PAL 500 Power Amplifier

 

Daiwa PS-220 Power Supply Repair

 Daiwa PS-220 came to me used, and I expected it to be in working condition.  When I powered it, the light came on in the power switch, but no DC.  A quick check showed the bridge rectifier was OPEN on all four diodes.  Strange, but my other DAIWA needed the bridge rectifier changed also.  I used a  much higher rated (40amperes) bridge rectifier.  

Still no voltage on the output.  Hmm.  

The two power transistors, and driver transistor were also open.  

I don't know how they all went at once, but they did.  

Given the circumstances, and that I did not quite understand the details of the circuit, I ordered replacements for all semiconductors that I did not have in stock.  

Today, I replaced them.  It took several hours and getting the power transistors to line up with the holes in the heatsink was quite a challenge and took half of the time.  The diodes on the board all checked OK, but I just changed the op amp and pre-driver NPN transistor.  

One challenge is that the wires on the circuit board are solid core as they used wire wrap to connect everything up.  A couple of them broke in the effort.  I also found a cold solder joint on the voltage adjust pot and I suspect it had been like that from the start of the unit's life.  

Selecting replacement parts was a bit of a trick as nothing original is available any longer.  

In no particular order, here is what I used, all from Digikey:

Regulator Final Driver:  TIP41A NPN

Pre driver, 2N3904 generic NPN

Final regulators, NJW21194G

These power supplies always THUD when you turn them on due to Inductive resistance, so I added a Metal Oxide Varistor, Ametherm, MS22 20005.  No more thudding.  See my other article about the change to the inrush current when using MOV in series.  

IEEE 1394 Drivers

IEEE 1394 Driver issues

As I worked with the Flex 5000 I have come to suspect the IEE1394 adapter card and it's drivers as the source of issue for the unit continuing to enter the "off" mode repeatedly and with no warning or seeming outside intervention.  Reading some of the other user groups points to the drivers not being 100% compatible with Windows 10.  I have followed the instructions to install the legacy drivers for the card, a TI based chipset.  

It is at the state now that it will seemingly randomly work for minutes or hours before shutting off.  

I have read that Windows will "automatically" shift the drivers for the IEEE1394 card back to the Windows10 ones that do not work well.  Today I want to check to see if that is the issue, or not.  

Method:  

Note the current version of the driver.  

update the driver (see what happens) 

Check the version of the driver and operation. 

IF not acceptable, re-install the legacy drivers previously downloaded.

Here is our starting point. 

First,  Use windows Update feature.

Well, it ought to have tried to update, as I thought I had the legacy driver installed.  text

 

Device PCI\VEN_104C&DEV_823F&SUBSYS_78563412&REV_01\5&1e3d2069&0&0000E8 was configured.

Driver Name: 1394.inf

Class Guid: {6bdd1fc1-810f-11d0-bec7-08002be2092f}

Driver Date: 06/21/2006

Driver Version: 10.0.18362.1

Driver Provider: Microsoft

Driver Section: Generic.Install.NT

Driver Rank: 0xFF2002

Matching Device Id: PCI\VEN_104C&CC_0C0010

Outranked Drivers: 1394.inf:PCI\CC_0C0010:00FF2005

Device Updated: false

Parent Device: PCI\VEN_104C&DEV_823E&SUBSYS_78563412&REV_01\4&64aeba3&0&00E8

So, now that this is documented, I will now apply the so-called "latest" legacy drivers previously downloaded from MS site:

File name is:  1394_OHCI_LegacyDriver.msi  

Sorry, I cannot save files to this blog.  I think.  

But, I can provide a link from Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JK0BeFrBlrUa9MFcHhUfF9UBdQvEWWir/view?usp=sharing

It worked when I tested it.  No promises down the road....

First I will try to "update" by pointing to the MSI file, that is an installer file, so I doubt it will work.  

No, it did not work.  

I will run the MSI

You don't see a helluva lot.  It blinks, a status info window opens and closes in about 100msec.

reboot computer.  

IEE card is there, and the same info.  Nothing apparently changed

running Power SDR for hte Flex 5000m 2,8,0,169   Hmmmm, it took longer than normal.....

Let's start, this time, by only running it.  No WSJT-X or associated apps.  

Hmmm, seems just fine, other than all the bands are dead today. 

After Two days of the radio running, there was no interruption in the operation of the connection.  It looks like the Firewire connection to the radio is NOT likely the problem.  

Isomac Boiler Autofill Issue

Symptom:  Only water comes out of the steam wand, pressure on coffee is 4 bar maximum instead of the normal 9 or more bar.

Occurence:  The boiler is filling above the design level to the point that only hot water is available from the steam tap.  Coincident is that the pressure on the group head does not rise above 4 bar.  

Cause:  The boiler autofill solenoid valve has partially failed in the open position.  

Other cause could possibly be the Geimme controller is calling for the solenoid to open while pressing a coffee.  This should not generally happen.  

In this case, draining out the excess water and cycling the group head and pressure pump with the blank filter basket in place seemed to clear up the symptom.  I am ordering a new solenoid valve.  

483510s6 xs03xs6f

This assembly includes the Lucifer 220V coil with a 1/8" F x 1/8" F BSP valve body. Be sure to check for the water flow direction indicator arrow on the bottom of the valve body. Uses the standard size electrical connector.

fittings ø 1/8"FF - max 10 bar
VITON seal - orifice 2.5 mm
with coil 483510 9W 220/240V 50/60Hz
fluid temperature -40°C+140°C

https://www.espressoparts.com/220v-50-60hz-9w-1-8-x-1-8-two-way-lucifer-solenoid

My machine is 120V so this version would not work for me.  

I am looking for the best price on the solenoid.

Hah: Found a Canadian source for 40% less bucks.  OOPS wrong base.  This one will not work. 

https://coffeeaddicts.ca/products/220v-50-60hz-9w-two-way-lucifer-solenoid?variant=31772612821072&currency=CAD&utm_campaign=gs-2018-10-05&utm_source=google&utm_medium=smart_campaign

Tripp-Lite IB2-P

Tripp-Lite

What DOES this gadget do?  I have had it around for decades, likely 30 years.  Tonight I thought I would connect it up to the Siglent VNA and have a look at the frequency response.  I hope it has an attenuation of the HF bands as my testing about signal levels and grounding in the office/ham shack showed substantial RF emanating from the mains wiring.  I am hoping this device will "mute" some of the RF roaming around the office when I transmit.  

The test jig is simple.  Feed the signal from Port 1 on the VNA.  Connect the signal to ONE lead at a time on the Tripp-Lite referenced to the ground lug  and test the pass through characteristics.  First the "hot" lead side.

The usual precautions and setup were taken with the VNA and the test leads were used when the device was Pass Through Calibrated.  

The HOT leads first:  

RF Source connected to the PLUG side hot to Ground.  

RF Sence connected to the RECEPTACLE side, Neutral.

The sweep is from 100khz to 30 mHz.  More than 30db attenuation at roughtly 3 mHz, and increasing to 20 dB of attenuation at 30 mHz.  

Just out of curiosity, here is the sweep up to 150 mhz.  Always more than 20db of attenuation.  

The next thing to test is the NEUTRAL side of the device.  

RF Source connected to the NEUTRAL PLUG.  

RF Sense connected to the NEUTRAL RECEPTACLE

Summation:

It looks like this would provide at least 20 db across the amateur radio HF and VHF spectrum.  

So I am going to install it BEFORE the big power bar under the bench.  

Directional Coupler

Directional Coupler

It is embarrassing to admit that I have not built a directional coupler until this week.  I built one yesterday and the results were so interesting, I built a "better" one today.

Through what seems as much magic as anything else, a wire grounded at one end, and laying parallel another conductor with RF "on" it will have a sympathetic signal generated by the wave fronts travelling from the grounded end to the sensing end.  Not so much the other way around.  Every ham knows of Forward and Reverse readings on an SWR meter.  This is the same effect.

Insert diagram here.


My first attempt was with a 1/2" copper pipe and some connectors, and #14 magnet wire.  It worked well enough but the UHF connectors distorted due to the heat of sweating them onto the pipe and I could not get connectors in them.  Plan B

Hunting around for a suitable box, I found the one pictures below.  Much roomier than the 1/2" pipe.  An RF precision 50-ohm termination is at the right-hand end of the sensing element.

Connecting the Tracking generator output to Signal, a test antenna to Load and Port 2 of the VNA to the Reverse Sense port gave the following results.  When testing an antenna, less reflection at a frequency is better.  Sweeping through a range of frequencies "paints" a picture of what frequencies the antenna is most effective at and what frequencies it is not effective on. 



















The sweep following is of the Rubber Duckie antenna pictured above.  It appear resonant from 125 through to 174 mHz.


























My multiband fan dipole on the roof of the house is another matter entirely, with multiple resonances

more or less lining up with the ham bands.  Some better than others.  It looks as if I could spend another day on the roof fine tuning it.  Mind, you change one element and the whole thing shifts.  I see why it is so good at 3.573, the FT8 frequency, and so lousy at 3.733 mHz, the chat net I try and check into some evenings.  All in all the Directional Coupler appears to be a use

Daiwa Power Supply Repair and Thermistor Installation

Return of the humble Thermistor.

Repairing a Daiwa 30 ampere DC power supply.

2020 April 20

The journey starts out with the Daiwa power supply I purchased from VE3QX a few years ago popping the fuse the other morning.  I wasn't surprised as the lights always dimmed when I turned it on and sometimes you could hear a loud snap as the power switch contacts closed.  Rated at 30 amperes, there is a nasty back-EMF to the hefty transformer when powering it up.

I tried another fuse, just in case.  The lights dimmed and the fuse popped again. Okay, there is something wrong.

It did not take long to narrow it down to the bridge rectifier.  A dead short across all four contacts.  It is as if they were each welded together.




It is a KBPC3502G,  rated at 35 amperes, reverse voltage limit of 120V.  As the power supply is rated at 30 amperes @ 13.8 volts, this seems a little light for the application.  So I went looking in DigiKey.  The KBPC5010 looked like an admirable replacement for only $4.65 each.  50 amperes, 1.4KV reverse voltage on the diodes.
You can read all about it at:  https://html.alldatasheet.com/html-pdf/34010/WTE/KBPC5010/47/1/KBPC5010.html if you feel inclined.

It was a bit of a struggle getting it out, and the new one in as all connections were push-on connectors that were soldered in place.

Before I finalized the connections, I fed the voltage regulator circuit with another variable power supply and thankfully, there were no other problems.  Nice.  I kind of expected the regulator circuit to be fried as well!

As is my habit with high power anything, I like to "ease-up" the input voltage the first time and did so without connecting the primary winding to the rectifier first.  My 100-watt Variac was perfect for the job, and I monitored the output voltage of the transformer as well as input current.  All went well.  This step ruled out shorted windings or some other catastrophic failure in the transformer.



All connections were finished up, and the variac was used again to power it up.



Here it is working just fine.  The Daiwa is back in the rack powering my Icom 7300.  It is a very stately power supply, isn't it?  The Gothic design versus the Frank Lloyd-Wright design so common today with power supply faces.

But the story is not over!!

I got to thinking that this power supply worked for 25 years before the rectifiers failed.  Countless ON-OFF cycles.  So what may have caused this?  I could only think that an overcurrent or voltage would have had to have occurred for the diodes to fail into a shorted condition.  The first thing to do was to measure the inrush current.  I have a harness with ten turns of the "hot" wire between a plug and receptacle.  I rummaged around for my old Fluke 41B electrical meter.  It can measure these things.  But it turned out not be be "quick" enough to catch the spike of current.  Then I turned to my Fluke 189 II meter.  Turns out it has MIN MAX readings that are in the microsecond level  Perfect.  I connected the probe from the 41B to the input of the Fluke and measured MIN MAX AC Volts.  The probe generates 1mv of AC RMS per Ampere of current.  My ten times coil made it a little easier to measure, as it increased the coupling ten fold. After a dozen or so on-off cycles I measure 36.5 amperes (RMS) on one event.  A good starting point.

Then I remembered working on old television sets and hearing the dull thud of the degaussing coil.  Didn't they use Thermistors to limit the current?  Yes, that is true, and it looked something like this:



Thermistors come in two varieties, Negative Temperature Coefficient, meaning less current as they heat up, and Positive Temperature Coefficient, meaning the resistance drops as they heat up.  Degauss coils had both, one is series, the other in parallel.  You can read all about them at:

https://www.ametherm.com/blog/inrush-current/what-is-an-inrush-current-limiter-the-single-part-solution/

There is a curious connection to the invention of alkaline Duracells.


It is a little different, but you can see that the thermistor is a PTC version, so the resistance DROPS as it heats up, but the Varistor (sometimes an NTC thermistor was used here) worked in the reverse method, Increasing in resistance as it warmed up.

So, I looked around the web and found Ameretherm and sent a message asking for guidance on choosing the correct Thermistor to help ease the startup current on the Daiwa power supply.

Here is the response from my message to Ameretherm:

Hello David,
Tony is on vacation so I am filling in for him.
Given:
Input voltage = 126V
Output power = 13.8V x 30A ≈ 414 Watt
Max allowable inrush current on primary = fuse rating = 8.0A
Inrush current measured = 35A
Assumption:
The Duration of inrush current = one cycle of 50Hz = 20 Milliseconds.
Calculations:
Energy the thermistor needs to handle repeatedly = Instantaneous Power x duration of inrush, Instantaneous Power = Inrush current x peak input voltage = 35Ax ( 126Vx 1.414) ≈ 6240 Watts
energy = 0.02  sec x 6240 Joules / sec ≈ 125Joules.
Steady-state = output power ÷ input voltage =  414Watt ÷ 126VAC ≈ 3.30Amp
Minimum Resistance = Peak voltage ÷ fuse rating = 126VAC x 1.414 ÷ 8.0A = 22.2 Ω
Selection:
I believe MS22 20005 is a good fit for you, would you like samples?

Mehdi Samii
VP Engineering & Sales
p:	(800) 808-2434
f:	(775) 884-0670
a:	961 Fairview Drive, Carson City, Nevada
w:	www.ametherm.com  e: mehdis@ametherm.com

So I ordered some samples.

It didn't take long after reading this to wonder what the current curve looked like, so I hooked up my OWON "baby scope"  (compared to the old Tektronix TDS754 behemoth on the bench) with the Fluke current clamp and set the single shot trigger and proceeded to turn the PS on and off.  After a dozen or so tries this waveform was captured:


The CURRENT is 500 millivolts divide by 10 for the number of winds, yields peak current of just under 50 amperes, for roughly 2 milliseconds.  The whole spike is roughly 8 msec long.  Mehdi's calculations assume a longer duration of the current spike, likely for a worst-case, and it appears the choice of the Thermistor will be just fine.  This value corresponds nicely with the Fluke 189 II RMS MAX reading of 36.5 Volts.

My next entry will be AFTER the thermistor is installed.  it will be interesting to see the difference.

David Balcaen, VE2GYA.  2020-April 20

73 and good dx

2020 May 4

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the UPS truck and driver delivered my samples from Ameretherm.  It did not take long to pull a tie strip out of my parts drawers and install the Thermistor in the mains lead.  I seem to recall they were always mounted out in the clear in case they exploded or got really hot.  A through-bolt on the transformer was quite handy:



The placement could not be simpler, place in the mains supply lead, either leg.  For all intents and purposes, the resistance at running current is negligible.

But does it make a difference?




20 mv per division.  Peak to Peak, 6 divisions, for 120 mv.  And as this is connected to a X10 multiplier for the current rating we divide by 10 for a 12 mv peak.   As the probe yields 1mv per Ampere, we have a peak measured current of 12 amperes.


So was it worth the time and effort?

You bet!  Inrush current is ONE FOURTH what it was without the Thermistor.  The power supply has lost the familiar "THUD" when powered up.  Simply, inrush current is REDUCED.

I declare the experiment a Success!!

Every Daiwa 30A power supply ought to have one installed.

Here is the detail about the MS22 2005 thermistor I used.