Hack the circuit board on my Enviro Empress?

[2006empress]

I have an older Enviro Empress. It has the on/off or high/low settings for when it's controlled by an external thermostat. I like to keep it set to on/off during the shoulder season (or else it heats us out of the house) and high/low during the winter (to save wear-and-tear on the ignitor).

On my 2006 model stove, there's no switch to change it from on/off to high/low. You have to remove two screws that hold the circuit board in place, slide out the circuit board, move a jumper, and reattach the circuit board. With the positioning of my stove, that's a royal pain.

Is there a way to hack the circuit board, so I can install an external switch to flip between on/off and high/low? I can't be the first one who's been frustrated by this problem...

 

[Lake Girl]

Might be a question for one of the services that repair boards ... I know Snowy Rivers did some major reconstruction on an old Whitfield so it would align with her specifications as they burn shells. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/back-in-the-saddle-again.152528/#post-2047365

Keep us posted with what you come up with!

 

[Corey]

Well, I am no expert on pellet stoves... wouldn't have one of the confounded things myself... but it sounds like if you could set up some wires and a switch to make the same contacts as the jumper you have to change, you would have the function you desire.

 

[doghouse]

...pellet stoves... wouldn't have one of the confounded things myself....

Curious, why not?

 

[smwilliamson]

Yes I can be done. Figure out which jumper and what position then wire in a switch in that position.

 

[vinny11950]

I would not do it. For liability reasons.

 

[seige101]

This is on my to do list this summer. I was thinking about wiring a small toggle switch from the jumper pins on the board. Flip the switch so it's "jumped" out and it will do high-low flip the switch so it's not "jumped" out and on-off mode.

I could have those wrong been a while since i switched it

 

[emaxon]

1.5 year old thread, but common jumpers use square pins on 0.100in spacing = same as most common pin headers. The super easy way to rig an external switch would be to buy a package of female-female jumper leads used for electronic hobby / prototyping / breadboarding at microcenter.com or amazon, + a PCB (through hole, not surface mount) SPDT switch. Simply connect 3 jumpers to all 3 pins on the controller board, then connect the other end of each jumper to the 3 switch terminals. If you want to mount a switch to the housing of the stove, and you've got no soldering skills or equipment, you can simply clip off the female ends, strip the wire, connect to a SPDT switch with screw terminals, available, well, just about anywhere.

They also sell jumper leads with sockets on one end (connect to board) and pins at the other, you could simply use the original jumper block on. Just buy jumpers long enough to dangle through the cooling slits in the rear case. (I can actually see the red thermostat wires dangling behind the slots, just under the controller board on my Enviro Empress.)

Below, the row of 3 pins (x) is shown at the left and center with the jumper (0) in both possible positions. At the right, the same 3 pins routed to a SPDT (single pole, dual throw) switch. Get it?

x0 x x0------------------------------0
x0 x0 x0-----------------------------/
x x0 x0------------------------------0

Eric