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HDR-FOX T2 - No lights ( power ? )

K

koshkakk

New Member
My HDR suddenly lost power whilst I was watching a recording. Here are the details:-

1 There are no lights shown on the front ( or back ).
2 I cannot hear any sound from the hard drive or fan.
3 I can feel a slight 50 Hz vibration on the bottom of the case
4 I have changed the fuse on the mains plug 3 times, but no joy.
5 I have taken the hard disk out and can read the files when placed in my PC.

Is it reasonable to take a gamble and get the capacitors changed on the PSU PW808 ?
All of the reports I have seen relating to this repair, were for boot problems and lights
were shown on the front of the unit.
 
koshkakk said:
Is it reasonable to take a gamble and get the capacitors changed on the PSU PW808 ?
Click to expand...
I take it you don't have a volt meter to measure the output from the power supply? Getting the power supply repaired might be sensible but not sure why you are assuming the problem is with the capacitors?
 
MartinLiddle said:
I take it you don't have a volt meter to measure the output from the power supply? Getting the power supply repaired might be sensible but not sure why you are assuming the problem is with the capacitors?
Click to expand...

I mentioned 'capacitors' because the only thing I found relating to the PSU PW808 was something called 'Capacitor kit' at various
places on the internet ( sorry, I can't post links until I have a sufficient number f posts ).
I'm just grasping at straws really.

I don't have a volt meter. I am quite happy to buy one, what kind should I get ?
 
koshkakk said:
I mentioned 'capacitors' because the only thing I found relating to the PSU PW808 was something called 'Capacitor kit' at various
places on the internet ( sorry, I can't post links until I have a sufficient number f posts ).
Click to expand...
But in reality there are very few reports that suggest the capacitors in the HDR-FOX T2 go faulty. The only Humax that definitely had a capacitor problem was one of the FOXSAT boxes (I think it was the FOXSAT HD but could be wrong). There are reports of power supply problems and a repair or a replacement from Humax would be worth considering if the problem appears likely to be power supply related.
I don't have a volt meter. I am quite happy to buy one, what kind should I get ?
Click to expand...
Search on ebay for multimeter. I have one of the cheap ones (about £4) as a spare and its OK. Not as nice as my main multimeter but that cost a lot of money quite a lot of years ago.
 
It won't be easy checking for voltages at various points internally, because you have no reference as to what they should be or what to do about it if they are not. Okay, so you could trace the mains in (hazardous if you don't know what you are doing), but what when you find where it seems to disappear? The problem is that the PSU, main board, and display board, all interact with each other to bring voltage rails up and down.

If you had a known working HDR-FOX on the bench to compare with the dead one, you might get somewhere. Otherwise I think it is down to back-street car mechanicking: keep replacing bits until eventually you replace the bit that wasn't working.
 
MartinLiddle said:
But in reality there are very few reports that suggest the capacitors in the HDR-FOX T2 go faulty. The only Humax that definitely had a capacitor problem was one of the FOXSAT boxes (I think it was the FOXSAT HD but could be wrong). There are reports of power supply problems and a repair or a replacement from Humax would be worth considering if the problem appears likely to be power supply related.

Search on ebay for multimeter. I have one of the cheap ones (about £4) as a spare and its OK. Not as nice as my main multimeter but that cost a lot of money quite a lot of years ago.
Click to expand...

Most, if not all of the material concerning the 'Capacitor repair kit' I have seen on the Internet refer to the FOXSAT, however, in my Fox T2, the initial board (PSU) is labelled PW808, and to me appears exactly the same as the ones shown for the FOXSAT repair.

I visited 3 Lidl stores, and managed to obtain the multimeter at the 3rd.

I have had a quick look at the voltages delivered as output from the PW808, and here is what I observed;-
1 Blue wire;- 0 V
7 black wires, all 0V apart from the 4th and 5th which seem to fluctuate between about 2.5 and 4.5 V. The PD
between the 4th and 5 th black wires seems to be zero.
 
Black Hole said:
It won't be easy checking for voltages at various points internally, because you have no reference as to what they should be or what to do about it if they are not. Okay, so you could trace the mains in (hazardous if you don't know what you are doing), but what when you find where it seems to disappear? The problem is that the PSU, main board, and display board, all interact with each other to bring voltage rails up and down.

If you had a known working HDR-FOX on the bench to compare with the dead one, you might get somewhere. Otherwise I think it is down to back-street car mechanicking: keep replacing bits until eventually you replace the bit that wasn't working.
Click to expand...

On the PSU circuit board ( PW808 ), the final jumper ( is that the correct term ? ). which connects to the main circuit board, has this written along the top where the 8 wires are attached:-

+12 +12 G G +5.8 +5.8 G G

So presumably, these are the 'expected' volts and G means ground ?

I don't have this on my board. for the two '12' connections, I have zero. For the two '5.8' connections, I have fluctuating voltages between about 2.5 and 4.5
 
prpr said:
You would seem to need a new PSU as yours is obviously buggered.
Click to expand...

It would appear so :-(

Is it possible to purchase a replacement from Humax ? PW808 which has an 8 pin connector to the main board.
If so, what is the phone number please.
 
The fluctuations don't sound good, but if the voltages had been steady state you still would not know whether the indicated voltages still apply if the PSU is not receiving the right signal from somewhere else.

I'm not trying to put people off, but a career in electronics development says avoid jumping to conclusions based on flimsy evidence.
 
Black Hole said:
The fluctuations don't sound good, but if the voltages had been steady state you still would not know whether the indicated voltages still apply if the PSU is not receiving the right signal from somewhere else.
Click to expand...
From where?
+12 +12 G G +5.8 +5.8 G G seems pretty conclusive to me. I haven't opened up my boxes to look at what the connections are but I doubt there is any other connection in/out from the PSU board except for the mains.
 
These are the voltages on the output of the switched power supply board (PW808 ), with the main processor board disconnected. Scale is 5V per division, 500 ms. What looks like a 1 at the extreme left, is zero.

The 5V output:-

Image2_zpsfq15wp8e.png


The 12V output:-

Image1_zpskoem3oqb.png
 
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