Hi, guys, turned on my several year old Rocket Cellini Premium Plus this afternoon to find a burning plastic smell. I quickly verified the pump worked, then turned it off, took off the top and side covers, and found the source. I turned it back on for a few minutes just to verify (sorry I couldn't embed the video)....
https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=87D ... dzrQP8CLoE

Here's a still:


So yeah, that's obviously the source of the smell and smoke. The brown wire comes from the mains and is switched from the main power switch on the machine. The black adjacent wire goes to the overheat reset, then to the pressurestat.

My suspicion is that this was caused by a loose connection on the terminal block/brain box interface. Do you guys agree? If so, can I just solder on a new female terminal block on the brain box and replace the male block on the wire side? Where do I find those parts in the US?

There was a visible arcing between the green multi-plug and the circuit board's green connector. There is definitely a high-resistance problem in there somewhere and that needs to be investigated, but it sounds like you are on the right track. Try one of the authorized repair/resellers of the machine for the parts.

Thanks, Randy. I will give them a call, but in my experience they will want to replace the whole brain.

That looks like a standard connector. Measure the distance between the pins and go to mouser.com or something similar and search for terminal strips with that spacing and terminal count. You'll find something that will work, then you just have to replace the current one. I have tools to desolder that connector in a few seconds, if you don't, just be real careful getting it out, if you rip up a trace or pull out the plated through hole, the exercise gets considerably more difficult.

Ira

Thanks, ira! I ordered from Mouser while I wait for WLL's service dept to get back to me. I'll post back here when I've completed the repair with the final results.

My only concern is desoldering the factory solder...EU has all of these laws about solder and they are frequently a bear to get suck off cleanly. Hopefully I can coax it off without lifting a trace. I've got some tricks up my sleeve from the old days of PBX hacking and overclocking back in the day when it required a soldering iron!

I finally acquired a Hakko 808 a few years ago and ever since then, this kind of stuff is a breeze. Before that, if I'm going to throw away the part I'm removing, I'd cut all the leads off the part and remove the pins one at a time with fingernails or a tweezer.

Ira

Or the ever popular, get the joint good and hot and smack the board on a 2x4. The solder is liquid and heavy and will often just leave and land on whatever's beneath the 2x4. Good to practice that one on boards you don't care about. Also, if it's lead free solder, diluting it with good old 64/40 or 63/37 may make it much easier to get out.

Ira

ira wrote:I finally acquired a Hakko 808 a few years ago and ever since then, this kind of stuff is a breeze. Before that, if I'm going to throw away the part I'm removing, I'd cut all the leads off the part and remove the pins one at a time with fingernails or a tweezer.

Ira

Haha me too...I think mine current one is an 888D

ira wrote:Or the ever popular, get the joint good and hot and smack the board on a 2x4. The solder is liquid and heavy and will often just leave and land on whatever's beneath the 2x4. Good to practice that one on boards you don't care about. Also, if it's lead free solder, diluting it with good old 64/40 or 63/37 may make it much easier to get out.

Ira

I do the "dilute" thing quite frequently but never thought of the 2x4. I use a sucker and a wick but I like the idea of the gravity/momentum moving the solder off the pins. Thanks for the tip!

Headala wrote:Haha me too...I think mine current one is an 888D!

After all these years I also bought that iron about a year ago (on sale!). Great tool.

My 2 Hakko irons are a step up from those, one is a FM-202 and the other is a FM-206. I have all but one of the optional handpieces for the 206. The 808 is a desoldering tool with an internal vacuum pump. I also have the desoldering attachment for the 206 but usually use the 808 because of tip pricing, $15 vs $55 or so.

https://www.hakkousa.com/products/desol ... -6064.html

https://www.hakkousa.com/products/rewor ... ation.html

Ira