Nimh charger - Ansmann Energy 16 repair attempt within 2016

[Ulf]

Hello,

I got the LEDs some weeks ago from China. They are not that bright as yours and more close to the original ones.

I replaced them successfully and also this works fine after replacing the caps.

But there is still the defect of both 9V charging ports on the right side. You wrote that it might be a pollution by solder. But the defect came years ago. And at that time nobody opend the charger and repaired something. So I replaced the two LS ICs and one CD IC on the processor board for the right charging side. They are very cheap, so I replaced them on spec -> without success 

But I found a pollution on the vertical board that is mounted parallel to the LED board. This looked like an accumulator had run out. I cleaned it as good as possible so that it looks clean. The flashing of the LEDs of the 9V ports on the right side changed a bit but it doesn´t work at all.

I have no idea what is causing this defect. What I didn´t do: I did not check the SMD transistors on the vertical board.

Did you solve the problem on your Ansmann 8?

Ulf

[Kiriakos GR]

So I replaced the two LS ICs and one CD IC on the processor board for the right charging side. They are very cheap, so I replaced them on spec -> without success 

But I found a pollution on the vertical board that is mounted parallel to the LED board. This looked like an accumulator had run out. I cleaned it as good as possible so that it looks clean. The flashing of the LEDs of the 9V ports on the right side changed a bit but it doesn´t work at all.

I have no idea what is causing this defect. What I didn´t do: I did not check the SMD transistors on the vertical board.

Did you solve the problem on your Ansmann 8?

Ulf

Yes my Ansmann 8 and 16 both are 100% functional.

From the other hand you should not have much of faith at such old production PCB lines,  you should also perform continuity inspection at its printed trace this related to 9V charging ports.




 

[dave granger]

Hi ,great topic ,i recently found one for £1 and at first glance it worked fine.
It charges ok but theres a strange flickering of all the LED's so i decided to do what you have done and change the caps.
My board is different to yours as you can see .just waiting for more caps to arrive i didnt order enough .keep up the good work ,Dave

PS we found the nasty glue used at this time becomes slightly conductive so if spotted best removed from legs of components ,my last job at uni was removing the stuff from 100 scopes used in the labs !

[Kiriakos GR]

Hi Dave,

Your pcb this is not a different version.

They are few differences that seems as production line assembly (corrections).
One additional filter capacitor this were squeezed in at Mains input filter.
Both TOP have the addition of a aluminum plate under them,  supposedly this will work as SIM plate for improved heat distribution at the heartsick which this is entire PCB board.
At its one TOP, they did not solder one resistor and one small capacitor, that now I do assume that this is another DC filter.

I do believe that all that they did, this was to improve AC Mains Filter and to downgrade DC side filter by removing four components. 
I am assuming that they did such small changes mostly because a rivet over its one TOP this was a poor decision as fastener.   

[dave granger]

Hi ,thanks for the swift reply ,as all the caps are going to be replaced whats your recommended value of C5 both are 1uf 50v?
Would it be worth replacing the heat paste on the TOP223YN whilst the boards out?
Since the first post did you find a replacement that fits for the 400v caps ?
Thanks Dave

[Kiriakos GR]

Hi ,thanks for the swift reply ,as all the caps are going to be replaced whats your recommended value of C5 both are 1uf 50v?

At such power circuits you may increase small caps capacity up to 3.3uf if new part dimensions are not different.
Usually I do not do such changes, I do demonstrate trust in the face of the electronic engineer whom designed it.   

Would it be worth replacing the heat paste on the TOP223YN whilst the boards out?

You should do so only after TOP replacement because the old exploded ( due to the concept of removing any conductive particles hidden in the cream)   

Since the first post did you find a replacement that fits for the 400v caps ?
Thanks Dave

If the caps are larger by a few mm then you can shave a bit of plastic from the ventilation grill fins.
I did that too. 

[dave granger]

Hi ,thanks very informative ,the smaller version that only charges 2 9v reminds me of the LIDL Tronic charger unfortunately that charger obviously didnt have any heat sensors and a set of AA's got so hot the plastic covering them melted.
They get pretty hot in this one as well!
I like this one because it can charge 2 sets of batteries for my metal detector at once my other crude "conditioning" charger a MAHA MH-C808m cannot.
Thanks Dave

[Kiriakos GR]

I do not trust anything sold by LIDL.

Many people destroyed their Ansmann Energy chargers, due their wild hope about this charger to charge old and damaged batteries.
Neither these old Ansmann chargers has any temperature monitor circuit, therefore any battery which does not charge after 4 hours this should be removed and recycled.

[Kiriakos GR]

In my battery cells review there is useful information's about over all battery evaluation and relative diagnostic tools. 
https://www.ittsb.eu/forum/index.php?topic=1029.0