Titanium Satellite ASC1 Help Needed. Funky capacitor got the stink

[arlo]

Anyone seen something like this?
Today I saw the display flickering and then went blank.
I shut off the rear switch. Then turned it back on. Nothing. But did notice the typical bad capacitor stench.
I flicked it back on and the display flickered for a fraction of a second. Then nothing.
It is sending voltage to my LNB and 8 port switch because the channel I was watching came back.

The cap doesn't look like it spewed but the unit was supposed to be new when I got it.
Looks like a quickie repair was done to it though. The 1000 uF cap is soldered to what looks like pins from a failed one instead of fixing it proper. And it looks like if the previous bad cap was swapped, there is leftover electrolyte that wasn't cleaned from the board. I don't know. Never had it opened until now.
Details!!
I can pull it and check it. And check a few other components. There was a screw and star washer floating around inside from the aluminum base plate. All of those screws look loose because its rattling around a bit.
The ground cinch connector was floating around inside too.
I was very careful opening it up. Very!

The front display connector was barely hanging on and came loose before I could snap a pic. Crap!
Anyone have a photo of how it plugs back in. There's more pins than connector. Sucks.

Brian? Any tips? It hasn't moved from its home since I had it. Is there a common place to look?
The remote and keyboard was unresponsive. It was working like a peach.
You know I'm fully equipped with a bench. Beyond basic component checks.
Same as it commonly is without a schematic. Out in the woods unless something stares me in the face.
Fluke to the rescue.

What do you think? Help!! And that front display connector. I need to know how it gets plugged back in.

 

[primestar31]

You bought that used?

If it was mine, I'd scrape clean and resolder everything that needs resoldering, and replace the bad cap. IF some traces are lifted, you can use soldering braid filled with solder to jump them, I used to do that all the time with electronic repair. That is, if you need a larger gauge than just using plain wire jumpers.

 

[arlo]

Thanks. Just a quick check and the cap isnt shorted. Tomorrow will tell more. Phone was on macro and a bit too far away. I actually have pad strips of all forms and uv mask for board repairs. I'm really wigging out right now. I spent enough hours under the microscope this week fixing ripped hdmi, usb connectors and shorted smd caps.
The cap was definitely a janky swap out. Not by me. The unit was new when I bought it.
Need that display connector diagram though.

 

[Titanium]

Running a polarity servo? If so, disconnect the servo wires at the ASC1 rear terminals and reboot. Sounds like a high current draw or short on the servo.

The capacitor swap was from the factory on all reworked Rev 2 boards. Not elegant, but it was functional.

From the description of loose items, sounds like the result of a rough shipment.

The short ground jumper usually disconnects during disassembly. It is very short and requires close attention during reassembly.

Display pcb connection- what info do you need? Photo of the connector to the display pcb or ???

 

[arlo]

Hey Hi! Coffee, wake up and get my stuff together and go see what I see.
No servo. Receiver in. LNB out to a GeosatPro 1x8 switch out to C2W and GeosatPro kU lnbf.

I noticed the transformer was more than warmish. And the first thing I did was unhook the motor and sensor wires. At first a power cycle showed no display activity, backlight. Used a flashlight to see if the lcd was trying to give the usual faint bars and such. Nope.

After a few minutes powering it on did show just a flicker of the backlight. Then nothing.
Okay so the cap mod sounds agreeable and the spliced in disc cap is typical in factory mods.
The remnant of flux just looked like the modded cap had puked. It looks dry.
I'll run over the obvious in a bit. Xformer voltages, bridges, regulators. Pull the main board and look on the underside of it.

Do you have stuff around still to repair these guys? It's been on a UPS for a log time. No storms or surges recently. No hints of an eminent motor short. Matter of fact I ran it with an external supply and watched for current draw spikes. Nope.

Yeah. I sure could use a macro of the lcd connector. Not sure from the pics I dug up here if the not-red wired connector has a cavity hanging off the edge of the pins or if its aligned with pin 16 (??) At least the conectors are still twisted in the same orientation.

 

[primestar31]

arlo Sounds like you are used to re-working circuit boards. Do you have one of the over the head microscope glasses? If so, look the board over very carefully for bad, or burned, or crystalized/grainy solder joints. Use a dental pick, and if some leads don't quite look right, check them to make sure the solder didn't crystalize causing a bad joint. If so, you know what to do to fix that. Also look at tops of caps for any that look popped or humped. Check diodes to make sure none are shorted OR open.

Good luck.

 

[Titanium]

No longer stocking replacement boards for the ASC1, but still have most of the components on hand.

 

[arlo]

Kind of concerned about the loose base plate screw and star washer. If that's the reason for failure if one was resting on the board.
I didn't get to it today. #1 on the list after coffee in the am.
Wondering what components are available. Board level?
I know this is a long shot and expect the reply. Is a voltage diagram remotely possible to obtain?
There's no visible board damage at first look.
Thanks so much for the display connector mating photo. It means a ton.
With diseqc seeming to work because powering it on restores a channel.
But the display dead and the unit unresponsive. Perhaps a voltage rail issue?
Pulling the mcu pinout to check dc input pins.

 

[Titanium]

No voltage schematics are available. Digikey and I both have the components to populate the PCBs.

Does the motor bump East/ West? LNB voltage switch? S1/S2 voltage? Servo voltage? AC Voltages on transformer secondary outputs measure within 10% of printed specs? AC line selector set to 115 (slide between 230 and 115 several times)?

If you have questions, please feel free to call.

 

[arlo]

So far. New years stuff has settled down and the bench is clear of laptops and cell phones and Xbox hdmi port replacements. <deep sigh>
Here's what I got from the xyl. It got very cold out. Right after days of rain. Like subzero cold.
She's familiar with the actuator getting "balky". What is it? "Motor Stall"? error on the LCD?
So she's used to resetting it by hiting ok to return on the remote.
She didn't tell me that the message that time was "Short"..something.
But. It reset easily and the dish moved for days. I didn't see any errors.
It was only when I said some expletives and the unit went dead that she told me that.
It did not blow the fuse. I did check the IEC plug/socket. Flicked the voltage selector back and forth a few times.
Pulled the motor wires and put the Harley battery with ammeter inline. Nothing crazy, no intermittent spikes in amperage. The dish went up to limit switch and down to limit switch smooth (but slow).

So. Just a quick check. Details later and perhaps a call, Brian. If that's cool.
Pulled both relays. Coils are good. Loaded contacts handle about 4.8 A @ 12VDC. NO&NC just fine.
Passives look good. Diodes so far check ok. But that was a quick component check last night.
I'll get more in depth. Have a good photo of the component side. Bridges look ok and bridge diode circuit looks ok.

When the time comes after coffee. An xformer check. Then power the board with current limiting.
Regulator output checks. Thermal cam check.
Did a quickie RE of the power rails on paper.

You didn't tell me there's an ASC1 hw mod page here.
R17 is actually a cap. I don't see that in the mod page.
Are there any Zeners? Knowing that would help.
U102. The LM317 closest to the xformer is kinda' wobbly. But so far no 'solder circles' detected.

Sidenote:
Never got a 22kHz switch to work at all. Never thought it may have been something in the ASC1 not passing it.
Since I got it, it has never been out of the receiver path. I attributed the switches not working to the image used.
1X8 Geosat diseqc switch always worked well. Good time to check a 22kHz switch I'm a guessing.

The very last time I tried to power it up before pulling it for the bench.
The LCD tried to illuminate and the LCD tried to startup. Then quit very fast. I didn't push it after that.
The loose screw and washer from the baseplate still freaks me out. Damn I hope it wasn't resting on the pc board.

Codewarrior is pretty interesting btw. With a 12V battery, 'sneaking up' on satellites is easy in the house. No massive overshoot and then going back the other way. A speed ramp up/ramp down, slow jog would have been the perfect afterthought. Another bean.