Robert Hart
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I have a Titan charger/power supply which I use on a SI2K camera-recorder. I bought it off eBay 4 years back at a very good price. It was fine then and remains so. I have been a little concerned at the heat build-up in this and Tandem 70 I bought about a year ago on the assumption that good things rarely last forever.
The charger/power supplies are "world power" in that they plug into the two main grid voltages. In Australia we are on 240vAC. Some earlier switched or "world power" chargers or appliances here have had a tendency to fail, not due to components failing but due to conductor paths on PCBs which are too small to carry the current, overheat and char the PCB material which becomes a conductive carbon track and the rest is usually smelly history.
If one is vigilent and quick enough, some boards can be saved by adding a thin strip of brass shim metal as a patch either on top of the original copper strip or on edge if space permits to double as a heatsink along a path prone to heating.
The Titan, whilst still operating perfectly, began a signature soft ticking and crackling with associated faint char smell, clearly something that should not be permitted to continue. Via email, I have not been able to receive a response from AB to a query but confess I have only tried the once.
Given the costs of shipping to the US from this far-flung outpost and no guarantees of older products remaining repairable, I recently opened the charger myself and found there was evidence of two points of local overheating and a char patch between two conductors on a PCB. This appears to have propagated due to local heating from a resistor in the underside of the PCB plus dust and fluff accumulation. There is a fibre sheet laid over the PCB but there was some intrusion of fluff and dust beneath.
With the char patch engraved out of the PCB, all is well but there are a couple of resistors I would prefer to see replaced as they show signs of long and arduous hot service to the point where their surface finish no longer shows their resistive value and rating. With the correct parts, I am quite capable of replacing them myself.
If servicing is offered by AB for older product, this might be the preferred choice as from tags in the charger, it appears there has been a previous rebuild along with a later firmware update. There may be even later updates available.
If anyone has any information on who best to contact in AB in the US, this would be appreciated. Alternatively any info related to circuit diagrams and components would be appreciated.
This charger bears what appears to be a revised serial number 6595.
The charger/power supplies are "world power" in that they plug into the two main grid voltages. In Australia we are on 240vAC. Some earlier switched or "world power" chargers or appliances here have had a tendency to fail, not due to components failing but due to conductor paths on PCBs which are too small to carry the current, overheat and char the PCB material which becomes a conductive carbon track and the rest is usually smelly history.
If one is vigilent and quick enough, some boards can be saved by adding a thin strip of brass shim metal as a patch either on top of the original copper strip or on edge if space permits to double as a heatsink along a path prone to heating.
The Titan, whilst still operating perfectly, began a signature soft ticking and crackling with associated faint char smell, clearly something that should not be permitted to continue. Via email, I have not been able to receive a response from AB to a query but confess I have only tried the once.
Given the costs of shipping to the US from this far-flung outpost and no guarantees of older products remaining repairable, I recently opened the charger myself and found there was evidence of two points of local overheating and a char patch between two conductors on a PCB. This appears to have propagated due to local heating from a resistor in the underside of the PCB plus dust and fluff accumulation. There is a fibre sheet laid over the PCB but there was some intrusion of fluff and dust beneath.
With the char patch engraved out of the PCB, all is well but there are a couple of resistors I would prefer to see replaced as they show signs of long and arduous hot service to the point where their surface finish no longer shows their resistive value and rating. With the correct parts, I am quite capable of replacing them myself.
If servicing is offered by AB for older product, this might be the preferred choice as from tags in the charger, it appears there has been a previous rebuild along with a later firmware update. There may be even later updates available.
If anyone has any information on who best to contact in AB in the US, this would be appreciated. Alternatively any info related to circuit diagrams and components would be appreciated.
This charger bears what appears to be a revised serial number 6595.
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