DIY Repair of Shorted out Easytouch Motherboard

[tomzo]

This post is just to pass along my recent experience. I was foolishly working on some wiring connections with my motherboard powered on when I shorted out two wires connected to the Aux Extra relay input. The magic smoke was released from the motherboard and it tripped the 18V AC breaker. No combination of disconnecting wires solved the problem and the phone tech from Pentair declared the board dead.

I ponied up for a replacement ($325 plus shipping - ouch!) and once I took the other one out I had one of my electrical guys at work take a look. We traced the wires on the board to two small rectangular chips and he felt a little bulge on them and figured that I blew these chips. With a magnifying glass and some google work, I found that these were called Darlington Arrays and replacement chips were available online for under $1 each.

I ordered a few of them and popped them in, and presto! The board is back to normal!

Now I have a brand new motherboard that I will be putting on eBay shortly for someone else to buy. Too bad I did not try replacing chips before I bought the new motherboard....

Tom

 

[danpik]

Tom
Glad you were able to solve that with a little leg work.

I had a similar experience several years ago. I have a Hayward 100,000 BTU heater that would light and run for a min or two and shut down, retry and do the same thing over and over. I would take the top off to try and figure out the problem and it would stay on and run fine. Put the cover back on and it would act up again. Figuring it was something bad on the board after I eliminated almost everything else, I took the board out and looked up the price on a new one. $400.00. I said no way as I could convert the whole thing to a standing pilot for about $100.00. Anyway I was talking to the electrical engineer at work and he said to bring the board in. He figured it was probably a relay that was getting hot (lid on) and losing contact. He was looking at it to get some numbers for the relays and I was looking them up in the book when he said, "hey, look at this!" The solder joints on the power connection on the end of the board were all cracked around the pins for the connector. Literally took longer to warm up the soldering iron than it took to fix them. BTW the components on the board were all available thru the catalog we were looking thru for a sum total of $50.00 including shipping.

 

[CraigMW]

Tom:

Great job! I will often do the same when something electronic breaks down. Release of the magic blue smoke actually makes it easier to track down problems on circuit boards because you know where to localize your search. It is getting tougher these days to service PCBs, especially those with surface mount components (pretty much all PCBs these days). But, it can certainly be worth it, especially on boards that are installed in expensive equipment like pools.

 

[PinellasDave]

Do you have the one with 4 relays or 8 relays?

 

[tomzo]

I have the 4 relay motherboard - need one?

 

[PinellasDave]

Yes. But unfortunately, I need eight relays. I might try to upgrade to an IntelliTouch. First, I'm going to try to have a circuit board repair company try to fix mine. The only thing wrong with it is its comm port.

 

[tomzo]

Too bad - I could have made you a great deal!

Tom