The current goes from the blue wire through the fuse, then to a contact under "4" on the white thing, then through a capacitor into "1" and back out the white cord. "2" and "3" are also joined by a capacitor, with a black wire also on one end of the capacitor and an orange wire on the other that both go to the rest of the circuitry. What exactly is going on in that big white thing in the center and how does it effect the current flow? How does it relate "1" and "4" to "2" and "3", and what does that arrow mean?

 

Looks like a bridge rectifier to me. Have a look on Wikipedia for a good explanation.

 

It looks like it could be a fullwave diode bridge.

I can't quite see the marking on it - do two pins show little sinewave cycles, and the other two pins show "+" and "-"? That would be a clue that it is a bridge rectifier.

 

Hello,

The picture is rather blurry.
The markings on the part can not be read.
Is it possible to make a SHARP picture of the thing?
Does your camera have a close-up modus?
If so retry to make the picture in this mode.

Did you try to measure on the part?
It could be a brigde-rectifier as the others say, but also a common mode filter.


Bertus

 

Ok this is somewhat (if not purely) speculative. But I think it is an inductor. This is due to the round shape. Could it be a common mode choke?

 

I'm sorry my camera phone couldn't get that close up, the markings are "4" on the top left, "1" on the bottom left, "3" on the top right, and "2" on the bottom right, with an arrow that points from "1" and "4" towards "2" and "3", and those are the only markings

 

Ah yes it is a diode bridge, there are actually several different types all throughout the machine, thank you all very much. There doesn't appear to be a way to make a thread as solved...