A "CAT"astophe!
Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 11:13 pm
I'm going to tell you all just how good the PCS designs are..
Yesterday, I woke up to the smell of burnt circuit board and couldn't figure out which of my PC's had failed... until I noticed my cat had thrown up on the PCS 5Watt Amplifier.
Yes, the vomit had seeped down into the AC area through the vents and gotten under the potting compound on the AC input. The acidity conducted enough electricity to burn out all the AC traces under the compound and the AC/DC module (thus, the smell of burnt circuit board).
BUT! I pulled the AC/DC module off the board, tested it for opens or shorts, cleaned up the carbon tracks & burnt traces with a Dremel and sealed the board with lacquer. Then I hard soldered the AC input to the re-assembled AC/DC module (we use 240VAC downunda) and that little bugger fired right back up! It's back on air and putting out a comfortable 6Watts into 3/4inch Hard line coax. No smells... no smoke...
This morning, the amplifier is still putting out a solid 6Watts and running nice and cool. Just a hint of warm lacquer smell.
That's about as robust as anyone can design a circuit. They've done well and I'm going to add that little bit of information to my blogs and the on-air plug I do for PCS.
An excellent design job.. My hat is off to the lads at PCS.
Alex
http://www.bywong.com
Yesterday, I woke up to the smell of burnt circuit board and couldn't figure out which of my PC's had failed... until I noticed my cat had thrown up on the PCS 5Watt Amplifier.
Yes, the vomit had seeped down into the AC area through the vents and gotten under the potting compound on the AC input. The acidity conducted enough electricity to burn out all the AC traces under the compound and the AC/DC module (thus, the smell of burnt circuit board).
BUT! I pulled the AC/DC module off the board, tested it for opens or shorts, cleaned up the carbon tracks & burnt traces with a Dremel and sealed the board with lacquer. Then I hard soldered the AC input to the re-assembled AC/DC module (we use 240VAC downunda) and that little bugger fired right back up! It's back on air and putting out a comfortable 6Watts into 3/4inch Hard line coax. No smells... no smoke...
This morning, the amplifier is still putting out a solid 6Watts and running nice and cool. Just a hint of warm lacquer smell.
That's about as robust as anyone can design a circuit. They've done well and I'm going to add that little bit of information to my blogs and the on-air plug I do for PCS.
An excellent design job.. My hat is off to the lads at PCS.
Alex
http://www.bywong.com
