Flood Damaged SNOW MACHINE - Can I Repair it?
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- čas přidán 6. 05. 2023
- In this video I attempt to repair a SW-2 Snow Machine that has failed due to a flood in a school over 2 years ago. When powered on it trips the electrics even 2 years later.
Can it be fixed? Let's find out.
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Remember that this is just for entertainment and I am not an expert in these repairs. The processes in the video may not be the best way, the correct way or the safest way to fix these things. I do love fault finding and trying to fix broken things, so I hope that comes across in this 'Trying to FIX' series. Many thanks, Vince. - Jak na to + styl
Definitely captures the quiet, peaceful atmosphere of snow coming down while you lay on the couch with someone vacuuming beside you.
Great video! A little advice: You should unwind the mains expansion cable when using high powered devices, as it acts as a giant inductor. Especially when a metal cable drum is used (old model not a problem wit yours it seems), the spool also gets a core and turns it into a more powerful electric magnet. As a result you are not only wasting energy, but also the entire spool gets hot. Especially on the parts with the most resistance plastic start melting over time. Usually this is the mains connectors (connectors in general have a higher resistance than pure wire) on the side start getting hot and fail. Not a problem for a short test, but when using a cable drum more than just a few minutes, keep that in mind.
I loved the long sleeve of electrical safety.
🤣🤣
Great video, Vince. Very cool! There's snow way I thought you'd get that pumping again! 👍☃
I snow what you mean it was touch & go its Fan-tastic he got it working again
brrrrriliant
Your comments are sure flaky.
Seems pretty CHILL to me
Quit snow jobbing him, Stez. Chill out.
Wow! This was a blizzard of faults, and you plowed through them all! Fantastic vid.
A blizzard of faults? it was just one fault with the fan jeez! 😑
😂
A theatrical snow machine of this type will often have two methods of activation and flow control. One is by a hard-wired remote control unit which you plug into the device, the other is via DMX 512 digital show control protocol which was originally designed to connect lighting control boards to dimmers, and was then extended to directly control moving lights, hazers and smoke machines as well. The DIP switches on the back of this SW-2 unit are used to assign a unique DMX address to this device. There are two 5-pin DIN sockets just below the DIP switches labeled DMX IN and DMX OUT which is where you plug the DMX IN/OUT control cables to daisy-chain this unit into a DMX loop that can cater for up to 512 unique device addresses. I would deduce that the water damage wrecked the micro-controller/oscillator which was handling the DMX 512 control - and when you you disconnected the damaged micro-controller, the machine lapsed back to running under the hard-wired manual remote control - and started producing snow again.
Well done! That "fan" motor looks like the same one that is used in vacuum cleaners and also sounds the same like the one in a vacuum cleaner. The switches on the back are for selecting dmx channels for dmx control. Also the crystal being corroded can cause that nuvoton microcontroller to not work or crash. Microcontrollers and other digital chips often need a crystall to work, the crystal is basicly the heartbeat of the chip without it the chip performs no instructions at all that was why the pump was not activated because the outputs of the chip where low or high it WAS the crystall at fault. Also had to repair a water damaged dmx light that did not turn on and the motor was stuck and it was also a faulty crystall. Great repair! Nice that this water damaged device could be repaired.
I love the variety of videos you make. It keeps things fresh and new along with the constant learning of new things!
Well done for sticking with it Vince, good job, another one saved!
I used to own and run a large mobile disco. I had several of these machines linked by DMX and boosted by powerful external fans. I was able to create quite a blizzard. Always came out at Christmas, for the big parties. Apart from being brilliant fun, it also gave you a good shampoo LOL. 😂
I found myself cheering for you in this video and smiling when the snow came out! Instant subscribe. Brilliant work.
Thank you👍
Well done Vice the DIP switches are for DMX control the switches set the DMX chanel,
to stop faulty things going bang you need to build a lamp limitor in its simplest form an icandecent light bulb in series with the live mains so if there is a short the bulb will light uo and depending on the wattage will limit the curent to a safe level .
The little filter is a "sintered" air filter , used mainly with compressed air to remove particles and keep the air clean for lab environments or for machinery that doesn't like bits in it.
No, it's a pneumatic air silencer and diffuser.
@@RainerHohn1510 I bow to your superior knowledge
Used as a diesel/petroleum filter as well
You're right Tim, but in this case they used it as a 'bubble maker'.
@@RainerHohn1510 Often used as either silencer or filter. When I worked in an Industrial Laundry, our older pneumatic lift cylinders on the main rollers wore out their ram seals every few months until we put sintered fittings on their exhausts, they were sucking in fluff on the return!
Well done Vince you really put your time into the machine, very methodical in your fault finding…. I really enjoyed the video thanks 😊
Thanks Gary 👍👍
Love that giddy laugh @26:11 :D The DIN (haha) switch is for the DMX bus device address for this snow blower, i would guess.Awesome video this!! Such a simple device, yet so much to learn!
This is sooo unorthodox yet I looove it sooo much haha.
I haven’t watched this guy in years
I've never watched him
I never read comments
What a great fix! And you let it snow.. I'm imagine your neighbour when you screamed "it snows!" And he was like.. huh?!😂
Massive thumbs up Vince. Result!
The triac, controlled by the microcontroller via the transistors and optocoupler basically does the same as in an incandescent light dimmer. That's why the machine created quite a big splash on your wall when the triac was bypassed. Also, this pump was much louder on max power with bypassed triac. I think, older versions of this machine would only have a classic triac dimmer circuit with a potmeter on the back, for adjusting the pump. In this one, there was the microcontroller, so it could also be controlled with DMX control signals from a lighting console.
Very interesting. Never seen such snow machines from the inside.
And yeah: do not run 1200W equipment from a rolled up extension lead. If that lead would be rated for max 2400W, count on it that when rolled up on the reel, the max would be 300W or so.
Exactly. An incandescent bulb could be easily used for troubleshooting. The pump is a solenoid pump and uses the mains freqency to operate the diaphragm. Thats why the single diode is part of the pump harness. Only the positive part of the signwave will activate the pump (the spring returns the diaphram). Polarity will not make it pump in reverse due to the valve design. This circuit is important because the pump is still being supplied AC at various duty cycles to control flow rates.
Great Fix Vince.
So many new things learned from this one, nice job!
Great videos vince good work and thanks for showing us how to fix things
This video is Fan-tastic certainly a slippery one glad you got there in the❄️🌨
😂👍
🤦🏻♂️ so after all this time watching your videos . The penny has finally dropped . One of your Patrons “Max Rockatansky” for ages I thought , why do I know that name . Of course , it’s Mad Max 😂 what a face palm moment 😂 great fix Vince 👍
Really well done for perseverance!
Well done on the fix 👏🏾
Such a random fix! Love it. 👏👏
A lot of work for a device that has hardly any practical uses but very entertaining. Your forensic skills at tracing faults would probably make you a great brain surgeon!
Very cool product Vince. 👍
Well done Vince! Really good to see your bench expanding and the use of additional equipment. Equally amazing to see how you've grown as a technician throughout the years. Appreciated your commentary even during the end credits.
Nice one, thank you so much Shawn😎👍👍👍👍
WOW!! What an epic fix Vince, Nice detective work.
Nice one Mike 👌😎
Nice fix and a really interesting video!
The reason for the diode:
If this type of pump were energised with a current, which is then switched off, then the collapsing magnetic field has the effect of causing the current to tend to continue flowing. The diode allows that current to continue flowing until the stored energy in the magnetic field is dissipated by losses in the circuit.
And Vince you should get/make a "dim bulb tester" for this kind of stuff.
This way you can test on shorts without blowing circuits.
It's basicly a 100w light bulb in serie with a device.... So if the device has a short the light will glow up
Thank you Ruben. Nice one, I was wondering what the diode did👍👍👍👍👍
I'd suggest with boards like these to only power the 5v section using the PSU for safety, then probe the command pins if they do what they should do, in this instance controlling the relay for the fan and the triac for the pump.
Using an oscilloscope would help more to visualise the activity.
Hi, Great video as always. Just a quick safety suggestion, it's not a good idea to run high wattage loads (or any loads really) on an extension lead that is still wound on the reel. You can damage the insulation or at worst melt the lead as it's wattage rating drops if it's wound on what is effectively a giant coil. As an electrical engineer I've seen fires start in extension leads due to running them wound up and it's messy lol. All the best John
Was going to say the same! Exactly!
might also be a good idea to not put it on a propane tank
@@inhabitedbadge Yeah lol I wasn't going to mention that, what could possibly go wrong! 🤣
I'm not sure why you are using an isolation transformer in circumstances like this Vince. An isolation transformer can be useful when you are probing a live circuit board (such as working on a Switch Mode power supply and particularly when probing with a mains driven oscilloscope) but not when you are simply powering on a mains device which you suspect may have a short circuit. I suggest you build yourself a 'Dim Bulb Tester' (there are plenty of instructions online for constructing this simple device). In essence, the incandescent light bulb in the tester circuit will light brightly if there is a short ; avoiding any dramas or tripping of your breakers, but go to a dim glow if there is no short.
Good job mate 👍
Excellent! Let it snow! Let it snow!
Hi vince that filter inside the blower motor enclosure is actually an atomiser that's used in diesel things like diesel heaters. I've never seen it used like this
Super stuff as usual =D I look forward to the snow damaged flood machine repair at some point :o) Your electronics has gone up to 11/10 btw! A word of warning about isolation transformers - always a good idea when using a scope, but be aware that equipment with an earth fault wont trip the RCD or blow any fuse in there - it could be live! It protects you if you accidentally touch either live or neutral (not both at once). 🎄
lol. snow damaged flood machine :D
I'm currently looking on eBay for one of them 😂
Great advice on the isolation transformer, I didn't think about the lack of earth especially as this one was originally tripping the breaker. As always thanks Chris ♥
great vid vince mate :D
"even if I don't fix it at least I've found the fault & that'll do". Not this time Vince, you had to get some snow 😂😂👍
Screwfix do a 3KVa isolation transformer for a reasonable cost.
Also have you considered building a dim bulb tester ? It would avoid those scary switch on moments.
Great video mate! New sub indeed 👍👍
Interesting device and good to see it got fixed :)
That brand is well respected within the dj Community
Wish I could fix things . Some people are very clever
Yet another great episode of Faulty Towers.
Great job.
Not a repair I’d ever thought I’d see!!
Time stamp 19:10, your tea leaves upper right, suggest a successful repair.😂
P.s. Good job in getting it going !
Awesome. Thanks
Will be fun in the summer with some guests and a BBQ with some kids. Shame its so loud but its probably like that from factory
Awesome vince
HI Vince, you really know to dig into things. BTW you did not pull the chip from the socket, it might have corrosion on the legs inside the socket.
Hey Marcel, I did, but it was off camera. The bottom legs looked a little whitish, but not too bad. I think the socket contacts had still pierced though the slight corrosion onto the legs 👍👍👍👍
We always call that 'the collector'.
Snow joke this video ya know and I thought there's snow way Vince could get this working but he proved me wrong. I was waiting for the outro music to be "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow" but it wasn't to be and I felt as deflated as a turkey on Boxing day and that's probably more snow puns than I can get away with🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Hahaha, I missed an opportunity there on the outro song🤣
"I never thought it would come out so quick it splatted against the wall" ahh being young again.
Just for reference, Big Clive did a great video showing a fix for a common pump fault on snow/fog machines, I won’t spoil it.
On hazers or fog machine if you will,there are two control options. Free standing, meaning you plug it in an it just goes or there are controls on the unit. The other is remote, when you plug the DMX pinned remote into the machine, it bypasses the stand alone controls an allows you to control it from the wired or wireless remote. Unhooking those two wires manual did what the chip should of done. As far as why it tripped the breaker, who knows unless you are standing there when it happened. The brushes the outlet, who knows. Good video
YESSSSSSSS A MY MATE VINCE VID
I've always loved your videos. I've had a Brother brand printer that has never worked from brand new that I'd love to send you for a video. The fuse was blown, which I replaced, but then it blew again. I'm in the States and don't know of a cheap courier service, but I think it could make for great content since it seems like a lemon.
Great Video. Your kids will be happy at their next party. 🙂
You're often testing compontents with your multimeter. Doesn't it be easier with a compontent-tester, like the JT-LCR-T7? This device checks a lot of different types.
Loved the video as always :), have youfone a video on your setup ? Would be interesting im sure also helpfull to see
I reckon it was a dirty contact on the Molex connector to the DIP switches.....cheers. oh yeah if your convinced its the crystal get a scope !
Great Fix Vince 👍. I think you are correct on the crystal being the cause of the problem. If there was corrosion on the crystal between the pins and the metal casing, then it wouldn't oscillate. The microcontroller wouldn't run any instructions of it's program so it would just sit there not running as it needs the clock to make it step through instructions. For the microcontroller to work, it has to have clock, voltage, and not being held in _Reset.
Thanks Mick, that makes more sense now. I was thinking the corrosion would have to be between the pins, but they were spaced quite far apart, corrosion from the pins to the body is only 1mm or 2mm. Nice one 👌👍👍👍
The dip switches are to allocate it to a dmx controller so you can have multiple devices being controlled by the same effects desk
Did you pull the Microcontroller to check the legs. I didn't see that in the video. Great video. I hope you have a good time using it
The dip switches are for changing what dmx channel it listens too
Yup, I also think that it was the crystal and the stuck brush, but you can test the triac with 12VDC and a small car light bulb (when you trigger the cathode, the triac will LATCH untill the voltage between anodes switch polarities or drop to/below zero), no need for 240VAC, also the optocoupler is opto-triac with zero cross detector. 😉
So at 48:01 you disconnected the live and neutral wire to get it to work, so guessing something has stopped working with having the two wires now disconnected? Going back to 15:01 - looks like that disconnected wires go to the fan? So maybe its not running at optimum speed (if at all?). Maybe the splatter of snow is just the force of the pump doing the pushing? Great repair, think I'd of given up a few days prior!!!
Just leave the Dip switches alone, these are used if the machine is used through a DMX Controller.
The dip switches tells the address which machine to switch on or off.
The little stone you think is a filter is the same used in fish tanks to aereate the water, but in this case the fluid is pumped through the stone which foams it up, then it it goes through the sock, it's blown through the sock which changes foam to particles which looks like snow.
I used to keep a turkey baster in the machine to bleed the pump.
Make sure you take the tank out, then run the machine for a few seconds to empty the fluid from the pump or it will dribble all over the place.
A lot of night clubs and venues would not let you use snow machines indoors as it can make the dance floor slippery, the higher you place the machine the better the effect.
Thanks MCW👍
Very impressive so not only has Christmas came early this year but it's also a white Christmas 😊
Running dry bleeding air out in my mind will fix my coffee machine did the same till I primed it!
16:45 - That filter is the foaming head for the snow liquid.
I used to repair these sort of motors years ago. When testing, if the brush is holding off the comm slightly by some dirt or brush deposits then this can produce an electrical arc which can track across the debris to earth, thus producing a almost dead short. Also for the future, try to get the brushes in the same orientation you removed them. This will prevent sparking due to the brush being 'bedded' in to the commutator profile. Good video, keep it up.
Nope... you once saw a bloke called Vince fix one of those motors... Tell the truth your a bin man.
You might want to check the dip switches if you haven't already. On some disco machines they have settings that vary the output of either the 'snow' for economic reasons or the noise level so in private gig areas where the noise has to be kept to minimum, so you don't hear the machine over the music. The dips could be cycling through varying clock speeds because resistors and capacitors linking into the timing circuit setting the ratio for the pump and fan on and off cycles.
I've just started the video, so I don't know if he said anything about this, but the dip switches in this case is for setting up the DMX address of the machine. In lighting all the fixtures are controlled via DMX (or artnet if it's going through a network) and every fixture has an address from 1 to 512. The fixtures can occupy several channels, all with different functionality. In case of a simple RGB light it could be 3 channels: red green and blue, each can be 0 to 255. So if you have only that light, you put it on channel 1, occupies 3 channels, the next fixture could go on channel 4. I'm sure in this, as there is two 3 pin XLR connectors labelled DMX
@@gergoo_ic I did not know they could be set up in a network. The last time I saw any disco effects equipment it was a low budget thing with sound reaction sensors so the lights react to the beat, like one of those dancing plants lol. But that was when I was a student in the mid 2000's and it was my Aunts pub. The only reason I was the one setting it up was because I was doing an electronics course and got paid £15 to do it, drinking money is drinking money I suppose lol.
I found the User manual for this QTX SM-2 Snow Machine online. According to the manual, this is a single parameter DMX device with the pump and fan being controlled in tandem from a single address. Control values 0-5 represent OFF, and control values of 6-255 are ON values. The 9 DIP switches simply allow you to toggle 1.2.4.8.16.32.64.128.256 values on/off to assign a DMX 512 address to the device in reverse binary.
A flood damaged snow machine? Who sold you that, Derek Trotter? Next thing you’ll be fixing fire damaged smoke alarms!! Ha ha great informative video as usual
what a fix
Nice video, Vince :)
My advice is that you keep a can of Weldtite TF2 spray at home like I do, it is like WD40, but this thing does not dry out and it has some lubricant with teflon inside, and it even fixed my old german pocket watch. As soon as it went into the mechanics, the watch started ticking. It is also good for rusty screws that doesn't want to come out, or if a motor shaft/fan shaft is stuck, it lubricates that and makes it move, too.
@@jeffgraley it spins fast. It does not stay on. And it cleans off of the commutators. It just helps the carbon brushes not to stick to the wall because of rust.And it really helps the brass shaft bearings not to get stuck that easy.
You could do a Video comparing ICs that look the same.
The thing you called a filter is sintered bronze. Used to create the foam that becomes the snow not a filter.
I think the dip switches could be to set the address for the DMX controller
If peeing your pants is cool then consider My Mate Vince Miles Davis.
Actually the rust under the pins of the Crystal doesn't need to short between the two pins. Just shorting one pin to the metal component case could disrupt things.
Look at the value of those two capacitors connected to the pins of the crystal. Would be in the 10pF to 30pF range, it's an almost vanishingly small amount, it's not hard to imagine a bit of rust/dirt/residue upsetting the circuit.
The crystal has two pin insulated from outer case with nylon. The corrosion jumped the nylon to the case which would bypass the crystal inside.
16:32 that’s not a filter. It’s a silencer. Used when switching air powered valves to reduce the noise.
the DIP switch is for changing the DMX adress for DMX control.
Hi Vince why does you not use a current limiter with bulb lamps. To see if theu something wrong bulbs will light up.
@16:28 it does look like the kind of filter thats in an air compessor pre-filter, the one that attaches to the air line.
Currently my snow1800 is being a problem. Didnt work so i saw on another video in the pump theres a piston pin thing that can get jammed so i tapped the pump on the metal like if a radiator pin was stuck and it worked again. But was odd as the light before that wasnt coming on the control. Duno how tapping the pump made the light come on? Now its on but kicks out hardly any snow! Im using diff snow fluid also. I blew in the tube coming out the pump as that had brown bits in it. Uhhh. Was working fine last year then this year just stopped x
You should definitely try a live stream.
I fried my component tester once by shorting the back against something metal. that left me with two dead transistors and an Atmel chip that was toast too. So i replaced the two transistors and got me a new programmable Atmel chip plus a suitable programmer as well as an update, improved firmware. But no matter what i did, i couldn't get the Atmel chip programmed. Then, after researching for a while, it dawned on me that the Atmel chip needed a clock frequency applied by a clock crystal even when getting programmed, or the programming tool wouldn't even "see" it properly. So yeah, no clock frequency, no working chip, if the chip needs a clock frequency ^^;
Nice vid as usual.
Not seen one of these working in real life so I am interested in the output. Is it snow or foam?
The output look foamy in the video when you get it on your fingers.
It's foam - there is no heating or cooling taking place - it forces air into the fluid to create tiny bubbles...
dip switches are for dmx channel assignment, this thing is literally almost identical to fog machine units and pumps. for future reference, don't ever disassemble fluid/oil pumps, just replace if not flowing.
Often one of the DIP switches switches between manual and DMX control with the others setting the DMX address. Did you RTFM?
Pump bubble soap into it. The foam will be epic!
that wasn't a pump with the red and black wires on it. Its an electric solenoid valve
And what dose this valve do?
LoL - it is a pump... That triac is what controls it - "electronic pulsing unit".