Ansmann Energy 8 NiMH charger repair (TOPSwitch-II TOP223Y)

[Kiriakos GR]

About a year back I have repaired one Ansmann “Energy 8” NiMH charger,
I have spotted it as damaged on the German eBay and I did bid for it, so to have my chance to repair it.
Those small battery stations retails for 80-100 EUR. (And I got it for 16EUR shipped).

The damage found to be in the 220V Mains circuitry, 110/220 auto selector mini board.

The long story in short, this board haves on it an SHARP Photo-coupler PC817,
plus one mini transformer and few capacitors and the TOPSwitch-II (smart transistor) TOP 223Y.

In my case the TOP 223Y was blown, and there was no evidence of what it was the part code.

My internet search for more info about the second IC on this PCB board that is the  SHARP  PC817 made me to discover and another  110/220 auto selector board for one power-supply called as Mastech HY5020E .

The TOP223Y is a 30W one, the next close alternative that I found locally is the TOP 224Y that is a 35W one, and it does the same job.

I have successfully repair it at the cost of 2.5EUR for the TOP224Y, and I am considering as good score 16+2.5= 18.50 EUR for one Ansmann " Energy 8 " smart battery station.   

[Kiriakos GR]

I am posting a update due the fact that exactly one year later after the above post the TOP 224Y which is a 35W one it did blown again.

Luckily I own now an highest quality portable LCR, and with it I managed to spot dead and half working electrolytic caps in the primary and secondary PSU which feeds those 10 in total independent charging channels.
8 for 1.5V batteries & 2 for 9V NiMH.

The most significant problem found to be an 22uF 350V ( By REC ) which become totally dry.
By replacing any capacitor which looked out of shape, the PSU is now capable to output 20V which is stabilized further to 5V for the operation of the IC's in the charging circuitry.

The old capacitors were branded as CHANG which I believe is an totally unknown Asian manufacturer.
Just to feel a bit more safe in long term, instead of a 350V capacitor I selected an 400V one.
The actual voltage in this spot is no more than 310 DC.

The pricing of those  TOP 224Y ( PWM IC ) is flying at about 5 EUR in retail shops.
If you do come close to a such repair my tip will be to check all the capacitors in this PSU.

The good news is that some small electrolytic capacitors which do some filtering in its charging channel looked undamaged and good enough to serve for another 3-4 years.

[giorgos]

On the occasion of this topic, and the faulty capacitor,I post a  table of recognition, of capacitor manufacturer.
Also I would like to share a very interesting topic about faulty capacitors, taken from a Greek forum and written by a repair specialist. It is in Greek, but it has many images for anyone who doesnt understand Greek.
Moreover as Chinese says, one picture is 1000 words.
 I hope that you ll find it useful.
http://www.howtofixit.gr/forum/showthread.php?t=62898

[Kiriakos GR]

Regarding the occasion of this faulty capacitor, I will say that this charger was purchased in Germany, and be owned from a German guy for a year, then died with out apparent reason.
So it was functional for about a year in Germany.
I got it and repair it , worked for another 2 years.
And now it collapsed for good.

What is remarkable is that Ansmann it did use this low end capacitors in a first place.


Just to be fair I will say that their chargers are smart and modern, but anything with on-board PSU it is not to be trusted in long term.

[martin_80x]

Hey guys, can you guide me thru how to fix my Ansmann energy 8?
I paid $100 three years ago, it started to fail showing that the brand new batteries were bad, until it stopped working.
I did not checked the caps or anything yet.
Here are some pict.
Thanks!

The board is melted in this spot

Edit by Admin..
All files of pictures links at photobucket were erased by their owner.
Therefore links was cleaned from this post too. 

[Kiriakos GR]

Hi Martin,  interesting pictures indeed.

The discoloration on the PCB (Burning) is something that it does not exist in my charger.
But I am using it mostly for AA & AAA NiMH.

I always like to help, but you have to start working on it. 
Are you an electronics repair man ?

 

[martin_80x]

Yes I am,
I just checked all the electrolytic caps and they are fine, they still hold their value and not sign of wear.

[Kiriakos GR]

The ones at 105C they must be tested for high ESR at 100KHz.

By measuring the voltage ( or any voltage) at LM7805 you can tell if the TOP223 is blown, this is the hart of the PSU from the side of mains.
If you get 20V & 5V the PSU works.

But before you do that it is best to unsolder the part that overheated the PCB. 
In the worst scenario you will have one less charging channel.

I believe that the damage in this channel caused by a damaged battery which was unable to charge and stayed there for days. 
Those FET does not have proper cooling (build like a tank),  but the PCB it can keep them cool enough for 2-3 hours that is an average time of a complete charge. 

[Astroplio]

hehe kiriakos, I see you have an ansmann line-up there!

I have the energy 4 charger myself. I remember I bought it some years ago and payed the extra $ for it, I am very happy with it.
I am surprised to hear about these failures and I am curious to open my unit and have a look inside, mainly to check the status of the electrolytic caps after all these years.
However I need to find a proper screwdriver first, they have put H-type screws in this thing, damn it!
Will post some pictures when I manage to take the plastics off.

@martin  come back with a reply, did you do the repair?

[Kiriakos GR]

The damaged TOPSwitch-II worked in my favor, I got the charger heavily discounted 
I am suspecting as cause for this damage mains (over voltage).

The second time the cause was different,  but now that is 100% repaired ( all caps & TOP Switch-II), I do feel 100% confident for it.
But what this charger needs is a true power-off switch which will stop the abuse of the PSU when the charger is just connected to mains.   

[martin_80x]

Hey Kiriakos, I decided not to fix it, I really don't have time and I have other projects to do, this is the last on my list.
So I will put it back together and sell it on ebay, I'll buy the Energy 16 instead.
If I was back in my country "Argentina" I would definitely fix it, but these chargers are getting cheaper and cheaper, I would rather buy another one.
Thanks.

[Kiriakos GR]

In this case just buy a New one which will be covered with a warranty period.
It seems to me that any modern charger with a pulsing PSU inside,  it is unable to operate more than 4 years with out needing repair.
Mostly because the parts quality in all chargers nowadays are average.