Hello, everyone. A few days ago, I told you all about the process of replacing the bushing in a fan that had completely seized up and wouldn't spin anymore. After the replacement, it was working great, but recently, it stopped spinning again. When I checked it out, I noticed it wasn't jammed—it just didn't seem to be getting any power.
Diagnóstico y reparación de falla Eléctrica en Ventilador
Saludos comunidad. En días pasados les contaba como fue el proceso de cambiar la bocina de un ventilador, el cual se detuvo por completo y no giro más debido a este problema. Luego del cambio estuvo funcionando de maravilla, pero recientemente dejo de girar nuevamente y cuando lo reviso, noto que no esta trancado, simplemente no parece recibir electricidad.
I started by checking the speed selector switch because the fan wouldn't spin on any of the three settings. Everything looked good there; it was receiving $120\text{V}$, and $120\text{V}$ were coming out when I turned the selector to a speed. So, I immediately suspected the worst: one of the stator coils had shorted out.
Procedo a revisar el selector de velocidades, porque al ubicarlo en cualquier de las tres, el ventilador no gira. Todo está en orden, llegan los 120v y al poner el selector en una velocidad salen los 120, así que de inmediato pensé en lo peor, una de las bobinas del estator se fue a corto.
The stator is the part of the motor that has several copper wire windings; when they're powered with electricity, they create a magnetic field that makes the shaft spin. Multi-speed fans have multiple windings to regulate the shaft's rotational speed. Diagnosing which winding has shorted can be a little tricky.
El estator es la parte del motor que tiene varios embobinados de alambres de cobre, que al ser alimentados con energía eléctrica crean un campo magnético que hace girar el eje. Los ventiladores de varias velocidades tiene varios embobinados para precisamente regular la velocidad de giro del eje. Diagnosticar cual de los embobinados se fue a corto puede ser algo complejo.
Once the stator was disassembled, the first thing I did was a visual inspection. After a moment, I figured out the reason for the short circuit: due to the overheating the fan experienced when it was jammed and wouldn't spin (because of the bad bushing), the wires and insulators had gotten burnt from the heat. This reduced their insulating capacity, causing the short.
Ya desmontado el estator lo primero que se hace es una inspección visual. Luego de un instante determinó la razón del cortocircuito; debido al calentamiento que sufrió el ventilador cuando se trancaba y no giraba por la bocina, los cables y aislantes se tostaron por el calor, disminuyendo su capacidad aislante provocando así el corto.
I managed to separate them and isolate the thin filaments of the copper winding that needed to be joined to the corresponding wires. This is a very difficult job—knowing which coil matches which wire—but based on the position, I managed to figure out which was which and proceeded to join them. The first step is to remove the insulating enamel from the wire so I could solder it with solder to the cable. One wire connects to two ends of the coil, and the other connects to the start capacitor, making three connections in total.
Logré separarlos y seleccionar los delgados filamentos del embobinados de cobre que debe unirse a los cables correspondientes. Este es un trabajo muy difícil, saber cuál bobina corresponde a cual cable, pero por la posición logro saber cuál es cuál y procedo a unirlos. Lo primero es quitar el esmalte aislante del alambre, para poder soldarlo con estaño al cable, uno se une a dos extremos de la bobina y el otro al condensador de arranque, para un total de tres.
After carefully soldering them, I covered them with heat-shrink tubing for insulation and heat resistance. With everything ready, I went to install them, but even though I was handling them very carefully, two more wires from another coil broke. This time, it was even harder to figure out which wire went where. I ended up soldering those, too, but the fan still wouldn't start up.
Luego de soldarlos con mucho cuidado les coloco termoencogible para poder aislarlos y que además soporten el calor. Ya listo todo procedo a instalarlos pero aun cuando los estaba manipulando con sumo cuidado, dos cables mas de otra bobina se rompieron y esta vez sí es más difícil determinar a cual pertenecen. Termine por soldarlos también pero no arranco el ventilador.
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That's what's hard to do, fixing things, just one wrong move and the electric fan could burn out again?
Yeah it's a very delicate job, if it weren't for the missing movement everything would have turned out perfectly and I would have saved myself from having to buy a new one.
I hope you can fix that, it looks like you're used to fixing things.
Yes, that's what I always try to do.