Iv had problems with this PCB and blowing wall plugs. the 6vA ac plug i got by mistake (thought i was buying 6A!) is the only one that is still working. I got a 1A plug which stopped working straight away and the pcb also stopped working, then a 1.25A plug which also stopped working straight away. Im now using the second FC Power pcb with the 6vA plug i got in the beginning! I wanted to have a few of the pcb’s running off a stronger plug but currently back to the weak plug and single pcb. FC havent respnded to my email either, they responded to the first email about the pcb not working and told me to reflow my soldering which did fix it, but havent replied about the plugs. Im still not sure why the plugs stopped working or why the first pcb stopped working after working fine for quite a while!
Can you post a picture of the plug and one of the backside of the board?
Are you using two separate, non touching (each other) heat sinks?
Hi! Ye I am, all built exactly as directed, and this pcb was working fine for quite a while and it only stopped working when I plugged in the 1.25A plug after using the 6vA plug and that 1.25A plug stopped working at the same time. Then I built a second pcb and that’s working with the 6vA plug but the 2A plug stopped working straight away
crack open the wall wart and see if it’s a decent weighty transformer
Perhaps you can try to find out: disconnect any load of the board if connected to it. Check the output of your power adaptor (not connected to the board). If it ok than check the power consumption of the cirquit board between power connector and board input. It must be near zero without any load connected to it. If not there might be some power loss on the board. Please try to check the resistors - not only the colour code - better with a multimeter.
Cause only the regulators are semiconductors it might be possible that they are damaged. But they are normally very robust. In my case the heat sinks where very close to other components so I had to isolate them with tape. Good luck!
Yes that can be. Step down regulators may not work with the board. Good aspect!
I’ve made a few of the fc boards and the only one that affected the wallwart was when I’d dry joints on one or more of the regulators. Plugged in, no lights, wallwart started to smell so I killed the power and reflowed everything. I have the odd bad day soldering and dry joints are tough to spot. Use flux and plenty good solder.
I’m also having this issue with the rev. 3 board where all my LEDs cut out after being plugged into my first VCO for a while. I checked voltage and amperage coming into the AC pins and there is nothing, so I’m pretty sure it is a blown fuse in the wall wart. I checked through this thread and didn’t see a conclusive step to to fix it for the future with a new wall wart. Any help would be appreciated if there is anyone still active on this thread.
This sounds like a short to me.
The FC website has a very good testing and fault finding section and they are usually very quick to respond to queries. There is also a forum I hear but I’ve never used it.
I also have some problems with my FC power supply build. Do you have a direct link to that? I can’t find it.
Sure.
I hope this helps
Didn’t find what I was hoping for. Hopefully someone knows what’s the matter.
I’ve built 2 fc powers (rev3).
I guess that about half the time both work as intended (I get +/12v and 5v at the outputs). But I would guess that about half the time it doesn’t seem to “start up” properly. Don’t know how to describe it better. Anyway, not all rails deliver full power. It can be seen by the LED indicators.
It only happens when I have modules connected. The amount of modules I connected should be within what I could deliver. It also happend when I only had about 2 or 3 modules connected. But I’m going to further check that tonight.
I use this wall wart: «PeakTech® P 4123 A» Converter for low voltage light sources, 12V AC/AC
Anyone have any idea what’s going on? Any pointers are appreciated.
I would bet you are running out of power. That is a 1.6 amp supply meaning, at best, it is delivering around 0.8 amps to each rail. Try to get at least a 3amp power supply.
Edit: It might also help to know which modules you are powering with it to get an idea of how much power is being consumed.
Sounds like this unsolved problem:
If it’s happening with only 2 or 3 modules, they (depending on what they are) are very unlikely to be drawing anywhere close to 0.8 A. But this doesn’t seem like a steady state current thing, more likely some startup transient.
I’m exactly experiencing the same thing that is mentioned in the other topic. If I turn it off and on again it works.
Although I need to read / figure out how to fix it, I feel relieved that’s it a know issue.Thanks.
I’ll switch to the other topic.