Now, in case you're wondering where I went lately... my motherboard died =(Which means my onboard RAID controller died.
Which means my data etc. etc. went along with it.
Which means my data etc. etc. went along with it.
Sadly, it's an nVidia n680i chipset... (notice SLi bridge in the pic) which is really to find a replacement for. Can't find another SLi/socket 775 motherboard, so I decided to do away with the SLi configuration to save costs. But what I really miss is the sound card (also in pic). I lost like... 3 weeks of essays and 24~ hours of installation/update time for 200GB of stuff. Then someone bought our home and I had to accompany my mum to find a new house, all of which weren't as nice as my current home, since they cost less. Strange case of motherboard analogy...
Huh? Anyway... uhh... so, yay!
(It was really fun to watch motherboard troubleshooting. I'm not that good to figure it out myself. I did tell the guy at the start I suspected that the motherboard was dead although the LEDs lit up, but I don't have the skills to demonstrably prove that it's not the processor or part of the power supply. It's a long process too.)
Okay, let's move on. I have 4 updates: on the vacuum gauge controller, my bicycle, the supercomputer, and the filament source. I'll start with the vacuum gauge controller, and maybe write about the other 3 later.
There were loose connections on the power board which caused the leakage to earth. Although it was easy to identify that it was the power module, there was still a painful process of testing every component on it. We needed to secure these connections first.
In this state, no one was going to be able to put it back together if Fernando met with any mishap. Fernando pried everything apart for testing. Then he was the only one who could remember where each part went.
The red/black cables lead to another, new relay switch.
(See previous: here, and here.)
Fernando explained his dad's zeal, "This type of stuff turns him on."
Last root of the problem!
Frankly, I'm not too sure how this works. It seems like a very old surge protector design. In the case of a surge, the pair of ceramic disc capacitors (red) are overloaded and blown (well, I don't mean 'blown' literally... it looks dramatic here because we broke the pins with our hands for fun since this component is of no use anymore). This opens the circuit; and 'shorts' the current to the earth wire (green).
Made by General Electric.
Replaced component (see immediately to the right of the high voltage label).
Each lit LED indicates that a certain component is functional.
Another (clearer) view of the LEDs.
Huh? Anyway... uhh... so, yay!
(It was really fun to watch motherboard troubleshooting. I'm not that good to figure it out myself. I did tell the guy at the start I suspected that the motherboard was dead although the LEDs lit up, but I don't have the skills to demonstrably prove that it's not the processor or part of the power supply. It's a long process too.)
Okay, let's move on. I have 4 updates: on the vacuum gauge controller, my bicycle, the supercomputer, and the filament source. I'll start with the vacuum gauge controller, and maybe write about the other 3 later.
There were loose connections on the power board which caused the leakage to earth. Although it was easy to identify that it was the power module, there was still a painful process of testing every component on it. We needed to secure these connections first.
In this state, no one was going to be able to put it back together if Fernando met with any mishap. Fernando pried everything apart for testing. Then he was the only one who could remember where each part went.It was not easy to replace the broken relay switch... but we didn't like the replacement either. It could have been causing problems. So we replaced the same part a second time.
The red/black cables lead to another, new relay switch.(See previous: here, and here.)
Then Fernando's dad couldn't take it anymore and just had to barge in with his insulation tester and we finally found the last source of earth leakage!
Fernando explained his dad's zeal, "This type of stuff turns him on."So... we found it. Surely, this had to be it. We exhausted almost single component.
Last root of the problem!Frankly, I'm not too sure how this works. It seems like a very old surge protector design. In the case of a surge, the pair of ceramic disc capacitors (red) are overloaded and blown (well, I don't mean 'blown' literally... it looks dramatic here because we broke the pins with our hands for fun since this component is of no use anymore). This opens the circuit; and 'shorts' the current to the earth wire (green).
Made by General Electric.We salvaged an old PC power supply for the same component... then replaced the original one (with the 2 disc capacitors) with it (now it's a single capacitor - the white rectangular block with wordings on it)
Replaced component (see immediately to the right of the high voltage label).Then it was the moment of truth. I pulled out a power cord from one of the old CPUs on my supercomputer project; plugged it in; switched off the TV etc. just in case the circuit breaker tripped; and flicked on the switch.
And I heard an awesome humming sound. I never heard a transformer make so much noise before (you don't hear your laptop chargers making this noise). But at high voltage, or basically any factor which increases chance of overheating (in this case, we also subjected the transformer rated at 60 Hz to a 50 Hz AC supply, which is OK but not advisable in the long run as it shortens its lifespan from overheating), it makes this sound. The effect is called magnetostriction.
(By the way, Fernando is talking to me in the background.)
After which, I played with the buttons. I have no idea what do "EM" and "Degas" mean. It's amazing how we've managed to fix this without knowing what it does. I mean surely, these buttons have something to do with an electromagnetic field and the degassing phase of the vacuum chamber, but what exactly do the buttons do? And it switches back to "OFF" seconds after I press the "ON" button. I hope this is only because we don't have any gauges connected to the controller, so it smartly switches off on its own.
And I heard an awesome humming sound. I never heard a transformer make so much noise before (you don't hear your laptop chargers making this noise). But at high voltage, or basically any factor which increases chance of overheating (in this case, we also subjected the transformer rated at 60 Hz to a 50 Hz AC supply, which is OK but not advisable in the long run as it shortens its lifespan from overheating), it makes this sound. The effect is called magnetostriction.
After which, I played with the buttons. I have no idea what do "EM" and "Degas" mean. It's amazing how we've managed to fix this without knowing what it does. I mean surely, these buttons have something to do with an electromagnetic field and the degassing phase of the vacuum chamber, but what exactly do the buttons do? And it switches back to "OFF" seconds after I press the "ON" button. I hope this is only because we don't have any gauges connected to the controller, so it smartly switches off on its own.
Each lit LED indicates that a certain component is functional.Amusingly, we don't have the instructions manual because it costs a lot(again, I've no idea how we've managed to fix this), so the LEDs don't do much besides look cool.
Another (clearer) view of the LEDs.Now, what's left of the vacuum gauge controller is for us to
1. Design a fan cooling system for the power board and the transformer. There's a set of diodes which get really hot; and the transformer does heat up pretty badly at high voltage.
2. Buy some new lighting for the switches. If you observe carefully, the light for the "ON" butotn is clearly dimmer than the light for the "POWER" button.
1. Design a fan cooling system for the power board and the transformer. There's a set of diodes which get really hot; and the transformer does heat up pretty badly at high voltage.
2. Buy some new lighting for the switches. If you observe carefully, the light for the "ON" butotn is clearly dimmer than the light for the "POWER" button.
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