Cali Kid Corals

Trying to resurrect a Kessil

thesassyindian

thesassyindian

Supporting Member
BARcard
Alright! First, Thanks @Corallus and @Newjack for letting me take a shot at the blown Kessil.

TL;DR; The light is a gonner, unless Kessil has a repair program.

Before taking the light apart, I checked the resistance and continuity between the power and GND in the connector on the back of the light. It showed 0.1Ohm.
Telltale signs of a blown power regulator. In many cases, these can be replaced, so there was still hope.

So, I took the light apart, and was greeted by this. Clearly, Smokey was here!
62240925629__A75BCC28-6662-4B42-90C3-D4DCCF38026E.jpg


After cleaning up the potting compound around the chip, I looked at it under the microscope. Sure enough, it was indeed a switching regulator.
IMG_2423.jpg


Now here's the kicker - those tiny fibers you see, are the actual fiberglass that the chip burned through :/
That's what a printed circuit board is made of, and is referred to as FR4.

After taking the burned chip out, and cleaning up the pads, I re-checked for the short circuit between power and ground, and it still shows a 0.1Ohm short circuit.
Bummer!
IMG_2433.jpg
 
Bummer that it's beyond repair, but I'm glad you were able to find the point of failure.
I was really hoping it was the fan getting stuck or crudded up and that it would be an easy fix. I'm running a few Kessil lights right now (have been for years) and this is the only one that has died on me.
 
I have 3 blown Kessil 360s. They were way out of warranty But Kessil told me that they would give m $50 off a new one. I decided to sit on them....not sure why though. Anyway, where are you located? If you're willing to take a look at them, we could work out a trade maybe...
 
If anyone want to sale them cheap for part, I may interest. I have bad kessil myself but need other broken light in hope to consolidate to get a good one
.
 
I had one go out on me but other then trying to use another power supply, I didnt bother taking it apart....

But they do fetch about $65 on ebay for "parts only" with power supply.....so I might just search thru my stuff to see if I can find it!
 
Wlachnit said:
I have 3 blown Kessil 360s. They were way out of warranty But Kessil told me that they would give m $50 off a new one. I decided to sit on them....not sure why though. Anyway, where are you located? If you're willing to take a look at them, we could work out a trade maybe...
Click to expand...
I’d love to! But I just started in the hobby less than 4 months ago, and I have very little to offer for a trade :)

but if you want any custom electronics or CAD made, I’m happy to help :)
 
I just looked at my graveyard. It's actually FIVE 360WE that do not work. Can five non-working ones yield two that actually work?
 
Wlachnit said:
I just looked at my graveyard. It's actually FIVE 360WE that do not work. Can five non-working ones yield two that actually work?
Click to expand...
Wow! Do they have a common failure mode that is left unaddressed? Or maybe they addressed it in newer versions?

We won’t know for sure till we open them and take a look. I have only one data point to go off of right now, and that’s a blown switching reg on the constant current controller board (Board 2 from the LED).
 
thesassyindian said:
Wow! Do they have a common failure mode that is left unaddressed? Or maybe they addressed it in newer versions?

We won’t know for sure till we open them and take a look. I have only one data point to go off of right now, and that’s a blown switching reg on the constant current controller board (Board 2 from the LED).
Click to expand...
I'm in Pleasanton...are you anywhere near Pleasanton? You could check them out.
Shoot me a PM.
 
thesassyindian said:
Wow! Do they have a common failure mode that is left unaddressed? Or maybe they addressed it in newer versions?

We won’t know for sure till we open them and take a look. I have only one data point to go off of right now, and that’s a blown switching reg on the constant current controller board (Board 2 from the LED).
Click to expand...

If I remember correctly from the tour there (which was a ton of fun, thanks again to Kessil and the BAR organizers), it basically came down to "We tell you to clean them periodically and we mean it". They build up with dust, then they overheat. Assuming that overheating alone doesn't cook it, as a result of the overheating the conformal coating fails in a couple places, and you get a short across the salty dust. As to if there are additional defects like the transistor that always seemed to fail in Waveline pump controllers I'm not sure.

Mind you I'm guilty of the same. One of my Radion fans was making a funny noise, sounded a lot like a bearing after a couple years. I finally blew the fan out (it's been a while) and sure enough the sound is gone, must have been something just barely rubbing a fan blade wrong because it's been great ever since.
 
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