I have read over and over about control board failures and other failures such as fan and draft motor (exhaust) failures.
Pellets stoves have become increasingly complicated (behind the cover)
The availability of the micro controller at such low costs has made this type of controls a real favorite of manufactures.
Lets look at some of the key things that the controllers do.
Pellet feed timers__ Sets the amount of time that the auger runs at any given time.
This setting also sets the amount of time that the auger is in the off or non feeding mode.
This is accomplished by simple timing circuits on the controller board.
Now the draft inducer/exhaust fan.
The speed at which the exhaust fan runs also plays an important roll in how much air is pulled through the burn grate and thus how well the fuel (pellets or??) burns.
Adjustment to the fuel feed rate or heat output setting are usually via a multi position rotary switch or a touch pad.
Now the going gets interesting.
To control the fan speed the process implements a little device known as a TRIAC
This little semiconductor component is interesting in that it allows for voltage control without the need to disipate heat such as in the use of a resistor to drop voltage.
The triac moidifies the amount of time that each half of the line voltage cycle is on.
120 volt AC current (Household power) is an alternating current.
By chopping off a varying part of each phase the power (voltage) is controlled to allow the fan to run at whatever speed is needed to get the best burn.
Now as these components get a buttload of time on them ( and sometimes not) the triacs can fail and the motor only gets a "Half wave" instead of the full wave.
This condition locks the motor and burns it out.
I had heard from several stove techs that the cause of the locked motors was the motor failing and then taking out the board.
The real deal is that the components on the board start failing and they in turn take out the motors.
These control boards cost pennies to make compared to other methods of controlling the stoves.
The stuff is all micro electronics and is relatively cheap to produce, NOT to buy at the consumer level though.
I got off onto a search recently as I am building a custom control system for my Advantage 2T
The auger timers are easy and cheap but to control fan speed becomes clumsy and hard to do reliably.
The triac controlled by a potentiometer makes this an easy job.
The whole issue though is that the OEM stuff is a little too cheeeezy and fails far too often.
Currently I have found a company that makes Triac motor controls for small AC motors that are very rugged and low cost.
This will greatly simplify the job at hand.
A simple casablanca fan control is basically this type of device but a very low end type quality wise.
My goal is to rebuild the control systems with very solid off the shelf technology that is head and shoulders above what ws used originally.
Currently I have spoken with ST microelectronics and their sales rep has offered much hope and a very broad range of solutions.
Hope this helps others understand why things do what they do and what causes some of the failures.
Snowy
Pellets stoves have become increasingly complicated (behind the cover)
The availability of the micro controller at such low costs has made this type of controls a real favorite of manufactures.
Lets look at some of the key things that the controllers do.
Pellet feed timers__ Sets the amount of time that the auger runs at any given time.
This setting also sets the amount of time that the auger is in the off or non feeding mode.
This is accomplished by simple timing circuits on the controller board.
Now the draft inducer/exhaust fan.
The speed at which the exhaust fan runs also plays an important roll in how much air is pulled through the burn grate and thus how well the fuel (pellets or??) burns.
Adjustment to the fuel feed rate or heat output setting are usually via a multi position rotary switch or a touch pad.
Now the going gets interesting.
To control the fan speed the process implements a little device known as a TRIAC
This little semiconductor component is interesting in that it allows for voltage control without the need to disipate heat such as in the use of a resistor to drop voltage.
The triac moidifies the amount of time that each half of the line voltage cycle is on.
120 volt AC current (Household power) is an alternating current.
By chopping off a varying part of each phase the power (voltage) is controlled to allow the fan to run at whatever speed is needed to get the best burn.
Now as these components get a buttload of time on them ( and sometimes not) the triacs can fail and the motor only gets a "Half wave" instead of the full wave.
This condition locks the motor and burns it out.
I had heard from several stove techs that the cause of the locked motors was the motor failing and then taking out the board.
The real deal is that the components on the board start failing and they in turn take out the motors.
These control boards cost pennies to make compared to other methods of controlling the stoves.
The stuff is all micro electronics and is relatively cheap to produce, NOT to buy at the consumer level though.
I got off onto a search recently as I am building a custom control system for my Advantage 2T
The auger timers are easy and cheap but to control fan speed becomes clumsy and hard to do reliably.
The triac controlled by a potentiometer makes this an easy job.
The whole issue though is that the OEM stuff is a little too cheeeezy and fails far too often.
Currently I have found a company that makes Triac motor controls for small AC motors that are very rugged and low cost.
This will greatly simplify the job at hand.
A simple casablanca fan control is basically this type of device but a very low end type quality wise.
My goal is to rebuild the control systems with very solid off the shelf technology that is head and shoulders above what ws used originally.
Currently I have spoken with ST microelectronics and their sales rep has offered much hope and a very broad range of solutions.
Hope this helps others understand why things do what they do and what causes some of the failures.
Snowy