Where To Repair An Esn 1000 C Trimmer
Rotary dimmer on the triac. We will repair it
In the comments to the article, in which I spoke in detail about the device and the circuit of the dimmer, readers often ask questions about repairing dimmers with their own hands.
Therefore, I decided to supplement this information and highlight it in a separate article. Which you are reading now.
As always, there will be many pictures with explanations, because it is better to see once!
An example will be shown of how I repaired the dimmer with my own hands. There will be self-criticism and useful tips.
Causes of failure of dimmers
Most often, the cause of the breakdown may be an excess of the maximum permissible load or a short circuit in the load. Overload occurs when, for example, fans of good lighting screw too powerful lamps into the chandeliers. Or, through a dimmer, several lamps are connected, in total consuming too much power.
By the way, when choosing a dimmer, you should choose power with a margin of 30 … 50%. How to increase the power of the dimmer will be described and shown in this article.
Short circuiting is possible not only due to faulty wiring. It happens that when the bulbs burn out, a short circuit occurs in them (short circuit), the nature of which we will not delve into.
In addition, at the moment the incandescent lamp is turned on, a current flows through it, several times the working current. Read more in the article about the resistance of an incandescent lamp.
Faulty dimmers on the triac
As a result of short-circuit and overload, as a rule, triac fails. This is a major malfunction, it occurs in 90% of cases of failure.
The triac is the main element. Its distinguishing features are three terminals and a radiator is screwed to the case. The most common models are BT137, BT138, BT139.
A triac malfunction can be detected with a multimeter. If you ring in ohmmeter mode, the resistance between the terminals A1 and A2 (or T1 and T2, the first and second output) will be from zero to several ohms. Conclusion – the triac definitely burned out.
There is another case – the triac rings normally (infinite resistance), but the dimmer does not work (the lamp does not light in all positions of the regulator). Only a check will help here, i.E. Inclusion in the real scheme.
The replacement of the triac will be described in detail below.
The cream of a faulty triac, there are other malfunctions of the dimmer:
- The power tracks of the circuit board burn out. This is a consequence of a major malfunction. Tracks will have to be restored with jumpers.
- The mechanical integrity of the regulator (potentiometer, or variable resistor) is violated. From frequent and intensive use, no explanation is needed here.
- In dimmers, in which there is a fuse, it is necessary to check it first of all before repair. Often the manufacturer applies a spare, which is stored in the same place, in the dimmer, where the worker is. Rational decision. If he were in a separate bag, he would certainly be lost.
- Mechanical failure of contacts and soldering of the printed circuit board. First of all – soldering contacts, where the wires are screwed. It also happens that electronic elements are simply poorly soldered by the manufacturer.
- Faults of individual elements. First of all, a dinistor, then resistors and capacitors.
Video: Where To Repair An Esn 1000 C Trimmer
Dimmer circuit
Before repairing, let’s look at the dimmer circuit. Compared with the previous article about the dimmer, I reworked the circuit a bit and clarified. In the last article, the scheme was left unchanged. And in the new, he did not change the numbering of the details, so as not to introduce confusion.
Dimmer circuit for incandescent lamps on a triac
The dimmer that we will repair has just such a scheme.
Dimmer repair procedure
Now I’ll give an example of how to replace the triac with your own hands, using a drill, soldering iron, and an ordinary toothpick.
The triac can be replaced by unscrewing the radiator and dropping the triac from the board. But the radiator is riveting now. Rivet is much more technologically advanced and cheaper in mass production.
Therefore, we pick up a drill with a drill with a diameter of 3.5 … 5.5 mm.
1 Drill a radiator rivet
The arrow shows the direction of the drill.
2 Remove the radiator from the triac
The radiator is removed, now you need to carefully remove the bad triac, minimally damaging the board. Recommended soldering iron power – 25 or 40 watts.
3 Solder the triac from the board. The outputs of the triac are designated – T1, T2, Gate.
Plus a soldering iron, experience and skill are needed.
Next – we prepare a place for a new triac, use a wooden toothpick for this:
4 Preparing holes for the new triac
5 Board prepared
6 Place under the new triac
The sites have stuck together, but this is not important yet.
And here are the friends-triacs, near the DB3 dinistor:
7 New triacs and dinistor DB3
Triacs (BT139, BT138, BT137) in the photo are all for a voltage of 800 volts, the maximum operating current is 16, 12, and 8 amperes, respectively.
Now we insert a new part into these through holes:
8 Triac sealed
9 Trim legs (conclusions))
The jumper is unsuccessful, it was necessary to use thinner postings …
Carefully check the soldering so that there is no short circuit between the contact pads.
Next – we mount the radiator. At home, it is cheaper and more technologically advanced to use the M3 screw, washer and nut.
10 It remains to screw the radiator
Now it remains to verify the operation in a real switching circuit. I remind you that the dimmer switches on just like a regular switch:
Turn on the light through the dimmer.
For the test circuit, I use a light bulb of any power in the cartridge, a wire with a plug, and a Vago 222 terminal block.
Two more dimmers. Appearance of printed circuit boards.
Bonus – more photos:
11 The track on the board burned out
12 Dimmer Board
13 Dimmer board, view of triac
Resistors are color coded. Learned, as I recommended?
14 radiator marking
Broken dimmer, triac needs to be changed
Broken dimmer, triac needs to be changed
April 12, 2017 article update
Reader Sergey (see comments on April 12) repaired the dimmer with his own hands, but noticed that the circuit is a bit off-standard. I publish the scheme.
Dimmer circuit. Custom?
Download reference information on triacs for dimmers:
Dinistor DB3 / Datashit, pdf, 183.12 kB, downloaded: 9446 times /
Triacs for dimmers BT136-BT139 / Datashits, pdf,, downloaded: 12,566 times /
If you buy a triac, then on AliExpress in China such are a penny, in this case, 10 rubles / pc.
You also need to take into account the advantage of BTA triacs over BT – for BTA, the flange (radiator) is isolated from live parts, and this increases safety!
The similarity of dimmers and lamp protection units
Lamp protection blocks, which smoothly turn on the brightness of the lamps, I described in detail in my articles about the device and the connection and circuit of such blocks.
The difference between dimmers and KB is only in the control method. In the protection blocks, the triac is controlled by the controller according to the program. And the program can be any, up to a wave-like change in brightness. It can be controlled by any analog or digital signal. There would be a demand.
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