electronic repair of tractor parts

[Ken]

Will try to explain what happened to the engine hour meter.
Took the device I had removed to a Local Radio shack store .
and they had a better magnifying glass and could clearly see it was a C1160 NPN si. but never had one in ECG or HTE came back to the shop and dug up old parts boards thinking since the Kubota is 31 years old and spent some time on NTE cross referencing found a D43C3 which came to a match of the NTE186 a little better on current but close.
installed on board and with scope it was pulsing the input (base) an looked good so connected the solenoid that pulled the lever to advance the hour count (had tested with 9 volt battery good) then connected battery . scope showed no collector pulse and looking for cause the solenoid melted.
Shut off the battery power and put the remains in a hermally sealed peanut butter jar for later investigation as to why it failed.
Have another but not Kubota and it has been running for 3 days attached to battery.
Thanks for all the comments. learned more than it cost me to spend the time

Also have you heard that some Farmers are suing John Deere for not allowing anyone except the company to work on the electronics of the tractors or attached equipment.

In this throw away society. ( Wonder what the Coyote Machine poster did with his first wife when she developed a pimple on the nose).

Hunkered down to let it splat.
ken

 

[skyhook]

Your original part #C1160 came back as a NTE 175 NPN transistor,, see the spec sheet here

[url=http://nte01.nteinc.com/nte%5CNTExRefSemiProd.nsf/$all/D136F7EF0118EEA085257910008081CF?OpenDocument]NTE Cross Reference[/url]

 

[hawkeye08]

Well CM, some of us old "dinosaurs" cut our teeth with a voltmeter in our hands, and although dementia may have set in a bit, I can still remember a lot of the basics.

Having just finished up on my Inverted L 160 meter antenna project (it works very well thank you), I am going to start on an endfed portable antenna (Parts on order for building the 9 to 1 UNUN). So "Dino" I may be, but as long as I still have 2 or 3 marbles rolling around up there in the gourd, I will continue to repair what I can and build what I want. And let me tell you, there is a lot more to repairing something than just the money saved, there is the pride of accomplishment that perhaps some people have never known.

One of our first projects in college was to built our multi meter that we used throughout course of study. We also programed in assembler... LOL, I might have the component you need in my parts box... We even built a digital analog clock using discreet components, including temperature compensation. It had LEDs that told the time like a clock with hands sort of.. 60 LEDs around outside edge, the hours inside those. The minute was latched, the seconds raced around and when coming up to top would bump the minute... The printed circuit board we made was quite a mess, but worked well.

 

[tjkubota93]

KOUA Thanks for your reply. Having worked most all Western States and with some one from every state. Have often wondered why those .05% of the New England states are so opinionated.
and sure of there input to anything should be law.

I could of purchased a new tach. and tossed the old with out checking why it failed . often there is only a fuse in elec.motor winding to fix electric motors in small sizes.
I have garage door openers given to me all the time and battery is close to dead in remote control unit.
when show them the wall button they thought it was a door bell button. never touched to check what would happen.
In Military (Army) was assigned to a Emergency repair section whos job was to be 1st called and sent to where ever a Power Generation unit water pump fuel pump had failed to repair quickly and not have to return later to do it 2nd, time. worked with the Navy Marines and Air Force Only had 1 compliant and that was a Marine 2 Lt. or lower rank . asked if I repaired "Heads" told him wasn't a Doctor.
He took it wrong turned in a compliant to my Warrant Officer.
If anyone from Maine knows a lowly Marine Officer Starts with Clifford P. tell him haven't forgot yet. he is one of the .05%
so after taking the test and getting the FCC 1st. class license worked in several communication areas then went for the Master electrical license . and used both for good number of years.
finished my working years in SCADA or supervisory Control and Data in the installation and repair when something failed along with the control equipment in 470 sub stations
Maybe I had learned some thing in the ability to repair a simple engine hour meter. Tach.

Now this is cleared up also just like to be able to repair old tractors engines and if rusty make it useful again.
ken

.

I was a relay tech/scada tech. Worked on a lot of Harris 5000 and Westmaint rtu's.

Did yall listen to master/slave talk to each other with a little radio shack speaker and alligator clips? You can tell a lot from the bleeps, boops and other nonsense.

I hear yah on the 0.05%.

 

[Ken]

Your original part #C1160 came back as a NTE 175 NPN transistor,, see the spec sheet here

[url=http://nte01.nteinc.com/nte%5CNTExRefSemiProd.nsf/$all/D136F7EF0118EEA085257910008081CF?OpenDocument]NTE Cross Reference[/url][/QUOTE]

Skyhook you are correct except I gave the wrong # should of been a C1162 that crosses to a NTE184 silicon NPN.
Also was a TO126 package. ECB  and in checking a transistor I had came to a HTE186 NPN in a TO202 package. BCE.
The difference in package I never noticed the change. This should of worked except the transistor remained on instead of shutting off and in checking for the problem it shorted the solenoid melting the plastic . 
Eating crow still doesn't get it to working so swapped to a tach. had in reserve. 

Thanks for rechecking the number I am getting old long of tooth it takes longer to get started than used to. 
ken



Been slow to answer we had a power outage storm gave considerable damage to area.

 

[Ken]

I was a relay tech/scada tech. Worked on a lot of Harris 5000 and Westmaint rtu's.

Did yall listen to master/slave talk to each other with a little radio shack speaker and alligator clips? You can tell a lot from the bleeps, boops and other nonsense.

I hear yah on the 0.05%.

The Harris we had was power line control for faults should a voltage hick-up or current jump it was a decision of which substation transformer stayed on and which tripped.
We had Data master for local measurements and control of line circuits.
The Old Motorola micro-wave between sites Main and back up transmitters had a oven to keep the frequency close to desired readings. and no air conditioning to keep the building even temp. so go into to do maintaince open door to cool the building caused the M/W to drift. and tubes the base hum was enough to carry signal today.

we put a voltmeter in telephone line this gave a good reading if working and could call if had problems and some one at plant could read meter and usually could say looks normal or no signal .
Some times not working we would call telephone co for repairman. ((Red book circuit)so some one would be assigned to get fixed. sometimes would get answer the circuit keeps pulsing on and off at timed sequence.
that was what we wanted.
ken

 

[k0ua]

Skyhook you are correct except I gave the wrong # should of been a C1162 that crosses to a NTE184 silicon NPN.
Also was a TO126 package. ECB and in checking a transistor I had came to a HTE186 NPN in a TO202 package. BCE.
The difference in package I never noticed the change. This should of worked except the transistor remained on instead of shutting off and in checking for the problem it shorted the solenoid melting the plastic .
Eating crow still doesn't get it to working so swapped to a tach. had in reserve.

Thanks for rechecking the number I am getting old long of tooth it takes longer to get started than used to.
ken



Been slow to answer we had a power outage storm gave considerable damage to area.

Oops. You let out the "magic smoke". Been There, Done That bunches of times. Sorry to hear about your storm damage. We just had high winds, and a few small limbs down.

 

[Mikeeemo]

What I am reading in this thread is skills being lost in North America. Somebody somewhere has to have these skills to design and build todays products... It needs to be US...

 

[aczlan]

What I am reading in this thread is skills being lost in North America. Somebody somewhere has to have these skills to design and build todays products... It needs to be US...

I would disagree. To me it points to the increasing complexity of today's electronics and the increasing cost of entry to repair them. 20 years ago, you could fix most electronics with a $50 soldering iron, $500 in diagnostic equipment, a schematic and a Mouser catalog.
Now you need a hot air rework station, a microscope and a lot of luck.

Aaron Z

 

[k0ua]

I would disagree. To me it points to the increasing complexity of today's electronics and the increasing cost of entry to repair them. 20 years ago, you could fix most electronics with a $50 soldering iron, $500 in diagnostic equipment, a schematic and a Mouser catalog.
Now you need a hot air rework station, a microscope and a lot of luck.

Aaron Z

A lot of guys are using these USB microscopes. I have been thinking about getting one. Another issue is just how steady your hands are. These SMD components, some are not much bigger than a flea. These thing are getting to the outer edges of my stability. When I first started working on TV's (yeah that's been a while), Most were point to point wiring on the tube sockets, Some were PC board with thru hole components, but even a 1/4 watt carbon resistor is a pretty large component. I hate to say this, but I might be getting to the end of my usefulness as a component level repair tech.