Blew a fuse?

[haleybach]

I think.

Paragon 16 clam. Sentry express 3 key 4.0.
It is about five months old. First kiln. In pretty constant use.

Checked kiln and temp was right where I expected it to be, went back an hour later (should have been at process temp,1525) and the display is off.

Checked the fuse box and it did not trip the fuse. No warmth, checked plug, no warmth.
Tried turning off for a minute and back on.
Just so I could say, yes, I tried turning it off and on again. Also in apparently unwarranted hope this might actually work.

Pulled the little fuse from the controller and it looks fine. Have DH confirm. He thinks it looks fine too.

Looks can be deceiving.

Search house for voltmeter.
Find box digital voltmeter should be in, not there. Curse, but not too loudly as it is just as likely I'm the one who didn't put it away as anyone else. Dig around in garage.

Check sons soldering station, not there. Have him check his bedroom. No luck.
Dig around and find old voltmeter. Replace battery in old voltmeter. Old voltmeter does not work. Curse a bit more loudly.

I will go buy a voltmeter and fuse or two tomorrow.

My stack glass up and melt it experiments have now become my see how letting the kiln cool by turning it off works, or fails.

This very sad story is the long way around to asking, is there any expected life span for those little fuses?
Is it more likely a wire?
I really really hope it is the fuse or a wire because the remainder of the trouble shooting directions all seem to end with "replace the relay" or "return controller for repair or replacement."

[orittlandau]

Hi Haley
sorry to hear about your kiln..
my colleague here had similar problem with her kiln.
she also made experiments reaching 1700 f .
the kiln manufacturer told her that she pushed the limits of the kiln and because of it it made the relay more vulnerable.

[Tony Smith]

I would first unplug the kiln and make sure there is voltage at the outlet using the voltmeter. We have seen circuit breakers fail in the past. If the circuit breaker is bad, consider having an electrician upgrade that circuit to a higher current rating.

Next, the fuse in the controller has very little load on it, so they rarely blow, but since the display is blank, it is something you should check with the ohmmeter.

If the fuse is good, and you're comfortable opening the controller box, find where the power cord enters the box and measure across the connections with the voltmeter. These connections are typically at the relay. We've seen these connections come loose.

This doesn't sound like a relay failure, since that wouldn't make the screen go blank.

Next, look for the 12v transformer. Two leads should come from the power (usually through a switch) and two leads should go to the controller card. I've never seen these wires come loose, but there's always a first time.

Finally, it might be the controller board. At that point I would contact Paragon.

Good luck

Tony

[haleybach]

Thanks Tony and Oritt,

On a side note, I opened the kiln this morning and everything survived. It looks like it made it up to process temp and held. No thermal shock. So I will get to cut them up and see what happens in the middle, my favorite part.

Off to buy a working voltmeter.

Everyone else in my household takes apart electronics all the time, it will be a first for me. I expected a steep learning curve moving into glass as a medium, but I didn't realize I'd be learning about electronics too!

Haley