Hardware Problem EZRain

[Anonymous]

#40389

Hi,

I’ve had an EZRain working great for 4-5 years. Just the other day everything stopped working. I’ve finally traced this down to a problem with the hardware. If I unplug the unit for a couple of minutes when I then plug it back in it works for about 10 sec. The controller (Indigo) sees the unit and gets responses. After about 10 sec the LED on the unit dims to very dim and Indigo reports an error that there is no longer any response. This to me says there is a power supply problem.

I’ve taken the unit apart (nice build quality) to look for the usual culprit which I’ve found to be a blown capacitor, or burnt resistor, which i can usually replace, but nothing looks out of the ordinary, visually. Has anyone else had success in fixing a hardware problem? Is there any circuit diagram available that I could trace the voltages and see what component might be bad?

Thanks,

Scott

[Anonymous]

#44084

The Smartenit/Simplehomenet devices are built on a 2412 or 2413 PLM shell. Except for the EZIO8SA the function is contained on a Daughter card that fits inside the PLM shell. A device that is 4-5 years old will be built on a 2412 Shell (has a passthru outlet on the front panel). The newer 2413 PLM shell has a completely different power supply and no passthru outlet as it is a Dual Band device.

The basic shell is manufactured by SmartLabs which includes the power supply. You might find some old information at insteon.com. SmartLabs has a hardware Developer kit which includes hardware and some diagrams but the cost is $250-$300 the last time I looked.

I have not heard of an individual fixing one of these.

[Anonymous]

#44085

The schematic for the 2412 base module {Powerlinc III} is in the latest Insteon Developers Guide and the earlier separate PLM Developers Guide.
I have never seen any 2413 base module schematics.
The Developers Kits are $199 for documentation and forum access. $249 if you add the hardware kits to the mix.
For a short time Smarthome had the link to the older PLM Developers Guide on the sales pages and you may still find someone who downloaded it.
AARtech had it on their site until I recently looked. Now it is gone.

If you can safely do it. With the daughter card out. Measure the voltage on the 1000uF, 25V and 470uF, 50V capacitors.
They are both radial lead capacitors mounted on their side. So access to their leads is not to difficult.

[Anonymous]

#44086

This is from a Bing search and not anything I have access to in the Developers Forums.
http://dinamikos.com/software/2412sdevguide-1.pdf

[Anonymous]

#44087

Thanks to all. The last link is what I was looking for. In the past I’ve successfully repaired several item, including my home gas heater control circuit, which the problem has been the failure of a capacitor. The cap is among the most common failure points for something this simple that is not subject to much in the way of mechanical shocks and vibration. I’ll take a look when I get a chance using the circuit diagram in the above link.

Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

#44088

I had the FET in the transmit voltage booster. Short out. Basically putting a 9 Ohm coil from raw +12 volts to ground. Though in that case it was accompanied by some smoke and the +12 was very low.
Was a fatal flaw in the original 2.4 firmware. Seems during a Factory Reset. The FET was turned On continuously and shorted.

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