Heads up folks!
We are gathering this week!
Electronics Night
3 Likes
Ah thats great news, was hoping to pop in. The power supply for that 3D printer I was looking at last week is taking power in but not outputting anything and making a crackling noise. Thought it might be a good one to start my wonderful journey into electronics beyond a bit of soldering. If someone would be able to help, it would be much appreciated.
1 Like
Can you look at the hand dryer and ascertain if it can be fixed or if we need to contact the manufacturer to get a new circuit board. With the amount of members recently contracting Covid we need to sort this as a priority.
1 Like
Just a couple of points on this - it powers on fine, probably smth with infrared sensors, maybe just dirty, maybe broken. The problem is this thing is heavy (11kg), made of plastic, wired into mains outside the bathroom somewhere under the sofa (there’s a hole in the wall for the wire) and in order to detach it from the wall you have to undo the screws in the bottom of it.
All of it combined it is better not to do it alone. Provided it needs to be put back afterwards it makes this repair really time limited for the electronics night.
This, if someone can take it to the table and start to open it I can do that, otherwise I need to schedule to come down during the weekend which is challenging while moving house and a new job…
I can use a screwdriver so I will remove it and leave it on the table thursday if I have recovered!
1 Like
I appreciate it
Hi! I have an olf projector that stopped working… checked online here and there seems like it might be an internal fuse. Funnily to access it you need to disassemble the whole thing which I’m not sure I feel confident to do on my own! Is this an Electronics night thing maybe? Anyone willing to give some advice later today?
1 Like
Me and @scythian looked into the hand dryer, the motherboard was behaving strangely, it act as a crude step down for the whole system, we started to probe the sensor when we realised we had about +/- 150 AC on the LEDs, we checked the measurements many times.
Sadly while probing we managed to short the LEDs board, a big spark and smoke was released.
Pre damage semed like the circuit board was damaged and injected AC in the circuit, the sensor board had damaged traces and reading for what was 5v were all over the place.
After damage caps on the circuit board are blown, Infrared receiver and leds are definitely gone.
The blower and the heater are still good, needs new PCB and both sensor boards.
Magic smoke has escaped the hand dryer.
1 Like
Do you know by chance the name of the person with the toaster?
I think I’ve kind of failed to get across the thought one should not leave this device unattended. With only a mechanical timer and no thermal protection, things would get nasty when timer mechanism gets stuck 
He is a colleague from my work, I will let him know.
Thanks for the help diagnosing the power supply as well tonight. Had a feeling it was going to be a dud but thought it would be worth a try none the less.
1 Like
Doh!
Unfortunately I only see the replacement motherboard for sale, not the sensor boards…
https://www.handydryers.co.uk/shop/search/?search_string=junior
So we may be looking at a new / secondhand unit…
You lot put up a brave fight with that hand dryer - hats off to the three of you!
1 Like
Edit - called them - they are checking on the rest of the parts etc. for it!
Well, I was thinking about it yesterday night.
I could test/rebuild the sensor array, the components are pretty standard.
But if we chose another unit, please, let’s get a different kind, there are no gaskets for water ingress, the motherboad it’s comformal coated but the sensors are not.
The scariest thing is, even when we shorted 220v that was leaking the fuse didn’t blow.
Also, the blue lights are just to show, definitly not UVs or anything.
Ok so they have the motherboard for £60 and the sensor for £20… +vat on top, should we order?
This unit new is £330 incl vat…
1 Like
100£ for the parts then? That’s less than 330 if that’s the question (haha) unless a broken 2nd hand can be found with a functional motherboard?
Yeah £100 for the parts, we unfortunately need the motherboard and sensors, I did look on ebay but nothing cheaper available… @emuboy with those parts we should be able to fix it, yea?
that’s a lot for what is basically arduino mcu with two relays, power supply and a bunch of leds
https://www.handydryers.co.uk/documents/Gorillojunior-manual.pdf last page
Don’t forget the pennies worth of photodiodes, though LEDs will do in a pinch!