On removal of the body the shower was all good.
I ruled the death as misadventure...
Ooo! I must check my shower, the water has been running a bit sluggish lately!
@@mechanoid5739 PMSL 😝
bit of conformal coating over the arced out area perhaps?
1:11 - Looks like what you might call a faulty bridge rectifier (electricity flowed in one direction only - from current to past.)
Ohm's law suggests it could have been a 4.17 Amp and 57.55 Ohm lizard (assuming a 240V RMS incapable lizard). This aircon clearly has a poor reptile IP rating.
Awesome work deciphering how the thing works, I really don't know how you keep it straight in your mind, your ability to do that will never cease to amaze me. On a side note, what is with the huge tracks that are populated with small squares? I am assuming there is a reason for this but I am at a loss with guessing.
I never knew some AC units use bad quality lizard parts 🤣🤣🤣
haha, A picture paints a thousand words.
This happened a few times to me (a gecko on the airco PCB). I was lucky, it was just the fuse each time.
You probably had an arc over from low voltage AC 24v to high voltage. HVAC units have transformers that use 24v AC for signaling. That is why you see 2 different AC inputs on the board.
Once had a cockroach short circuit my driveway gate controller board in Spain. Never bothered to calculate its resistance lol. Let’s see part two if this ac will cool again. Interesting videos you make.
😅 love the title
Yah I couldn't *resist* that! pun intended
Could be that there is an internal layer beneath the blown area, but hopefully not or we will be seeing this again, for sure. Definitely worth testing at this point, though. It will either work or it wont!
This was really great as usual!!!
But I’m wondering on a simpler board if you could explain the how’s and why’s and how you decide in your mind first that this should connect to this element on the board and why?
Maybe that’s too much to ask but that’s where I’m stuck.
I am reading and researching, testing and have fixed several electronic problems so it’s working.
I do subscribe and contribute to your work and I really appreciate all that you do.
Cheers!!!
I think the relay probably wasn't powered so the lizard was taking power from the control circuit to the main circuit. That would cause a large inrush current which blew both the fuse and the lizard.
I'm going back and forth on this. I think the lizard would have enough resistance to act as a decent inrush limiter - enough to prevent the fuse from blowing from the single spike, at least. But it's possible, those caps are huge. But that lizard was charred. And although this is one thing from these vids I will never, ever test myself, I don't think you could cook a lizard to even medium rare on an inrush surge. My own guess is that after switching the circuit on and receiving a quick death, it's tail or foot hit ground or neutral, and that's what gave him the Anakin treatment and blew the fuse.
@@SkippiiKai It is possible part of the lizard touched neutral. I'm the same with you on this one, a both the tracks where it clearly flashed over are live, as is the wider track with some melting/discolouration under the lizard. I accept that not all the lives may have been live at the same time due to the startup relay but I think the current path that blew the fuse, and the lizard, was from the head and underside of the belly on live, to the right hand front and rear legs on neutral
So the live lizard didn't live after it touched the live, then the short lizard created a short with its tail? That's quite a tale.😮
@@chrishartley1210 a tall tail indeed!
@@LearnElectronicsRepairHomophones can be a lot of fun indeed😁I feel bad for Lizzy. (s)he might have been drawn to this unit attracted by the smell of food from the exhaust, or to unexpectedly have a way to keep itself warm, despite nightfall. Such a harsh punishment😥.
Poor lizzy :(
It can happen with automated gates and snails
I would imagine snails would just explode, a bit like a resettable fuse
Better than a snakey fault, that's for sure.
I'm guessing that 2 black wire connector is going to the fan.
Question, do you bother painting a lacquer where the green solder mask is burnt off?
I would if it were me. Given the condensation that happens in air conditioners, I wouldn't want that kind of liability. Of course, if the laquer actually gave good protection from the circuit, Geico would still have their mascot.
@@SkippiiKai I still have it at the moment as it is a public holiday in Spain today, Thursday, and the shopping centre where my workshop is located is closed of course. I'll put some solder mask on before they collect it tomorrow.
nice
The white 2 pin connector is for an on-off switch?
I don't have the unit so I don't know, but seeing as this is the outdoor part of the air con I would be surprised if it had an on/off switch
This wasn't debugging, it was delizarding.
I found a dead mouse in a printer once shorted the board never a lizard.
We don't have many mice here, the lizards find them very tasty
@@LearnElectronicsRepair lol
obviously the lizards feet was touching ground
Heya, oke it looks oke now again so the owner can try it nice. that pcb looks a little like the main PCB that I have blown up from my all in 1 hybrid inverter that I'm trying to repair whitch I probeble are not able to repair myself. maybe I'm gone ask you Richard to help me some how
Call 911, the owner statement is required.