# Fading eye circuit board help



## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

Ok, I need some brain power from somebody much smarter than me. I bought a fading eyes board from cowlacious designs wich I just got and put together per their instructions. I have a 9 volt battery eliminator hooked up to the 9 volt battery supply. As soon as I plug the board in, it get very hot quickly, I immediately unplugged it and re-checked everything. It all looks right to me. It looks like the capacitor is the thing getting hot. I tried to contact cowlacious first and while waiting figured I would post here for help also.










The small black capacitor by c3 is what is getting hot.


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

When e-caps get hot it usually means that the polarity is reversed. Leave it that way long enough and the cap will explode. It looks like the cap is connected properly, so double-check the polarity of your power supply and make sure that you have +9VDC going to right place. What are the four wires on the right-hand side of the board (2 black, one brown, one red)?


Edit - just noticed the last line in your post. The small black device is actually a transistor, not a cap. Are you sure that's what's getting hot, and not the yellow cap next to it?


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## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

The brown and black wires are supposed to be wired to a power supply if you choose directly. The other red and black go to a 9 volt battery cap top, wich i have going to a 9 volt battery eliminator power supply that they supplied to me. It is possible that it is the yellow cap, but it looked like the black one. I was holding the board at that corner and as soon as i felt it getting hot I immediately unplugged it.

here is the link to the board with another picture

http://www.cowlacious.com/products/Universal-Fading-Eyes-Deluxe.html


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## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

Is there a chance that maybe you have a bridged solder joint? You might double check the connections on the transistor that's getting hot - sounds like you might have a short.


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## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

Thank you for the replys everyone, I am taking the board to work tomorrow and have my electrician look at it for me. He is also an electronic guy, so hopefully he can help me. If not I will call cowlicious from work and talk to them. It's always something. You fix one issue and another pops up to take its place.


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

I don't see anything which looks incorrect. Are the two transistors the same (little black parts labeled Q1, Q2) if not, they could be interchanged. As others have said, polarity of the supply could be wrong - but if it's one they supplied, you'd think it would hook up correctly. Does it work off a 9V battery?

If you can snap a good pic of the solder side, we can look at that, too. Those 8 pin chips are the most likely place to bridge a solder joint.


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

Yeah, what corey872 said. Can you post a pic of the solder side?


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## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

Otaku, once again you are absolutely correct. I had an electrician check it out and they wired the power supply bacwards. I got ahold of Cowlacious today and they told me they realized the mistake...a bit too late. They built me another board and are sending it right to me. Thank you for the help and replys everyone. Happy haunting the season is approaching fast. All these set backs are just killing me this year.


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## TheOneAndOnlyKelly (May 7, 2009)

So can you resolder the power supply, and keep this board, or do you have to return it? If not, you got 2 boards for the price of 1 (plus the inconvenience, of course)


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

I'd bet that the reverse polarity took out some parts, probably everything except the pots, resistors and the small caps, but you can salvage those. Kudos to Cowlacious for making good on the replacement board.


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

Good to see this got resolved. I have this board, it gets used in different props each year and is very effective.


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