Pedestal Fan

[David Lang]

Hi All

Daughters pedestal fan got knocked over by a drunken loony (my daughter) and now doesn't work. Seems completely electrically dead, like the fuse has gone, but is hasn't.

I've taken it apart and using my high tech battery/bulb/bit of wire test equipment all the connections from fuse via switch to motor are OK.

All seems to stop at a small back box about 1" x 3/4" x 1/4" with two wires coming out.

It's marked; CBB61

1.5yF +- 5% 400v-DB-C

The 'y' is in mirror image - I think this means Micro Fahrad.

Google search comes up with CBB61 -Polypropylene Pellicle Capacitor and the Wenling Zeguo Dali Electronic Element Factory.

Is this likely to be the culprit? Is this something I can buy for a few quid?

I searched Maplins site and the variety further addled my tiny brain.

Dave

[Owain]

Oh dear, drunken loony will have to buy new one from Argos out of her booze money then won't she :-)

You could buy a million and sell the unwanted 999,999 on Ebay.

Turning to a 2002 Maplin Catalogue -- by that time Maplin had ceased printing a Capacitor Finder of *all* types in value order, showing their lack of commitment to the electronics hobbyist and possibly explaining why I haven't bought a dead tree catalogue from them since, the following suggest themselves as possible substitutances

Metallised Polypropylene Capacitors, use at 250Vac mains. Working voltage 1000Vdc, 500Vac. Tolerance +/-5%

1 uF RG28D £4.99 0.47 uF RG25C £2.99

(use in parallel to add capacitance, it's the opposite to resistances)

Bear in mind a new fan is probably under £20 from Argos. My 16"-er was and it's wafting at me gently right now.

Owain

[Chip]

On Mon, 04 Jul 2005 23:24:49 +0100,it is alleged that Owain spake thusly in uk.d-i-y:

[snip]

Yep, they went all 'groovy' on us, their electronics section is being cut back and the consumer electronics being increased :-( I have also sent them emails to the effect that their website sucks mightily through a very small straw, but no redesign or indeed response has been forthcoming. The site remains basically unusable for me.

[snip]

Thought here, the OP said that the continuity tester was a battery/bulb/bit of wire (nowt wrong with that, it's basically a souped up version of an ohmmeter). This however would show a capacitor as open circuit, being DC, the cap is likely not faulty IMO. (at that small a capacitance you wouldn't even see a flash from the bulb).

More likely given the nature of these fams, it may have a thermal fuse in it, thermal fuses are weak by nature, probably broke the fuse element inside, done it myself :-( Replacing it would be a horrible job even if possible. You could check for broken wires to the motor (likely tiny gauge enamelled copper wire, very fragile, and not IMO worth the effort).

Yes, definitely in this case the fan seems to be marked for spares. Replacing the cap only to find out it still doesn't work is likely to be very frustrating, a lot less frustrating than a shiney new fan with a 12 month warranty

[BigWallop]

These mains filter capacitors aren't normally the cause of total loss of function on the appliance. They really only filter out RF (radio frequency) Interference on the fluctuating mains supply and motor winding of the appliance itself.

Are you sure the motor hasn't been broken? A little bit of copper wire in the motor that gets broken by impact damage is all it takes you know. That's unless you can see that a connection has broken off the capacitor legs. I'd not waste any more time looking at this component, if I were you, because it is a huge long shot that it is the cause of a complete failure.

Try to test through the windings of the motor to see if they are still complete. Check that the switch is also making and breaking properly when operated. Check that the flex hasn't been stretched and the conductors are all still intact. The flex may look fine, but it only takes a little bit of tension to break the thin copper strands inside them.

I'd be looking at some other cause of the fault mate. Really. Not at the mains filter capacitor at all.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

In what way? Works ok for me although it's rather bloated, and I don't use a PC.

[Grunff]

For me, the biggest problem (and it's a *huge* one) is navigation. I find it impossible to find anything on there unless I've already looked up the product code in the catalog.

The search is simply crap, failing to return useful results.

There are other minor issues, such as the way it incorrectly tracks user sessions, and I frequently end up with stuff in my basket that I've never seen before.

The previous website (with lots of red) was horribly non-cross-browser, but at least it was navigable.

When I buy stuff from Maplin, I have to have the catalog by my side. This has resulted in me placing more and more RS orders, all be it at a higher price.

Don't get me started on the CPC effort...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Ah - I usually know which section things are in.

Strange - I'm faking Mozilla on this browser but not had anything like that.

[John]

It sounds if it's a capacitor start motor, which means you will need to replace the capacitor with one of the a similar value and same or higher voltage 1.5uF, 400 volt capacitor.

J

[T i m]

Not just me then .. I have assumed they didn't stock stuff from a search that I then see in one of their flyers .. mind you I sometimes get similar results on Argos's site?

Also (while we are on the subject) .. I am slowly coming to the conclusion that anything from Maplin on 'special' is worth avoiding (ok, not *everything* but you know what I mean)?

I recently bought two of their mini keyboards and even my missus thought it was rubbish (they seemed slow / unresponsive and missed chrs). Now I'm not generally swayed by 'Was X now reduced to Y' (knowing that their Y is the typical street price anyway) but sometimes you get tempted. I don't think I will any more. ;-(

The generaly internet ordering / delivery is very good though.

All the best ..

T i m

[Grunff]

Don't really use Argos, but Maplin's stock is far greater than what they have on the site.

I tend to buy that kind of crap (you know, stuff you throw out in a week's time) exclusively from ebay ;-)

Yes, agree there.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Strangely, I can order from the RS site using my RISC OS browser, but not pay. Nothing happens when I click on the checkout or whatever button. Luckily I can save the order then go to my very slow PC card and IE 5.5 to pay.

[Chip]

On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 09:06:47 +0100,it is alleged that "Dave Plowman (News)" spake thusly in uk.d-i-y:

As Grunff mentioned, the navigation, and having to *know* where things are first is the biggest issue. I think I have been spoiled by sites that are well designed, in contrast Maplin's site is a baroque nightmare. It irks me more than it possibly should, because it is totally at odds with the staff at the local store who are helpful and know exactly where to find things.

Also trying to get 'more information' on a product, rather than yielding anything useful such as specifications or dimensions for example, is likely to produce a blurb saying, "People who bought this also bought these 2 high priced and totally unrelated items, and if you buy 9+ you can get a discount."