Trying to help a freind of mine fix something as cheap as possible.

Thread Starter

Castleguardian

Joined Jun 9, 2021
4
Ok. So, I am a complete amateur when it comes to this stuff. Honestly, I am not even sure this is the right area to be posting this, but a number of the other Threads sounded kinda close to my problem.

Ok, so a buddy of mine has this broken appliance. It's one of those really expensive to replace types.
The thing is, it works just fine. Actually when it works its great, tons of options and settings.

We know what the problem is. Its the control board, ONE component on the board has gone out. I mean its toast, we yried everything, and it just smokes if you plug it in....but just that one component.

So my idea was, to take something like an arduino or Rasp. Pi-W or something and simply replace it. This is because the Board itself is crazy expensive to replace because the company doesn't make it anymore.

The only problem is.....the actual programming of the original board. All the different setting options and such, timers, half dozen sensor inputs......it would be FAR easier if we could just download the Data and basically make a clone of it.

Is this possible? Is it worth the time? Or are we best just tracking down the ezpensive replacement?

Thanks for your time, hope this is the right place.
 

John P

Joined Oct 14, 2008
2,025
Well, if "ONE component on the board has gone out" then you should change that part, and all will be well. But it may not be that simple.
 

LesJones

Joined Jan 8, 2017
4,174
You seem to be trying to make it as difficult as possible for people to help you. Without providing information people have no chance of helping you to solve the problem. To even start solving the problem giving the type of appliance, the manufacturer and model number would be required so we could try to find a schematic of the board to download. You would also need to tell us which is the faulty component on the board. The component that is overheating may not be the cause of the the problem. It is VERY unlikely the manufacturer will make the code available to you to down load. Also this code would ONLY run on the microcontroller that is used on the original board.

Les.
 

Thread Starter

Castleguardian

Joined Jun 9, 2021
4
The item in question is a Maytag Dryer Control Board. I am not sure of exact model....I think it's a Neptune model. As for the component, honestly we have no clue what it is.

It's the black and silver item circled. The original problem was one of the contacts had come un-soddered. We managed to re-sodder it and it worked perfect for the last 8 months.

Then we got the same error message as last time(along with the dryer not functioning). We opened it up, and somehow it had again the whole contact had broken away, sodder and all.

We attempted to re-sodder it just like before. It seemed to work at first. Dryer acted fine when we tested it, then after a couple minutes the error code popped up again.

Took it apart, couldn't see anything wrong(was still soddered), we plugged it back in while open and it started smoking. The part has hot glue around its base(to stabilize or for vibration we figured), and the smoke is coming from under the glue.

Mod: lightened your image.E

33003028-Dryer-Control-Board-3~2.jpg
 
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MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,621
OMG!

Why is this all such a run-around find the missing object game?

Instead of a title "Trying to help a freind of mine fix something as cheap as possible"
it would be better to come straight out and say:
"Maytag dryer not working"

Then you spent all of your first post without tell us it is a Maytag drier.
That is not how diagnosis work.

First you need to state the make and model of the instrument.
Then you need to state what it does and what is does not do.

Error code? What error code? Are we supposed to guess what is the error code?

btw, the mystery component circled in red is a piezoelectric transducer used for emitting beeping sounds.
If that is busted it will not stop the dryer from working.
 

John P

Joined Oct 14, 2008
2,025
It looks to me as though the 4 resistors at the top right have seriously overheated. They're discolored and the plastic next to them has also got a smudge on it. This is not looking good at all.
 

LesJones

Joined Jan 8, 2017
4,174
The fact that that you start by thinking that just by saying basically "I have something that is faulty, how do I fix it" will get results suggests you don't have the right attitude to fault finding. Faultfinding is about using ALL the information available to lead you to identifying possible causes of the problem. It would have taken very little effort for you to read the model number from the information plate on the back of the machine. You could have also taken a properly focused picture of the control board so the information on the label was readable. You say that you have an error code but do not say what it is or what the description of the error code is from the user manual. I don't think there is much chance of you being able to repair it if you can't even identify components on the board.

Les.
 

Thread Starter

Castleguardian

Joined Jun 9, 2021
4
Honestly, my question was originally about copying the programming from the broken board to another board like a Rasp. pi-w.

The error code that comes up is 51. I dont know why the buzzer would stop the whole thing from working, but that was the original fix....didnt work second time.

I wasnt trying to drag this out. I had given up on fixing it as soon as it started putting off smoke.
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,621
#1 - You are not going to be able to copy any code from the device. Forget about any thoughts about cloning the device with an rPi.

#2 - The buzzer has nothing to do with the problem. Buzzers don't smoke. The buzzer is to tell you that the clothes is dry. You can remove the buzzer and the dryer should still function.

#3 - The latest pictures posted are not of the same board as in post #7. What gives?
 

LesJones

Joined Jan 8, 2017
4,174
anniel747 seems to have a lot more knowledge of these tumble dryers than me. (He has managed to find out what error code 51 means.) As well as the problem with Q6 it looks like the transistor to the left of R37 (Last picture in post #14) looks like it has been very hot melting the glue that retains the buzzer. While looking for a schematic of the board (Which I could not find.) I found this advert for some spare boards.
You would need to check that the part number matched your original board as it looks like there are at least two versions of the board. (In some of the pictures R53 to R56 are 470 ohms in others they are 820 ohms.) There could also be different versions of firmware in different versions of the board. It is also possible that the damage to the board was caused by something external to the board. (If this was the case then it would also damage a new board.)

Les.
 
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