I have a fairly new Marvenet Mastech power supply and geezz... it's stinking up my place. The power supply is fine and my loads have been under 1W. It's a ~200W power supply. I've smelled a lot of electronics but this is weird. IIRC the smell of kerosene, it's something like that.. It stinks more when the power supply is running.
Any idea what's going on?
Chemical residues? Cheapo circuit boards with a material that stinks? Stinky transformer goop?
D from BC British Columbia Canada
I would probably try to make the olfactory equivalent of a stethoscope (i.e. a small plastic tube stuck in one nostril). This should allow you to sample the scent close to many different components to find out where the smell is coming from, if a visual inspection does not turn up any good candidates. I suggest you don't inhale too deeply.
-- Regards, John Popelish
Sniffying my power supply electronics with a tube up my nose will certainly be on the list of bizarre things I've done in electronics.. :P There will be no photos... :P
D from BC British Columbia Canada
Well, if you stopped using it as a toilet then it wouldn't stink!!!
My guess(tm) is the varnish used on the power xformer hasn't dried properly. The varnish on older xformers could be softened with turpentine. Newer xformers use urethanes and epoxies, which require more exotic softeners. If there's been some rework on the xformer, it might be the residual solvent that you're smelling.
If you have an IR viewer or IR thermometer, you might want to open the box and look around for whatever is getting hot.
Incidentally, I've done the hose in the nose trick to sniff out a tantalum capacitor that was smoking inside an operating Compaq file server. That proved somewhat tricky as the 7 fans were still blowing air (and smoke) through the box. I knew I had found the area when I got a whiff of toxic fumes and nearly recycled my lunch. If you decide to try this, please have a barf bag and medical insurance card handy.
The low tech solution would be to drag the power supply out doors, run it for a while with a dummy load, and hope that the smell dissipates.
Incidentally, my nice new Polaroid brand LCD TV stunk rather badly when it was new. The source was obvious once I opened it up. The glue used to attach a stick-on label to a rather hot heatsinked component had melted and was in danger of catching fire.
I also purchased a car stereo that had the rather distinct and disgusting odor of the durian fruit inside the box. Apparently, the assemblers or packing crew had been eating durian fruit at work. It took about a week for the smell to dissipate. I kept looking at my shoes for where I had stepped into the dog or cat droppings. If made in Malaysia or Philippines, it's possible that the smell is from this fruit as some varieties smell more like turpentine than the inside of a septic tank:
Last hope is air freshener, which does absolutely nothing to the odor. It densitizes your sense of smell so that odors appear to be less objectionable.
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Interesting... :) I've never heard of durian.
I got a chuckle reading on wiki.. The mass transit sign has 'No Durian'. And the food writer.... " ...its odor is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away. Despite its great local popularity, the raw fruit is forbidden from some establishments such as hotels, subways and airports, including public transportation in Southeast Asia."
Also described as ...sewage, stale vomit, skunk spray and used surgical swabs.. :P
I checked the power supply for labels.. No 'made in ...' label .. Also, not even a UL or CSA label... Huh..
If it's assemblers that have touched many components with durian dirty hands, I'm hoping the smell will dissipate after awhile.
I've smelled many chemicals but this is really funky.. So I'm believing it's the smelly fruit.
Thanks
D from BC British Columbia Canada
I also suspect the transformer. It's possible that the transformer has a shorted turn. This will cause excessive current in the single turn but still allow the transformer to function. The shorted turn will heat up the innards of the transformer, releasing all kinds of olfactory delights. If you can isolate the transformer from the rest of the circuit, apply voltage to the primary (with no load) and check the excitation current.
You have no idea what you're missing. I had some in Hawaii many years ago. Tasted like sugar loaded pudding, but smelled awful. After about a week, I actually started to like it. Somewhat later, I was involved in the design of various olfactory "sniffers" (i.e portable gas chromatography). In one of the labs, they were working on a durian fruit detector. I have no idea if it worked or if it ever evolved into a usable product.
The good news is that the taste somewhat overpowers the smell, so it's not that bad after the initial shock. The smell also dissipates after a few days so it's not permanent, unless enclosed in an airtight box, such as your power supply shipping cardboard box.
The smell is so much a part of the durian experience, that attempts to de-odorize the fruit have incited protest movements:
Here's one story about how a hotel handles the problem:
Chuckle.
Apparently, the smell is so notoriously awful, that YouTube is full of video clips showing people eating it.
Yeah, that's typical. They don't even bother to counterfeit the UL or CSA labels any more. I've bought hardware that has absolutely no identifying marks anywhere on the case or even on the circuit board inside. Trying to find the original manufacturer would be rather difficult.
Exposed to the air, about 3 days. You might want to open the case and air it out.
Probably some bored factory workers idea of a good joke to play on the evil foreigners.
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
[snip]
What I find interesting, and worrisome, is that people actually eat these.
What flaw in our ancestors' genetics and/or instincts drove them to pick up a piece of fruit, sniff it, nearly gag, and then decide to taste it? And how might this flaw manifest itself in modern man?
Re-electing GOP candidates, perhaps? (Ducking and running).
-- Paul Hovnanian mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ Plaese porrf raed befre postng.
Well..somebody was probably thinkn... 'No stinkn fruit is going to fool me... I'm going to eat it anyways.'
Over history, I'm sure people have tried everything as food.
Ewwwwwww...... :P
D from BC British Columbia Canada
Or eat the first oyster?
But maybe the answer is here:
This is no ordinary fruit. F.W. Burbridge, another 19th century explorer, described durian's flavor as: "a combination of corn flour and rotten cheese, nectarines, crushed filberts, a dash of pineapple, a spoonful of old dry sherry, thick cream, apricot-pulp, and a soupcon of garlic, all reduced to the consistency of a rich custard." Less poetic contemporary observers liken its complex taste and aroma to that of eating strawberries and cream in a public toilet. Most Southeast Asians recognize durian as an aphrodisiac, which has led to the frequently-heard aphorism "when the durians are down the sarongs are up."
Best regards, Spehro Pefhany
-- "it\'s the network..." "The Journey is the reward" speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com
Most certainly not the poisonous Silicon rectifier!
!!BANNED!! by Congress! Absolutely no power supply sniffing! Not even behind closed doors!
It isn't all that different to us eating a very strong blue cheese. I'd hazard a guess that liking strong cheeses is a fair predictor of liking these exotic delicacies YMMV.
In fact if you can get past the smell the taste of durian is quite good (or at least I thought so). A bit like an egg custard with a bite.
But then I also liked nattou in Japan. Think of a similarly bad smell (although more locallised) and looking like baked beans crossed with Evostick impact adhesive.
Same way as rats and other successful omnivores do with a novel food. Nibble a small piece and see if you remain healthy.
If the OPs smell is just kerosene contamination then leaving it in a sunny well ventilated position for a few days should get rid of the smell. It is a bit worrying that the smell is stronger when the PSU is on. Bad smells coming from operating electronics usually spells trouble.
Regards, Martin Brown
** Posted from
When I was in Japan, I decided to simply eat whatever was offered without any reaction. Noticing this, my Japanese coworkers served me up a plate of nattou. Vilest thing I have ever tasted. So bad it would gag a maggot. Still, I refused to react -- I could tell that they were waiting for me to do so.
Fast forward about a year. I am in a high-end steakhouse in San Francisco with the same group of engineers, when I notice pickled pig's feet on the menu. So I ordered one for every one of them.
The big boss (trhough a translator) asked me what the food was, why I ordered it for them, and why only the engineers. I told him the story of the nattou. So he ordered them to eat the pickled pig's feet. I really thought a couple of them were going to vomit... And, being a Japanese boss, he ordered one for himself and finished it even though he had nothing to do with feeding me nattou.
-- Guy Macon
Then there is Chinese "stinky tofu"
Sounds very Japanese of him. ;-) Best regards, Spehro Pefhany
-- "it\'s the network..." "The Journey is the reward" speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com
Like those plug-in air deodorizers that get warm.. perhaps the power supply stinks more due to normal heat slow 'cooking' the smelly durian residue. That or...a component is messed up. For example, a shorted turn on the transformer was mentioned.
D from BC British Columbia Canada
In BC they probably make special highly potent power supplies just for sniffing... Best regards, Spehro Pefhany
-- "it\'s the network..." "The Journey is the reward" speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com
Late at night, by candle light, D from BC penned this immortal opus:
Aw, pretty please...
- YD.
-- Remove HAT if replying by mail.
The ants/bugs/whatever example can be explained by primitive man observing animals easting them, figuring that, if the animals like them, they must be good.
I would think that a fruit that is so odiferous that it drives the local fauna away would be something that man would avoid as well.
Yogurt is alive. Jello has similar properties to various silicone sealants and is not a food.
-- Paul Hovnanian paul@hovnanian.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Procrastinators: The leaders for tomorrow.
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