Building the Ultrasonic Antifouling Kit from Jaycar

[Garibri]

The batch number is found in the upper right hand area of Jaycar's stapled instructions that come with the kits.

 

[deepsixrob]

Thanks for the offer, I'm in Brisbane Australia and have a Jaycay store 10 minutes up the road. I'll keep going with this one for the time being. Emailed jaycar again last night so will see what they come back with. Still leaning towards a faulty coil.

 

[deepsixrob]

Hi Norman E, yes it has been going for a while but I found lots of usefull info throughout which I guess is what these forums are about. I have actually checked all the components I can on mine and have replaced some but I have no way of testing the IC'S or the prewound coil or mosfets so I can only guess the problem lies with one of them.

Cheers Rob

 

[Garibri]

I have been communicating with John Clarke of silicon Chip Magazine and he is a really nice guy.
He asked me to send him one of my units. But being that I am on my boat in the Caribbean, I suggested that maybe one of you other guys that are in Australia .send him yours.
He hopefully will be joining the forum shortly.

 

[nigelmercier]

Word from Silicon Chip (via Garibri) is

"You can use a 5A slow Blow fuse as this can prevent the fuse blowing at switch on while heavy peak current is flowing to charge the supply capacitor. Normally, the standard fast blow fuse is satisfactory, but when a low impedance power supply is used, there can be heavier than normal current that can blow the fuse."

 

[Garibri]

We are happy to announce that we have had a major breakthrough and now have all four of our units working!

We tried a 5a fuse to no avail as it only blew like the 3a ones did.

After wasting yet another full day going over everything, testing, replacing etc. it occurred to us to go BIGGER with the fuse.
So, being that we didn't have anything bigger in the 5 -20mm size we wrapped a single strand of wire from some stranded cable around a blown fuse and it now works!
I of course am aware that this bypassing of the fuse offers no safety, but I will now get some larger capacity fuses and see which is the right one.

How incredible that after all this time and after all this work the solution should be so simple.

 

[nigelmercier]

I thought it originally had a 5A fast blow, and it was suggested to get a slow blow. Like this at CPC, or ten times the price at Maplin (spit)

 

[Garibri]

The kits we received came with 3A fuses. As I said earlier, John Clarke suggested going bigger to 5A.
But for us 5.5 or 6 or maybe even a little more did the trick!
But do so at your own risk I would say!

 

[deepsixrob]

No go with mine. Think I have narrowed my problem down the a faulty 2200 capacitor. Not getting any reading at all from it on my meter. Checked a couple of others I have in my box of bits and my meter is working fine and I'm getting the right readings from them but nothing from the 2200 supplied with the kit. Can't use the ones in my bits box as they are not big enough. Only 1000uf so I guess its a drive up the road for a replacement. Any way we will see.

Cheers Rob

 

[deepsixrob]

Garibri just had a look for my batch number. Mine is completely different. 4S0161.

 

[Garibri]

Rob, You may just be onto something there.
I receive the following from Jaycar:

"As you have also mentioned that the kits were bought some time back you may wish to check out the 2200uF low ESR capacitor.
It's characteristics may have changed slightly due to being stored without charge for an extended period."

Regards,

Joerg Edler
Production Manager

 

[deepsixrob]

Yup, god knows how long my kit was sitting on the shelf and in there wharehouse before that and then each component before being made into a kit. Just been playing around with them again with my meters. Have 2 meters a brand new one and an older one. Old one just doesn't register but the new digital one come up with OL which when I read the meters manual means out of tolerance and that is with an auto ranging meter. Rain is bucketing down here so when it eases off I going to take my meter and the capacitors up to jaycar and get them to double check them. The boys in the shop up the road seem to be clued up. Well you would think so anyway. I googled checking capacitors and watched and read a couple of articles to make sure I was measuring them the right way. If i'm right I will have found my dead short! 3 weeks of ginning about! Not happy jan!! LOL

 

[deepsixrob]

Yer well that was not the problem. Boys at jaycar susgested I turn the power on without the ic's installed to eliminate them, did that and still blew the fuse. Put a larger fuse in and now I have the 2 main feed tracks on the board burnt through. One hell of a short circuit. Only thing left to look at is the coil. But not today. So over it!

Rob

 

[greenventuresltd]

Hi everyone,
we are converting trans atlantic record breaker, 65ft aluminum sailing catamaran 'elf aquitaine 1' to oceanvolt propulsion with solar roof and regenerative oceanvolt sail drive. being stationed in the nutrient rich gulf of paria, in Trinidad and Tobago barnacles are a major problem
We purchased 2 of the units to try on one pontoon with intentions to purchase more. Unfortunately as soon as we turned it on the 3 amp fuse blew twice.
is this a common problem?

 

[Garibri]

If you read the other posts on this forum you will see that some of us have had the same problem.
You will also see how we solved it for us!
We are now very happy with our units, and will keep all updated as to their efficiency as time goes by.

 

[deepsixrob]

Try a 5 amp slow blow fuse. failing that contact kits@jaycay.com.au as my issue turned out to be a faulty IC2
cheers Rob

 

[deepsixrob]

Also the mosfets seem to be rather sensitive to damage as well. My faulty IC2 destroyed 8 mosfets till I eventually found the problem so be aware that if the 5 amp slow blow does not work do not go larger as the result mite just result in the binning of the board. I susgest trying the 5 amp slow blow fuse as per John Clarke from silicone chip magazine who designed the original and if that blows then email kits@jaycar.com.au for further advise as it will increase your chances of a warrenty claim being granted. If you need to email them send the batch number found on the top of the box or at the top right hand corner of the 1st or second page of the instructions. They will also request a photo of the top of the board and also one of the bottom and they will also want to know what you have done in the way of testing etc and what power supply you are using. If you send photos be sure to reduce the email size below 5 meg as they have a cheap ass mail server that wont except anything larger.

I have 2 kits, one works perfectly with the 3 amp fuse supplied but the other has been nothing but painful. 2 different batch numbers. Be very interested in hearing how you get on.

Cheers Rob

 

[pleekit]

Hi Folks,
I have soldered about 4 of these units so far, and it seems to be a common problem with the fuse blowing. I haven't found the real reason for this but I know that when I take the fuse out, press the switch and put back in the fuse it does not blow.
My only thought is that the microprocessor (PIC12F675) is not starting up fast enough to turn off the mosfets. If the mosfets are on at startup then it will draw a lot of power causing the fuse to blow before the microprocessor is able to disable the outputs.
However, with power going to the system with the fuse being out, the microprocessor would have been stabilized. Inserting the fuse at this point would just enable the 12V portion of the circuit to become active. Not sure if it is possible to recode the microprocessor or move the switch to just enable to 12V side of the circuit.

 

[deepsixrob]

Using a 5 volt slow blow fuse solves the problem.

Have had my 2 installed and operating now for 3 weeks. Looks promising. There is grandfather weed (long stringy algual growth) growing off other boats and the pontoons in the marina where I keep my boat but none on my boat which is overdue for haulout and anti foul. Thought I would leave it for a while and see what gives. There is also no new growth around the waterline. I give it a scrub same day I fitted the units into my boat. Would usually see growth there by now on the sunny side at least. My boat is a 34 foot solid glass flybridge single shaft drive semi-displacement boat with a keelson. Not compersite construction. The glass is about an half an inch thick! Solid as. Will give it a few months and then let you all know how it's progessing.

Cheers

 

[zambant]

Just about to screw the transduce assembly into the ring glued to the hull but not sure what goop I need to put into the ring in order to get a good contact between the transducer and the hull. (cant find the instructions :-( )
I'm in the uk
Thanks
John