Jaycar "Watts Clever" warning.

There wont be much to troubleshoot, or repair, in this sort of consumer device.

My guess there will be a receiver chip, probably buried under a blob of plastic, maybe a driver transistor for the relay, and the relay itself.

If there is no obvious fault in the driver transistor or relay ( ie a burnt looking component ), then your only hope is a new unit.

Prices on this sort of stuff have come down remarkably in the last few years, so maybe look around at what is available, and start saving.

But also consider whether you can plug all the necessary mains cords into one power strip, and then just turn that on and off at some convenient location.

For instance this is in Jaycar current listing:

Retail about AU $60.00

I was talking about repairing the HT receiver, not the Jaycar junk. ;)

That is what I'll do in future. I was using one of the RF devices for the same thing, switching a powerstrip with my amps plugged into it (totalling maybe 3A draw so well within specs). The other two 'hard wired' (buried under the bed) for a fan and a heater respectively.

--
Shaun. 

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy  
little classification in the DSM*." 
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1) 
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

** No it doesn't.

Very likely there is a fuse that feeds the power transformer only and no fuse for the standby circuitry. I have an Onkyo 7ch receiver here now that is like that.

A chattering AC relay would be very likely to blow the transformer fuse ( due to repeated inrush surges ) but do no other harm.

The fuse you are looking for would be marked " T2A " through "T5A" - the T stands for slow acting.

.... Phil

Cheers, thanks for that Phil. I'll disconnect it and drag it out when I'm feeling up to it. I haven't checked it yet as it's just too bloddy depressing. :-/ That comment gives me hope though. :)

--
Shaun. 

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy  
little classification in the DSM*." 
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1) 
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

Ok, so its not the Jaycar part which failed, thats different.

One other thing you could consider using is a timer set to turn off the main power board at some preset time ( eg after you go to sleep ). Many of the electronic ones have a very good range of settings you can use, and usually only a single push button to switch between off-on-timer modes. I have a couple of Baun ones from Aldi which do this. Work well, for a piece of consumer 'junk'.

The OP said that it failed too (first), later taking out the audio equipment by buzzing the mains relay on and off.

Some electronic timers can also fail in a mode (dried out electrolytic) where the mains relay buzzes on and off at 50Hz, just like happened to the OP with the radio-controlled switch. This will quite likely damage any loads connected and/or overheat the relay, perhaps to an extent that it would pose a danger of fire. Perhaps the ones with a little motor and a rotating drum that operates a mechanical switch might be safer, but I don't know.

I thought that my post was clear. The Jaycar device failed with the relay which switches the mains power cycling at 50Hz. That took out my Receiver. So they both 'failed' but it's hardly surprising that the amp died with power being switched 50 times a second while it was operating at a fairly high level.

Despite being almost destitute I can live without the RF switcher - it's not going to have too big an impact on my QoL. However my financial situation is such that the loss of the five channel surround-sound amplifier could cause a downturn, my already rather spartan could become a lot less bearable.

This is the device I'm talking about only mine came with two more 'switches' and switched three outlets.

I bought it about four years ago and one of the 'switches' failed in the off position a couple of years ago. I never imagined another would fail by cycling the mains at the AC frequency. The fault is repeatable. If I plug the switch in and turn it on within a few minutes it goes into spasm again.

I will never again trust irreplaceable electronics to the vagaries of cheap Chinese switches (though 'cheap' is relative, the "Watts Clever" thing cost me a months discretionary spending money). Despite the fact that it will likely inflame my back and upset my sleeping routine I'll get out of bed after my pre-sleep back-settling period and flick a good old mechanical circuit breaker.

Thanks to advise from Phil there's a chance I might be able to save the amp when I feel well enough to slide it out of its shelf, label (if there's the slightest chance it'll work I'd rather not trace them all again) then disconect all of the wires so I can open it up and check for the fuse he mentioned. I'm just really pleased that my TV draws such a small amount of current on standby that I decided to *not* have that connected to the spasming switch.

Crazy really. I'm acutely aware of the fact that replacing anything that fails would be very difficult if not impossible on my income. As such the audio system and TV have *two* surge protectors between them and the mains. It never occured to me that this might happen or I would have put the RF switcher upstream of them..... (Don't know if that would have helped though.)

--
Shaun. 

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy  
little classification in the DSM*." 
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1) 
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

You bloody beauty! Thanks for that.

I'd wrongly assumed that, as the standby LED came on it was unlikely to be a fuse. However because of your post, instead of disconnecting everything I was able to slide the amp out of its rack and onto a chair and lift the lid. Sure enough one of the two T3A fuses was blown (the other and the T6A were fine). I changed it out, fired it up and all's well.

You saved me a lot of work. I would have found it ultimately but it was so much quicker and easier to do it this way. Also thank the gods the Klispch power subwoofer survived the AC switching at 50 Hz for the ~8 seconds it took for me to realise what was going on then get to the thing to unplug it.

Cheers,

--
Shaun. 

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy  
little classification in the DSM*." 
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1) 
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

=-=- "Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy little classification in the DSM*." David Melville (*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)