diyrebel
@diyrebel@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- Comment on hot-wired a fridge mystery component. Nothing happened. What is it? 2 weeks ago:
For the moment I just disconnected the heating element and wired in a t-stat from a mini fridge. The heatin element could very well have been broken as long as I owned the fridge (it was given to me as a quite old 2nd hand fridge).
I guess I will keep my eye out for similar normal sized fridges that are trashed. Maybe I can harvest a heating element and combined t-stat like mine to recover the auto-defrosting function.
- Comment on hot-wired a fridge mystery component. Nothing happened. What is it? 2 weeks ago:
It’s a non-US fridge. But I’m curious about you calling it a heat pump fridge. The one thing all fridges have in common is using a compressor for refrigeration, which is the same as a heat pump but stressing that the goal is to cool rather than heat a space. Are there US fridges that do not use a compressor?
- Comment on hot-wired a fridge mystery component. Nothing happened. What is it? 2 weeks ago:
The mystery component is hiding behind the plate. If I follow the two white wires from the thermostat, they go behind the plate and make a loop that attaches to the backside of the plate.
I mean, you could also say the plate is a mystery to me as well. I’m quite baffled by this fridge because it’s nothing like the videos I’ve seen on fridges. The plate must be cooling the fridge compartment because there is no vent coming from the freezer.
- Comment on hot-wired a fridge mystery component. Nothing happened. What is it? 2 weeks ago:
resistence measures at 14.15 kΩ
- Comment on hot-wired a fridge mystery component. Nothing happened. What is it? 2 weeks ago:
In that case, I suppose I should wire it in series with the “new” (harvested) thermostat I will be using instead. Then both the t-stat and the mystery component would be able to open the circuit.
- Comment on hot-wired a fridge mystery component. Nothing happened. What is it? 2 weeks ago:
I posted a pic in a reply but the component is hidden behind the metal plate.
I wonder if it is a thermal fuse, then I don’t know what would warm the plate. It has a coil of refrigerant which you can see in the pic… just one loop of coolant. I’m baffled that it’s enough to cool the whole fridge compartment. As far as getting warm, I wonder if the compressor could somehow run in reverse and push hot refrigerant through the coil to defrost things?
- Comment on hot-wired a fridge mystery component. Nothing happened. What is it? 2 weeks ago:
I would really be hard-pressed to get a pic of the Zanussi 19/4 that’s worth 1k words in this situation. The backside of the plate is inaccessible. Every time I pull the plate forward to get an eyeball back there I worry that a tube carrying coolant will break.
I found the manual online somewhere but it’s almost useless. Perhaps this excerpt is useful though:
Defrosting
Frost is automatically eliminated from the evaporator of the refrigerator compartment every time the motor compressor stops, during normal use. The defrost water drains out through a trough into a special container at the back of the appliance, over the motor compressor, where it evaporates.
It is important to periodically clean the defrost water drain hole in the middle of the refrigerator compartment channel to prevent the water overflowing and dripping onto the food inside. Use the special cleaner provided, which you will find already inserted into the drain hole.
The freezer compartment, however, will become progressively covered with frost. This should be removed with the special plastic scraper provided, whenever the thickness of the frost exceeds 4 mm.
This is a pic of the front side of the metal plate: pic of metal plate in fridge compartment
There are two white wires and a ground wire going from the blob on the right to behind the plate. The wires run in a loop inside some coil of tube.
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to askelectronics@discuss.tchncs.de | 0 comments
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to fixing@slrpnk.net | 15 comments
- Submitted 2 months ago to askelectronics@discuss.tchncs.de | 3 comments
- Comment on Does it make sense that a fridge relay start winding would get only 20 volts from the thermostat? 2 months ago:
A better test may be to forcibly energize the relay so it closes.
By this, I assume you mean to hotwire the relay. I was actually planning on that. But then when I saw that the thermostat was sending 20V to what seems to be ultimately the start winding pin, it triggered me to first start this thread.
I am confused because I would expect there to just be two wires going to the relay. I believe it’s the relay’s job to break that into 3 pins. The relay has a connection that clearly goes to the common pin, which is the load. There is also a connection marked “N” for neutral, which goes to the run pin. The voltage across those two pins (coming from the thermostat) is 230v. So far, that’s all expected.
But then there is a 3rd wire from the thermostat going to (what I think is) a line that ultimately leads to the start pin. There is 20V across that and the load. So how do I hotwire that? I would obviously connect the load to and the neutral wires to their respective inputs, but I don’t know if it’s safe to jump the neutral to that 3rd input (which I think is the start pin). There is like ~54 ohms between the start and run inputs on the PTC relay.
- Comment on Does it make sense that a fridge relay start winding would get only 20 volts from the thermostat? 2 months ago:
Is there a step-down transformer anywhere?
I doubt it… unless that’s something we would expect to find in a fridge? I see no big coils. There are also no fans on this fridge. No start capacitor either. The YT videos I saw do not correspond well with this. There is no freezer→fridge damper either. There are coils in both.
The thermostat should be easy enough to test - you know where the supply is, and which wires energize this relay. Test voltage at the relay when the thermostat closes.
I cannot easily remove the thermostat… hard-wired in, otherwise I would try putting it in a working freezer then check that it closes. But OTOH that test is perhaps not useful since the problem is not continuous running. The problem is not running at all.
I can’t access that wiringwork page, but I would expect current and voltage to both be zero when the thermostat is happy. In any case, I appreciate the feedback.
- Submitted 2 months ago to askelectronics@discuss.tchncs.de | 5 comments
- Submitted 2 months ago to fixing@slrpnk.net | 0 comments
- Comment on My Beko washing machine must be junked because it thinks the load is imbalanced? 2 months ago:
I think I’m done buying washing machines. I have been hand-washing my clothes for over a year now. If I buy a machine, I become part of the problem… I become part of the financial support system for the scandals.
I can’t quite tell from what you describe if Samsung did something wrong. It seems reasonable to have a sensor. But if it’s too sensitive and gets false positives, then indeed that’s junk.
I think nothing is worse than what I experience with Beko: secret codes that force us to trash machines where all components work, but the manufacturer will not reveal the secret. Nothing is more infuriating.
- Comment on My Beko washing machine must be junked because it thinks the load is imbalanced? 2 months ago:
Controller boards tend to cost about as much as a complete working 2nd-hand machine.
I have not checked yet for the machine at hand, but my other Beko which is also trapped in an error state and the parts shops can no longer get the controller board. Beko themselves cannot get one either. And I must say, replacing hardware to change the state of software is not an acceptable solution for me.
A jumper, I can handle. But I need the information. That’s all I need is information. Which pins need a jumper?
- Submitted 2 months ago to fixing@slrpnk.net | 4 comments
- Comment on My Zanussi fridge must be junked because (IIUC) a simple relay switch went bad? Are my resistance readings good? Is there such a thing as a universal fridge switch? 2 months ago:
I appreciate the effort. That manual is for a model beginning with ZFC, and mine is simply Z… I tried anyway, despite generally refusing to deal with the manual cartels. I could not get past the reCAPTCHA forced by manualslib. But I doubt it would help anyway. What I need is a service manual containing the resistence measurements. User manuals never have that info. The slightly different manual that I have (ZD 19/4 D) does not have anything useful.
Regarding fixpart.co.uk, I just get 403 forbidden on that site.
I’m not sure to what degree it helps, but if your problem with acquiring a part is geographical in nature I’m in Ireland, and am happy to get and mail the part for you if it is available in either EU or the UK. Good luck and keep us posted!
I appreciate the generous offer! I’ll keep that in mind but I will first try to diagnose more precisely which part I need… whether it is the relay or the thermostat. Then I will try to find it locally. If it’s the relay then I’m probably toast. But I might see if something universal can be rigged up.
- Submitted 2 months ago to chemistry@mander.xyz | 3 comments
- Comment on Help me decode this Beko error code 2 months ago:
oh wow! That looks close for sure. Great find… I’m sure it will be useful. I’ll look at it more later today.
Thanks!
- Comment on Help me decode this Beko error code 2 months ago:
Thanks!
Indeed I need the heavily protected service manual… but nonetheless I’m still happy to have the correct user manual.
- Submitted 2 months ago to fixing@slrpnk.net | 2 comments
- Comment on Help me decode this Beko error code 2 months ago:
Is there any noise to speak of, like the door lock clicking?
No noise. It’s completely silent. So I disconnected the garden hose because if it does not even trigger the water inlet solenoids then it does not help to maintain water pressure for future tests.
User manual seems to be pretty readily available online,
I’ll have another look, but I generally ignore the dedicated third-party manual websites as they are just time-wasting enshitified rabbit holes. If I am convinced a service manual is in one of those walled gardens, I might go through all the boot licking hoops and do a dance to get it.
In any case, I appreciate your feedback.
- Submitted 2 months ago to fixing@slrpnk.net | 7 comments
- Comment on repair cafes are oriented to “give you fish”, rather than “teach a man to fish” 4 months ago:
www.repairtogether.org is involved and there are links that give locations and times, though I don’t have it at the moment.
- Submitted 4 months ago to fixing@slrpnk.net | 12 comments
- Comment on Questions on how to connect a PC to a washing machine (USB→TTL serial) 7 months ago:
When I meter gnd against 5v on the adapter, I get 5.15v. So both the adapter and the DMM are fine.
I heard that connecting two DC supplies together would have no problem if they both output exactly the same voltage. Of course we would never have an exact match, but the only strain on either side of the connection would be from the difference between the 5v from the adapter and 5v from the washing machine. So I’m tempted to conclude the serial port was sabotaged at the factory.
- Comment on Questions on how to connect a PC to a washing machine (USB→TTL serial) 7 months ago:
I had the two 5v pins connected (from 5v on the adapter to the 5v pin on the washing machine). I had it that way for maybe 10 or 15 min until I was told not to. Now I wonder if I damaged it because when I meter the 0v against the 5v, there is almost nothing there. Did I damage it, or did the manufacturer disable the serial port before it got to me?
- Submitted 7 months ago to fixing@slrpnk.net | 6 comments
- Comment on Washing machine PCB has a USART port. Do repairers use that? 8 months ago:
I appreciate your insights but struggle to reconcile the following with what others say (youtubers and folks in an electronics chat room):
I doubt many people use eeprom to save any kind of error. … It is far more likely that the script is just a state machine and is reaching an error state because of some missing or bad signal that it needs to continue running the script.
I asked EE folks how would a controller board sense a fault? Does the controller take resistance measurements on the components? The answer was “highly unlikely - that would be far more sophisticated and costly than what would be realistic in a domestic washing machine”. They said fault detection is based on logic. E.g. if the tacho sensor does not have increasing feedback despite increasing power to the motor, then the controller can detect from that that there is a fault. Or if the water has been filling for a long time and the pressure sensor is not detecting a pressure increase, the machine would know from that activity that the inlet valve has a problem.
You seem to suggest that the script reruns from a clean state every time and that a “bad signal” would be re-detected each run, which then implies that the machine would repeatedly attempt to fill with water, tumble, drain, etc. But that does not seem to be what I am seeing. The machine will be powered off & unplugged for days, and when powered on it instantly flashes that there is a fault (which is likely only known after attempting to run the various components). This is consistent with what a Youtuber said: the machine (not my particular model but speaking generally) stores the fault code. From there, the machine is trapped in that state until the error code is cleared by pressing a secret sequence of buttons.
Some leaked tech docs for a different model (same make) mentioned that if a fault occurs 8 times, it then becomes stored in memory. This seems consistent with what I observed. I repeatedly attempted to run the machine. Not sure how many times. Motors would run, failure hits, and then it quits. After doing that so many times (which I regret), the behavior changed. Now the machine will not even attempt to run because it is apparently trapped in an error state.
So everything seems to point to the error code being stored in EEPROM (which I believe is embedded in the ATmega8L chip). And not just the error code but apparently a count of failed attempts to run a program.
