p38 3 blinking lights ESP continual problem

[ducker]

I've had my pellet stove for a long time.. about 12 years.
About 2 years ago my control board died on me, and we had to have the circuit board updated/upgraded.

Then the stove worked ok again, no problem. Although it seemed to be burning more aggressive than I would remember.

This season when starting it up I noticed the burn being lower than in the past. I ignored it - figuring it was just the pellets.
One night I noticed an acrid smell in house, and ran down stairs, to see the 3 blinking lights (ESP probe issue)
I tried resetting via power cycling, no luck. So turned it off and went to bed.

Next day I pulled the probe out, it looked a little dark tinted, but no real build up on it. Cleaned it off and put it back in.
Same 3 blinking lights immediately.

So I bought a new PROBE. It showed up, I checked my DIP switches.
when I opened the control board I was suprised to see the first DIP switch in the OFF position when I would have expected it to be ON
based on the guide here: (broken link removed)

I flipped that first dip switch ON - and then connected it all up, and fired it up.
Ah great! no lights blinking.

4 days later, I noticed it again, an acrid smell in the house - and now the 3 blinking lights... ESP probe again.. really?

I'm ready to replace the board. And/or call up the Stove Shop that sold me the stove, did the maintenance on it last month, as well as put this upgraded circuit board in there.

I'm not looking to give them another $300+ for a new board, I can do that myself now... but what really throws me off is why I'm noticing this smell in my house. it's only when the stove is running and I see these 3 blinking lights... At no other time do I notice this smell from the stove (ie. not a startup at all... or while it was running correctly)

Looking for any feedback or thoughts before I buy this part to replace it - I might be missing something with this smell I keep smelling when it fails.
Again, my system has had ZERO issues over these years.. nothing has changed - stove is vented in to a chimney. I pulled off the pipe/T too look at the exhaust, and didn't notice any build up of ash even... We have chimney cleaned every 2 years, and he mentioned it's always wicked clear.

Thanks

 

[gfreek]

Could you be smelling burnt component on the board ? Is it plugged into a surge protector ? Assume it is an updated 3 knob board...

 

[rickwai]

If it is plugged into a surge protector, take surge protector out and plug directly into the outlet. I just saw a old thread where a faulty surge protector was causing wierd issues.

 

[ducker]

Could you be smelling burnt component on the board ? Is it plugged into a surge protector ? Assume it is an updated 3 knob board...

yeah it's the updated 3 knob board. It is plugged in to a surge/power strip.

The smell is... well I would assume far too much oder for just an electrical component frying. Usually that's burnt smell just in the area of the component, it doesn't permeate the house.

 

[ducker]

If it is plugged into a surge protector, take surge protector out and plug directly into the outlet. I just saw a old thread where a faulty surge protector was causing wierd issues.

Hm, Interesting. I could do that, but I do think that to be less likely the culprit.

Either way, I think I might have to just replace the board, unless you all have another theory

 

[gfreek]

If it is plugged into a surge protector, take surge protector out and plug directly into the outlet. I just saw a old thread where a faulty surge protector was causing wierd issues.

Good idea to try..

 

[rickwai]

Hm, Interesting. I could do that, but I do think that to be less likely the culprit.

Either way, I think I might have to just replace the board, unless you all have another theory

Only takes a few minutes to try

 

[ducker]

ok..
removed and reseated the main bank of wires to the board.
removed and reseated the ESP probe connection on the board.
unplugged stove from power strip and plugged in to outlet.

It was again a little groggy to start, but no 3 blinking lights at the start. And I'm not approx 6+ hours later, and it is still running with out any lights.
Hopefully if it fails again it will be during the day, so I don't get that same odd smell in the house.

Will keep all posted. thanks!

 

[ducker]

ok had 2 warm days in which I turned it off... fired it back up last night - and so far.. knock on wood I seem to be ok.
Here is to hoping that it's a combination of a crappy power strip and/or maybe it was the dip switches that I changed when I put my new ESP in there. I referenced the dip switch sheet and it looked like I set them correctly; which was a change from what they were set to from how the shop that serviced my stove has set them. So I flipped them back to what they had them set to... and all is ok now.

Did you follow that confusing dip switch sentence? wow.. confusing.
my stove shop replaced/updated my P38 board... updated it...
when I replaced my ESP probe 2 weeks ago the dip switches looked wrong for my probe.. so I changed them.
--- stove freaked out after running like 3 days.
removed power strip from equation
double checked dip switches, and changed them back to what they were originally.

Stove running fine now for approx 36hrs.
wish it luck for running with out any issues for an extended time :D

 

[gfreek]

Does the surge protector smell burnt ? So did you replace the ESP probe with a red or black wired ??

 

[ducker]

Does the surge protector smell burnt ? So did you replace the ESP probe with a red or black wired ??

The protector didn't smell off. The odd smell was being push out of the air distributor of the stove.
I replaced the probe with a black wire (the previous was also black wire)

 

[rickwai]

What were the dip switches set at and what did you set them to?

 

[ducker]

it was set to:
00000101

I changed it to:
10000101

with my new ESP probe.

I referenced:
(broken link removed)

So when I checked backed on it earlier in the week, I put it back to the original setting it was on... still working just fine.

 

[gfreek]

So when I checked backed on it earlier in the week, I put it back to the original setting it was on... still working just fine.

So the dip settings are back to where they were originally when board was replaced almost 2 years ago ?

 

[ducker]

So the dip settings are back to where they were originally when board was replaced almost 2 years ago ?

Yeah, which according to what I found, goes against what I found online.

I reached out to that shop myself, and they actually opened a replacement kit they had, and they confirmed that the dip switches according to Harmon should be set to 00000101 the specific different being that first dip switch.

 

[rickwai]

Dip switches 1-3 set the charge time in auto ignition. Basically how much fuel is augered in at start up. I just looked, 000 is "default" charge. 100 is default +21 seconds. Is the burnpot overfilling when it is trying to ignite? Once the pot is charged with fuel, 1-3 are out of the loop until it has to relight. You referenced that the stove was a little groggy to start which could be from to much fuel on the initial charge

 

[gfreek]

Dip switches 1-3 set the charge time in auto ignition. Basically how much fuel is augered in at start up. I just looked, 000 is "default" charge. 100 is default +21 seconds. Is the burnpot overfilling when it is trying to ignite? Once the pot is charged with fuel, 1-3 are out of the loop until it has to relight. You referenced that the stove was a little groggy to start which could be from to much fuel on the initial charge

I am assuming it's a P38 that's manual light, not converted to ignition start, would those settings affect it ?

 

[rickwai]

Oh thats right. 1-3 may not apply...

 

[ducker]

you know you guys got it.. when I flipped that first dip switch ON .... and manually went start it... it was certainly over flowing with pellets... feeding way too much. so those first 3 dip switches really have no impact on the ESP freaking out.

What did you reference to know the different DIP switches and settings?
(I love this aspect of the stove.... I enjoy building my own PCs and tinkering a little bit in electronics... so this is very cool)

 

[ducker]

Follow up... approx 1 week straight of running with 0 issues. Hopefully will continue through the season.
I'm going to chalk this up to a combination of my original ESP probe die and something amiss with my power strip I have my stove plugged in to. Further complicated by my tweaking the first dip switch which was causing the pellet stove to feed a LOT of pellets while attempting to start up.


My replacing the ESP probe, leaving the dip switches as they were, and plugging directly in the wall (for now) has been working with out any faults.

I'm still perplexed why the dipswitches seem to be different from the online pdf that I found, but I'm just going to go with what is working / what the pellet stove shop has told me.

Thanks for the feedback all here everyone. It certainly helps in keeping me sane and not raging at my stove!!

 

[gfreek]

BTW, don't forget to get another surge protector

 

[Ssyko]

Yeah these work great
Amazon product ASIN B00006B81D

 

[SidecarFlip]

Yeah these work great
Amazon product ASIN B00006B81D

I know you have a link to the Tripp-Lite Isobar....

 

[Don2222]

An acrid smell usually means you need the crossover air hose kit installed.

 

[ducker]

crossover air hose kit installed. ?? After using the stove for approx 10 years?

Ok... so just when I thought everything was fine. I start getting a really strong "wood fire" smell in my house. not acrid, but more like your standard camp fire. but inside
I wasn't sure where it was from, so I ended up shutting down the stove like I usually do (turning knob to OFF) and it shut down.

The next day I check and it looked as if where the exhaust piping goes in to my chimney the tech didn't replace silicone there... So perhaps the stove shifted - someone bumped it or etc, and now some of the exhaust of the stove is some how escaping? (I'm reaching here)

So I go out and get some high temp silicone. I seal up the exhaust pipe.
Clean out the inside of the stove, ash pan, burn pot, etc.
Let it set a bit and then fire it up.
I'm still getting that smell. So I turn it off again, yet this time --- Even though I turned the dial to the off position, the pellet auger is still feeding. The status light is OFF
Power: on
Distrub: on
Combust: on

And Feed: on when it keeps feeding.


So... I'm back to thinking there is something just wrong with this board, I have no idea what else might be going on. it's a P38. pretty much the most basic of stoves, I can't think of what else might be going on. I mean to get a smokey smell in my house while the stove is running hot, with a heated chimney, really not much smoke at all should be getting in to the house unless it is some how blowing it out of the vents on it's own.
(I have no idea how the internal fans of the stove work)


Thanks for listening all

ps. I did get a new surge protector